Latest WD Smartware inoperable

Downloaded and installed latest version of WD Smartware to use with My Book Essential external drive. When I try to launch Smartware, I get an error message that flashes for less than a second saying “Configuration system failed to initialize.” I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Smartware, to no avail. WD Support has been unsupportive.

Hello,

I recommend you make sure you uninstall and remove anything related to WD Smartware from your computer, then restart the computer and reinstall WD Smartware.

Already tried that. It did not make a difference.