What changed from your application Windows version 2.20 to currently version 2.29?

My ancient computer had no problem running the 2.20 but keep crashing on 2.29?

Three changes you would actually notice.

Credit went from 4 to 32 per validated task. The 4 was a placeholder I set
when standing the project up and never revisited - discussed in the other
thread.

2.28 fixed CPU scheduling on hybrid Intel processors. The solver lowers its
own process priority by design, and Windows was reading that as background
work and parking it almost entirely on the efficiency cores, even with every
logical CPU reserved for BOINC. 2.28 keeps it at normal priority and opts it
out of Windows power throttling. On 12th gen and later that is a significant
throughput gain. The same build also reduced ticket log flushing from every
10 records to every 60, which cuts disk I/O when running many tasks.

2.29 moved the campaign assets into the workunit. The search parameters -
clue layout and root catalogue - used to be frozen inside the application,
so changing what we search meant republishing the app and forcing everyone
to download it again. They now travel with each workunit. Nothing changes on
your side, but it should mean noticeably fewer forced application updates
from here on.

The versions in between were republications tied to assets and work unit
parameters rather than changes to the application code itself.

Thank for that information but it DOESN'T answer my question why that computer suddenly crashes the tasks from your project that ran fine before changing versions of your app. See my first post above for info.

In reply to Dr Who Fan's message of 29 Sep 2026:

Thank for that information but it DOESN'T answer my question why that computer suddenly crashes the tasks from your project that ran fine before changing versions of your app. See my first post above for info.

I would guess Benjamin isn't building things for Windows Vista, a quick check of the error code came with the idea that the Developer didn't design the software for Win 7 and older pc's.

Thanks for the report and the host link — that made it easy to find the cause.

Nothing is wrong with your computer. The problem is the operating system: your machine runs Windows Vista, and version 2.29 can't start on Vista.

Between 2.20 and 2.29 the puzzle solver didn't change at all; it's the exact same file. What changed is the BOINC "wrapper", the small program that starts the solver and handles suspend/resume, checkpoints and CPU-time reporting. We replaced it in 2.27 because the old one made tasks restart from zero after a suspend and reported CPU time wrongly. The new wrapper uses a Windows function that only exists from Windows 7 onwards. On Vista, Windows refuses to launch it, which is the 0xc0000139 error in your task list. That's why every 2.29 task fails after 0 seconds, while 2.20 ran fine.

Going back to the old wrapper would bring those bugs back for every other volunteer. So unfortunately Windows Vista is no longer supported; the minimum is now Windows 7.

Thank you for the hours that Athlon X2 put into the puzzle, and sorry for the trouble!