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Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

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Shasoosh
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Shasoosh »

Thanks. "On desktop" will cause the flash the is described in the video of the first post.

I'll create a new thread with the BUG flair.
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by SilverAzide »

Shasoosh wrote: March 5th, 2021, 12:54 pm Thanks. "On desktop" will cause the flash the is described in the video of the first post.

I'll create a new thread with the BUG flair.
I think there's been a miscommunication here. The "flash" you describe does not happen to me, nor to balala as he mentioned in his reply. So neither of us can duplicate this issue. However, the issue where skins set to the "Bottom" position are minimized *IS* a problem, and this is what I was suggesting you post about. Sorry for the confusion.

If you want, I can delete your other thread since it is essentially a duplicate of this one.
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Active Colors
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Active Colors »

I couldn't reproduce the problem as well but I think that the problem potentially might be not because of the "Desktop" state of a skin, but a combination of several things altogether.

I would try running Rainmeter in Safe-Mode to see if the problem happens there.
Can you try it, Shasoosh?
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Brian
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Brian »

Note: I deleted the other thread as it is just a duplicate of this one.

This "flashing" issue has been reported a couple of times, however, no developers have been able to reproduce it. I think in a few cases, updating the latest graphic drivers has fixed the issue (or using an older version).

Another program could also interfere (or delay) the "z order" positioning when Windows switches focus (or re-orders) the visible windows on screen. Windows itself could be the issue as well, since it inherently controls all z ordering for the system.



About the "minimize" issue being reported. Is the skin really being minimized, or it just disappearing at the same time? The video is not clear in this regard. Rainmeter windows do not react the Windows messages to minimize or maximize. This issue feels related to the issue above, which makes this feel like graphics driver issue as well.


I would try to update your graphics drivers first. If that doesn't work, then try an older version (or two) of the graphics drivers to see that fixes it as well. The next thing I would try is booting into WIndows safe mode (so that all your startup programs do not run), and start Rainmeter and test. If the problem persists, then it could be a Windows problem. If the problem is fixed, then it would safe to say that another program is interfering with the "z order" messages (and possibly the minimize and maximize messages as well).

-Brian
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by SilverAzide »

Brian wrote: March 5th, 2021, 6:52 pm About the "minimize" issue being reported. Is the skin really being minimized, or it just disappearing at the same time? The video is not clear in this regard. Rainmeter windows do not react the Windows messages to minimize or maximize. This issue feels related to the issue above, which makes this feel like graphics driver issue as well.
I don't want to speak for the OP, but for me, if I take a skin (any one) and set the position to "Bottom", then press Win+D to minimize all windows, the skin disappears completely (it is still running, just not visible). If I go to the Manage dialog and select the skin (or just hit Win+D again), it reappears. This doesn't seem to happen if the skin is set to any other position other than "Bottom".
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Shasoosh
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Shasoosh »

Thanks guys for the reply.

Graphic driver - I'm a gamer so I keep my NVIDIA drivers up to date. Since reporting this, the driver was updated at least a few times so I'm not sure that's the culprit but I'll uninstall the drivers and reinstall.
Maybe there's a setting in the NVIDIA control panel that causes this bug?


minimize - I'm seeing the same thing as @SilverAzide stated. "Minimize all" will hide the skin. The skin will stay hidden until I'll reopen an app or a file explorer window which is not the normal behavior for "minimize all".

For example - Chrome, file explorer and Rainmeter skin are open, "Win+D" is pressed, all is hidden, double clicking on the Recycle bin will open the recycle bin and will un hide rainmeter skin. (Chrome and file explorer will stay hidden)

btw, even with "Bottom" position i'm getting flashes now and that. Not frequent like "on desktop", though.

Safe mode - I'll try that and will report back.

In general, my main problem are the flashes. Setting the skin to "Bottom" was an unsuccessful workaround.


Edit: Wasn't able to reproduce any of the problems with safe mode. Did a clean NVIDIA driver install after DDU and reseted all settings to defaults. Flashes still the same. Tried to kill every single process while not in safe mode - still getting the flashes.

Any other ideas are welcome. Thanks for the help.
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Brian
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Brian »

SilverAzide wrote: March 5th, 2021, 7:44 pm I don't want to speak for the OP, but for me, if I take a skin (any one) and set the position to "Bottom", then press Win+D to minimize all windows, the skin disappears completely (it is still running, just not visible). If I go to the Manage dialog and select the skin (or just hit Win+D again), it reappears. This doesn't seem to happen if the skin is set to any other position other than "Bottom".
Ahhh, I see what you saying. This threw me for a loop for a second since this seems very different behavior from other "position" settings. Honestly, I never stumbled upon this "feature" before. The real crazy part is if you have a skin that is not using Bottom, then click on "Show Desktop" (or use the hotkey), then change the skin's position to Bottom, it disappears immediately.

It took some time to figure out what was happening since skins do not respond to the typical minimize/maximize Windows messages. That being said, in another area of the code, Rainmeter does respond to the "Show desktop" message. Looking back at some internal conversions over 10 years ago, a decision was made that this is the intended behavior for Bottom position and is considered normal. It's even mentioned in the docs.
https://docs.rainmeter.net/manual/settings/skin-sections/#AlwaysOnTop

I should have looked there first. :oops:


Shasoosh wrote: March 5th, 2021, 7:49 pm The skin will stay hidden until I'll reopen an app or a file explorer window which is not the normal behavior for "minimize all".
This might not be normal behavior for most programs, but since Rainmeter skins do not minimize to the taskbar, a decision was made (in 2011, I might add) to just show all skins that are using the Bottom position.



As to the "flashing" problem, I still have no idea. I have never had a skin that uses Bottom or On desktop flash in front of another window and it hasn't been reported too often. Since the graphics drivers don't seem to be a problem, I am leaning toward another application that is also "monitoring" window positions and is somehow delaying message sent to Rainmeter.

-Brian
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Active Colors
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Active Colors »

Shasoosh, if you don't recognize any programs that can interfere with the desktop, I would like to see your processes running in the task manager.
In case you don't have any programs to take a screenshot with a scrolling window I would recommend this free portable tool PicPick https://picpick.app/en/ (hit Download and choose Portable).
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SilverAzide
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by SilverAzide »

Brian wrote: March 6th, 2021, 6:36 am I should have looked there first. :oops:
Me too, LOL! Could be handy feature to have in case you wanted a "minimizable" skin without doing a bunch of extra work. Thanks!
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Shasoosh
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Re: Skin overlays all windows when clicking on desktop

Post by Shasoosh »

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply, I was out of town.

Posting here a screenshot of my task manager.

One other weird thing I've noticed, that maybe will give someone a lead, the flashing issue is completely gone if I kill explorer.exe (the file manager).

Does that make sense to anyone?


Image