3ds Max has stopped working

On a very small number of  machines you can run 3ds Max once per user, afterwards whenever you try to run 3ds Max it fails with a Microsoft Windows error telling you that 3ds Max has stopped working.

If you delete the user settings for 3ds Max  from the registry before you start 3ds Max it'll start (we narrowed it down to removing the Plug-ins folder under the 3ds Max version under HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the registry). That's not really a workaround....

The workaround is to edit the 3dsmax.ini file for the user and change the EnableCoreInterfaceProxySystem setting from 1 to 0. That will change the way plugins are loaded and 3ds Max will start normally.

Windows 7 and Vista:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2012 - 64(or32)bit\enu

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2012 - 64(or 32)bit\enu

This ini file option is documented in the 3ds Max SDK programmers guide: Deferred Loading of Plug-ins

This is from a post in The Area:

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n88_if_you_can_run_3ds_max_only_once

Thanks to Lori Sitter for confirming that this tip helped.