We are seeing this happen in some client installations but we haven’t figured out exactly what is wrong. Most people end up getting it working by tweaking their plugin.ini until everything works.
First, I’d like you to open your plugin.ini file in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\plugin.ini (If your Vista install is 64bit you need C:\Program Files (x86)).
Please add a semicolon ; to the start of each line in the section marked “[Directories]” except for the Krakatoa and Helium lines. It should somewhat look like this afterwards:
[Directories]
;Additional MAX plug-ins=C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\plugins\
Krakatoa=C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\3dsMax2010\Win32\
Helium=C:\Program Files (x86)\Prime Focus\Krakatoa\3dsMax2010\Win32\Helium\
;VRay=C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\3rdparty_plugins\VRay\
;VRayExtras=C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\3rdparty_plugins\VRayExtras\
;AfterworksCommon=C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\3rdparty_plugins\Afterworks\Common\
;FumeFX=C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\3ds Max 2011\3rdparty_plugins\Afterworks\FumeFX\This will make Krakatoa the only plugin that loads when you start 3ds Max. Can you tell me if it still crashes after doing this?