No kidding!  Well I was looking to move away form it anyway, I had some other issues with it. .  crashing. . 

Nice detective work there!  I had tried with just turning off the program but maybe crashing shut down some other process too.

no .    ldb file until I start the game, then one is created and its locked.      It disappears when I quit the game.      This is with the portable install, I uninstalled the non-portable version, deleted the folder, and cleaned my registry, no luck with any of those things.

Same here, with the full installation or the portable version.   

edit:  I think I'm neglecting that this bug happened on a clean install on BigJoke's girlfriend's computer (on the first try?).     This strongly suggests some outside influence.

It was a week ago, but if I recall correctly, what I tried on my girlfriend's computer was the portable version, after it stopped working on mine.  And it never worked on hers.  Some time after, just before I found your thread, I tried the full installation on her computer as well, and it didn't work.

I spent a lot of time checking everywhere in BitDefender and I found nothing weird.  No apparent problem on exclusions or quarantine, not a thing in the logs,. . .

Is there any way to get a verbose output from Aurora. exe, something like the -v modifier one can use with many linux shell commands (or ms-dos for that matter) ?

How does aurora determine that its a duplicate process?  When I check I only see one, and this bug carries over across restarts and reinstalls.   Is it possible that the game is unable to identify that its no longer a duplicate copy after its happened once?  Maybe a registry file or some such? 

Try this. Make sure there is no instance of Aurora running. Next, in the install directory look for Stevefire.ldb. You may need to show hidden and extensions. If the file is present, delete it and run Aurora to see if that fixes it.

Not that I want to sound obsessed with times & dates, but I'm on the UTC +1 time zone, like Paris.  Just in case. . .

I'd really prefer not to uninstall BitDefender on my computer, if possible, and I'm out of a test machine to try it.  But I tried Aurora with the lowest settings in BitDefender and that doesn't change a thing.

Maybe disable your network connection, then BitDefender. Then see if Aurora runs properly.

Possibly, also check the quarantine/exceptions in BitDefender. It may have flagged Aurora as malicious for some reason.

If you have two instances of Aurora running, the second one will have the "This is a copy" flag and many of the buttons will be greyed out.

It does sound like something odd is happening though. It must be a fairly unusual set of circumstances or the problem would be a lot more common.

Steve

Our computers were not at the same level of windows update when I encountered the problem.   

The first time I had the issue, I had just finished the installation of a one windows update on my computer.    So I tought that could be the cause of the problem and tried on my gf's computer.    And I'm abolutely sure this one windows update wasn't installed on it.    So I guess it rules that out.   

I'm on a 32-bits Windows 7 Ultimate, she's on a 64-bits Windows 7 Home.    We both use BitDefender Internet Security 2012 and "usual" software like LibreOffice (3.   4 for her, 3.   5.   7.   2 for me), Firefox (last version 20.   0.   1), Satsuki Decoder Pack (I could surely be wrong but I can't even begin to think of a way a Decoder Pack could interfere with Aurora.    Or an office suite for that matter   ), CCleaner,.   .   .    I can't make a complete list of our common software right now, but can give it a thought later if it seems useful.   

And I was _that_ close of fighting my first space battle ! This is so frustrating !  

Ha !

It seems I have exactly the same problem. 
It worked flawlessly on two different days (april 27th and 28th), and on the evening of april 30th, it went wrong.   New button greyed out and the mention "This is a copy!" in the title bar if I select a game.   Even after a full reboot.   I had a hunch about a date problem (and I'm still wondering since you posted your message on april 30th too) and tried to revert to a previous system date, but no luck. 
Since I was using the portable version, I tried the 5.  54 full installation, and the problem is the same. 
Then I tried both versions on my gf's computer, and it's the same again. 
I understand the mention "This is a copy!" means that Aurora thinks multiple instances are launched and tries to protect the db's sanity, but the task manager show only one instance of Aurora.  exe. 

I'm gonna try to change the system date and reboot before launching Aurora.  .  . 

EDIT: argh, that doesn't work with the system set at april 27th.

No ideas huh?  I guess I don't get to play