Allways on top, not working right

Tuesday, February 14, 2006 by DLOBROWN | Discussion: ObjectDock

I have my ObjectDock set to allways be on top, but for some reason every now and then (maybe about 40% of the time) it doesnt stay on top. Anyone know how to fix this?
Thanks
-Dallas
33 Reply 18 Referrals
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Koasati
Reply #1 Tuesday, February 14, 2006 3:28 PM
Toggle it off, and back on. Temporary fix, but there is no permanent fix that I'm aware of.

ekrub
Reply #2 Monday, April 10, 2006 8:11 PM
I've got the same problem. It's very frustrating to have to go to each docklet, bring up its settings, switch it to Always-On-Bottom, and then back to Always-On-Top.

Assuming there's no quick fix for this, couldn't an ObjectDock developer pretty please make an EXE that runs through existing docklets and, if they are set to Always-On-Top, switch them to the Always-On-Bottom and back to Always-On-Top -- i.e., simulate what we're having to do manually?

At least I could make a quick link (or even a hotkey) to bring all of my docklets back to the top.

C'mon! I'd do it myself if I had the source. One quick little EXE for us paying customers who are suffering with obscured docklets.

amaru96
Reply #3 Tuesday, April 11, 2006 2:23 AM
I agree, I am having this exact same problem. It's very frustrating. I have to minimise all my windows so the bar appears, right click it, turn off "always on top", right click it again and turn on "always on top". I would even settle for a hotkey which shows the bar!

ZubaZ
Reply #4 Tuesday, April 11, 2006 1:09 PM
I have tried all day not to comment . . .  but I can't help myself:  The title of this post reminds me of an early dating experience. 

Lantec
Reply #5 Tuesday, April 11, 2006 3:47 PM
The title of this post reminds me of an early dating experience



JMB1984
Reply #6 Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:35 AM
Unfortunatly, I don't think the new release is going to address this still.

Any more details such as which kinds of docks (zooming dock or tabbed?) and their docked status/position...or what you feel might be triggering it getting all goofed up? I had figured events such as coming out of suspended mode or perhaps coming back from a game or fullscreen app...I've spent a good deal of time trying to go through and force it into tricky situations but to no avail

-Jeff
ObjectDock Developer

amaru96
Reply #7 Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:33 AM
I don't recall anything triggering to go into "background" but will keep an eye on it and see if I can point to something causing it.

Is it not possible to assign a hot-key which enables/disables the "always on top" function? Or even to get it to show the bar?

It reminds me of the occasional problem I have where I auto-hide the taskbar and when I move my mouse to the bottom the taskbar doesn't appear - in which case I press the windows-start-key and it appears, then it's OK.

ekrub
Reply #8 Sunday, April 16, 2006 3:44 AM
Any more details such as which kinds of docks (zooming dock or tabbed?) and their docked status/position...or what you feel might be triggering it getting all goofed up? I had figured events such as coming out of suspended mode or perhaps coming back from a game or fullscreen app...I've spent a good deal of time trying to go through and force it into tricky situations but to no avail


I haven't found a reliable way to re-create the problem...but it does happen frequently. Often enough that I've considered giving up on ObjectDock even after buying it. If I can find a way to reliably recreate the problem, I'll definitely post here.

Jeff -

In the meantime and especially because this isn't going to be fixed in the next release, could you please, please, please make a little executable windows program that loops through active docklets and sets them to always-on-bottom and then back to always-on-top for us? It would clearly be a hack, but would reduce the inconvenience until the problem can be identified/fixed. That should be a quick little program to write, right?

Or share the DLL methods to (a) get a list of active docks and ( adjust a dock's positioning -- and I'll make my own hack.

Thanks.


JMB1984
Reply #9 Sunday, April 16, 2006 10:42 PM
ekrub: yikes we will not let you have to give it up i should get to you a test build or something that does additional checking and if it finds that it is it'll try n show some debug info.

but i could make you a special build too that will respond to a seperate program telling it to 'fix its stuff'. You say 'runs though the docklets and sets them to on-bottom and then on-top"....docklets == plugins. Do you just mean all the zooming docks? (And does this include tabbed docks? so, have them also set themselves to not AOT then back to AOT?)

Thanks. I wish I could figure out this problem once and for all There is still hope

seldomseen
Reply #10 Sunday, April 16, 2006 10:51 PM
The title of this post reminds me of an early dating experience


...seemed to work allright for me...what I remember of it;p...oh. right, that was in my old VW

ekrub
Reply #11 Monday, April 17, 2006 3:03 PM
Jeff,

Thanks. Just hearing that you're willing to work out a quick-fix until the problem can be identified & fixed once-and-for-all is reassuring.

I have the zooming taskbar dock along the bottom, a zooming/autohiding list of tray icons along the right side of my screen and a tabbed dock on the left side (just tabs showing until I click on one...then it zooms out. While all three docks are set to AOT, they intermittently get obscured. It seems to happen more often when I'm using Outlook or Eclipse...but I haven't found a way to reliably reproduce it yet. It's always all three docks at once (i.e., I've never seen just one dock obscured while the others remain on top). Captions/tip (whatever you call the text that shows while hovering over an icon) is obscured as well. Switching away from AOT and back again for each dock fixes the problem, it's just a pain to do.

I'm happy to help you debug. I'm traveling for work for the next week with intermittent & often slow internet access, so it'd probably be next week (Apr 27 or after) before I'd be able to download anything.

It would be nice to have a little hack to help everyone out in the meantime (I don't think I'm alone with this problem). If it's possible, a separate EXE would be easier (so you don't have to change/distribute a hack within ObjectDock itself). Anyway, I'll leave that up to you.

Thanks.

JMB1984
Reply #12 Monday, April 17, 2006 10:01 PM
Here's something you might want to try in the mean time, see if you get any milage out of it. ObjectDock will set itself to not always on top if it detects a game is on top. It's fairly specific so i don't know how it might be getting fooled, or particularly, how it would ever get stuck. But try this:

1) Unload ObjectDock
2) Locate your ObjectDock settings folder. Going to the following folder will take you there:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Stardock\ObjectDockPlus\
(Local Settings may be hidden so you may not be able to browse to it, so just pop that into the run dialog)
3) Open "Settings.ini"
4) Under the top header ("[Settings]") you may notice an option there that reads:
DisableFullscreenGameDetection=0
change that to to read
DisableFullscreenGameDetection=1
5) Open ObjectDock back up


If it fixes the problem, it'd be a nice hint as to what's happening!

ZubaZ
Reply #13 Monday, April 17, 2006 10:13 PM
I wish I had a reason . . . But I used to have all dock types go under all the time. And it wouldn't all the docks. Sometimes it would be just one of four (usually tabbed would go under first).

But I had to wipe all Stardock products and when I reinstalled the problem went away. It's been months without a problem. I didn't reinstall the OS or anything crazy, just had to "standardize" the PC.

I'll be happy to run a build with a debugger on.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

CarpeThis
Reply #14 Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:06 PM
Same issue here...

I can't recreate it at will, but I notice it frequently when I'm working in Visual Studio 2003/2005. Seems like running apps in Debug mode frequently triggers the problem.

Great update by the way....

amaru96
Reply #15 Thursday, April 20, 2006 8:16 PM
I tried the suggestion above to change " DisableFullscreenGameDetection=1" but it didn't help.

JMB1984
Reply #16 Sunday, April 30, 2006 11:51 PM
I did some things for the v1.3 update (build 526)...give it a shot.

Otherwise new in this build also are stubs for me to plug in to for a thing like I had mentioned before, that being an external program sending a message to the dock to have it reset its always-on-top nature.

amaru96
Reply #17 Friday, May 5, 2006 4:16 AM
I downloaded the new version and used it for a couple of days without problem. Then it happened again. Don't know what causes this to happen, but when it does I can't get to my START button either. I auto-hide the taskbar but when I moved my mouse to the bottom so it would come up nothing appeared. I had to press the MS start button on my keyboard to bring up the start menu. That's when I also noticed the object bar wouldn't appear.

Gabrief
Reply #18 Thursday, August 24, 2006 5:18 AM
Guys, take a look at that: https://forums.stardock.com/?forumid=176&aid=126700

official replies there!

Gabrief
Reply #19 Saturday, August 26, 2006 10:05 AM
I tried to figure out WHEN always-on-top feature on my ObjectDock falls off, and I discovered that I have to re-set the docks to "always on top" whenever my system starts or is recovered from hibernation or standby... Configuration is winXP home SP2 with ObjectDock Plus 1.30 build 526u and IconX Plus 1.10. Maybe it'll be of some help

Gabrief

PS I tried to set "DisableFullScreenGameDetection=1" but I noticed that the program auto-resets it to 0; any hint?

seldomseen
Reply #20 Saturday, August 26, 2006 1:18 PM
Mine is set to have TOP = Tabs always on top, RIGHT = Normal Z-ordering (mouse activation), LEFT = Normal Z-ordering (mouse activation), BOTTOM = Normal Z-ordering (mouse activation.
Occasionally, the bottom dock goes to AOT (it's not a tabbed doc), say, when I'm using M'soft Word, and if I then click the document I'm working in, the bottom dock goes back to behind the open working document page. It's not an annoyance so far, just a minor distraction when it occurs, but I read this post as I received an email notification that the topic had been bumped and I'm watching it.
-Jeff
ObjectDock Developer


Saw your signature, Jeff, and thought it might help to have input at this time, as there's a feeling/rumor/curiosity running thru the OD+ threads lately that show a lot of interest in Obj Dock +. I've used it off and on since it appeared, but in the last year or so I've gotten to really enjoy the features and consider it a necessary part of my GUI. The available art for docks and icons is stunning at times. I really like this program. More power to you. Many thanks and keep up the good work.

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