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DonationCoder.com Software => DC Member Programs and Projects => Skrommel's Software => Topic started by: f0dder on October 02, 2005, 10:22 PM

Title: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: f0dder on October 02, 2005, 10:22 PM
Hey Skrommel, just played around with Ghoster a bit.

While it migth be classified as a "toy", I find it very appealing - it could be pretty useful when one needs to code for a while, keeping you from being distracted too much by things in the background.

However, there's a little bug - after I exited Ghoster, at least two of my windows still had "always on top" enabled - one was mIRC which was easy to fix, the other was firefox which I'll probably have to close down and re-start after posting this message.

Also, when selecting tabs (probably also MDI windows), the active window flashes as if it was being ghosted and then re-enabled. I think the on-top stickyness might be related to this, since both mIRC and FireFox are tabbed, and I switched tabs in both apps while running Ghoster.

Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 03, 2005, 02:32 AM
I have the same problem, please read https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=326.0 to see if you use the same Windows feature as I do. If not this seems to be a real bug to fix then - I have noticed it also only for tabbed windows...
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: f0dder on October 03, 2005, 09:23 PM
I'm not using any kind of X-Window mouse stuff, so it's not that.

Can't remember if I clicked the tabs or used <ctrl>+<tab> to switch between them, in case that makes any difference.

EDIT:
Okay, a couple more things:

1) - doesn't work in multi-monitor configurations, apps running on second monitor are fullbright (and apps running half one one monitor, half on the other, are half dimmed... might be a windows, nvidia, or driver limit?)

2 - it would be nice if you supply the .au3 with the .exe (if the .au3 can be extracted directly, nevermind this request)

3 - it would be nice if the taskbar and tray weren't shaded.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 04, 2005, 01:35 AM
I'm not using any kind of X-Window mouse stuff, so it's not that.

3 - it would be nice if the taskbar and tray weren't shaded.
Interesting... lets see what Skrommel says about that mouse stuff thingy... maybe it's really a bug for tabbed windows.

Regarding your idea #3: well, I think it makes a lot of sense to dim ALL but the active window (like it's done now) - you can still see the taskbar and tray, it's just dimmed a bit.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 04, 2005, 07:28 PM
 :) Multimonitor support should be possible, I'll look into it.

And I really should add a cleanup routine in there, too, to put back the ontop windows. But if you activate the desktop before closing Ghoster, all is OK!

I thought I put an option in the Ghoster.ini to not dim the taskbar? Yes, showontop=1 should take care of that. It also makes all other ontop windows peek through, so maybe I'll add an extra option for just the taskbar...

Skrommel

 

Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: f0dder on October 04, 2005, 09:10 PM
Thank you, Skrommel :)

I've only just started using AutoIt myself,  it's nice to see that you can do all kinds of stuff with it :-*
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 05, 2005, 04:29 PM
 :) Try the version I just uploaded, and tell me if the multimonitor works. Remember to delete the existing Ghoster.ini file before running.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 05, 2005, 04:55 PM
Hi Skrommel, could you please look into the problem that we have with tabbed windows too? Would be great if this could be fixed :)

Also, this code perfectly starts Ghoster with a hotkey but does not close Ghoster as it should if it's already running - any idea why not?
^+p::
Process, Exist, Ghoster.ahk
pid=%ErrorLevel%
If pid=0
  Run,D:\Downloads\Ghoster.ahk
Else
  Process,Close,Ghoster.ahk
Return

And a suggestion: On https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/ it still says "Ghoster v1.0" - maybe you could always (automatically?) write the date besides that when it is updated?
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 05, 2005, 05:33 PM
 :) If you compile Ghoster.ahk into Ghoster.exe and update your script to show exe instead of ahk, it should run properly. There's no process called Ghoster.ahk, it shows as AutoHotkey.exe.

What's the problem with tabbed windows?

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 06, 2005, 02:28 AM
:) If you compile Ghoster.ahk into Ghoster.exe and update your script to show exe instead of ahk, it should run properly. There's no process called Ghoster.ahk, it shows as AutoHotkey.exe.
Ah, nice, I will try that with the next version you release :)


What's the problem with tabbed windows?
See above please, the first two posts. Just ask if you need more details, I'm more than willing to give them to you.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 06, 2005, 07:21 PM
 :huh: I think it's got to do with the window changing it's title...

I'll look into it.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 06, 2005, 07:29 PM
 :) Try the version I just uploaded, it should solve the tab flicker.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 07, 2005, 01:55 AM
:) Try the version I just uploaded, it should solve the tab flicker.

Skrommel
It does, but it has some problems:

:( Would be great if you could improve it
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 07, 2005, 04:08 AM
 :) The WINDOW window is the one covering the screen, and since it has to be on top, I don't know how to remove it from the Alt-Tab-chain.

The speed is the limited by AutoHotkey, so I can only recommend you buy a faster PC.  :)

How does it interfere?

Skrommel


Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 07, 2005, 05:00 AM
:) The WINDOW window is the one covering the screen, and since it has to be on top, I don't know how to remove it from the Alt-Tab-chain.
Maybe the friendly AHK guys could help there? If it's even possible at all? Or the author maybe might add this as a new feature? :)

The speed is the limited by AutoHotkey, so I can only recommend you buy a faster PC.  :)
hehe, it's not brandnew, but not too old ;)

How does it interfere?
Strange, I couldn't reproduce one bug I had with that latest version... but it still messes with that window focus, tabbed windows mostly won't leave their foremost position on the desktop after running Ghoster....
:(
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 07, 2005, 05:20 PM
 :-\ "... after running Ghoster" is a problem. I should really clean up before exiting, but the quick solution is to activate the task bar before quitting.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 08, 2005, 03:10 AM
:-\ "... after running Ghoster" is a problem. I should really clean up before exiting, but the quick solution is to activate the task bar before quitting.
Thanks, that really worked 2 of 3 times when I just tested it :)
If you could add the cleaning up to the script it would be really great! And btw, it's still saying version 1.0  :huh:
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 08, 2005, 05:08 PM
 :) Just uploaded Ghoster v1.1!

Nothing major, just cleaned up the code, removed some flickering and removed the WINDOW from the Alt-Tab chain.

Please let me know if I broke something else!

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 09, 2005, 12:06 PM
I downloaded the .exe and tested it, starting and stopping it with my major AHK script. That works nicely now, but after I exit Ghoster just the windows I used in 'Ghoster mode' are able to be shown in the foreground then... just switching with Alt-TAB to a different window will activate that but will not bring it to the foreground...

EDIT: Tested it again with two other windows, one of them tabbed. Strange thing: after ending Ghoster the tabbed program behaves normally, the Windows explorer window I used in the text not...

I then tested it AGAIN and now ended Ghoster when the tabbed window was active in the foreground. Now THAT one acted up...

Somehow it seems to be related to the last active window(s) when exiting...

And I also noticed Ghoster doesn't clean up the tray when exiting:

(http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1853/ghoster4yd.png)
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 09, 2005, 04:20 PM
 :huh: I think this has got to do with your other AHK-script. The Process,Close prevents a proper shutdown, and that is why you get leftover ontop windows and tray icons.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 09, 2005, 04:41 PM
:o You seem to be right! I closed my main AHK script and just started Ghoster.exe - played around with it and right-clicked it in the tray to exit it - and everything worked as it should...

Is there maybe some way around "Process,Close" to fix this for all those guys running AHK 24/7 (like me)?
 
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 10, 2005, 02:35 AM
 :) WinClose is more gentle.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 10, 2005, 03:41 AM
Nice! :)

I now use
^+p::
Process, Exist, Ghoster.exe
pid=%ErrorLevel%
If pid=0
  Run,D:\Downloads\Ghoster.exe
Else
  WinClose, Ghoster
Return

in my main AHK script and IT WORKS! :) It just takes the focus away from the current window altough the mouse cursor is still above it - how to fix that?
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 10, 2005, 06:00 AM
It just takes the focus away from the current window altough the mouse cursor is still above it - how to fix that?

 :huh: What do you mean?

Edit: I think I get it. To be on the safe side when exiting, I activate the taskbar.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on October 10, 2005, 06:28 AM
I think I get it. To be on the safe side when exiting, I activate the taskbar.
Hmm...  so I would just need to add a line to my start/stop script?
That just activates the window the cursor is over after the "WinClose, Ghoster" command?
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on October 10, 2005, 09:07 AM
 :) That should do it, but I don't know if I need to activate the taskbar, it was just to be on the safe side. I'll look into it.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on November 05, 2005, 01:09 PM
Ghoster is really cool, even if I have to activate the active window again when I disable Ghoster.  :Thmbsup:

Another reason why everyone should try AutoHotkey (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1167)!
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on November 25, 2005, 12:30 PM
Hi skrommel,

I have a new problem with the external on/off script in my main AHK script. This is the code:

^+p::
Process, Exist, Ghoster.exe
pid=%ErrorLevel%
If pid=0
  Run,D:\Downloads\Ghoster.exe
Else
  WinClose, Ghoster
Return

Today I found out it still works to enable Ghoster, but not to disable it anymore. It tried several things, then I just moved it to the very top of my AHK script - and it works again! What other command(s) (that I probably added to new scripts above that one) could stop this from working?
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on November 25, 2005, 02:45 PM
 :huh: I'm blank.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on November 29, 2005, 10:55 AM
:huh: I'm blank.

Skrommel
You don't want to know what I am... this is really frustrating.

After spending a loooooong time with it I managed to get it working again but now have the old problem that the window in which Ghoster.exe is started from (by using the hotkey) is set to "always in foreground" again :( (I downloaded Ghoster.exe again from your page)

Also, could you please check the code to see if you can optimize it for lower CPU usage? The peaks shown below result only from switching between different windows while Ghoster.exe is running. It even causes the DSP plugin I use for Winamp to act up.

(http://img317.imageshack.us/img317/1558/scwindowstaskmanager051129ver0.png)

Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on December 01, 2005, 01:08 PM
 :tellme: The CPU usage is caused by the WinSetRegion which punches a hole in the ghosted image.

I've uploaded a new verision of Ghoster where I've changed how often a new hole is punched, and the way it exits. Please let me know if it works OK.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on December 01, 2005, 02:21 PM
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html still says "Ghoster v1.1" - I downloaded it and CPU performance really is better, thanks!

Problems:
- it now has the AHK tray icon and not its own icon anymore
- I still experience that "makes windows to stay front-most only" bug when I start and quit it with my remote script! :( :( :( Is there a way to make Ghoster.exe check for a running copy of itself when it's started so one would just have to run the exe to start AND to quit it?
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on December 08, 2005, 05:43 PM
 :tellme: Do you kill it or close it?

 :-[ Not so pretty without it's icon... Corrected.

Skrommel.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on December 09, 2005, 02:54 AM
Thanks skrommel, I'll download that.

Last night I started the old one and when I woke up my desktop was completely black!  :o
When I moved the mouse around and used Alt-TAB it started to flash, then I found out there were ALMOST A HUNDRED Ghoster.exe instances running!!  :o :o :o

All were using 0 to 3% CPU, causing 100% CPU load and it took me almost an hour to kill so many that I was able to send you a screenshot of how it then looked:

(http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8327/ghosterpanic12ver0028cj.png)
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on December 09, 2005, 03:25 AM
 ;D You really should send me that script of yours, there must be some very clever things going on in there!

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on December 09, 2005, 03:29 AM
;D You really should send me that script of yours, there must be some very clever things going on in there!
Err, I forgot to mention that - because of the problems I didn't use that script last night, I just double-clicked the Ghoster.exe (once).  :tellme:
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: mouser on December 09, 2005, 09:07 AM
hahhhhaaa love that screenshot. kinda looks like you are playing a game of simcity and you're building hospitals :)
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: brotherS on December 09, 2005, 10:07 AM
It was less funny when it happened... (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/esmileys/gen0/Medium/shithappens_sign.gif)
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: LuckMan212 on December 31, 2005, 06:33 PM
hahhhhaaa love that screenshot. kinda looks like you are playing a game of simcity and you're building hospitals :)
LOL!!! :D
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: urlwolf on May 16, 2006, 07:15 AM
Just found ghoster, and I love it.
one little thing though. Is it possible to keep the taskbar in a permanent non-faded state? sometimes I need to look at it :D

Thanks a lot skrommel.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on May 18, 2006, 03:59 PM
 :) Try changing to showontop=1 in the ini-file.

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: urlwolf on June 20, 2006, 06:32 PM
Thanks a lot skrommel.

I think this idea is a huge improve in usability of any OS.
Unfortunately in my system (dell 600, crappy video card) the screen redraw is too slow to make it work. It takes maybe .5 seconds. I do alt/tab a lot so I need snappy windows changes. A pity...
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: AutoHotYomm on November 21, 2006, 09:33 AM
Hi Skrommel & Other HotKey luvin' Script scrambling folks out there !

When I was Using Ghoster i coulnd't help thinking that it would be AWESOME if you could enable several Specific Apps or Windows to remain "always on top" so you could have , for example only have the VLC openGL overlay window , and your MSN chat window active & on top , and your other 7000 :-) windows would  remain nicely dimmed !
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: skrommel on December 19, 2006, 11:23 AM
 :) Try changing the showontop setting in the ini-file.

I've also removed the "hole punching", so the latest version should perform better on slow systems!

Skrommel
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: mbraca on March 12, 2008, 06:28 PM
Just installed Ghoster.  :( Sadly, multimon does not work, only the primary monitor gets dimmed.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: vermeulen on March 19, 2008, 12:03 PM
I'm having trouble getting this to work properly with 2 monitors. The main is 1400x1050 (Dell D610 with Intel integrated video), and the secondary monitor is 1280x1024.  The main monitor works great, but nothing dims on the other one. Windows that are partially in both windows dim on the main monitor. TransOther works great on both monitors. My INI setting look like this:
[Settings]
backcolor=000000
image=
x=
y=
width=
height=
stretchwidth=1
stretchheight=1
keepaspect=1
transparency=175
jump=1
showdesktop=0
showontop=0
multimon=1

Even working like this, this is a great app. Thanks!
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: threeboy.net on March 30, 2011, 11:16 AM
Great app but doesn't work with triple monitors in Windows 7.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: ylavi on August 02, 2011, 10:54 AM
I also had problems with Ghoster on multiple screens. My issue was due to the fact that my secondary monitor is to the left of my primary monitor, and I would guess that vermeulen and threeboy.net also have monitors to the left of their primary monitor.

The AHK script can be corrected to work better with multiple screens. Here's a diff-style patch for the AHK script currently on this site. (my full AHK file is attached)
It adds another option (2) to multimon which fixes the problem for me. Everything should work exactly the same way if you don't use that option.

80c80,94
< Gui,Show,X0 Y0 W%A_ScreenWidth% H%A_ScreenHeight%,%applicationname%Window
---
>
> topleftx=0
> toplefty=0
> screenwidth=%A_ScreenWidth%
> screenheight=%A_ScreenHeight%
> If multimon=2
> {
>   SysGet,screenwidth,78
>   SysGet,screenheight,79
>   SysGet,topleftx,76
>   SysGet,toplefty,77
> }
> ;Gui,Show,X0 Y0 W%A_ScreenWidth% H%A_ScreenHeight%,%applicationname%Window
> Gui,Show,X%topleftx% Y%toplefty% W%screenwidth% H%screenheight%,%applicationna
me%Window
>
96c110,111
<       WinMove,%A_ScreenWidth%,%A_ScreenHeight%,,,%applicationname%Window
---
> ;      WinMove,%A_ScreenWidth%,%A_ScreenHeight%,,,%applicationname%Window
>       WinMove,%screenwidth%,%screenheight%,,,%applicationname%Window
147c162
<   ini=%ini%`n`;multimon=1 or 0            Dim all monitors in a multimonitor system
---
>   ini=%ini%`n`;multimon=1 or 0 or 2       Dim all monitors in a multimonitor system - 2 uses alternative method for sizing
223c238
< Gui,99:Add,Text,x+10 yp+10,%applicationname% v1.2
---
> Gui,99:Add,Text,x+10 yp+10,%applicationname% v1.3-yl
226a242
> Gui,99:Add,Text,y+10,- With multi-monitor fix by yl

I'm sure there are people out there who would appreciate skrommel (or anyone else) updating the downloads with new AHK and EXE incorporating this fix.
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: mouser on August 02, 2011, 11:18 AM
thanks for sharing ylavi :up:
Title: Re: Problems with Ghoster
Post by: threeboy.net on November 13, 2011, 08:46 PM
That fix works great for multiple monitors but it stops working after a few window jumps :(