[Virtualacorn-list] Windows panes flashing under dead full-screen RO

[Alan Adams]

In message <mpro.lbzb0o001reqr02b0 at wingsandbeaks.org.uk.invalid>
          Jeremy Nicoll - ml virtualacorn 
<jn.ml.vac.83 at wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:

> Chris Hughes <chris at noonehere.co.uk> wrote:

<snip>

>> Its not a bug really but an interaction between Windows and a full
>> screen VA windows application. VA is just an application running on
>> Windows.

> Indeed.  It worries me that Roger is having so many problems that others
> don't see.  Why?

There is something about this problem which isn't working quite the 
way most of us see.

When a Windows app pops a window to the front of the stack VRPC gets a 
little confused, granted. What I see, and I think it's normal, is that 
VRPC thinks it is still full-screen, but ceases to update its window. 
However it does draw the black background, thereby hiding the pop-up.

Alt-enter will, in the normal case, tell VRPC to run in a window, 
which it does, at which point the pop-up can be seen and dealt with, 
or a second alt-enter will restore full-screen mode, with the redraw 
working.

Roger's symptoms seem to centre around the fact that alt-enter doesn't 
produce a response.

There seem to me to be a few possible explanations:

1  Another application has claimed input focus, so the alt-enter isn't 
delivered

2  Another app has grabbed all key presses, with the same result.

3  Something has redefined the keyboard, and lost alt-enter.

The point is that alt-enter is processed by Windows, which tells the 
application to toggle between full-screen and windowed mode. It works 
with other programs as well.

There are a couple of things it would be useful to test:

When VRPC is working, does alt-enter correctly switch between windowed 
and full-screen modes?

When there is a problem, what does alt-tab do? It should allow 
switching betwen the current applications, and VRPC should be one of 
them.

When the problem  occurs, does clicking the Windows mouse pointer over 
the RO part of the screen allow alt-enter to be delivered? (The latter 
should fix the issue of a program taking input focus - it won't help 
if all keystrokes are being captured.

When the problem occurs, can other programs be used? In other words is 
it just VRPC which is having trouble, or is it deeper in Windows?

What does task manager show - is there a program using 100% CPU, or 
doing hundreds of I/Os per second? Are there lotas of applications 
shown as "not responding"?

And this being Windows 7, I would check as suggested elsewhere that 
the program is set to run in compatability mode.
(I've just wasted two weeks at work forgetting that one!)

-- 
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan at adamshome.org.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/