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Topic: «Losing settings on laptop crash , AWM 8.13.2 on Windows 10 Home 64-bit » on forum: Technical Support   Views: 23299
 
David Lomas
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 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 04/12/2019 17:31:42
 
 
 My laptop has been behaving somewhat oddly recently—I suspect a trackpad driver issue where the mouse goes haywire and I can't move the cursor or click on anything. In the end, I've had to hard-reset the machine by holding the power button down for several seconds. And both times, when it's booted up again (all fine), my AWM taskbar settings have been erased. I have no pinned items, all taskbar parts showing, and all hidden icons shown again. All other AWM settings are as normal—only the taskbar customisation is lost.

Is there any way, once configured, I can back up the settings for the taskbar separately from the AWM config?
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
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 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 04/18/2019 20:38:23
 
 
 Hello, David

How long time has passed from the moment you've configured the taskbar before the crash occured (both times the crash occured)?

Have you turned off/on the computer in between the moment when you adjusted the taskbar settings and the moment the crash occured?

Do you have external monitors connected to the laptop? What are these monitors and what interfaces you use to connect them to the laptop (HDMI, DisplayPort etc.)? Do you use any USB video adapters or a docking station?

Quote
Is there any way, once configured, I can back up the settings for the taskbar separately from the AWM config?
You can export the registry branch containing the taskbar settings and then just execute the .reg file to restore these settings. You need to open regedit.exe and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Actual Tools\Actual Window Manager\Command Center\Plugins\MultimonTaskbar then right click the MultimonTaskbar in the navigation tree and select "Export". Save the .reg file containing the taskbar settings.


Best regards.
 
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David Lomas
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 04/18/2019 23:22:39
 
 
 I don't think AWM is causing the crashes necessarily—i.e. it's not changing a taskbar setting was closely followed by the weird mouse / crash. I hadn't changed anything on the taskbar between powering the laptop on and the most recent crash, for example.

The crashes happened once with an external projector connected via a USB=C to HDMI adapter, and once with only the main laptop screen active (from a cold boot).

Thanks for the reg key—I will keep a copy of it handy in case the crash happens again. It will be very useful to quickly recreate the pinned items & taskbar parts.
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
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 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 04/26/2019 17:01:43
 
 
 David,

Did the problem (both with the system crash and the settings reset) happen again after these two times?

Could you create a full backup file of your configuration and when the problem happens again, before restoring the settings, create another backup file and then send us these two backup files. Send the files to bogdan@actualtools.com and add a link to this topic to the email.

Also could you tell why you think the crash problem is associated with mouse? Are you sure it's not the whole system freezes and just mouse?


Best regards.
 
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David Lomas
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 04/26/2019 17:44:37
 
 
 Well, annoyingly it just happened again (i.e. I logged in to find my taskbar reset to default). And I hadn't managed to back up the registry key :(. But, assuming doing it in the other order is still valid, I:

* Exported the current registry settings
* Reconfigured the taskbar as I want it
* Exported the new registry settings

The only difference I see between the two is this entry. Immediately after the crash and loss of customisations:

"taskbar_states"="\\lines=52\\orient=1\\auto_hide=0\\locked=­0\\band_state=0C0000000800000001000000000000002D7E1372E2ECE7­4A9359421F2E57043F000000004005000000000000340000000000000000­000000340000000000000001000000\\pinned_app={}\\pinned_app7={}\\topmost=1\\start_button=1\\tray=1\\clock=1\\monitor_index=­0\\search_button=1\\vd_switch_button=0\\recycle_bin_button=1­\\show_desktop=1\\language_switcher=1\\action_center_button=­1\\touch_keyboard_button=1\\ink_workspace_button=1\\touchpad­_button=1"

and after customising:

"taskbar_states"="@RegistryRedirection\\taskbar_states.ini"

So I'm assuming, next time there's a crash, I can simply change that one line?

Regarding the causes of this / crashing, the previous 2 times, the main symptom was the mouse cursor moving randomly around the screen, and buttons randomly clicking—in that scenario all I could do was hold down the power-off button to reboot.

This most recent occurrence was after upgrading the BIOS (it's a Dell XPS13 if that matters), and then changing a security setting in the BIOS). Next time I logged in, the taskbar settings were back at default (they had been fine just prior to BIOS upgrade).

I also have some windows updates to install—will see if that affects anything too!
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
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 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 04/26/2019 19:20:22
 
 
 David,

Thank you for the information.

Anyway, could you make two backup files, as I wrote in my previous message, and send them to bogdan@actualtools.com?


Best regards.
 
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David Lomas
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 377
Joined: 03/16/2006
Posted: 04/26/2019 19:52:15
 
 
 Will do. Unfortunately, I'd already fixed the taskbar, so I will have to wait until it recurs. Will send the files once I have both.

Tx.
 
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