Start in Tray, Always on Top and other things

[Kataah]

Hello there!

First off, thank you for making this great tool. It just become more and more nescesarry for my games since i discovered it. But there are some things that i don´t understand worked in the past versions of DxWnd and now doesn´t.

• Launch DxWnd in Tray. There was a command line for DxWnd named "/T", so that it always launched in the Tray at Startup. This won´t work anymore exept there is a new command that i did´t know about yet.
• There is a strange behavior with DxWnd that when i end a Game, which is injected by DxWnd, DxWnd pops up from the tray and shows the main window, so that i must always click "move to tray" again everytime so that DxWnd goes to the Tray again. I have the feeling it has someting to do with
  "auto hide GUI", but it´s already checked in the Global Settings. Why is it like that?
• Also, would it be possible when i click on the minimize button on DxWnd, it would actually going to the tray instead of just minimizing the window?
• In some games, DxWnd makes a borderless window for the games (which is great), but doesn´t also cover over the taskbar. I know there is a button "Hide Taskbar", but this sometimes bugged the taskbar to come back after closing the game. Maybe just a "Always on Top" function would be great.

[gho]

Hi! Thank you for the feedbacks, they are precious for DxWnd improvement.
In some cases they also reveal regression problems: DxWnd became a quite complex thing for a single person (me) to manage, so sometimes new releases bring back old problems.
I'll try to address all your issues, but probably not all at once.

• DxWnd on system tray: the /T option is already there and apparently working when run from a command prompt shell or through a shortcut. You can make this test by your own to be sure there is no problem in this way. But I noticed that DxWnd with adiminstrator's privileges (a suggested choice) opens a dialog box to ask confirmation for the probram to run. Maybe this is what makes DxWnd not starting at startup, when no user interaction is allowed. Revoking administrator's privileges may fix it. I'll do some testing but I'd be better targeted if you tell me what is your OS (by default, Win10 I'd guess..)
• DxWnd strange behaviour: well' that may depend on the game and configuration. May you post here the exported game configuration so that I can test it?
• Go to tray when minimize: I suppose this feature would be useful because of the former problem. If I fix it, that should be no longer necessary, isn't it? Anyway, that reminds me that once I tried to add a fourth button to the window bar with a dot "." to push DxWnd to tray, but I found no good exampled to do that on an MFC C++ project. Maybe I should get back on this topic.
• The borderless window may depend on a different default behaviour of latest DxWnd releases, where I apply the lazy philosophy: if not asked, don't do it. So, in most cases you should be able to get a bordered window again by setting the video styles options. The "Hide Taskbar" is not recommended because it depends on the game ordered termination: if the game or DxWnd crashes, the taskbar is lost and has to be recovered manually (there is also a DxWnd tool command, to make it easier). The "Always on Top" option exists, though it is not so evident: you have to set the "Video / Z order" selector on "top". That may or may not work depending on the game: if you have problems, please tell me what game and I'll be happy to help.

[Kataah]

Thanks for your quick responese!

So now for Point 1:
So, i still don´t understand why the tray command is not working. I already tried it from a shortcut and even a batch file. But that thing with the administrator privilegs you mentionded above, Windows don´t ask me with a dialog box. Only the normal DxWnd Main Window with all your games listed is showing up, still also not in the tray. And yes, im using Windows 10 64-Bit.

Point 2:
It´s not for specific game, it´s for all my games in DxWnd. So i just attach a configuration from a random game in my list. Strangely, like i said before, the DxWnd Window only show up after i close a game from the list. Also didn´t happended in older versions.

Point 3:
Would it be not better to just use the function "Minimize to tray" on the actual "Minimize" Button itself instead of a fourth button? The thing is, if this strange behavior from point 2 not going away, (which also could be a problem with a configuration in my system) this would be a second way to tray the program. Because i use another program which automaticly minimizing windows whenever they show up. And for that to work it uses the "Minimize Button" from the programs.

Point 4:
That was it. Thank you for that. One Problem away. :)

[gho]

• About point 1 maybe you inserted the DxWnd activation command in a startup phase when the system tray is not ready yet, so that the iconization fails and the program is left opened. Honestly I never tried this setting on my Win10, I'll seek for some good example and try to give some hints.
• Point 2: you're probably right, the auto hide feature is supposed to minimize DxWnd when tha game runs and pop it up again when terminated. What you need is a little different, with DxWnd staying iconized until explicitely restored. I may add this possibility with a little more coding....
• Point 3: partially addressed by point #2, I'd say....

[Kataah]

Point 1: Yeah, you´re right. I did have it in a startup phase when windows boots up. Still, i did tried to launch it standalone with the /T command long after the whole Startup phase , but this did also not working. Do the /T Command actually work at the time?
Point 2: So this will be implented in the future?
Point 3: Okay

Okay, i have some more question about DxWnd.
I have a game named "Moorhuhn Remake" and worked as it should with DxWnd in a borderless window. Sadly, the image is completly stretched to 16:9. "Keep Aspect Ratio" is checked, so i don´t know how to make it in 4:3.
And another thing is maybe "Image Mounting". You know, so we can mount a "Iso" or a "Bin,Cue" for a specific game.
And now another thing: I tried a game named "Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2". When i tried to launch the game with the -windowgui command and with DxWnd together, the Games Window is really small and i could not find a way to make it bigger. It just seems locked in its position and size. On the other side when i launch the game without the -windowgui command and DxWnd together, the game just crashing. I also tried it with "dgVoodoo 2". So, not much options here. This is one of the only games wich really makes problems. Did you tried that game before?

Thanks so much for reading all this! I know you have already much work to do with this program.
But when you have time... ;)

[gho]

About point 1 testing is easy: you have two options
a) right click on DxWnd.exe, pick "Create shortcut" and add a /T argument at the end of the command line like in the attached screenshot
b) open a command prompt (type cmd on the Win10 assistant ...), change drive and directory to go in DxWnd install folder and type "DxWnd /T".
If one of these ways works, then the problem must be in the windows startup phase.

2 & 3: yes, stay tuned ....

[Kataah]

I already did this all. And it wasn´t working. Until now.
Somehow i did one last check in the "Global Settings". The Button on "Auto Hide GUI" was already checked, so i was always sure that this function is not the problem. Strangely, when you disable the button, so that it´s not checked, the Window is autohiding, works with the tray starting, and also does not pop up after game closes. Can it be that the button means it vice versa?

[gho]

What you describe is weird, that's not the way it is supposed to be, even if it pleases you!
The window popup after game is closed is actually a "feature", many users may prefer the other way, and in any case a software program is not supposed to understand your preferences and implement them by its own will!!
So, I suspect there's some problem here, and usually problems are ready to unexpectedly turn agains you, I'm not sure that DxWnd will keep behaving this way.
Then, I implemented here (see attach) a modified DxWnd version (but in mainstream for next release, so the feature will stay on all next releases) with a /h argument (h for hidden, I couldn't think anything better) that should do as you like, that is:

• whenever started, it immediately pushed DxWnd on icon tray, like /T option
• from icon tray you can pos up the GUI with double-click (as now)
• when you run a game the GUI returns iconized (same as auto-hide feature)
• when the game terminates, nothing happens.

Please, replace these files in the archive in your current DxWnd installation and make a little testing. If the /T opiton didn't work, it is well possible that the /H (h or H, it's case insensitive) won't work as well, and in that case it will be necessary to undestand why and fix it.

Thank you for your ideas and support.

[Kataah]

Well, i must thank you for making a fix in one day! That is truly nice from you. Okay, now what is working so far:
Point 1: Won´t start immediately in the tray, but is starting in the tray with the /H command.
Point 2: Double clicking in the tray does work.
Point 3: Not working
Point 4: Is working as you described it.

Remember, i only tested with the /H command, i did not using the /T command anymore.

[gho]

The /H in some way superseeds /T (it internally sets the same global flags as /T plus some more) so that /H should be the very same thing than /H /T.

I'm very curious about point 3. How is it malfunctioning?
I'd like you to make post here a description of the whole operation. It would be necessary to set th "debug" flag in DxWnd global options, so that the GUI will log some operations on a local dxwnd.txt file. Make the following operations:

1. run DxWnd, open the Options->Global Setting panel and check "Debug mode"
2. Exit DxWnd
3. run DxWnd again, this time with /H option
4. since the GUI should be iconized, double click to get the DxWnd main window
5. run a game and verify that DxWnd get back immediately on the icon tray
6. terminate the game and verify that DxWnd remains in the icon tray
7. collect dxwnd.ini and dxwnd.txt from the DxWnd folder and post them here (you can delete sensible informations before, if any ...)
8. describe exactly what happened vs. what you expected to happen

B.T.W. I tested this beta on Win7, maybe Win10 makes some difference.

[Kataah]

I would send you the dxwnd.txt file if it would created by the program. All things works from Point 1 to Point 4.
On Point 5 first it´s not hiding itself and also it´s not creating a dxwnd.txt file. Debug Mode is checked.

[gho]

Strange, in debug mode the dxwnd.txt should be created whatever the program does, not only when it iconizes, so after a game run the file should be there.
I'm wondering if we have a lack of some permission and this could be the reason why also the iconization doesn't work. This evening I'll try on my Win10, maybe I will be able to replicate the problem.

[Kataah]

I did have now an old bug again that i had in some older version. It was´nt present until your new fixed dxwnd from above. Thing is DxWnd randomly crashes, but not when it´s running a game, it crashes when i´m making configurations for a game. It let´s me maybe save DxWnd 2 times and then just crashes.

[gho]

DxWnd minimizing to icon tray correctly also on Win10. Since you can't grab logs there could be a permission problem, but I can't say more.
DxWnd crashing on configuration editing: sometimes it happens also to me, but not often. A critical operation is adding / deleting / moving entries in the game list. Is that so also for you? The strange thing is that the problem is not sistematic, sometimes it happens and then no more....