Well I started this post a couple times and accidentally wiped it out both times
But I'm better now and hopefully this will actually be more coherent anyway.
1. First the great news: AFAICT the new version has completely eliminated all the situations where my launchbar wouldn't unhide unless I moved the mouse around. This is separate from the issue of having to click at the desktop border (unhide area I guess you could call it) so LBC would get focus. It did happen in those cases but also at other times when I didn't have any maximized windows. In any case it seems to be 100% fixed and honestly that was by far my biggest LBC annoyance.
2. Followed by the really good news: The second most annoying issue - the launchbar failing to autohide again if I moved the mouse away without launching anything - also appears to be completely fixed.
3. Then the still no complaints item: If a maximized window has focus I still have to click in the unhide area before my launchbar appears. Not sure if this is the intended (or at least expected) behavior. It's definitely not something that bothers me at all.
4. And my first actual test with a fullscreen app: I rarely play games so this is the first time I've tested the behavior with an actual fullscreen app. I tested with Firefox in Fullscreen mode and as long as it had focus my launchbar wouldn't unhide by either mouse position or hotkey. It might actually be preferable to have an option to keep the hotkey active and just disable the proximity trigger. Don't put any serious time into it or anything. It would just allow me to use the same trick that (usually) works with the Windows taskbar.
5. Finally the Microsoft is still Microsoft part: There's still one last remaining quirk. If I unhide the launchbar and then let it autohide instead of clicking on a node it doesn't return focus to the previously active window. It's always done that for me but I've only used LBC on Windows 7. I suspect it doesn't do that on Windows XP. I say that because LBC looks like it's using the taskbar autohide routines and I'm sure the taskbar code changed significantly in Win7.
Rather than explain my theory I'll just give you instructions to demonstrate some of the changes and you can decide for yourself. Alternatively you may be able to tell me I'm wrong and I'll know it's some of my weird shell software.
- Set the taskbar to autohide and of course you need a launchbar set to autohide as well.
- Open a text editor window and click in the text entry area. That should give you a cursor to use as a reference to see when the window has focus.
- Unhide the taskbar by moving your mouse to the edge of the desktop but don't click on it. Watch the text editor window while the taskbar is unhidden. Unless my system is somehow unique (not a first as we both know) the text editor will never lose focus, meaning of course the taskbar must not be receiving focus. Move the mouse away and let it autohide again.
- Open the Start menu using the Windows key. When the Start menu opens it should take focus from the text editor. Close it the same way and the text editor should get focus back automatically.
- Now open it by clicking the Start button and close it the same way. The text editor will appear to get focus back just like before but actually the Start button still has focus. Type Enter or Space and it will open again. To type in the editor window you'll have to click on it first. Or at least I do.
- Finally unhide the taskbar again using your mouse but this time click on a blank area. Now the taskbar will have focus. Press the Windows key twice and the taskbar will autohide automatically but nothing will have focus now - just like what LBC is doing.
