Hello together,

I noticed several bugs in Windows Vista with current release 3.4.0. I already contacted the support about it but as I did not receive any feedback I'd like to get some opinions here:

1. The desktop context menu does not work in Vista (but it does in Win 7). I'm not sure whether this worked in earlier releases, nevertheless it should work in Vista, too, shouldn't it?

2. The start button in the additional taskbar has a flat top, it is not round as the original start button:


3. If the taskbar is 'small' so that only the time and not the date is visible, the time has a relatively large space on the right side which is not the case for the original Vista task bar. If the date is also displayed, the space matches that of the original taskbar, so DF seems to not distinguish here:


4. The glow effect of the title bar button has gone from 3.3.1 to 3.4.0 - this also seems to be a bug as it worked before:


Can anyone with Vista please check that these are genreal issues and not just related to my installation?

Best regards

Stefan

Thanks for the update I had a first look and can confirm issues 1 and 4 are fixed. However, one question regarding topic 1:

In Vista, the desktop context menu is available again, which is fine. But I noticed there are no icons besides the entries like it is the case in Win 7. I don't know if this has ever been the case in the past, so the question is: (Why) Are there no icons besides the Desktop context menu entries in Vista?

Hi Keith,

here's some more feedback for to the current BETA (with Vista x64):

1. The clock spacing seems ok now, as far as I have tested - if you'd like to have more feedback, I can do some more detailed testing

2. One question regarding the clock text: if you override the clock text so that only 2 lines are displayed, this looks good for a taskbar with a height of 2 lines (like in Win 7); however if you then stretch the height to 3, the clock text is stretched, too - wouldn't it look better if it would not be stretched (or should I ask whether it is possible at all to influence this). It must not match the spacing of the original clock, you already explained that this can't be made any better, but can it be influenec so that it is less stretched?


3. The DF taskbar clock only displays the calendar popup when the default clock is visible on the Windows taskbar. If you disable it, e. g. as you only want to use the DF taskbar clock, the popup isn't opened - I think this is because it is implemented the same way as the start menu (moved to other screen), but maybe it's possible nevertheless

4. When clicking the DF taskbar clock, you often can see flashing the calendar popup over the deafult Windows taskbar clock for some milliseconds just before it is moved to the other screen - as this does not happen with the Start menu I hope this can be fixed?

5. There is a space betwwen the calendar popup and the DF taskbar (like with the preview window of minimized progs) - the calendar popup of the Windows taskbar has no space, it's located directly above the taskbar (like the start menu)

6. I problem I did not notice before: if I switch between windows which are located on the second screen, they flash on the Windows taskbar for some milliseconds and then disappear again - I dunno if this was the case before, but it looks strange!

7. Why is the mouse-over effect of the DF taskbar shortcuts different from the standard effect of the Windows taskbar? (see DF on the left, Windows on the right)


8. I still hope to see the feature of highlighting all Start menu buttons when clicking one of them in the future

I'll do some more testing soon and give you feedback, until then I'm awaiting your answers

Best regards

Stefan

Hi Keith,

thanks for the update, but one question; you wrote:

"We've been unsuccessful in fixing it up in the past, and checked it out again, still no luck"

What exactly does this refer to, because in the first sentence you say that #2, #5, and #7 have been fixed. Did you refer to the bug #6, the flickering in the taskbar when switching between the windows?

Best regards

Stefan

Hi Keith,

thanks so far. Here I come with some more issues

1. Open the Advanced Settings menu, scroll somewhere in the middle and double-click an entry -> Popup for value entry comes up. If you now close the popup, the list jumps back to the beginning and you have to scroll down again. This behaviour is strange and if I remeber correctly, this did not happen in the past (Win 7 x64).

2. In Win 7 x64, if you point the mouse over the default Start Menu button, it's highlighted with a smooth fade-in animation. If you do the same on the DF Start button, it is just highlighted, no animation (don't know if its possible to implement it).

3. In Win 7 x64, the look of the additional Start menu button is slightly different than the original one (the latter has some kind of white shimmer around it, see picture):


4. In Win 7 x64, the look of the preview popup when you point on a program in the taskbar is different when compared to the original one. It is smaller and has no shade. Moreover, the margin is also different (see picture):


5. In Vista x64, the taskbar preview popup is faded in like in Win 7 although this is not the case for the default Vista preview popup. That should be easy to correct I think.

6. In Win 7 I did not notice that "flashing" bug described in #6 of my last post, just in Vista. Can you explain why it happens in Vista but not in Win 7?

7. In my Win 7 x64 installation, the clock/calendar popup for the taskbar does not work. It works for the Windows clock, but not for the DF clock.

I hope it's ok when I'm testing so scrupulously, but I hope it makes the product even better and I know that one never can find all bugs in a piece of software

Best regards

Stefan

EDIT:

7. I have to correct this, good and bad news. Good one: the popup now appears Bad one: The spacing betwwen calendar and DF taskbar is smaller than betwwen calendar and the original taskbar.

And a new one:
8. With one of the last betas there must have been a change regarding the preview popup in Win 7, now there is no margin any more at all between the popup and the taskbar (before it was there, but not like in Win7 default, see issue #4 in my post before). Now looks like this:

Hi Keith,

glad to hear that To make my list complete, one last issue:

9. In Vista x64, the spacing between the taskbar preview (of open windows) and the DF taskbar differs slightly from the spacing on the original taskbar

A short update from my side:

- I've seen you found a way to display the start button without being cut under Vista and Win 7 with smal icons, thumbs up
- Clock spacing on a triple height taskbar is also ok now.
- Config menu srolling problem is fixed, too. Thanks a lot!
- The spacing between the taskbar preview popup and the taskbar now also matches the Windows one, great!

And here some questions, feature requests and issues for Vista x64:

1. Regarding my last point 5 that in Vista x64 the taskbar preview popup is faded in like in Win 7 although this is not the case for the default Vista preview popup - do you think this will make it into the final 3.4.1? Shouldn't be a big issue to change in my opinion?

2. In Vista x64, the width of the taskbar preview popup does not match the Windows one. I tried a bit and found out that a manual setting of 160 will do, maybe that would be a good default value for the next beta?

3. There is a new issue with the calendar popup under Vista x64, but see yourself:

As you can see, the popup is not aligned correctly so it overlaps the taskbar on the bottom and on the right its outside the visible space. If the clock is on the left, this happens the other way, i. e. it is placed too much on the left

4. If you place the DF taskbar start button on the right (upper one on the pic), the space to the right should be bigger in my opinion and match the space when placed on the left (lower one on the pic)


5. With fixing of no. 4, this issue should also be solved: there the DF start button is placed on the left, there should be a more bigger spaceto the right as other items are really close to it:


6. It should be customizable whether to have the calendar popup on the DF taskbar or not.

7. If you click the clock on the windows taskbar, the calendar popup opens. if you then click the clock on the DF taskbar, the popup is moved to the DF taskbar (looks more like it's closed, reopened and then moved - why not just moved directly?). However, this does not work vice versa. If you first open it on the DF taskbar and then click the clock on the windows taskbar, nothing happens. Is this a limitation or a bug?

8. I would appreciate to see a popup when hovering over the DF taskbar clock like for the Windows clock, do you thats possible?


9. You just explained that the start menu as well as the calendar popup are both moved from the main window to the DF taskbar when clicked there. Although this works fine for the start menu, the calendar popup mostly first flashes up on the main screen for some milliseconds. Do you have already identified the root cause?

So far from my side

Best regards (and thanks a lot for the already realized fixes and features!)

Stefan

Hi Keith,

any update from your side on these issues? Just did a quick check with BETA 6 and e. g. issue #3 still exists.

Best regards

Stefan

Hi Keith,

great job, thanks. Here's my feedback:

#1: confirmed
#2: confirmed
#3: confirmed
#4: not confirmed - the margin now is ok when the start button is placed on the left, however when placed on the right, the margin is still the same as before, a bit too close in my opinion (obviously the margin is only applied when the start button is aligned left):

#5: confirmed

However there seems to be a new bug: if you choose Win7 preview style for the taskbar, this looks like this:

Seems not to be the style as it should be, shouldn't it?

Your right, I just compared with v3.4.0 and it's the same there. I was sure that it looked more like in Win7 before and didn't have a black background, but that seems to be ok.

Besides, when I compared with 3.4.0 I also found out that the spacing of the start button worked correct there, i. e. it not only already had that margin to the right which it now has again, but also when it is placed on the right, it has a larger margin than in the current beta so this seems to have already worked in the past. Maybe this helps to fix the issue

Do you already have a schedule for points #6 and #8?

Issue #4 still seems to exist in BETA12, I can't see any change to previous BETAs. The margin to the right is still the same (short) one when the start button is aligned right.

#6 might be interesting for people which use the default clock together with additional clocks and only want to have the calendar popup on the main screen or find the flashing bug annoying (the popup first flashed on the main screen before being moved). It is no must-have feature, just an option.

I think that - compared with #6 - the feature mentioned in #8 would be more interesting as if you do not use the default clock, you also can't use the calendar popup and in this case, it would be nice to at least have the mouse-over effect of Vista (and/or Win7).

Hi Keith,

first the good news: the current beta fixes the issue #4

Now the bad news: during testing, I found a new bug and also encountered some other points I want to share with you:

#1 (BUG):
If you have the Windows clock enabled, everything is fine, the horizontal spacing of the DF clock is as expected (on the right). If you now disable the Windows clock so that only the DF clock is visible and then refresh the DF taskbar, there is added additional spacing to the left and to the right of the clock (see screenshot on the left). This definitely should not happen


#2 (QUESTION):
If you double-click the DF clock, shouldn't this bring up the Windows dialog for setting time and date? Not the popup, but the dialog from the Control Panel where you can adjust date, time, timezone etc. Because it does not work here, but I don't know whether this should work at all or whether it would be a feature request... if so, you can add my vote for it

#3 (UI GLITCH):
In my opinion, in the DF taskbar the minimized windows are too close to other elements of the taskbar like the clock (if placed left) or the shortcuts. There should be a little bigger spacing to the side.


#4 (LIMITATION?):
The icons of shortcuts in the DF taskbar (right) are not displayed like the icons in the Quick Launch (left), they look different. Maybe this is a limitation or so, but it could also be a bug, maybe they are rendered differently?


#5:
When you hover over a shortcut, it looks a bit strange for some icons as they are not in the center of the highlighted area. But here I'm not sure whether it depends on the icon how it is displayed. I noticed that the hover effect for the original Windows taskbar also shows this effect for some icons, so it might be "normal"?


That's it from my side so far, maybe you can just have a quick look at these points for the next BETA. Have a nice Xmas

Best regards

Stefan

Hi Keith,

Ok that works fine for #1, I just have to figure out which number I have to enter to have the original size of the clock

#2: That's ok for me, maybe you can add it as feature request (maybe a setting which is disabled by default and can be enabled manually)?

#3: I think it would look ok if the space was a bit larger. I checked how it looks like for the Quick Launch bar, and that's the result:

A similar spacing would be ok. I think you can try to add 7 pixels and check whether it looks ok

#4: Sounds great!

#5: The one on the picture is Emsisoft Anti-Malware. It seems to happen if the icon is not as bright as the reserved space for it and as they are aligned left, there is the space on the right side. I don't know whether it is possible to align them centered in the space reserved for the icon, but then the margin would be equal to the left and to the right. You know what I mean?

Best regards

Stefan