Johnny Dough 2002-02-02 03:36
I have major problems with the smart taskbar. I have 2 monitors and 2 video cards. A geforce2 GTS and a pci based G450 dualhead.
My problem is that the smarttaskbars stop working. I move an app to monitor 2 and the smarttaskbar doesn't pick up that app.
I usually have to try all sorts of things such as uninstalling/reinstalling ultramon, stopping restarting my computer, disabling/reinabling that monitor, etc...
Once in a while, the smart taskbar works perfectly, but most of the time it doesn't do anything. Sometimes it shows the app in the smart task bar, but the primary monitors task bar has the app there too.
Ultramon 5 worked perfectly. It would have been great if ultramon 5 didn't have a time bomb in it. Ultramon 5 worked perfectly for me.
Ultramon 6 has some major issues with the smart taskbar feature. I can't wait for beta 7. It can't get any worse then 6!
I'm using winXP btw.
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Christian Studer 2002-02-02 05:53
Does it stop working after doing something specific, for example disabling/enabling a monitor, changing screen resolution, etc?
Current known issues for the Smart Taskbar:
- duplicate task buttons
- after restarting the taskbar, it doesn't activate/add/remove task buttons anymore. You have to restart UltraMon to get the taskbar working again. Restarting UltraMon: choose Close from the UltraMon menu, then go to Start menu > Programs > Startup and click on the UltraMon shortcut
- UltraMon can't detect the current monitor for some applications. These applications will always be listed on the Windows taskbar
Other people have reported that the Smart Taskbar suddenly vanishes, but so far I haven't been able to reproduce this or determine why it happens.
Apart from the issues mentioned above, I haven't seen any major problems myself (also using XP). Are you using WindowBlinds, a shell replacement like LiteStep or any other desktop enhancement applications?
BTW, if you would like to move back to Beta 5, please send an e-mail to support@realtimesoft.com and include your registration information.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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vertigo 2002-02-02 10:09
Same thing here. I have a g400 max agp and a geforce2 pci card. I'm running XP. It still doesn't work after I stop and restart ultramon.
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Christian Studer 2002-02-02 10:20
Please give more details. After rebooting your system:
- do you see the UltraMon taskbar(s)?
- if you start Notepad and move it to the other monitor, does the task button move as well?
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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vertigo 2002-02-03 18:38
Yes, the ultramon taskbars are there after reboot, just like beta 5. No the taskbar button does not move when I change monitors. I noticed that both of us had geforce and matrox cards, so I tried shutting down the matrox quickdesk software, and the buttons start moving again. It seems to be an incompatibility with quickdesk, but I'll have to see if it still works in a couple of days (I leave my box running a long time). The task bars have never vanished, they just don't work. If it stops working again, I'll try to pinpoint what I did to make it happen.
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vertigo 2002-02-03 19:03
well, it stopped working again, so it's not quickdesk. I'm still not too sure what it is...
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Christian Studer 2002-02-04 03:13
Make sure you don't stop/start the Smart Taskbar using the optional menu command, this currently doesn't work correctly, after restarting the Smart Taskbar will no longer detect application movement/activation etc.
Let me know if you find the application that causes the problem. You could also send me a list of all the processes that are running, this could help with troubleshooting. To get the list of processes, go to the Task Manager > Processes tab.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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vertigo 2002-02-04 07:54
It's not the menu command. I didn't enable that until just noiw, to see if it helps (It does, the buttons show up correctly after that, but they still don't move when I move the windows).
The only reason why I thought it was an incompatibility was because I stopped ultramon, stopped quickdes, and started ultramon again. Then it worked, but only temporarily.
It might actually be an incompatibility with the drivers themselves for the geforce and the matrox.
I have a huge list of running processes, but none of them apparently are keeping ultramon from working, as it is working right now. I'll keep my eyes open for what causes it to stop working. Hopefully this all happens before my version expires :)
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vertigo 2002-02-04 08:02
Eureka! okay... Two issues. #1 the smart task bar doesn't work with any new windows. So if I have a lot of windows open when I restart ultramon, then they show up on the correct task bar, and they will keep working. If I pop up a new browser window (or any new window) ultramon doesn't have a handle on it, and doesn't keep track of the correct window.
The second issue: Even if I move one of the windows that were already opened, the main explorer task bar still has a a button for it, a new one just pops up on the smart task bar. If I move it back onto my main monitor, it disappears from the smart task bar, and it doesn't affect the explorer task bar.
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Christian Studer 2002-02-04 08:55
Looks like UltraMon fails to install a hook. This usually happens if another program that has installed a hook doesn't work together with other apps that also use hooks. Lots of applications use hooks, for example WindowBlinds, the Nvidia desktop manager, Appian HydraVision, and other low-level utilities and desktop enhancement tools.
It would be useful to know what other hooks are installed on your system. You can do the following to determine this:
- get Process Explorer from Sysinternals
- start Notepad, then Process Explorer
- select Notepad.exe from the list of processes
- select View\View DLLs from the menu
- you'll get a list of all loaded DLLs in the lower half of the window. To save this list to a file, select File\Save from the menu
Please send me the file by e-mail or post it here in the forum.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Brian Arvidson 2002-02-06 01:48
The only problems I have encountered with the Smart Taskbar are:
1. After I unlock my workstation (from either a manual lock or the automatic lock enabled with my screensaver) the Taskbar becomes black for any section that doesn't have an application button.
2. Sometimes if a windows opens on my secondary monitor the application button shows on both Taskbars (the XP standard and the Ultramon Smart Taskbar).
My Smart Taskbar is running on my secondary monitor (NVIDIA Riva TNT Adapter). My O/S is Windows XP Corporate Edition, with all the latest driver and security patches. My Ultramon version is 2.0 Beta 6.
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vertigo 2002-02-06 05:18
Christian,
you were right. I stopped trayserver and restarted ultramon, and it works fine. It makes sense that both ultramon and object desktop are vying for the same hooks. The question is why didn't it happen with beta 5?
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Christian Studer 2002-02-06 06:50
Internally, the Smart Taskbar in Beta 6 is quite different from the Beta 5 version. The design changes were made for several reasons, mainly to fix the CPU usage issue on XP.
I have now tested the issue with TrayServer.exe myself (it's a part of DesktopX), and it's the same on my system. Doesn't matter if you start UltraMon before or after TrayServer.exe.
I'm going to contact Stardock Support, if there is a solution to this issue it should be included in Beta 7.
Brian: I'll try to fix the redraw issue for Beta 7, but so far I haven't been able to reproduce it consistently. Regarding duplicate buttons, see this thread.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Christian Studer 2002-02-13 05:45
I haven't heard from Stardock so far, but here is something regarding TrayServer I found in one of their newsgroups:
"No programs cannot live without it, but ObjectBar and DesktopX require it to track system tray icons - if you use either of these and want to have the system tray objects functional, you need TrayServer to run."
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Josh 2002-02-28 04:31
I'm having this same problem on win2000 with matrox g450 dual head. Could i just get a copy of the older beta from anyone - i can't find it on the website. I only see the newest and a 1.0 version. thanks..
Josh.
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Josh 2002-03-08 05:50
Havn't heard anything back regarding this. Could i just get a copy of a previous beta from anyone while they fix the bugs? The one i had before worked fine, i'm having this annoying smartbar problem on the current version.
Josh.
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Travis 2002-03-09 08:01
I get the problem with the ultramon taskbar not recognizing which monitor the programs are on as well... This only occurs in one instance that I have found:
Using the 'Fast User Switching' option
When i switch back to the main user (which is running ultramon) everything is out of place... the windows are out place (which i dont think is ultramons fault)... but, ultramon taskbar no longer recognizes programs as being on the second monitor.
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Christian Studer 2002-03-09 09:23
Seems to work fine on my system, except for one problem:
- if the active application is on the secondary monitor, when switching back the main Windows taskbar will have a button for this application as well. You have to move the application to the other monitor and back to remove the additional button.
Is this the same problem you encountered, or does the Smart Taskbar not work at all after switching users?
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Travis 2002-03-10 03:53
It does not work at all... I have to close ultramon and reload, which is not a big problem considering I only switch users a couple times a day... but it does ALWAYS occur when switching users
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Christian Studer 2002-03-10 11:47
I'll try to reproduce this, if I find the problem it will be fixed in one of the next releases.
If you notice anything else, for example it happens only if a certain application is running etc, please let me know.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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