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Topic: «AWM: Bring Window to top but not pin , Feature Request:: Bring Window to top but not pin » on forum: Feature Requests   Views: 12148
 
Kelly Major
Registered user
 
 Posts: 19
Joined: 06/08/2012
Posted: 09/18/2012 13:32:24
 
 
 Could you please add a feature to give a program window focus when it is opened but *not* pin it?  I've tried everything to resolve the Directory Opus problem where when a new window is opened by double clicking on the desktop it opens behind all other windows.  I've duplicated it on multiple systems.  This is a real annoyance.

If there was a feature to give a specific application windows focus on open perhaps this would resolve my issue and be useful for other purposes.

Thanks! - KEM
 
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Bogdan Polishchuk
Administrator
 
 Posts: 4080
Joined: 04/04/2012
Posted: 09/25/2012 22:09:23
 
 
 Hello Kelly.

I doubt this feature will be useful for anybody besides you. The best solution would be to fix this bug, but we can't reproduce it.

Try to create a keyboard macro on startup for Directory Opus, which first enable Stay always-on-top with the hotkey and then disable it the same way. Try to play with delay if it won't work at once.

Best regards.
 
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Kelly Major
Registered user
 
 Posts: 19
Joined: 06/08/2012
Posted: 09/28/2012 17:45:25
 
 
 You are correct that I had a specific purpose in mind for submitting the feature request.

Having said that, I've seen situations where apps don't always open with focus in my 27 years as a OS and application developer so I could see it as a useful, if only occasionally used, feature.  There are certainly plenty of other esoteric features in AWM that I'd guess are very rarely used.

Regarding the DO issue. I can reproduce it, on multiple machines, including a clean VM. I put a lot of time and effort into investigating issues before I report them to support. It doesn't happen if AWM is not running.  The problem is clearly related to AWM if not exclusively caused by AWM.  It only affects DO when a new lister is opened by double clicking on and empty area the desktop.  Opening it any other way works normally.

I have already created an AutoHotKey macro to bring DO to the front with focus as workaround for this issue because it is intolerable and I would prefer not to give up on AWM because it does have may other benefits that I find useful.

Are you saying you have tested it running Win 7 x64 and DO v10.x and when you double click on an "empty" area of the desktop DO opens a new lister that it opens on top of all other open windows with focus, excluding any that have the always on top attribute set? (I do not have any like that)

Frankly, I expect better support than (paraphrasing) "It doesn't happen here so it's your problem, too bad". Even if it is an interaction between AWM and another tool/utility I run (seems unlikely given my testing) I still expect enough support to either find the problem and fix it or identify the specific software/conditions that are causing the problem and so I can take it up with another vendor if the "error" is theirs.

Don't you think we should be examining logs, perhaps suggesting other test scenarios that will aid in finding a resolution?  If I had the time I'd start disassembling and tracing every single API call but that's probably a violation of your licensing and, as I said, a very time consuming effort for me when I don't feel like you have made anything more than the minimum effort to assist me in a resolution.  Nothing more than canned replies and annoying workarounds.

If I take the time and do prove it is an AWM related issue will you fix it, refund my purchase price, and let me keep my license?  A great deal for you considering my normal hourly rate.

How about suggesting we enable some kind of AWM logging or ODS (DebugView) output and examine those logs?  That seems like a reasonable next step considering what I've already tried.

Regards,
Kelly E Major
 
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Steve Kalide
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 144
Joined: 03/29/2011
Posted: 07/08/2013 07:20:54
 
 
Quote
If I take the time and do prove it is an AWM related issue will you fix it, refund my purchase price, and let me keep my license? A great deal for you considering my normal hourly rate.

How about a puppy? I think you should ask for a puppy, too.


I'm sorry, I know this thread is old, and I'm but a mere customer of AWM, but it would be a severe disservice to my fellow future AWM'ers if I didn't take a moment to reply to the above message and say --

L-O-L

A rundown of Kelly's game plan:

1.) Asking for a FEATURE in the FEATURE REQUESTS forum (i.e., -additional- functionality added to an already agreed-upon/purchased product)

2.) Doing so "halfway", in a haphazard manner, and under the (confusing) guise of a "bug" (are you reporting a bug, or requesting a feature? Surely, someone with 27 years as a developer should/would know the difference.)

3.) Giving NO specifics on how to reproduce the issue, nor any background details pertaining to system, setup, or version.

4.) Receiving a reply from Actual Tools, proposing a workaround for the vague, ill-described "issue" reported.

5.) Complaining about "lack of support" after Actual Tools wasn't able to read her mind and software/machine specifics through the mythical power of telepathy.

6.) Becoming haughty and bagging on the support, even making it personal (..."annoying"? Really?)

And then finally...

*drum roll*

Not only asking Actual Tools to fix the "feature" (ah hem, ill-reported "bug", as claimed)...

Not only asking for a refund (not such a far stretch of potential recourse, if done in a completely different and nicer/helpful light)...

But finally, also having the nerve to ask to keep the license.

Permit me to repeat myself for emphasis --

L-O-L

Actual Tools, please don't lump us other happily content customers into this same category of customer!

:)

Win7/Win8.1 Pro (x64)
AWM 8.3b2
 
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Pim Joosten
Resident
 
 Posts: 549
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posted: 07/10/2013 20:24:00
 
 
 Hello all,

Without going into the discussion about "bug report/feature request/already purchased etc.".

Quote
I doubt this feature will be useful for anybody besides you.
Well, eh, I thought I had already asked for such an option, but could not find my post. Perhaps I was planning to, but I absolutely would like to have this feature!

Quote
Having said that, I've seen situations where apps don't always open with focus in my 27 years as a OS and application developer so I could see it as a useful, if only occasionally used, feature. There are certainly plenty of other esoteric features in AWM that I'd guess are very rarely used.
And, to be honest, I absolutely agree with Kelly on this.

Let me explain. I have seen many cases where a newly opened window does not open on top and I do not notice it. Usually it happens when a program invokes a new window automatically. The last example was yesterday, Patch Tuesday, when Microsoft delivered a whole bunch of updates among which one for Microsoft Security Essentials. This was in my reasonably fresh Windows 7 virtual machine. At one moment the upd ate process seemed to be stuck. After observing that and then waiting for 30 minutes I thought something had gone wrong and I restarted the virtual machine, breaking off the upd ate process. After that I installed all other updates but did not yet install the upd ate for Microsoft Security Essentials, because I wanted to install that separately to sort out what was happening. I even spend quite some time to find and download the upd ate as an installer fr om the Microsoft website, which was rather difficult, given that Google had not indexed the update yet, as it had only been released 1 hour before. Then this morning I first tried Windows Update again and noticed that even though Windows Update seemed to be installing something, there was a new window behind all other windows that asked for a confirmation to install the new version of Microsoft Security Essentials. I had missed that window several times because it was opened behind all other windows! Usually if a new window opens the task bar button starts blinking, but in Windows 7 I think this blinking is easier to overlook than in Windows Vista for example. I even doubt whether the Security Essentials task bar button was blinking at all.

In this case the requested feature could have saved me a couple of hours! There are more cases wh ere I missed a new window, because it appeared behind all other windows, and I think Kelly might be referring to these situations as well. I was starting to think it was because my current installation of Vista is already 5 years old, that some internal se ttings had been messed up, so that not all newly opened windows appear on top, as I would normally expect. But now that my reasonably fresh Windows 7 virtual machine displays the same behavior, I am starting to think this just happens regularly.

Because it can really be a time saver I strongly support this feature request. I would even make it the default se tting, because, as you may have guessed, I think it should be standard behaviour that newly opened windows always open on top (but not pinned).

I hope that I have made a strong enough case for this request and hopefully it will be implemented somewhere in the near future. My guess is that it is not even hard to implement in AWM.

Best regards.
 
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Kelly Major
Registered user
 
 Posts: 19
Joined: 06/08/2012
Posted: 07/25/2013 18:29:37
 
 
 Steve,

You're a funny guy with clearly far too much time on your hands.

I just wanted to follow-up on this thread and let the developers know this feature would still be very useful to me.  It looks a few others would like to see it added as well.  It seems like it would be a fairly easy feature to add.

I currently just use another macro program to accomplish just for this task.  It would be nice to eliminate the need for it.

Thanks!
Kelly E Major
 
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Steve Kalide
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 144
Joined: 03/29/2011
Posted: 07/26/2013 01:46:41
 
 
 Ah yes, the ad hominem attack -- to be expected from those who don't know how to properly address or defend reproach.

But regardless, it appears my efforts weren't for naught -- sans the ad hominem attack, Kelly actually can learn to post a peaceable, rational, reasonable request. Maybe it was just that time ;)

Win7/Win8.1 Pro (x64)
AWM 8.3b2
 
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Pim Joosten
Resident
 
 Posts: 549
Joined: 11/11/2010
Posted: 07/26/2013 22:20:54
 
 
 I just had another case where I was looking for a window, but could not find it. In this case it was even worse than the previous example I described (with Microsoft Security Essentials), because the new window only appeared after a while. Because I was aware of it possibly appearing behind other windows I looked everywhere, but still could not find it. As it turns out after quite some time it had not appeared yet, but only did so somewhat later and indeed behind other windows, so I missed it. I thought the window had not appeared at all and something was wrong with the program (Paragon Hard Disk Manager), because I had already looked behind all other windows. Now this is another example where the requested feature would have been very handy and saved me quite some time (again). So please consider this as an extra push to include the requested feature. Like I said, I would include it as a default setting.
 
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Steve Kalide
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 144
Joined: 03/29/2011
Posted: 07/31/2013 02:32:49
 
 
 While it's not a fix, a side-solution might be using a free program called Switcher (http://insentient.net/).

It's essentially like alt-tab on steroids, giving a quick visual map of all open programs/windows. I have the Switcher function mapped to a button my mouse, so when there's a window I can't find, I press the button, and Switcher quickly shows me a map of every window, and windows according to each respective monitor.

Further, I can then start typing the first letters of the window/program I'm looking for, and Switcher will start to filter and sift the windows, showing only ones that match what I'm typing. So if I was looking for a "Settings" dialog box, I could type "S-e-t", and it would likely show me that sole window. And then if I click on it or press enter, it brings that to the front and focused.

It also has the abilities to downsize all other programs, downsize all other programs except one that you click, show windows in various visualizations of grid/list/stack, and one of my favorite features -- filter list by respective program -- where if I use my set mouse middle button on a certain program window (like on one Firefox window), it will then show me only the other open Firefox windows. Another click resets this filter, and all windows are shown once again.

This is extremely helpful when I have 30-40 total programs/windows open. If I'm focused in a particular Firefox window, but need to jump to another Firefox window, traditionally, I would have to alt-tab through the giant list of windows, searching for other Firefox windows. But with Switcher, I have a shortcut set where if I press a certain mouse button while holding control, Switcher will show me all the other open windows/instances of only that program, thereby making it easy to jump to another window within the program.

Anyway, again, it's not a "fix", per se, but just a side suggestion that may be helpful in the interim.

(Note: I have no ties or affiliations with Switcher or any of its developers)

Win7/Win8.1 Pro (x64)
AWM 8.3b2
 
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Kelly Major
Registered user
 
 Posts: 19
Joined: 06/08/2012
Posted: 08/20/2013 06:32:38
 
 
 The solution I use is AutoHotKey.  It just seems like I shouldn't have to use it exclusively for this one purpose when AWM should be able to handle such a simple task easily.

- KEM

PS: Steve... Get over it.
 
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