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Topic: «AWM 8.2.2 taskbar buttons not minimising / restoring windows , Strange z-order and maximise / minimise behaviour » on forum: Technical Support   Views: 36995
 
David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 02/27/2015 00:00:15
 
 
 In the last couple of days, I've been unable to manage window z-order or minimise / restore windows from the taskbar. This problem goes away if I 'Stop' AWM and use the default Win8.1 taskbar (64-bit).

I'm sure this has been working fine, and I haven't knowingly changed anything (but of course I'm sure there have been MS updates). Basically, if a window is visible, I can't 'minimise' it by clicking its taskbar icon. All that happens is that it's focus briefly vanishes (border dims), and the taskbar button itself appears to get focus (becomes 'white'ish). If I click very rapidly multiple times, I can sometimes get the window to minimise - this takes either 2 or 3 rapid clicks, but I'm not sure what the pattern is.

The same problem affects z-order of cascaded visible windows - clicking the taskbar icon of a window which is 'behind' others doesn't bring it to the front of the stack, but if some of its border is visible, I can see it does get focus.

I'm _sure_ I saw something like this before, but I can't find that ticket now, and in any case, it's been long since fixed - until 3 days ago!

Tx - please let me know if there's other info you need.
 
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Vasiliy Ivachev
Administrator
-retired-
 
 Posts: 2073
Joined: 11/09/2010
Posted: 02/27/2015 10:30:03
 
 
 Hello David,

Thanks for the post.

Could you specify what exactly Windows Updates (important and optional) have been installed before the problem appeared?

Could you also send us your configuration files (Actual Window Manager -> Tools -> Configuration -> Send to Tech Support) and specify whether you are able to reproduce the problem with any application/window or not and your taskbar icons grouping settings (combine, never combine etc.)?

Best regards.
 
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David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 02/28/2015 20:05:07
 
 
 I replied to support with my config files and some observations, but here's something else odd I've noticed, in case it helps pin this down.

First, on a cold boot with only AWM running, the problem isn't there.

After using the machine for some time, the problem is 'triggered' - not sure by what yet, but two potential culprits could be either grouping similar windows, or Chrome. Certainly I first noticed the problem once both of those were in play.

Thirdly, once triggered, another symptom is odd behaviour in, e.g. Sublime Text 3. If I select all of a document, I can't them deselect that text by clicking outside the selection to the right. What I see when I click outside the selection is the 'drag' icon, as if I'd used 'click and hold'. The only way I've been able to deselect the text, or indeed get the caret to a different position in the document is by double-clicking outside the selection. Then, single click behaves normally again, until I select some text again. In fact, on further testing, if I select just a portion of text (e.g. a few lines in the middle of a document), ST3 behaves as if single-click anywhere in the selection region is a click-and-hold for dragging.

This odd behaviour (a) isn't there to begin with (when taskbar buttons are behaving normally), and (b) vanishes immediately if I 'Stop' AWM (as does the taskbar button odd behaviour). Both things come back immediately if I 'Start' AWM again, so at least it's pretty easy to reproduce, _once_ the problem has been triggered in the first place.

I can also replicate the 'wrong' behaviour I'm seeing with AWM by stopping AWM, then clicking and dragging the taskbar icons, rather than single-clicking. This gives me _exactly_ the same behaviour as single-click with AWM running, so I'm pretty sure it's something to do with mouse click events now.

I'll keep looking for the specific trigger and see if I can deliberately provoke it :).
 
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Vasiliy Ivachev
Administrator
-retired-
 
 Posts: 2073
Joined: 11/09/2010
Posted: 03/02/2015 15:11:45
 
 
 David,

Unfortunately, we were unable to reproduce the problem.

Please do the following tests:

1. Disable Windows Defender, restart your OS and check whether you are able to reproduce the problem or not to determine if the problem is caused by Windows Updates;

2. Disable Taskbar windows grouping, restart your OS and check whether you are able to reproduce the problem with the grouping disabled or not.

Best regards.
 
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David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 03/02/2015 15:40:35
 
 
 Hi,

I was about to update the ticket yesterday - I'm pretty sure it's not Chrome, and grouping seems the most likely cause. I had wondered how to enable / disable grouping when AWM is running - is it possible to get to the normal windows taskbar properties somehow, or change grouping from within AWM?

In any case, I disabled grouping after unloading AWM, and rebooted. Now I can open 7 PuTTY sessions (no grouping), and the problem doesn't present itself. I will continue to run this way and see if it does recur at some point, but so far so good.

Another point of info - if/when the problem has been triggered - I sometimes lose the ability to bring a window to the top of the window stack by clicking on it. The window in question gets focus (I have focus follows mouse), but it just won't come to the top. I can fix this by clicking on the current topmost window (which has no visible effect, of course), and then clicking on the window I wanted on top - then it does jump forward.

Fingers crossed turning of grouping sheds some light on it - v. frustrating!

Tx,

David.
 
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David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 03/02/2015 16:09:50
 
 
 Bingo - I think this is another AWM / Synergy (1.6.2) problem. I can now create the problem (almost) on demand quite simply:

1. Start AWM (task bar grouping or not - seems to make no difference actually)
2. Check mouse behaviour in ST3
3. Move cursor to a Synergy client, and click on _something_ (e.g. activate a window) - note that just moving to a client window isn't enough, it appears to need some mouse button activity
4. Move mouse back to server, and ST3 now shows 'drag' behaviour on single click.
5. Stop AWM OR stop Synergy, and ST3 behaviour is restored

Note that at step 5, stopping and starting Synergy is enough to 'clear' the problem, until the next time I use a Synergy client screen. Stopping AWM clears the behaviour, but starting AWM again and the behaviour is back to 'wrong'. so stopping / starting Synergy is the only 'cure', and it only lasts as long as I don't actually _use_ Synergy for its intended purpose!

The workaround for the taskswitcher problem was OK (using the Win8 task switcher rather than the AWM one), but I can't see a workaround for this, apart fr om continually stopping / starting Synergy. I _really_ don't want to have to choose between Synergy and AWM, as I find the both indispensable. But it's one of those situations wh ere either app on its own work fine, but in combination things break, and I can't see how to resolve what's the cause.

I don't know how far you got on the other issue talking to Synergy, but I'm hoping you'll be able to investigate it with their help - they generally seem responsive to emails, but I know this is a tricky situation.
 
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David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 03/03/2015 02:41:12
 
 
 Final update before I disappear for a few days. At some point today, the problem got into a state where restarting Synergy _wouldn't_ clear the error. I also tried restarting the Synergy service. I then stopped Synergy, and its service completely, but the problem was still there. Stopping and starting AWM didn't cure it either; the only cure was to completely exit AWM and load it again. I was then back to the situation I described in my previous post.
 
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Vasiliy Ivachev
Administrator
-retired-
 
 Posts: 2073
Joined: 11/09/2010
Posted: 03/03/2015 14:37:44
 
 
 Hello David,

I suppose that it's a synergy bug, because I was able to reproduce the problem with Actual Window Manager unloaded.

Here is my system info:
Windows 8.1 x64 (Synergy Server), Windows 7 x64 (Synergy Client), Synergy 1.4.18.

Here is the description of how to reproduce the problem (with Actual Window Manager unloaded):
1. Start the Synergy Server and connect to a client;
2. Open Windows Start Screen on the Server machine, then close it;
3. Select a text in a text redactor (MS Word 2013 in my case) on the client machine and don't deselect it (i.e. don't make another click);
4. Return the mouse cursor to the Server machine;
5. Click alternately on an empty space of the system taskbar and on a window taskbar icon and the windows z-order will not be changed.

Please inform if you are able to reproduce the same behavior on your machines or not.
 
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David Lomas
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 03/06/2015 23:22:16
 
 
 Whew - many thanks for persevering with this one. I eventually tracked down this page, thanks to your pointers:

http://synergy.askbot.com/question/838/windows-81-window-focus-problem/

Removing those 3 updates has fixed the main issue - being unable to deselect text, clicks acting like drags, etc.

However, and maybe this is a different issue, as it hasn't changed at all, I'm still unable to minimise / restore apps by clicking on their taskbar icons. Raising them to the front (z-ordering) works fine, but they will not minimise. There is a kind of 'highlight' on the taskbar icon which lasts for a fraction of a second (perhaps about the same as the double-click timeout?), but clicking, or even double-clicking just brings the window to the front. _Triple-clicking_ does minimise the window, but I'm sure this isn't correct behaviour! If I stop AWM and use the standard windows taskbar, minimise / restore work fine with a single click - even with Synergy running, and having used a client screen.

Thanks again,

David.
 
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Vasiliy Ivachev
Administrator
-retired-
 
 Posts: 2073
Joined: 11/09/2010
Posted: 03/11/2015 22:58:34
 
 
 David,

Does the problem occur with both Actual Window Manager and Synergy loaded only?

Best regards.
 
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