Professional Print and Layout, Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310, Windows 11 not launching anymore?

[PartiallyCylon]

I've owned the Canon imagePrograf 310 for a little over a year now and have been printing flawlessly with it until very recently. It has been a few weeks since last printing, and I intended to print a job last weekend, but the "Professional Print and Layout" software suddenly no longer launches. I click on it as usual, the cursor thinks for a little bit, then nothing happens. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling PPL, as well as CanonPrint, disconnecting and reconnecting the printer itself, also reinstalling the driver, fussing with the firewall and wifi permissions, launching in safe mode, attempted to run as administrator, checking for registry errors, launching from run and the command prompt, performed dskchk and tried to install and run it from an external hard drive. All to no avail. I have exhausted every internet suggestion I can find on the forums here and online. Seems this has occurred for a few people, but no reliable fix seems to have been found. I have not tried calling support or chat yet, because business hours conflict with my regular job. I will attempt that tomorrow, hopefully.

Has anyone experienced this problem recently as well? Could it be a recent OS update that broke compatibility, or did the current version 1.6.1 cause issues when 1.6.0 or previous versions worked fine? I do not remember what version I had originally installed a year ago, or if it updated by itself, but I cannot locate the old install file. Is there a way to find the link to these older software versions?

Edit to add: The printer is currently connected via wifi, but using USB connection does not help. My computer by itself and CanonPrint both recognize the printer in both wifi and USB connection, and I can print test pages through Windows and other software. The issue seems to be related to PPL alone.

Thank you for any help, I will try to provide followup information as necessary!

[SignifDigits · Accepted solution]

Let's focus a bit here - PPL not launching is a singular problem to resolve.  Let's delay any other issues.  Once the software is running then we can worry about printer connectivity.  

First, make sure your OS is 100% up to date on patches.  Run Windows Update and ensure you are 100% up to date.  You said "I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling PPL".  Was that via the Control Panel?  That may not fully uninstall PPL.   Try the following:

1. Uninstall the software from the Control Panel or via the Start menu (right click and choose Apps) or Settings (Apps, Installed Apps) (whichever you are most comfortable with)
2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Canon\  If there is a "Professional Print & Layout" folder, move it to the trash can 
3. Navigate to C:\Users\[YOURUSERNAMGOESEHERE]\AppData\Roaming\canon.  Again, move the "Professional Print and Layout" folder to the trash. (this is a hidden folder to enable viewing hidden folders in File Explorer via the three dots..., then Options, then the View tab.  You'll see it there)
4. Empty the trash can
5. Reboot

Then you can try a fresh installation.  It needs to be on your locally mounted drive or SSD and not network attached storage. 

There is a PPL registry entry on my computer, but hopefully registry edits won't be required.  Be sure you have version 1.6.1 from the Canon site for your printer at https://www.usa.canon.com/support/p/imageprograf-pro-310

Download.  Install.  Reboot.  Launch by searching for "Professional Print and Layout" in the Search Bar.  I'm hopeful a fresh install will get it to launch.

If that works it should also launch via  Digital Data Professional 4 (File, Plug in Printing, Print with Professional Print and Layout, but lets get it to launch standalone first.

Once you have PPL running you can see if it sees and recognizes your printer.   If not you will then want to clean off the printer SW using process as above and then download and install "Master Setup" from your printer site above.

[PartiallyCylon]

1) Genuinely, thank you! Yeah I just didn't want to leave anything out unless I made a mistake along the way.

2) In all that I did do, I never tried deleting the folder from the user app data. That seems to have done the trick because it works fine now! Thank you!

[SignifDigits]

You're very welcome.  I had the same issue once with Digital Photo Professional (DPP) and that's where I learned about those pesky residual files.  Glad it worked!!!