Ignition Designer Will Not Open

Hello all. When I attempt to view a project or open a project in the designer it gives this error: LookupError: no codec search functions registered: can't find encoding 'utf-8'
This is a new install of 7.7.2, it was working on 7.7.0 and I did an upgrade and now even if I make new projects they won’t open. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Ignition. This is a dev laptop and I am learning about ignition. I have installed all the modules necisary for the ignition demo app and attempted to load the gwbk for the inductive university “Devices in Ignition” section. Unfortunately I am not absolutely where it stopped working, I think it was back when I did the upgrade to 7.7.2

Windows 7 64 bit, jre1.8.0_25, MySQL and MSSqlServer.

It was probably a rookie mistake on my part, if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.

Error:

[code]LookupError: no codec search functions registered: can’t find encoding ‘utf-8’

at org.python.core.codecs.lookup(codecs.java:82)
at org.python.core.codecs.setDefaultEncoding(codecs.java:40)
at org.python.core.PySystemState.setdefaultencoding(PySystemState.java:447)
at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.script.ScriptManager.<init>(ScriptManager.java:90)
at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.script.ScriptManager.<init>(ScriptManager.java:68)
at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.DesignerContextImpl.<init>(DesignerContextImpl.java:160)
at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.IgnitionDesigner.loadProject(IgnitionDesigner.java:1013)
at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.IgnitionDesigner$StartupProjectDialogHandler$1.run(IgnitionDesigner.java:434)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Ignition v7.7.2 (b2014121709)
Java: Oracle Corporation 1.8.0_25[/code]

a couple more things to try:

remove any cached webstart apps:
javaws.exe -uninstall

Delete ignition user folder:
C:\Users[i]{userName}[/i].ignition

Freddy Pipes is in a meeting FYI

:scratch: