litestep problems.

from WinCustomize Forums
Hello. I'm in no way a computer newbie, but I'm a newbie to Litestep. I've recently installed it (using Litestep Installer 2.0.1, upgraded to the latest indie build)and I have some major and minor problems with it. Hope someone here will be able to help. I'm using WinXP professional.

Thanks mainly to OST and a few days of figuring various step.rc's, i've been able to set up about a dozen of nice themes to work properly.
But my 1st and biggest problem is systray. On every theme i have, the following happens:
- icons in it have messed up colors
- no new icons appear; when a new program that would normally place its icon in the systray upon minimize (such as ICQ), nothing happens. However, when a program that was previously in the systray is closed, the icon disappears from the systray.
- the icons are static in the sense that, once the theme is recycled, they don't change at all, which renders programs that give info in the systray (motherboard monitor, cacheman, even icq and trillian) pretty much useless.

This is a major problem for me, it's really annoying not being able to get to icq (it's not in the task list once minimized, and without an icon in the systray, i can only close and reopen it via task manager). It also causes a number of other annoyances, as you can probably imagine. Any solutions?

Other problems I have include litestep freezing when switching between users in winxp (have to quit it and restart it to get it working normally), and of course, dozens of nice themes still not working for me, no matter how much i fiddle the step.rc .

Thanks for the help,

Toecutter.
3,536 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Toecutter,

There are known problems with some systray modules (grdTray being one) and Win2000/XP. Some older themes using the older revs may need to be updated. Unfortunately I am a techno laggard (Win98 SE) so I am not familiar with all the ins and outs.

Try emailing the authors of some of the themes with which you're having problems. They are usually more than willing to help.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the reply, jcg.

However, I doubt the themes themselves are responsible since i have the same aforementioned problem with EVERY theme I've tried. Grdtray doesn't seem to work well at all (icons tend to disappear), so i restricted myself to themes that use systray2.dll (either that, or I modified the ones that use grdtray to use systray). However, none of them, even the newest themes, display and refresh systray icons correctly.

Toecutter
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The Indie build's systray2.dll works OK in XP....that's the 20020530 build....the one I'm switching to at the moment....also the 20020213 Dev build's systray2 also works well...
Try loading it higher up the order in the step.rc.....before other modules.....often there can be a hierarchy issue....
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Tried the latest build, as well as the module from 20020530 build, same problem. Also tried loading it high up in step.rc, but nothing changed. I've checked most websites, faq's and forums, but i don't see people complaining about this, so I guess I'm just having bad luck .

I'll keep trying, thx for the help.

Toecutter
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OK...how about commenting-out all of the 3rd party modules you are using, and just leave the core.....it 'could' be a dll conflict..
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Problem solved. Stardock's resident application named "trayserver.exe" was causing the problems. I disabled it with msconfig, and systray works fine now.

That's a sort of a warning to Stardock to fix this, if they plan their apps to be able to run together with Litestep. I'm surprised more people didn't have this problem, since i'd expect most people to use windowblinds/desktopx together with litestep.

Thanks go to everyone who helped.

Toecutter.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well windowblinds is not the problem (at least under win98). but using DesktopX and LiteStep together does not really make sense (i don´t think DesktopX has any funtionality LiteStep doesn´t). but believe there are people with this problem, this trayserver.exe also causes problems with HoverDesk.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I used to use Litestep and DTX together, then one day they ceased to cooperate. Since then I've become better at themeing so the need for DTX went away. I'd still recommend DTX to those who don't feel comfortable "getting their hands dirty" so to speak. Its a great app and I'd still be using it if Litestep hadn't come along.

Powered by SkinBrowser!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah...I only ran STEP and DX together for a short time...didn't notice/recall that problem...[probably due to existing tray issues with 2K in LiteSTEP at the time].

With LS, all you really 'should' need to add is Windowblinds, anyway...

[If you want some fun, Try LS and Hoverdesk together]...
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo,

I am not sure your idea of "fun" is the same as mine
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I"m not sure either of your ideas of fun, are the same as mine
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Heh, just a bit of info: I was NOT using desktopx and litestep at the same time. I've uninstalled desktopx a long time ago. However, it obviously doesn't uninstall well, since it left the trayserver.exe active.

Toecutter.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Crae....yes, I have a sick mind....the main problem was with 'z-order'.....stuff kept appearing underneath what it shouldn't....or rather, did not appear above what it should have...
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i also tried running HoverDesk on top of LS. but i did a very basic LS setup (only desktop, popup menu and systray). that worked quite well, but of course this is only playing.
btw: the coming HVD 2.50 can be run as fully funtional shell (only the systray has to be displayed by a third party program), and it is even resource-frienlier than LS (of course only if you do a LS theme with the same functionality, a minimal LS theme will be lighter)