My second attempt at MQL coding was a designed to extract and display (in the Alert window) some environment variables (min lot size etc etc). I appear to have cocked this up and now I cannot launch MT4 without it looping and gradually eating more and more memory and CPU cycles. Is there a way to launch MT4 without the experts launching so that I can recover the problem? For example, is there a start.ini file or similar that I can apply to a command line such that Expert Advisors are disabled at start up?
Find the folder MT4 is installed to, open the experts folder, find the mq4 and ex4 files for the EA in question and move them to a backup folder. Start MT4 and it will not be able to load the offending EA.
RaptorUK,
Thank you for the response. I had thought that that would be a good thing to do! Except, of course, that the file I created isn't in the experts folder! A search of my entire hard drive for all *.ex4 executables turns up only the usual suspects - none of them guilty of MT4-cide.
Expressions like 'bugger' spring to mind but I'd never say that out loud.
Any further thoughts?
It's 5pm here in Brussels so I'll likely respond tomorrow - this is not mission critical - yet!
Tom
RaptorUK,
Thank you for the response. I had thought that that would be a good thing to do! Except, of course, that the file I created isn't in the experts folder! A search of my entire hard drive for all *.ex4 executables turns up only the usual suspects - none of them guilty of MT4-cide.
Expressions like 'bugger' spring to mind but I'd never say that out loud.
Any further thoughts?
It's 5pm here in Brussels so I'll likely respond tomorrow - this is not mission critical - yet!
Tom
It's probably a UAC thing, the reason why you can't find the files, if you are running Vista/Windows 7 or 8 and have MT4 installed in Program Files you will have issues like this. you need to look in your Virtual Store.
You can find some info here: Random Google result
It is indeed a UAC and Virtual Store thing...
C:\Users\MY LOGIN NAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\OANDA - MetaTrader\experts\
Oh for the days when one thought one was in control of one's PC and not some third person...
Is there a voting system here?
Thank you RaptorUK
The commonly recommended solution for UAC issues is to re-install MT4 to a folder other than Program Files, such as C:\MT4Installs\
Sorry, no voting system, but thanks for the thought :-)

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My second attempt at MQL coding was a designed to extract and display (in the Alert window) some environment variables (min lot size etc etc). I appear to have cocked this up and now I cannot launch MT4 without it looping and gradually eating more and more memory and CPU cycles. Is there a way to launch MT4 without the experts launching so that I can recover the problem? For example, is there a start.ini file or similar that I can apply to a command line such that Expert Advisors are disabled at start up?
Tom