I recently formatted my hard drive, and reinstalled vista 64

I am having trouble getting houdini installed

Version 11.0.504 and 11.0.542

When I install it, it gets to the part where it asks if I want an apprentice or a paid license. When I click next, the window crashes with an error saying hkey isn't responding.

I have tried the following to fix it.

-Install the keys manually - when I load license administrator, it has an error saying it cannot read the license file at c:\windows/keys/ (yes with the backwards slashes). All the menu items to install keys are grayed out, and when I click on any available menu item, hkey crashes.

-Run installer without selecting apprentice - When I do this and load the administrator, it doesnt complain about not being able to read the key file, however when I go to c:\windows\, there is no “keys” folder at all. All licence administrator menu items still crash hkey.

- Install in safe mode - houdini's services cannot run in safe mode

- Tried running hkey as admin - no change

- tried disabling Vists UAC and all features of my internet security suite - no change

Im not really sure what the problem is, ive never had trouble installing onto vista 64 before.

I kind of want to try safe mode again, i know there is a way to allow non standard services to run in safe mode, but im not sure how u would do that for the houdini services.

I cant really think of anything else that would be causing the problem.

Any help would be appreciated

when I load license administrator, it has an error saying it cannot read the license file at c:\windows/keys/

perhaps Houdini (or license administrator) has no privilege to create or read from c:\windows\keys\ directory. You can create the directory yourself, and give loose permissions. You can also copy and paste the keys manually directly into the licenses file in that directory (for apprentice licensing mode the file name is licenses.local).

The crashing issue points to video driver issues.