GIMP Crashes on Windows Vista

• GIMP crashes when running extensions, plugins and filters
• GIMP crashes when starting up

GIMP crashes when running extensions, plugins and filters

GIMP crashes on Windows Vista (and Windows 7) are commonly caused by Microsoft’s UAC (User Account Control) introduced in Vista. When GIMP, and plugins, need to access certain parts of the hard drive or certain functions it will be denied. The easiest way to avoid this is to right-click the GIMP executable (or shortcut) and select Run as Administrator.

Alternatively give admin privileges to the GIMP directory…

If you’re unfamiliar with user permissions on Windows go to Start > type in “%PROGRAMFILES%” and hit enter.

Find the GIMP directory (something like GIMP-2.0) and right click then select properties. Select the Security tab, click the Edit button and then select the user you’re logged in as (i.e. Users (Username-pc\Users)). In the second frame (the box at the bottom) check/tick full control to allow GIMP to have full permissions. Click Apply, OK and then restart GIMP.

The crashes should go away if permissions were the cause for them!

GIMP crashes when Starting Up

Each new version of Windows shipped generally becomes more bloated. In terms of GIMP, crashes when starting the program are usually due to a large amount of fonts installed on the system. GIMP will need to go through each one and add it to its cache. Although the program may appear to be crashing it probably isn’t! Allow time for it to read and cache all of your fonts before starting.

If you don’t think it is an issue check the permissions.

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