trying to repro an issue, I found myself load-protecting & un-load-protecting my plugin, to rule out any possible interference; got tired of all the clicks to do that and just went to removing/replacing the whole plugin dir
got the repro, got back to work, and my next build installed the plugin, since I’d left it uninstalled
however, it wouldn’t load, and I was getting “initialization failed” – but only in rhino 6 & 7, with 8 loading it fine
went through multiple cycles of removing the plugin dirs and the registry keys, re-running my current public release installer, which I know to work, checking startup with procmon & fuslogvw, and … nothing – the behavior stayed the same, just “initialization failed” with no explanation
then tried manual install via the File > Properties > Plug-ins > Install button, and the plugin loaded … now we’re getting somewhere … but on the next startup, nothing, command not found, not appearing in the current renderer menu, etc
I’m just thinking, I know I updated rhino 8 last night, but how could that affect 6 & 7? doesn’t make sense
so went through a few more rounds of clean & reinstall, looking at everything super carefully, trying to find something in the logs, and whatever else … and then it hit me: the load protect
so did the manual install by the Install button again, the plugin loaded, restarted rhino, the plugin did not load, go to plugins, and there it is … disable load protection, and we’re back in business
so the upshot is: if you install a plugin and it just does nothing but fail with “initialization failed”, even though it should be working, maybe you load-protected it, and will need to manually install it, in order to clear the load-protect