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DonationCoder.com Software => Mouser's Zone => LaunchBar Commander => Topic started by: sakiskom on April 13, 2011, 09:42 PM

Title: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 13, 2011, 09:42 PM
Hi to all! :D

LBC is very cool software, but i have one BIG problem!
I have two monitors and ALWAYS the LBC opens on first.
I want to open in my second monitor but... no! I have try everything with no luck. :(

Is there any solution for this?

Thank you from Greece! ;D
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 13, 2011, 09:46 PM
LBC is designed to work well on multimonitor systems.

here's a question, if you exit and restart lbc manually, not on system startup, does it work?
do you have it docked to the screen?

what operating system?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 13, 2011, 09:50 PM
...if you exit and restart lbc manually, not on system startup, does it work?
Yes.

do you have it docked to the screen?
Yes.

what operating system?
XP

Mouser... thank you very much!
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 13, 2011, 09:53 PM
ok so the problem only occurs when LBC runs at startup when windows boots?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 13, 2011, 09:56 PM
No, the program always opens on first monitor.

if you exit and restart lbc manually, not on system startup, does it work?
Yes... (but in the first monitor. :( )
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 13, 2011, 10:06 PM
oh i see.  does it remember other changes? if you add items to the dock it remembers them?
and it will let you undock and re-dock to your chosen monitor -- it just doesnt remember?
does it always behave like this even if you dock to any side of the screen?
if you right click and choose to "rebuild dock" does it shift over to first monitor or stay on the other monitor.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 13, 2011, 10:28 PM
oh i see.  does it remember other changes? if you add items to the dock it remembers them?
Yes/yes.

and it will let you undock and re-dock to your chosen monitor -- it just doesnt remember?
When i undock it, i see it on the chosen monitor.

does it always behave like this even if you dock to any side of the screen?
Yes.
If i close LBC from second monitor on the left side, save changes and when i run it again, the dock opens on first monitor, left side.
If i close LBC from second monitor on the right side, save changes and when i run it again, the dock opens on first monitor, right side.
If i close LBC from second monitor on the upper side, save changes and when i run it again, the dock opens on first monitor, upper side.

if you right click and choose to "rebuild dock" does it shift over to first monitor or stay on the other monitor.
Stay on the other monitor.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 14, 2011, 09:17 AM
That is really odd.. I may have to build a special debug version to report why it is deciding to do what it is doing..  Is there anything unusual about your multiple monitor system? are the monitors set at very different resolutions? (not that that should matter).

It's odd because LBC is specifically designed to work well on multi-monitor systems, and i myself have 4 monitors and windows XP, and LBC works on any monitor.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 14, 2011, 11:52 AM
PC1
OS: XP with SP3
GPU: 2x Ati Radeon HD 2600 Pro (with no crossfire)
Mon1 res: 1440x900 with extented desktop on mon2
Mon2 res: 1200x900
Mon3 (TV) res: 1920x1080 (same problems on mon3)

Same problems on my second PC.

PC2
OS: XP with SP3
GPU: Ati Radeon HD 3600
Mon1 res: 1440x900 with extented desktop on mon2
Mon2 res: 1152x864

Thank you again. :)
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 14, 2011, 11:56 AM
Anyone else experiencing this?  Can I ask you to check which version of LBC you have installed? (see about box).
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 14, 2011, 12:21 PM
...the latest 1.124.01
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on April 14, 2011, 12:31 PM
Ok i will build a debug version.. will be interesting to figure out what is going on..
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on April 14, 2011, 12:52 PM
Thnx! :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 02:04 AM
Was this issue resolved?  I have a similar but worse problem with a dual-monitor system running XP MCE SP3.  LBC v1.124.01 always docks at the upper edge of the 1st monitor.  I cannot dock it anywhere else.  If I click toggling to undock it, it appears at a fixed position on the screen with half of the icons not showing, and cannot be moved anywhere else.  (At least, while it's docked at the upper edge, all the icons are shown.)  Clicking "Rebuild Dock to Fixup Display" makes no difference.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on October 28, 2011, 07:19 AM
I don't remember where we left this -- but i'm ready to test and fix.  LBC has always worked perfectly on multimonitor setups for me, and is designed to be dockable on any edge of any screen.

It is common to have the dock appear somewhere on the desktop when you undock, and some icons might not be visible until your resize the dock.  but you should always be able to drag and drop it onto any edge of any monitor.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 01:50 PM
When undocked, I cannot resize LBC to uncover all the icons. And whether docked or undocked, I cannot drag-and-drop it.  Since I'm not sure if these issues are related to my dual-monitor setup, maybe they're different from the original topic of this post.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on October 28, 2011, 01:56 PM
i wonder.. maybe you have the dock set to hide window border, and that's causing the trouble.

go to the dock properties, and make sure border is set to something other than no-border -- maybe that will do it -- or at least change that value.

does that help?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 02:45 PM
Brilliant insight into your own handiwork!  Yes, it works that way.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on October 28, 2011, 02:55 PM
it sounds like i need to turn on the border when undocked.
so you had it set to no-border?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 03:13 PM
Yes, it was set to no-border.  Another, though minor, issue is that I also had it set to "Transparent" under "Background Display," which makes it quite tricky to right-click on the right part of LBC to get the properties options that you normally get when you just right-click on the LBC strip area when it's not transparent.  When the strip is transparent, right clicking on it is like right clicking anywhere else on the desktop.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 03:42 PM
If you set it such that undocking LBC automatically gives it a border, please allow for a no-border option (when undocked) in the preferences.  E.g., I like to display LBC w/ a transparent background and no borders, whether docked or not, so that only the icons are visible.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on October 28, 2011, 06:26 PM
but would you ever have it UNDOCKED and no border and use it that way?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on October 28, 2011, 07:14 PM
Yes, that's how I'm using it now: undocked, no-border w/ transparent background, just showing the icons.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on November 17, 2011, 01:40 PM
I'm having an issue w/ running multiple LBC docks on dual monitors.  I would like to show dock1 on monitor1 and dock2 on monitor2.  I've tried w/ either creating both docks (1 & 2) under the same .mcf file, or under 2 different files.  The issue is that the 2 docks always appear on the same monitor, if both docks are given no border and a transparent background.  If you allow the docks to have borders, you can drag one of the docks to the other monitor.  But to disable the border you'll have to open the "Preferences" window, and as soon as you close the "Prefs" window, one of the docks will jump to the monitor of the other one.  In other words, everytime I open & close the "Prefs" window, both docks will appear on the same monitor, which makes it impossible in this fashion to run the docks w/ no borders on 2 different monitors.  Even if I give them borders, so that I can drag one to the other monitor, when LBC is restarted, both docks will reappear on the same monitor.

The only way I know to run 2 border-less docks on 2 different monitors, is to run 2 instances of LBC.exe.  Then in the "Prefs" of each instance uncheck one or the other of the docks.  This way each instance of LBC executable can run one of the docks w/ no border on a different monitor.  The problem again is that even if "Start with Windows" is checked under "Options" for both instances, when restarted only one instance, and therefore only one of the docks, will appear, and you'll have to manually run another instance on the other monitor and adjust the prefs.

Is my system misbehaving or is that the current design?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on November 17, 2011, 01:47 PM
Is my system misbehaving or is that the current design?

sounds like a bug to me.

But can i clarify something -- I understand that if you leave borders on, you can move the docks to where you want them.

Now if you never mess with turning off borders -- does this program behave perfectly even when opening preferences and restarting program?  Or is the root of the problem that no matter if you have borders or not, when closing preferences or restarting the program, the docks change monitors.

I'm trying to understand the role that disabling borders plays -- if the only effect is to make it impossible to move the windows then i can ignore this issue.

Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on November 17, 2011, 02:06 PM
Having borders enabled or not, once you close prefs or restart the program the docks will end up on the same monitor.  (Which monitor they both end up on varies, and it's not clear to me what determines the choice of the lucky monitor each time.)  Can you recreate this issue on your system?  As I mentioned before, I can circumvent the issue by running 2 instances of the program.  Is there a way to have the 2 instances run by default at startup?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on November 17, 2011, 02:17 PM
You're right, i can reproduce.
And since i'm just about to release a new minor LBC update, i will try to fix this now.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on November 17, 2011, 02:22 PM
Thanks a bunch!  If it's not trouble, please check that your fix will also work with no borders.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on November 18, 2011, 01:55 PM
I've uploaded a beta that attempts to fix some of the multimonitor multi-dock issues.  Can you guys let me know how it does?

Beta is here, just install over current version:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/LaunchBarCommander/downloads/beta/LaunchBarCommanderSetup.exe

v1.129.01 BETA - November 18, 2011
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on November 18, 2011, 05:06 PM
As far as I can tell, the beta has fixed the docks-remembering-their-respective-monitors issue.  Now, upon closing Prefs or restarting LBC, docks appear on their last-assigned monitors and don't crowd on one.  As for the minimizing to system tray, I hadn't used it much previously, so don't recall how it was behaving before.  But with the beta, right clicking on the sys tray icon and toggling "Restore from Tray" only toggles between dock & undock; "Restore from Tray" seems to act the same as "Toggle Docking" for a given dock.

I should point out another issue I'd notice earlier, as well.  If I have 2 docks running and I assign a transparent background to one dock and a colored background to the other, depending on which one is the colored one, they both appear w/ colored backgrounds.  It seems to be determined by which dock was started first, but I'm not sure.  So if dock1 is given colored bkgd & dock2 transparent, then that's how they appear.  But switch the choice of colored & transparent bkgds for the 2 docks, and both appear w/ colored bkgd!  (So the colored gene is dominant & the transparent one recessive, only if the right sibling is assigned the colored gene!!)
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on November 18, 2011, 06:02 PM
But with the beta, right clicking on the sys tray icon and toggling "Restore from Tray" only toggles between dock & undock; "Restore from Tray" seems to act the same as "Toggle Docking" for a given dock.

I guess you have the unusual "always show tray icon" option set for your dock.. otherwise you wouldnt even have the icon to click on when not minimized.  I'll consider this a feature, though i guess i could improve that menu item caption.

I should point out another issue I'd notice earlier, as well.  If I have 2 docks running and I assign a transparent background to one dock and a colored background to the other, depending on which one is the colored one, they both appear w/ colored backgrounds.  It seems to be determined by which dock was started first, but I'm not sure.  So if dock1 is given colored bkgd & dock2 transparent, then that's how they appear.  But switch the choice of colored & transparent bkgds for the 2 docks, and both appear w/ colored bkgd!  (So the colored gene is dominant & the transparent one recessive, only if the right sibling is assigned the colored gene!!)

youch that made my head hurt.. but i'll look into it.. you guys never cease to amaze me how you try using some of these features..
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mohaqeq on November 18, 2011, 07:15 PM
Yes, "always show tray icon" was enabled.  Thanks very much for the fixes.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on December 21, 2011, 06:16 PM
I don't remember where we left this -- but i'm ready to test and fix.  LBC has always worked perfectly on multimonitor setups for me, and is designed to be dockable on any edge of any screen.

It is common to have the dock appear somewhere on the desktop when you undock, and some icons might not be visible until your resize the dock.  but you should always be able to drag and drop it onto any edge of any monitor.
I have stop working LBC because of this problem.
In the next week i will try the latest new LBC.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on December 26, 2011, 03:01 PM
can you try the new beta:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/LaunchBarCommander/downloads/beta/LaunchBarCommanderSetup.exe
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on January 06, 2012, 12:12 AM
So... i use the latest beta. When i run LBC, now the program remembers the last use before i close down... and opens to the right monitor! :D

But...!
When i close, and open, "preference and option" window, this window das not remember where is close down and always open to the same monitor on LBC! :-\

I second bug(?) that is annoying for me, is that when i run the program i see the program on "small window" and then the program "lock" to my monitor. Why wont see from the begining only the locked window? I see this bug(?) and when i press the "Rebuild" option, on Right Clicking on LBC bar.

(Sorry for my bad English :-[)
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on January 06, 2012, 06:54 AM
When i close, and open, "preference and option" window, this window das not remember where is close down and always open to the same monitor on LBC!


you mean it does not remember where the Preferences window was last located?



I don't understand the 2nd bug -- could you try to explain it again? maybe a screenshot?
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on January 06, 2012, 07:49 AM
Yeap! :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on January 19, 2012, 01:17 AM
When i close, and open, "preference and option" window, this window das not remember where is close down and always open to the same monitor on LBC!


you mean it does not remember where the Preferences window was last located?
Yeap! :Thmbsup:


I don't understand the 2nd bug -- could you try to explain it again? maybe a screenshot?
The 1st image is when LBC loads. The 2nd image is when LBC is open and is "dock" to the monitor.

(http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg141/scaled.php?server=141&filename=lbcbar.jpg&res=medium)
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on January 19, 2012, 01:20 AM
i understand now.. i never gave it much thought but i can see why that is annoying, i will try to fix both.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on February 15, 2012, 02:30 PM
Thank you.
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on February 27, 2012, 09:00 AM
Can you check to see if it's fixed in newest beta: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30108.0
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: sakiskom on March 01, 2012, 04:29 AM
Can you check to see if it's fixed in newest beta: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30108.0
No problem now. You fix it! :D
Launch Bar Commander 1.131.01  :Thmbsup:

Thank you!
Title: Re: LBC with two monitors problem
Post by: mouser on March 01, 2012, 04:35 AM
Great  :Thmbsup: