Like millions of others, I recently upgraded my PC to Windows 10 and found that some of the software I use, such as Red Lion Controls’ Crimson 3.0 doesn’t work right anymore. Some software applications show problems presenting data and/or configuration settings when actively programming or configuring a device, while other applications are just buggy now. In the case of Crimson 3.0, I could never get past the splash screen. The photo below shows the problem I was having when I opened Crimson 3.0. For the record, this doesn’t seem to be a problem with Crimson 3.0 or any of the other software applications I found this or similar problems with. It seems to be a problem with Windows 10 drivers. I’ll tell you why I think this is a Windows 10 issue a little later.
Crimson 3.0 Splash Screen
As you can see, the application opens but the splash screen never goes away. It stays on top of the application’s main interface and maintains the focus of the display. You can’t even close the splash screen or use the application in any way until that splash screen is dealt with, and there is only one way to deal with it. The only thing you can do is close the application using the Task Manager in Windows.
Windows 10 Task Manager
From the picture above, you can see that Crimson 3.0 shows up in Windows 10 Task Manager as Shell Application. Select “Shell Application” then click on the End task button on the bottom right side of the window. This will close Crimson 3.0 so you can move to the first step in fixing the problem.
Open the Device Manager in Windows 10. You can get to the Device Manager by holding down the Windows key on your keyboard and pressing the “X” key at the same time, then select Device Manager or press the “M” key. When the Device Manager opens, look for the section that says “Human Interface Devices” and expand it.
Windows 10 Device Manager
Once you expand the Human Interface Device section, you should see “HID-compliant touch screen” in the list, as in the picture above. Right click this and select “Disable” from the context menu that pops up. See the picture below.
Disable HID Touch Screen Driver
Windows will prompt you with the message below. Click Yes.
Yes You Are Sure
When the driver is disabled, the icon will look like the picture below.
After Disabling HID Driver
And finally, once you’ve disabled the HID-compliant touch screen, Crimson 3.0 should open normally. The only problem with this work around is that you’ll have to enable the HID-compliant touch screen again to use your PC’s touch screen. This brings me back to the statement I made above, where I said I don’t think this is a Crimson 3.0 problem or even a problem with whatever software application seems to be giving you a similar problem after upgrading to Windows 10.
Before I upgraded to Windows 10, I had Windows 8.1 and my PC had the same touch screen. I never had this problem or many similar problems while using Windows 8.1 with HID-compliant touch screen enabled. This only started after upgrading my PC to Windows 10. If your PC doesn’t have a touch screen, you probably won’t see this problem either. However, many companies and Technical people are beginning to use Windows 10 and many of the PCs that are already running Windows 10 have touch screens so the machine can be used like a tablet. Hopefully Microsoft will fix this bug soon so we don’t have to work around it. Don’t forget to enable the HID-compliant touch screen when you want to use your PC like a tablet. If you find this or a similar problem, please tell us about it in the comment section below. I hope this helps.