WindowFX 5 - Beta 2 Released

Interesting.  SDC does not list Beta 2 as available.  Does not even show WFX5 as installed, though it most definitely is.  I'll need to post in the SDC thread, too, I suppose.

It's only available at the download site.

Just curious why that is the case, ID.  I know SDC is in beta, but...

SDC shows WindowFX 5 beta 4.96 as available for me. And shows the first beta as installed.

I downloaded directly from site. I can say the new UI is much more intuitive. Great job SD!

They just fixed it.

It should show now in Stardock Central. Backend issue when updating the links earlier.

Kris

I like the interface changes.

Thank you! Now my wobbly windows are finally transparent while moving. This update is amazing

YAY!  This works PERFECTLY on my Geforce 295 (two discrete but identical GPUs) machine now!  

The only odd behavior of note is that it seems to require one explorer.exe crash before it is stable.  So when I run the beta and wobble a transparent window a few times, explorer.exe crashes.  But after explorer.exe restarts, it doesn't seem to crash again...no matter what I do to it.

This behavior also happens if I log off and then log on, and it is consistent and repeatable.

I have not tried rebooting yet to see if that makes any difference.

This is a 64bit Windows 7 install, if that helps you track things down for the future.

But for now, it works and works smoothly across all three monitors, on top of Windowblinds, Fences, and three different Deskscapes animations.    

Edit: Rebooting shows that no matter what I do, after a few minutes, explorer.exe will restart, forcing Deskscapes to reinitialize all animations, and then everything works just fine after that.   Note that either explorer.exe or "program manager" may hang up a log off or restart now.  Canceling the operation and then using CTRL-ALT-DEL allows one to safely log off and then restart from there.  I hope this helps and THANKS again for looking into this bug.

This beta seems to be having some z-order issues with windows not getting/grabbing focus when they should (on launch from another window in particular) and windows losing focus for no apparent reason at times.

Win7Pro 64bit, Intel HD3000 graphics.  Running WB, WFX5, CFXPro, FencesPro, Dreams.

We would need more information.

Glad to give you more info, Neil, but would appreciate guidance about specifics & level of detail.

Is there a particular time when you can reproduce the problem every time for example?

Bonsoir

Beta 2 fonctionne trés bien pour  moi, à part explorer exe juste aprés l'installation de la béta 2 , j'ai redémaré internet explorer , et tout est rentré dans l'ordre

Yes.

I access a remote app by way of Citrix Receiver.  Initial login is via a web page (using PaleMoon, FWIW).  Enter credentials & another web page opens (in same tab) requiring one additional set of credentials and then (again in the same tab) the remote app 'home page' opens.  Clicking on a link on that page launches a Citrix Receiver window (remote desktop) which previously popped to the front (seized focus) but now opens in the background with the browser window retaining focus.  When I log off the Citrix Receiver window & it closes, no window has focus - all open windows remain darkened/transparent.

Windows losing focus for no apparent reason is more random/spontaneous & I can't 'reproduce' that, though on occasion it may be another window grabbing focus but not coming to the front in z-order.

If I see other repeating patterns, I'll post again.

Just now -

Had PaleMoon, Word 2010 and two remote desktop (Citrix) windows open.  Closed Word and no window had/took focus.

Edit:  If you'd like this discussion moved over to the beta feedback thread, no problem.  Should've posted there, anyway.  Thx.

I'm having issues with menus in Dopus v10. I can see the menu shadow but the menu itself is completely transparent, text included. Disabling WFX5 fixes the problem,

W7 x64

Dopus.  Grrrrrr.

Noticed something else. On my Desktop with the 2 video cards. It works now but Rainmeter shows Explorer banging my Quad core for about 220% usage constantly until I disable it. Note that the invisible Dopus menus are on both my Desktop and Laptop so it's not restricted to the Dual card system.

ASUS F8Va Laptop
2.53 Ghz Intel Core Duo T9400
4 Gb DDR2 800
ATI Radeon HD 3650 – 1GB
320 GB SATA HDD
400 GB WD My Passport Ext HDD
640 GB Toshiba Ext HDD
Logitech G9x Laser
Windows 7 x64 Pro



Cooler Master HAF 932
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Rev. 1.6
Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83Ghz E0 3.40Ghz OC'ed
w/ Cooler Master V-8
XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5
HIS Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3
(8GB) 4x2GB G. Skill DDR2 1066
Corsair 750W PSU Single Rail
(3) WD 640GB Caviar Black HDD
(1) Hitachi 1 Terabyte HDD
Samsung 22X DVD Burner SATA
Saitek Eclipse II
Logitech G9 Laser
Logitech M570 Trackball
Logitech HD Pro C-910 WebcCam
(3) Dell 2001 FP Flat Panels (4800x1200)
Logitech Z-5500 Digital Sounds System
Windows 7 x64 Home Premium

I would imagine there would be higher cpu usage during animations on multiple graphics cards as data sometimes has to be sent between cards, but without any animations going on the cpu usage should be basically 0.

I've noticed on my quad core system, that explorer runs at 25% cpu useage with this version over the prior one that ran at 3% useage.

I've had the same problem. You do not have to disabling WFX5 - in my case switching off animatad menu in Dopus fixes th problem.

br Darek

Agreed, this means that one of your cores is being hit at 100% by Explorer (which is not multithreaded in this case).  And the system is just reporting it spread over four CPUs (e.g. 100%/4=25%) by default.

My 8 core shows the same situation as yours in that it pegs one of the CPUs just by running...at 12.5%.  I am indeed running Deskscapes but even when I pause it, nothing changes with explorer, e.g. 100% used.

It appears as though something in the program is constantly driving explorer.exe at 100% no matter what processes are running or even whether any windows are being dragged, etc.  As soon as WindowFX is turned on, boom, 100% CPU in one core.  When turned off, explorer crashes and then goes back to normal.

Note that I saw identical behavior with Deskscapes when I chose to use the "same animation on 3 monitors" option.   To get around that, all I had to do was duplicate the same Deskscape 2 more times in the deskscapes directory (e.g. PhotoDreamA, PhotoDream B, and PhotodreamC) and then run each of these as if they were unique animations, one per monitor, per the normal Deskscapes interface.  CPU usage dropped to normal levels, with negligible explorer.exe use and everything is now handled by the DSHost and DWM processes (as they should be).

This may mean that the issue lies at a core OS level (i.e. hardware accelleration is disabled and forcing explorer.exe to emulate in software, perhaps?) and that the only way to work around it is to run more than one WindowFX process (e.g. one per display card), the way Deskscapes does with individual animations.

Intriguing?