I've been trying out DisplayFusion for a couple weeks now and found it has great features and performance.

I have experienced the Excel and Aero bug and understand that is going to be fixed in the 3.4.0 release so that is fine.

The recurring issue I have experienced with either the current release or the beta is that after some time running, the program eventually crashes. Windows pops up the 'DisplayFusion has stopped responding' type dialog and it has to close the program. It seems to do this with either the current or beta but the beta seems worse because after it closes displayfusion, if I run it again, eventually it starts to cause other programs to crash in the same manner (program has stopped responding errors).

My computer is fine otherwise, no performance or stability issues of any kind and this issue happens whether I am just doing basic web browsing, listening to some music, or whatever other basic uses I have going on. I don't play games on this computer so that is not an issue.

The machine in question:
Windows 7 SP1 32 bit with latest windows updates
Intel e8500 cpu and 4GB ram.
AMD/ATI HD4550 video card.

I tried disabling application hooks but that didn't fix it, not while I was running the beta at least.

I have uninstalled the beta and gone back to the normal release using the 30 day pro license trial key. It has crashed one on me since I installed it about 2 hours ago. I have turned on debug logging so we will see what comes from that. I had debug logging on before and it showed some interesting entries like this:

FAIL: Taskbar2: Dispose: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

From the google search I did, this looks related to some kind of .net 2.0 known issue that has been patched but I guess it still happens? Not sure on that one. Anyway, before I spend money on this I want to make sure it actually works without crashing, or worse, crashing other programs.

I have done a Microsoft Security Essentials scan and Malwarebytes antimalware scan and got no hits. I also used ccleaner to clean up the registry and temp files between removing the beta and reinstalling the normal release.

http://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/displayfusion-hang-crashes-takes-down-whole-computer/?ID=743d673f-f462-4096-8963-fcd7b51d5882 This thread seems to have the same or similar issue. I'm not really wanting to format my computer to work around this though since the machine is fine otherwise.

Thanks for any help.

I have the latest windows updates, including optional ones. I have run memtest in the past on this machine, it has been a year and a half or so since I got it and ran memtest (I always run it on a new machine) and I have had no other memory related issues like data corruption, errors reading or writing large files or whatever. Even when firefox bloats up to 700MB of ram used from too much time spent on image/art websites like deviantart I don't have any real issues, even with photoshop running and eating up a bunch of ram.

I'll start with the sfc scan to make sure on that front.

If that doesn't reveal anything I will try the memtest thing.

Thanks

sfc scan found a handful of 'corrupt' files. HEHE.

It was all the files involved in the windows theme manager service which had been patched/replaced to allow custom themes in windows, by a patch such as one could find here: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/30994-uxtheme-patch-for-windows-7-sp1/

Never had a problem with custom themes before but with a desktop graphics involved program like this I can see it happening. I let it restore the orignal dll files and have rebooted and installed the latest beta so hopefully that solves it. It would be nice to run custom themes as well but not critical.

I will update again in a few days if all goes well, or sooner if problems recur.

Looks like it is still crashing, though it seems less frequent. That could be because I used the computer less over the holiday. It seems to happen more when I have more programs open on the secondary monitor. It is kind of strange. The one that seems to coincide the most with the crash is when I have a Trillian (latest release) conversation window open on the second monitor.

Here is the excerpt of the log when it last crashed.

Now that I am using my computer more after the holiday, I am seeing more frequent crashing and when it crashes, it occasionally takes some other program with it.

The behavior seems to coincide with when I click on a tab/button on either taskbar (windows or displayfusion's bar) that has been out of focus to bring it to the front. Right when I click it, the program selected or displayfusion crashes. Usually displayfusion crashes first, then if it is not completely closed I have to kill its process from the task manager. After that, sometimes, the next button I click on on the taskbar will cause the selected program to crash as well.

So far windows media player, trillian (the conversation window), remote desktop connection manager (from microsoft), notepad++

Those are the ones that generally stay on my second monitor and would therefor interact with the taskbar there since I have the option to show the appropriate buttons on that taskbar

I didn't use it much over the weekend but it crashed within about 20 minutes of use this morning. Here is the full log file since I restarted it after the last crash.

This time it seemed to be running fine until I right clicked on the displayfusion taskbar and moved the mouse up the context menu a but toward the wallpaper settings area. Then it crashed before I could click anything to choose it.

Thanks

Wow. It just did the meltdown thing now too. After it crashed, I waited a few minutes and restarted it. Then it crashed again and windows explorer and a couple other programs crashed as well a few seconds apart. The strange thing is, I don't think it put anything in the log file during the second time I ran it.

I have cleared the log file and restarted it so I will see if it does anything now.

I'm attaching the log file from before I cleared it even though I think it was the same.

I will give it a try running it that way. The crashes all seem to do with interaction with that task bar (minimizing, selecting items on the task bar, changing focus between items on that task bar etc.) so I wouldn't be too surprised if it make a difference.

6 hours use of the machine without the second task bar and no crash. Usually it would have crashed by now so I think the issue is definitely related to the second task bar.

I have been silently following this thread as I am having the exact same issues. I have scanned the .NET framework as well with no reported issues. Let me know if there is anything you need from me that may help. By the way, no custom explorer replacement. In fact, I just re-installed my machine from scratch two days ago.

Thanks, Matt

No custom shell or explorer modifications. The only modification I had was the replacement uxtheme.dll type files that the scan showed and replaced. Since then I am running 100% stock windows 7 32 bit sp1.

Yes, the standard Microsoft Security Essentials and Microsoft's malicious software removal tool. I have run ccleaner in the past to 'fix' what they see as registry errors (mostly dll registrations for uninstalled programs and file types with no program to handle them).

Company has Symantec Endpoint Protection version 12.1.671.4971 on the machines. I don't know of any other anti-virus/anti-malware/system protection software on here. Windows 7 is defaulted out of the box so whatever is in place with a fresh install (and not turned off by Symantec) is still there.

Don't know if it means anything, but Display Fusion seems to die most often when I hit CTRL+C in other programs. Not always and not on every program, but 95% of the time, it fails right after I've hit CTRL+C.

Yep, I have mine set to auto update to the beta release so I've got it.

I actually tried that before since I read in another thread that it might help but still had crashes. I will reenable the displayfusion taskbar and disable the application hooks and see how it goes.

I just changes the setting. I'll let you know if I notice anything different.

Looks like it is still crashing with the application hooks disabled. Here is the log file again.

Actually that is the way I preferred to run it. I always turned off the title bars. I will try it again that way.

Sorry for the delay. I too was still crashing with the previous settings. I just changed them to your latest request. I'll keep you posted.

Just crashed again. Here is the log file. It is interesting, I think it may coincide with when I have connected to my computer via remote desktop, then logged back in locally (which often causes a resolution change) and then the next time I interact with anything that would touch the second task bar, it crashes.

Crashed twice here as well this morning. I don't always crash when I select CTRL+C, but when it does crash, it's always right after a CTRL+C, at least for me.

Trying 3.3.0 now with the taskbar and no window titlebar buttons. We'll see how it goes.

Looks like it is still crashing. Maybe a bit less but it is hard to tell. Still crashing when I interact with the task bar basically.

Just loaded the 3.3.0 version. I'll monitor and let you know.

Same crashing issues, 95% caused when I hit CTRL+C in any application.

Downloading it now but I don't see a screenshot.

OK I have it running now. Will report back when I have news.

Thanks

I think it crashed on me but it was a bit different. I noticed the second task bar was gone when I logged on my computer. I tried to open displayfusion to see if I had misconfigured it somehow and the settings window started to open and then sat with only the basic window there with no data in any of the fields or whatever and hung that way. I let it sit for an hour but it did nothing, if I put the mouse over it I got the busy cursor animation.

Eventually I had to kill it with the task manager and start displayfusion again. It came up with the second task bar properly.

The log is attached.

I've run the .21 beta and then the full 3.4.0 release for a couple days without a crash now. Usually it would have by this point.

If it holds up through today and tomorrow I think this issue is fixed for me.

I didn't see anything in the changelog that looked like it was a specific fix for this except possibly 'hooking stability fixes'. Was that the one?

OK a new wrinkle.

It ran great for a couple days, maybe 3. That is the longest in a good while but I found this morning that the second task bar had disappeared and the buttons for the applications that are on the second monitor had moved back to the primary task bar.

That was the same behavior I saw when displayfusion crashed before. I went to the task manager and it was still there so I tried to open it from the system tray icon like before. It brought up the wallpaper configuration screen (like before) and hung (like before) but then it brought up 2 more copies of it. That was new.

I also noticed that when I did this, the second task bar came back and the icons moved back over to it. I can click on the icons to minimize/restore the windows on the second monitor like normal but none of the context menu stuff on the second task bar works (if I right click on the second task bar, nothing happens). I assume this is because the wallpaper config window is stuck open.

I had to end the process from the task manager to kill it since it never died, even after 30 minutes waiting for the wallpaper config windows to do something.

After that it restarted normally. Log file is attached.

Oh by the way I still have Memory Trim Disabled, Processor Affinity and Run as a High Process set to 1 in Advanced Settings. Should I disable those?

OK I disabled the advanced settings so everything is standard now.

It did the same semi-crashed thing this morning after about 30 minutes of use. The second task bar disappeared and all the buttons for open windows moved to the primary task bar.

This time, however, I'm not sure if I caught it faster or what but it was still showing in the task manager like before and when I double clicked the icon in the system tray it opened two of the wallpaper configuration screens and froze like before but then after about 30 seconds, the second task bar came back and the wallpaper config screens responded normally and I was able to close them.

So I right clicked on the second task bar (this didn't work when it crashed and sort of came back to life yesterday) and exited displayfusion. Then I restarted it and quickly opened the settings and pulled up the log location and copied out the log file. Hopefully there will be something helpful in there since the behavior was a bit different this time.

Thanks

Yes I do. I believe it is the latest or a recent version at least. release 8.2

Yeah, I have uninstalled it and will report back in a few days. Thanks for the follow up.

It is a little unclear. It is a definite improvement but it has crashed in the same manner at least once since uninstalling the intellipoint software. It has been 3 or 4 days since that crash where before it would go 1 or 2 days at most. So something in intellipoint is definitely making things worse, or triggering the crash or something but there is still something weird. For now, I would say that mixing intellipoint and display fusion is a bad idea but that is disappointing since the keyboard doesn't function right without it. Some of the media keys and all of the customization of buttons doesn't work.

Thanks for the follow up though.

I've formatted the computer finally and will run without intellitype for a few days to make sure it is stable and the try it with.

No problems at all, even with the new betas. I am going to install the newest release of intellitype and see if the crashing starts again.

Thanks

Well, at least 3 days now and so far no crashes. Hopefully whatever the problem was is now gone for good, either from the reinstall of windows or a newer/clean install of the intellitype software.

Thanks for all the help. I hope things keep going this way.