Author Topic: Can this program help wih this problem? (Read 24074 times)

Phototaker · « **on:** October 17, 2014, 12:54:38 am »

I only just heard about your program thr other day & it was able to fix my missing CD & Blu-ray burners.

I have a PC problem that no one knows how to fix. I'm running Windows 7 pro 64 bit & it keeps losing focus. By that I mean I can have several windows open at a time & they can be seen on the task bar. If I then wanted to copy something onto say Notepad I click on its icon. Notepad flashes open for about a fraction of a second & then disappears. Apparently many people have the same problem as seen on the web.

Some solutions seem to involve changing things in regedit, others suggest that its caused my the way the mouse behaves. It seems in older versions of Windows there were tweeks that you could apply that could change things like this but these are no longer available.

It's never possible to do a cut/copy & paste unless you make every window very small. I have had 3 different experts already have a go about fixing this. Do you have any solution?

Thanks in advance

jraju · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2014, 05:32:23 am »

Hi,

Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
Click the Advanced tab, click Performance, and then click Settings.
In Performance Options, click the Data Execution Prevention tab, and then click Add.
In the Open dialog box, locate and then click the notepad exe in the system 32 or suitebale folder where you are having that program.
Click Open, click Apply, and then click OK. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click OK. Then try to start NOtepad
If not,
I assume you are having problem in opening Notepad. If this is , then Try this link. I do not know what the OS you are having. Assuming that it is windows 7 , I give this link. Since 3 experts tried to fix this, try this with some care as advised in the solution. It would fix your problem.
But let me be specific in taking the back up the notepad.exe from the system folder, before attempting anything . Normally by changing the path, as copying to the desktop, would fix it if it is not a major issue.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/12617/how-to-replace-notepad-in-windows-7/
When taking control, you be specific to adopt all the ideas step by step. Even missing one advice may render the system not working. If any other replacement or workable solution is found, i will post then.

Phototaker · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2014, 03:49:38 pm »

I'll try your Notepad solution when the grand kids go home later. I should point out that Notepad is just a prime example since similar behavior is shown by other programs as well.

jraju · « **Reply #3 on:** October 20, 2014, 01:20:13 am »

Hi, Then what is the problem. Do you mean the exe of all application in the desktop when clicked flashes and then disappears? Please mention the problem in exact words so that solution flows in. I only try to help. Please be clear in your explanation of problem. If the exe just flashes and disappear for all the applications, it is really a problem in the registry for executive file , some change in the exe value in microsoft registry *1%. If the problem is in display then, there is some other solution.

Shane · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2014, 11:42:46 am »

Quote

If I then wanted to copy something onto say Notepad I click on its icon. Notepad flashes open for about a fraction of a second & then disappears

When you say it disappears do you mean it goes behind the other windows or does it actually disappear from the screen?

Shane

Phototaker · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2014, 08:19:31 pm »

What I have done is just tried to open quite a few windows. I have an icon on bottom task-bar for the more commonly used programs. Firefox, Photoshop, VideoReDo etc I set them to open maximum size. I can see the icons on the task bar at bottom of screen & if I move the cursor over these icons I can see the programs name whether the program is open or not.

If I then open Notebook in a somewhat smaller window it opens flashes & then sits on the task-bar & where I can reopen it if I click on it. As soon as the cursor moves off window the window which was underneath is displaced & Notebook is back on the task -bar.

Someone asked If I ever had the situation where all new windows opened on the bottom of the stack. The answer is yes but since then I have had a complete reinstall of Windows.

I get the feeling that it might me fault of a setting for the mouse or for Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer sometimes does strange things like a few days back it resused to open disk manager. It always offers to look for a solution. Can I turn this offer of fixing the problem off as I have never,ever had it find a solution for anything?

Maybe it gets broken because of the updates. A few days ago Windows had about another 17 updates.

I hope that this helps explains things a bit better than before.

jraju · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2014, 05:22:09 am »

Hi, Peculiar things happening in your desktop.
Do your problem is the desktop tray programs in the status bar does not open at the first attempt or it just flashes and then remain on status bar as icon?(without opening)

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2014, 09:34:58 am »

I do know that the task bar does have a lot of hidden settings and options. I just have to trace where they are located, normally in the registry.

Does the right click menu work on the icons? Also as a test have you tried creating a new user account in windows and seeing how it does on it? Reason why that would help is if it happens to the new account as well then I know the problem is most likely in the hkey_local_machine. But if the new user account doesn't have the problem then that tells me the problem is most likely in the hkey_current_user section

Also could you export out this registry key for me and post them.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

I want to compare the settings you have there with a default system.

Also looks like a few other sections we will check later as well
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/registry-tweaks-windows-7

Shane

Phototaker · « **Reply #8 on:** October 21, 2014, 06:46:31 pm »

Every morning before anything else is ever done I do a complete scan of my Machine with Malware Bytes pro as well as Avaste anti-virus. The most that I ever find is an unwanted pup. Everytime I download any program I install carefully & opt out of any extra add on's like toolbars. Even though you have opted out some programs install there wares anyway. I mostly do a restore point before I run Ashampoo uninstalled 5 program which logs the install so that you can reverse it if necessary. I then catch them with the any pup's with supsequent scans. I always opt out of every survey or questionaire as I'm well aware about data mining.

Windows & now several other programs offer to update drivers but as you may know these can be terribly wrong. I can recall that Windows told me that my old PC turner card had the best driver available. It never worked. I had to get the correct detals from the manufacturer in Hong Kong.

The bottom line is that I'm very cautious about everything that happens on the internet & always proceed with extreme caution.

But I also know that programs that do similar things look at diverent things & perhaps interprey what it sees in different ways. For instance I can reun the much recommended CCleaner & it finds & deletes what it finds. If I were to then run Ashampoos Win Optomizer 11 immedieately after this it says that it's found more things that are either whong or vould be better. Maybe between them they sometoimes either delete or change things that they shouldn't.

You geve me two places to look at & report upon in REGEDIT. Rathet than expand the tree as I go I decided to try the search function where tou tell it to find 'Tashband' You then tell it to find the next instance of that word in your search.

I did the search for the first location & then using snip took a picture of it. Your then supposed to press F3 to search for the next instand of "Tashband'. Pressing F3 takes me to Taskpband pin' which is located within other loactions with with very long names & most of each address is made up aminly very long numbers whaich seem to mean nothing to me.

As for the second location you gave to search I did a post & past into regedit search & this didn't find anything at all.

I have attached 2 snip photos but they don't display in the preview. I hope that this is what you want.

Shane · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2014, 12:20:28 pm »

No, dont do a search for it, you have to go directly to it.

Just open reg edit and expand each section till you get to it, just like I did in the screen shot as an example.

Shane

Phototaker · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2014, 04:52:33 pm »

I had include photos of both in my last posting but I can only see the second one which shows Taskban pin. I will try to get the other photo attached to this posting.

jraju · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2014, 10:06:58 pm »

Hi, Phototaker,
Do you have the programs on Startup menu, so whenever windows starts, these also auto starts.
Or you made some other settings. How did you set the programs to auto open, Normally, when you add a shortcut exe of program to the startup folder, it auto starts whenever you computer starts. There should not be any problem in doing so.
Or do you mean the items on Quick launch bar? when the window starts, they stay in the status bar and when you click, it opens up.

Shane · « **Reply #12 on:** October 23, 2014, 03:50:15 am »

Was there anything at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband?

Also lets check the other area now as well.

Go to these 2 locations, right click on them and hit export, save both reg files and post them for me

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Shane

jraju · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2014, 05:23:26 am »

Hi, Shane
I think that Phototaker need to create Quick launch tool bar to accomplish this thing in windows 7 which is easy to make.
right click on the task bar and then select tool bar and then new tool bar, and when it opens, just paste this in to the folder line downunder
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Once he paste it, he gets the full path of C: users\username\appdate....etc etc.
Then he has to change the username with the original user name. Then he will notice the quick launch bar opens at the tray bar, Just drag the dotted line to the left next to the Pin start menu. He could right click on the dotted line and choose to uncheck both text and details to get the icons menu of already present programs in the quick launch bar, which is in a hidden folder.
He could add or remove the program, by right clicking on the program to select delete or add by creating shortcut of the programs of his needs and then drag to this Quick launch area. If this is so, then he han have number of programs icon here and if he wants to copy , say a paragraph from word file to a notepad in QL then, this will work, when he clicks on the notepad , it will open.
He can have as many programs he can in this way and it is starting with boot up.

Phototaker · « **Reply #14 on:** October 23, 2014, 09:19:35 pm »

A search of 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband' produced nothing at all.

A Search of 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer produced nothing at all.

A search of 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer produced nothing at all

I have tried Shane's suggestion about creating a new toobar, & pasting the address to to Internet Explorer Quick Launch. I hadn't done this before. I did this but when I click on the Quick Launch nothing happens. Could this be because I almost never use this program for searches usually use Firefox as my browser? I can still open Internet Explorer if I go through the start menu.

If this information isn't of any help I could get a list of start up programs from MSCONFIG or else from Ashampoo Win Optomizer 11 which is also installed in the machine.

I have used the snipping tool to show the bottom toolbar as it currently exists.

jraju · « **Reply #15 on:** October 24, 2014, 01:29:16 am »

Hi, Photo taker,
It is very simple process.
Do not go to internet explorer etc.
Just rightclick your task bar and click tool bar menu, and in that menu in submenu select new tool bar. When you click new tool bar a box opens up to which folder this quick launch to be formed. There in the Folder line box at the bottom, you copy the command i have given. Now, you click ok or open button, then you get a error message that the path could not be found. But you may now note that , the path is given in the error report. It is c:users\username with your name or the original user of your computer, say phototaker, or the original user name of your computer from users account. If it is correctly substituted, you will find the Quick launch bar. Then as i say, you could add no ofprograms at start up.
This is the best way, and it works, I tried and succeeded so recommended it to you. Quick launch is the hidden folder in windows 7. I will try to give the help link in this regard in my next post
Update: help link is below
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/888-quick-launch-enable-disable.html
Please then follow the instructions to uncheck the items in my post, now when you boot, you get all stay in the left side of the tray bar and next to start menu bar or pinstart menu bar as per your adjustment of quick launch bar to the left

jraju · « **Reply #16 on:** October 24, 2014, 05:12:31 am »

hI, I enclose a model desktop with Quick launchbar with only icons of the program. It boots with computer and stay in the selected location

Shane · « **Reply #17 on:** October 25, 2014, 01:10:31 am »

The screen you posted of your task bar, I noticed you have the desktop toolbar pulled all the way over and so the task bar itself has very little room to show the open windows. Did you do that on purpose?

Shane

jraju · « **Reply #18 on:** October 25, 2014, 04:59:12 am »

Hi, Shane, is it a reply to my thread or the phototaker jpg?
I have just print screen my desktop to show, how to get the Quick launch bar in Windows 7. Here i stored multiple application which will stay on boot and could be activated by double clicking on it.

Shane · « **Reply #19 on:** October 27, 2014, 10:02:14 pm »

I was talking about the picture in this post

http://www.tweaking.com/forums/index.php/topic,2513.msg16706.html#msg16706

Shane

jraju · « **Reply #20 on:** October 27, 2014, 10:19:21 pm »

Hi, Phototaker,
Were you able to create the QL tool bar as per the suggestion given by me

Phototaker · « **Reply #21 on:** October 27, 2014, 10:56:40 pm »

I had done another posting about the Quick launch toolbar but I can't see it on this website. It appears that perhaps 2 different threads have somehow got mixed. I had had lots of icon on bottom toolbar so I deleted a few. I then created a second toolbar. This left me with an up/down arrow to switch from one to the other.

Navigation is difficult because of original problem 'Loss of focus'.

Its so difficult to get to where you want to be operating its sometimes almost impossible to do so. I suspect there are several other things going on in Windows that don't seem to help.

For instance I got a new 2TB USB3 Passport external drive, a few months back & I had been putting all of my home videos etc on it. Every so often I plug it in & Windows says that I have to format before I can use it. So I go to the trouble or running checkdisk & all of the other hardware checking software on it & they all find no fault. Then the same thing can happen all over again the next time I plug it in.

I can select say 3 files from the desktop as I want to paste them into a folder on a different drive. When I try past only one moves & I have to do it all over again. As I said in the previous post I have had Windows 95,98,XP,Windows 7 & some other version I can't even recall. None of them ever did what they were supposed to do. It seems as if version 8 is a debacle so there going to jump to 10. Good Luck.

I wish that I could give a more detailed answer about the QL toolbar.

Thanks once again

jraju · « **Reply #22 on:** October 28, 2014, 05:26:45 am »

Hi,
Phototaker
It is easy to remove the Quick launch bar for which ideas were given in the same link. Regarding up and down arrow, these are for opening programs and applications icons which stay on the line. As the task bar could not accomodate all the icons, some already in the Quick Launch folder before you create this tool bar, (hidden in the same folder, for which you now give access)may appear along with the present programs you select now. It is just easy to have only icons without text so that icons will give you the details on moving the cursor. Windows have all the help but we have to explore. I have given a useful link on the topics on sevenforum in the user submitted posts in the main Forum of this site. Hope that you explore one by one, to see the marvellous work done by Microsoft.
If your problem is solved, Please go to the beginning of this thread, click edit button and then add Solved to the left of the subject of your thread to mark it as solved.

Phototaker · « **Reply #23 on:** November 04, 2014, 05:01:58 pm »

I have entered more messages in this thread but they seem to have been either lost or combined into another thread. I have removed the QL & reinstalled it. but this has had no impact on 'loss of focus'. I think other things are in play here as well.

For instance I get a message from Microsoft about a small update which I download. I don't restart immediately so when I go to the start button I get a reminder that I have an update to install. Instead to shut down I request restart. When Windows restarts all the programs that I had been using when I pressed restart appear & are open again.

It's as if the machine sort of went into hibernation mode except that I hadn't get the icon asking me which user wants to use machine. I'm only one who ever uses this machine. Perhaps I should run all of Tweaking options & see if that that makes a difference?

As I mentioned in the missing posting I had a USB3 drive only a few months old,it's NTFS. I had put all of my raw video footage onto it. Now sometime when I plug it in to edit using Vegas Pro it tells me that the drive mist be formatted. I run all of the Windows things like ckeckdisk, repair errors etc & it finds no problems. I also have other software programs for checking HDD's & they find nothing. I use the drive a few more times without a hitch & then the next time I plug it in I'm told I must format it.

That's what I mean when I say there may be other things at play.

Thanks in advance

Shane · « **Reply #24 on:** November 04, 2014, 10:43:26 pm »

My usb drive does that and random times as well, drive is fine, it was windows that was wrong. I just unplug the drive and plug it back in or plug it into a different usb port and then it comes up fine.

As for the task bar, I just helped a user who had his mouse cursor get messed up when he was on dual monitors. When i teamviewered into him it was fine, but not for him. Turns out it is a known bug with the ATI drivers and when he updated to the newest beta drivers it was fixed.

Since windows vista and newer, Windows uses the GPU to draw everything, and so drivers play a bigger part in that now more than ever. So I am curious if yours might be related to it as well or not. I havent had a chance to teamviewer into you and have you show me first hand what is happening and see what I can find, but I am up for that if you are.

Shane