Earlier, when I was on windows 7 professional everything was working fine but since I installed Windows 10 on my desktop computer on August 7, 2015, the Trace Bitmap feature has stopped working.

So once I import an image (png) and click on it so that it shows as selected, next I click on Path >> Trace Bitmap. Nothing happens. A window is supposed to pop up asking to select from various options. BUT nothing happens. Does anyone has any clue. Its not the windows 10 because I upgraded to 10 at my office as well and there everything is still working great.

Thanks Khalid

Possibly it's opening, but you didn't notice, because in 0.91, all the dialogs are docked, and if the dock is closed, you might not notice. In this topic, I explained where to look for it, for someone else. If you look in all the places described here, and still can't find it, we'll have ask some more questions.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=18966

Thank you so much brynn for your input. Both at work and at home I have desktop computers which have i7 processors and 16 GB RAM, both were upgraded to windows 10 on the same date and both have inkscape 0.91 version. When I import a bitmap image, such as a jpg or png file, on the computer at work I get a pop-up window titled "Trace Bitmap (Shift+Alt+B) where as the same exercise at home does nothing. I checked very carefully but its not there.

Do you think that the windows firewal might be blocking it? Or maybe there is a setting in the inkscape itself for he pop up. I can not be the only one with this I am certain. My work is greatly effected due to this problem. I really do appreciate any help I can get.

File menu > Import should not bring up the Trace Bitmap dialog, which lives at Path menu > Trace Bitmap. I'm not sure what the key shortcuts are, if you could be getting those mixed up? Oh no, the key shortcuts are very different - I don't think they could easily be confused.

When you import an image, there will be a dialog popping up - it's called "png bitmap image import" (which clearly is a poor title, since many raster formats can be imported!) The Trace Bitmap dialog is titled "Trace Bitmap" (case sensitive for those titles).

I haven't heard of a Windows bug where the dialogs are produced at the wrong time. And I haven't heard of a firewall blocking anything about Inkscape. As far as I understand, firewalls block things from the internet getting into your computer. And Inkscape lives entirely on your computer. The only time the internet is involved with Inkscape, is when you click Help menu > Inkscape manual or Help menu > Key and Mouse Ref. In those cases, Inkscape is calling your browser to go and visit those webpages. So the signal is outgoing, while firewalls block incoming traffic. So I would be shocked if this has anything to do with a firewall!

(Oh, well actually, I have to correct myself. Firewalls can block outgoing signals. But Inkscape doesn't send any outgoing signals, when you open those 2 pages.)

Try the import again, and double-check the titlebar of the dialogs that come up. Maybe there are some options I don't know about, that could be somehow mixing up those requests??

Ok here we go step by step one more time. There are total 5 steps. They are photo documented. As you can see in the fifth image nothing happens when I click Path >> Trace Bitmap or neither when I use Shif+Alt+B

Since we started discussing this issue, I have also completely uninstalled inkscape and installed it all over again. Starting from downloading a fresh copy of the installer for 64 bit.

Well, I guess we need someone with more expertise than I have. The only last thing I could suggest is to open some other docked dialog first. Sometimes the docking area gets closed. You can drag it open by moving your mouse over the right edge of the canvas. When you see the 2 sided arrow appear, drag towards the left. But sometimes it's easier to just open another dialog.

So if the docking area is open, and no Trace Bitmap dialog appears, then we certainly have a serious problem here!

When I referred you to the other topic, there were instructions there for bringing a window that is opening outside the screen area, back into the screen area. Did you try that?

If that doesn't work, and opening the docking area first doesn't work, then we're at the end of everything I know about the subject (of opening a dialog). If we have completely struck out, it's time to bring a developer into this discussion.

There are a few ways to do that. Maybe ~suv will see this (a developer who visits regularly). Or you or I could post this on the Inkscape User mailing list (where many developers regularly participate) https://inkscape.org/en/community/mailing-lists/. Or you or I could go straight to the development mailing list and/or make a bug report (https://launchpad.net/inkscape).

If you don't want to hassle with joining the mailing list, I could post the message for you and refer everyone here.

I'm sorry this is dragging out so long. It's truly a problem I've never seen -- and apparently no one else has either, or someone else would have posted by now!

Have you tried installing the 32 bit version? You would not have to uninstall, to get a good test. You could just install it to a different directory.

You are getting your installation files from inkscape.org, right? I think they've been all moved out of Sourceforge now. But I have heard of people getting bad c opies of Inkscape, from not the official source.

Let me know if I can help with contacting developers.

i did try the 32bit version as well but the same problem persists. And yes I did figure out how to pull features back once they have been minimized (conify) from the dock. Thanks for being such a good sport. Please call in the big guns. Its better they see it here as it is already so well documented. We wouldn't have to explain from the scratch. Thanks for all of the support.

No worries. I appreciate your patience as well.

Before I send the message, I thought I would read through this whole thread once more. In the very first message, you said you're using a desktop computer. Is this an unusual situation, where a desktop, which is usually 32 bit, actually has a 64 bit operating system? Because typically desktop computers run 32 bit operating systems. And the 64-bit version of Inkscape would not work on a 32 bit system....I thought it would not work at all.

Well, I know you said you tried the 32 bit version too. Ok then..... Message sent

Ok, the advice from the devs is to temporarily rename you preferences.xml file.

C/Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/Inkscape/preferences.xml

1 -- Rename that to something like preferences-old.xml
2 -- Close all instances of Inkscape, if open
3 -- Open Inkscape (this will write a new preferences file with defaults)
4 -- cross fingers
5 -- Try opening Trace Bitmap

If that works, fixes the problem, it also has wiped out all the preferences you may have set. And I myself would be upset if I had to re-set all of mine. So hopefully they will have a way to isolate which preference is causing the problem, and you'll be able to fix the old prefs file, and re-name it back to normal. But one step at a time....

Let us know

Sorry for the late reply. But this solution actually worked. a BIG THANKS. The only thing I would add is the appdata directory is hidden by default. in windows 10 file folder go to view then check the box for show hidden items. And then the rest all worked like you suggested. Again, a BIG THANKS.

I've been wondering about this one, so I'm glad to hear it worked!

But....

AppData is hidden in Windows 10? Well I know the answer to this before I even ask -- but why would MS hide such a useful, and even necessary directory, for the user to have access to? (Each day I move closer to a Linux trial.....)

brynn wrote:I've been wondering about this one, so I'm glad to hear it worked!

But....

AppData is hidden in Windows 10? Well I know the answer to this before I even ask -- but why would MS hide such a useful, and even necessary directory, for the user to have access to? (Each day I move closer to a Linux trial.....)

Ah, yet another reason for avoiding Windoze 10.

This happened for me upon first install, too, and clearing preferences.xml did cause it to get regenerated, but the 'Trace Bitmap' dialog is still not visible.

I have confirmed that I can find docked dialogs by opening 'Trace Pixel Art', and it manipulates fine.

Still using Inkscape 0.91 on Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate (64-bit)

(this references the Mac, but I, too, and working on a dual-monitor setup:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1470913

)