Bugs in ObjectDock
Tell me, show me.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 by messiah1 | Discussion: ObjectDock
As a faithful follower of Brother Jeff's Baby, ObjectDock is my mostest favorite SD program that sits on my PC. I've noticed a few bugs along the way but at 1.9, how I use it, I've not had any real problems other than when I switch a WindowBlind I notice sometimes (not all the time) that the icons disappear or appear behind the dock. A simple mouseover brings them back to the front.
However, I troll the ObjectDock forums quite a bit and two of the posts I keep tabs on have a bunch of people saying that it's buggy as hell and that they can't understand why SD hasn't fixed it yet. Now I understand that OD doesn't work right in Vista 64 bit and that's been acknowledged by SD. My question here is, what else have users experienced that they consider a bug.
I don't want to see something that you wish OD could do as in a feature request, if that's what you have, read through this post https://forums.wincustomize.com/167382 and if it isn't already there, post it. I'm only looking for things that you consider a bug. If you can, post a screenshot of the issue here with your bug.
My motivation for this is purely selfish, I'm a selfish guy. I want to see what people are experiencing, and who knows, maybe this post will get the attention that my other post (link above) has. I know Brother Jeff checks that one as well as a striped quad legged animal who happens to work at SD (lucky bastard) and can move things along to the Annointed One if he doesn't happen to stop in. So...show me your bugs.
*EDIT- If you could, post what OS you are using. ex. Vista Ultimate 64 bit
Reply #2 Thursday, June 25, 2009 9:25 AM
I have a tabbed dock on the bottom,and currently it shows no text on icon mouseover on any tab. Occasionally it will show the text behind the dock.These alternate,with the text behind the dock being the most common. If I quit and reopen OD it usually starts showing properly again.
No rhyme or reason to it,it's just correct or it isn't. It happens often enough to be annoying but not enough to post about it.(but since you asked,lol) I got OD+ in Feb. and it's done it since install.
The only other bug is with the weather losing its feed.Again,closing and reopening OD fixes it on the first try in most cases.
32 Bit Vista Ultimate OS.
Reply #3 Friday, June 26, 2009 8:09 PM
I have already mentioned the bugs that I am experiencing here: https://forums.stardock.com/356997/get;2272620 so this is just for visual explanation of those that can be pictured. Remember, I'm using Vista Business SP2 and OD+ 1.9 build 535u. Onto the bugs...
a) Icons in a dock that's for taskbar are either minimised incorrectly or sometimes just don't show
As seen, sometimes the icons don't have the background picture of the main window or sometimes they don't appear at all and I had to hover over with a mouse so you can see that there is actually supposed to be something there!
Icons in a non-tabbed dock don't show up after waking up from hibernation
It's only when I tried to launch Photoshop in order to take pictures of what's going on an icon appeared, but just one
c) A dock is overlaying the contex menu of an icon from sys tray
The rest of the bugs that I encounter are difficult to illustrate with screenshots, but they are writted with words in the tread that I linked at the beginning. If any more info is required then I'll be more than pleased to provide
EDIT: I found one more bug. Pressing the Windows button on my keyboard triggers the opening of the Start menu, but not just over the dock as it should be (since I have a Start menu docklet there), but in the bottom left-hand corner.
Here's how it is: http://i43.tinypic.com/t5rvch.png and here's how it should be: http://i40.tinypic.com/e0raj7.png
Reply #4 Thursday, July 2, 2009 11:45 AM
The only buggy type things I've experienced;
-The program itself almost always loads twice whenever I shut the PC down, and I have two sets of my docks, one on top of the other. This causes extremely slow boot times, but once it's all loaded up, I can click on the icon and unload one.
-The Weather Tool, but that's a widely discussed issue. I used the hack from another part of the forum and it works (most of the time)
(edit: I'm using Vista Ultimate x64)
Reply #5 Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:19 PM
Check to see if you have Load ObjectDock at Startup checked in the OD configuration AND if you have an ObjectDock shortcut in your Startup folder. If you have both, that may be why you get two instances of OD on startup. Either uncheck the box in OD config. or delete the shortcut in the startup folder. My advice, leave the shortcut, uncheck the box.
Reply #6 Thursday, July 2, 2009 4:53 PM
Oddly enough, I don't have it in the Startup folder, but unchecking the box did fix the problem. Thanks for that!
Reply #7 Thursday, July 2, 2009 5:28 PM
Does it startup automatically when you restart without the checkbox checked?
Reply #8 Thursday, July 2, 2009 9:21 PM
I can honestly say that I LOVE OBJECTDOCK. It allowed me to get rid of all the clutter from my desktop. This said…… It does have several severe bugs.
1. Sometimes, inconsistently, when you drag an icon into the Tabs, it works fine, until you delete the original icon from the desktop. Then the "Newly Dragged Icon" becomes a question mark and works no more. This started happening when Microsoft decided to “fix” Vista with the SP2.
2. Roboform (see my post in this section) has ordered their technical support staff to instruct users to “….remove ObjectDock immediately…., since they have been getting hundreds of complaints of issues of compatibility….” (I know it has something to do again with SP2 because they were interacting “PERFECTLY” before SP2.
Other than that, If you have your system properly configured, honest to god, I has worked perfectly…..NO PROBLEMS at all. Maybe they can add some new features but that is beyond the scope of this thread.
Thank you for asking…..maybe they will listen to us and fix it…..I had to choose between Roboform and ObjectDock and uninstall the later and I REALLY MISS IT.
My system is:
Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 32Bits
Dell Precision m6300
Nvidia Quadro FX1600M video card
Intel Core2 Extreme CPU X7900 @2.80GHz
4GB of Crucial Memory.
200GB Seagate HD 7200rpm
Robert Habib
Bits Bytes and More Technologies, Inc.
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE),
Certified Novell Administrator (CNA),
Comptia A+ and Network+ Certified
Voice: 954-472-7071 Fax: 954-472-7072
My software never has bugs. It just develops random features...
Reply #9 Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:32 PM
In the OD configuration screen, click on Miscellaneous Options and under Additional Advanced Options ensure the box that says "When a shortcut is added to a dock, point to the target not the shortcut" is checked.
Reply #10 Thursday, July 2, 2009 11:02 PM
Hi guys!
ObjectDock is in need of some love. Sadly, there have been many updates internally made that help existing situations (like tabs losing their "on top", etc), however unfortunatly ObjectDock is at the current moment stuck inbetween development places as it moves to 2.0, and has been for quite a bit. While progress is continuously made in pieces, it is awaiting that period of several-month-focus that is going to take it all the way. The good news is, that that's coming back up. Now that was originally planned for a few months ago, but unfortunatly some may have noticed a certain emergency going on with a game named "Demigod" And perhaps other memebers of staff were pulled in to help out including myself, and perhaps other company-crucial things have again grown critical during the delay and now need immediate attention. However now in the mean time, a Fences update is in the works, an update to Impulse in in the cards after that, and then OD2'll be sharing time with the development of Fences Pro for as long as it takes to get them complete and finished.
messiah: condensed "these are things we want!" / "these are things that are wrong" threads are absolutly great. Based on some suggestions I've already put some cool things into the next ver of OD, including for tabbed docks the ability to have single-icon/single-tab docks, that automatically expand/contract as you add icons to them, and line up sideways when you dock them to the edge of the screen. Think filing cabinet drawers Reflection and blur-behind is already in for zooming docks, but not there yet for tabbed docks. Numerous glitches fixed, 64-bit support addressed with improved loading and start menu support, and in the mean time identified how to pull off Win7 support for systray functionality.
I'm very happy that the program has been useful for most all in its existing state, and am truly excited for when the next major version gets finished and outted.
Reply #11 Friday, July 3, 2009 11:05 AM
ObjectDock is in need of some love. Sadly, there have been many updates internally made that help existing situations (like tabs losing their "on top", etc), however unfortunatly ObjectDock is at the current moment stuck inbetween development places as it moves to 2.0, and has been for quite a bit. While progress is continuously made in pieces, it is awaiting that period of several-month-focus that is going to take it all the way. The good news is, that that's coming back up. Now that was originally planned for a few months ago, but unfortunatly some may have noticed a certain emergency going on with a game named "Demigod" And perhaps other memebers of staff were pulled in to help out including myself, and perhaps other company-crucial things have again grown critical during the delay and now need immediate attention. However now in the mean time, a Fences update is in the works, an update to Impulse in in the cards after that, and then OD2'll be sharing time with the development of Fences Pro for as long as it takes to get them complete and finished.
messiah: condensed "these are things we want!" / "these are things that are wrong" threads are absolutly great. Based on some suggestions I've already put some cool things into the next ver of OD, including for tabbed docks the ability to have single-icon/single-tab docks, that automatically expand/contract as you add icons to them, and line up sideways when you dock them to the edge of the screen. Think filing cabinet drawers Reflection and blur-behind is already in for zooming docks, but not there yet for tabbed docks. Numerous glitches fixed, 64-bit support addressed with improved loading and start menu support, and in the mean time identified how to pull off Win7 support for systray functionality.
I'm very happy that the program has been useful for most all in its existing state, and am truly excited for when the next major version gets finished and outted.
Do you think you might give it just a little tweak for it to work with Roboform and send me a "beta"?..... You can read about the issue with Roboform on another thread in this forum... I've had to remove ObjectDock and I miss it terribly...
Reply #12 Friday, July 3, 2009 11:13 AM
Sometimes, inconsistently, when you drag an icon into the Tabs, it works fine, until you delete the original icon from the desktop. Then the "Newly Dragged Icon" becomes a question mark and works no more.
In the OD configuration screen, click on Miscellaneous Options and under Additional Advanced Options ensure the box that says "When a shortcut is added to a dock, point to the target not the shortcut" is checked.
Thank you. I appreciate your reply and the time to read it. I eventually discovered this on my own but initially I was going manually and pointing to the .exe file ..... cumbersome to say the least.... I believe it should point to the target by DEFAULT....and not make you decide....Shouldn't it? I understand it doesn't ....but I think it should.
Reply #13 Friday, July 3, 2009 1:30 PM
You got me to thinking really hard about this Steve. Here's my small piece.
I've been using Stardock products since 2003, but didn't have the courage to try OD until 2007. So that right there immediately disqualifies me as anything resembling an authority on OD.
Since that time I've incorporated a separate Vista 32 system along with my XP system, which we both know that XP is the only way that Cp shoots, because I could never get past Vista's oversized start menu.
So I'm speaking from my own shallow experience on both platforms.
As long as I've been using Object Dock, I've never had a hitch, glitch nor hiccup with it on either platform.
I know you posted this for bug reports dude and what I said here didn't help any, but I wanted to throw this out there on the positive side because the application is stout to me. Always have been.
I'm just excited that something so great is going to get even better.
Reply #14 Friday, July 3, 2009 1:50 PM
ObjectDock is in need of some love. Sadly, there have been many updates internally made that help existing situations (like tabs losing their "on top", etc), however unfortunatly ObjectDock is at the current moment stuck inbetween development places as it moves to 2.0, and has been for quite a bit. While progress is continuously made in pieces, it is awaiting that period of several-month-focus that is going to take it all the way. The good news is, that that's coming back up. Now that was originally planned for a few months ago, but unfortunatly some may have noticed a certain emergency going on with a game named "Demigod" And perhaps other memebers of staff were pulled in to help out including myself, and perhaps other company-crucial things have again grown critical during the delay and now need immediate attention. However now in the mean time, a Fences update is in the works, an update to Impulse in in the cards after that, and then OD2'll be sharing time with the development of Fences Pro for as long as it takes to get them complete and finished.

Reply #15 Saturday, July 4, 2009 11:07 AM
Jeff, thanks for stopping by and giving us some info. I want you to understand that my posts on ObjectDock are not meant to be bitch sessions. Not at all. It's my favorite program by far. My intentions are to get ideas from users, like my Things I'd like to see in ObjectDock thread. Also, with this post, I wanted to see first hand what others are experiencing and maybe help them out if I could.
I personally haven't had any major issues with OD and I've been using it for some time now on XP and Vista. I'm a happy camper. It's always great to see new features as the program progresses from version to version. I can't wait until 2.0 does come out, but until then, I'm content with the one I have. Oh, and shameless plug here, I know you have folks that internally test 2.0 but...if you needed another one, well I'd be happy to help out in any way possible.
Thanks for the work you do Jeff.
Reply #16 Tuesday, July 7, 2009 2:50 PM
This is somewhat related to OD...
On Stardock's page for this product, it says that "...In constant development, ObjectDock and ObjectDock Plus are enhanced often...", now that's not quite true, it is?
Reply #17 Tuesday, July 7, 2009 3:01 PM
We get it man. You sure can beat a dead horse can't you?
Reply #18 Tuesday, July 7, 2009 3:46 PM
Reply #19 Wednesday, July 8, 2009 7:08 AM
I'm not bashing you. That is not a bash, it's an observation, like your observation that the above statement might not be entirely true...as you see it. I wish the new version would come out too, but posting like you do all the time gets old. And, more importantly, it isn't helping, and it moves threads off topic. There are plenty of OD bashing threads around, as I'm sure you are aware.
Please stick to the topic of the post.
Reply #20 Thursday, July 9, 2009 11:32 AM
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Reply #1 Thursday, June 25, 2009 9:23 AM
m1: left a wish list on the last page of the linked post.
Thanks for posting this as it and Nexus are my most used progs also.