Plugin Manager Error

I'm having trouble with my plugin manager.  I want to use the Xpadder plugin, but when I select the Xpadder plugin and click "configure" in the plugin manager I get an error saying "unhandled exception has occurred in your application..." (see attached photo).  If I click "Quit" the application will close, but if I click "Continue" the Xpadder plugin will launch, but there are no emulators to choose from in the drop-down menu.

This is a new installation of GameEx on a fresh Windows 8 install (I just upgraded my OS from Win XP to Win 8 and let me tell you it is such a nice upgrade to not have to deal with that old OS on this machine anymore).  When I installed GameEx on this computer I carried over my settings and configuration files so it's not exactly a "fresh" installation of GameEx.  Any ideas what's causing this error?  Thanks.