Technician

Join Date 08/2002

DesktopX loser

I like to try DesktopX and please humour me I do not know or care what the difference between an Object and Widget are.

Here is what happens.

I tried a blank theme and added a "Widget/Object" which turns off my computer. Works fine but after a few days "reboots Windows XP" desktopX loses the button.

DesktopX is running but I can find no button.

Same thing happens with other objects/widgets I load them and over time when Windows XP loads the objects are gone.

Anybody ever see disappearing objects/widgets ?

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paxx

Join Date 03/2001

If it's an object, it should load as long as Desktop is running (unless you change the theme), But if they are Widgets, then Desktop X doesn't even need to be running. Once the widget is opened, right-click on it and select "auto-run", that way it will open automatically upon reboot.

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Ok thanks they were objects.

The objects stopped showing up but only after several days, and while the desktopX manager says they exist. I tried everything but could not get them show up on my destop.

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KarmaGirl

Join Date 03/2001

+118

I am assuming that it happens only when you reboot?

I would guess that you never saved the object as anything, so when DX loads it's loading the blank theme with no object.

Is it an object that you downloaded from here? If so, which one?

Also, please be aware that WC is not an official product support forum.

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I saved everything objects are still in the object navigator.

For example some lines in object navigator look like
Object ID Parent ID Group Class Script X Y Width Height Z order
TextWeaterBase2 - TextWeather_ Layer - 586 277 200 150 Desktop
AmpTimeDivider SynheaderL Layer - 133 61 3 14 Desktop /
dt_calendar_back - MyCal Layer - -967 30 212 192 Destop background.png

???

The calendar x = -967 likely because I use dual monitors.

There are more objects listed.
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pjpowell

Join Date 03/2001

It's due to your use of two monitors. At some stage the res is probably changing or it's switching to one monitor and DX is picking up on the fact and helpfully moving stuff for you. The problem is that when it switches back it will all be in the wrong place. This usually happens if your primary monitor is on the right. Playing games can often have this effect as the res is changed from 1280x1024 (or whatever) to 1024x768. I suggest that once you have the theme where it should be you save it and then you only need to reload the theme to correct the positions after it goes screwy.

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CerebroJD

Join Date 01/2003

DX moves stuff off the edge of my screen all the time...I have to go in and manually change the x-y coordinates back into my visible area.

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Everything seems to go bonkers sometimes if you are playing a game and then return to your desktop. I solve this problem by setting my desktop resolution and my game resolution the same.

I believe the problem arises because the game doesn't tell DesktopX that it has set the resolution back. And, DesktopX isn't constantly reading the resolution changes once it is loaded. I guess it assumes the resolution is the same as when it was loaded. It seems a reasonable assumption to me.
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Another way to solve the problem is to get everything setup the way that you want and save the theme. Then, when it goes bonkers, reload the saved theme. You may need to unload & reload DesktopX too, because it may be confused about the current resolution.

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Its Altzheimers! My ObjectDock suffers from the same disease and I have to reload my theme after every 5-8 reboots.

No idea why though...I would go with ChasUG suggestion, just save and then reload your themes.

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Thanks guys,

Hopefully future versions of DesktopX will be alittle smarter and handle multiple monitors and changing screen resolutions better.

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It's not DesktopX's fault. It has no idea what is going on with Display property settings, unless your restart it so that it can check. Even windows has a problems with changing resolutions "on the fly" without restarting. Ever notice that your icons don't look quite right when you change your color quality from regular(16 bit) to true color(32 bit) without restarting? That is why I suggested that you run your games at the same resolution as your desktop.

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