I'm experiencing weird window control in W7, on a two-monitor system.

1. WealthLab 6 starts with an empty window, that remains behind after the main window opens. There is no taksbar presence for this empty window.

2. Frequently, error pop-ups appear UNDER the main WL window, thus I only get a "timing" cursor, and nothing in WL works until I can uncover the pop-up.

3. Problems with the "Indicators" and "Fundamentals" pop-up windows.

a. These windows do not remember size and location
b. Workspace does not remember their size and location
c. Generally they open up full screen, covering the WL main window. The lower right resizing triangle is MISSING at those occasions.
d. If I close these windows, change the main window from max to less than max, and close WL,
restart WL, and reopen Fundamentals and or Indicators, they SOMETIMES open up the same size
as before.

I did NOT have these problems with WL 5.6 on Windows XP

Eb

Do you disconnect the 2nd monitor from time to time?
What video card and drivers do you have?
Did you upgrade to W7 or is it a new computer?
Any 3rd party display utilities?

Answers to these questions can be helpful when entering a new support ticket. Attached screenshots illustrating some of these issues might also provide some clues.

Screenshots are available, but it takes a lot of them to illustrate the problem. I will try to consolidate them into a single image, and attach that to a separate post, unless you prefer to see the raw images.

No, I never disconnect the 2nd Monitor.
Video card: ATI Technologies, Radeon HD 5970
Drivers:
Driver Packaging Version 8.753-100706m-102496C-ATI
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1047
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0004
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0768
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10061

System is an older system, with W7 a new install on a new drive.
AFTER installing WL 6, but not using it immediately, I added the ATI video card and replaced a single monitor with two new ones.

3rd party utilities: As part of the ATI delivery, I'm running:
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0706.2128.36662
with "HydraGrid" (dividing screen into 2-4 regions),
and multiple (2) virtual desktops, though only one is active).

No other software has problems with this setup, including ActiveTraderPro (32 bit), MS Office 2010 (32 bit), and Visual Studio 2010 (64 bit).

Other pc info:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate N
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
System Manufacturer INTEL_
System Model DQ3510J_
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz, 2331 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. JOQ3510J.86A.0942.2008.0807.1958, 8/7/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.92 GB
Available Physical Memory 5.11 GB
Total Virtual Memory 15.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.1 GB
Page File Space 7.92 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

OK thank you for the detailed information. I'm a bit concerned about the 3rd party ATI HydraGrid and virtual desktop features. Can you disable all of that to minimize the risk of potential compatibility issues and notice if that has any effect on these WL issues?

Status of window management, with ATI options disabled:


ATI hydra-grid disabled
ATI multi-desktop disabled

Rebooted PC after ATI reconfiguration.

A. WL portable sub windows (can move outside of main screen)
1. WL at full screen (see B. below)
indicators and fundamentals panes open full screen
panes have NO resizing triangle in the lower right corner
resized, closed, reopened, they came up full screen again
2. WL at "restore" mode (less than full screen)
indicators and fundamentals panes open full screen
panes DO have resizing triangle in the lower right corner
resized, closed, reopened to the adjusted size
3. Resize WL to full screen
sub panes are opening full screen again.


B. Different, but perhaps related, anomaly observed
1. When WL is shut down from "restore" mode, when restarted,
window size appears about the same size, and is in "restore" mode.
2. When WL is shut down from "maximize" mode, it restarts in
"restore" mode, but the window is about the same as full screen.
A piece of the window frame extends into the 2nd monitor.
3. This condition has existed before, but I didn't persue it.

Few ideas to consider.

1. Try following this advice: Wealth-Lab or one of its windows is not displayed but with a tweak. Instead of editing a config file like suggested in the article, close WL6 and move the file elsewhere to start WL6 with a blank new file.

2. Double-check the ATI driver control panel settings for any options that might interfere with program behavior.

3. After all, ATP, MSO, and VS2010 (to some extent?) are unmanaged applications. Could you kindly run a different, pure .NET, true MDI app (e.g. Paint.NET, free) and see if it demonstrates similar symptoms or not?

QUOTE:
3. After all, ATP, MSO, and VS2010 (to some extent?) are unmanaged applications. Could you kindly run a different, pure .NET, true MDI app (e.g. Paint.NET, free) and see if it demonstrates similar symptoms or not?

Installed the suggested program, it has no problems with windows management that I can see.

QUOTE:

1. Try following this advice: Wealth-Lab or one of its windows is not displayed but with a tweak. Instead of editing a config file like suggested in the article, close WL6 and move the file elsewhere to start WL6 with a blank new file.

Before I edited any settings (in WealthLabConfig.txt) I made the following observations:

1. The size settings for most windows were larger than available screen space 1936 vs available 1920 pixels.
2. The location in all cases were set to MINUS numbers, mostly -8,-8; Maian window -8,-30 !
3. While I lost track of which windows were set to mximized from the start, the windows all seemed to be set to 1936 X 1092,
larger than my monitors. What is the reasoning here?
If the idea is to provide more screen real estate, I for one would prefer to see all of the window, incl frames.

4. When I did edit a couple of test settings, they resulted in expected window sizes, and lasted for several restarts of WLP.

5. I loaded the file into an editor, that tracks external changes to the file. No changes were made until restarting WLP!
In other words, WLP did not save changes.

Conclusion: the problem is caused by WLP' failure to save configuration changes, and some sort of unorthodox initial configuration.


Eb

Eugene,

Scratch my conclusion.

After posting, and more testing, it seems there is a rewrite, even in an area where I had just observed a problem.

QUOTE:
I loaded the file into an editor, that tracks external changes to the file. No changes were made until restarting WLP!
In other words, WLP did not save changes.

Conclusion: the problem is caused by WLP' failure to save configuration changes, and some sort of unorthodox initial configuration.

Was something hanging on my local install? or did you guys do something, that corrected the problem via remote control?



Eb

QUOTE:
or did you guys do something, that corrected the problem via remote control?

You must be kidding :)

QUOTE:
4. When I did edit a couple of test settings, they resulted in expected window sizes, and lasted for several restarts of WLP.

Anyway, good to know that you have a workaround that helps reset the window size/position config lines.

QUOTE:
good to know that you have a workaround that helps reset the window size/position config lines

Since the upgrade to WL 6.1 there seem to be fewer problems with resizing and positioning windows. Not mentioned before, but present then, and still present is another window control issue, somewhat incosistant, hence the wordy report:

1. In trying to drag the "Technical Indicator" window to a more convenient spot, the first click on its title bar does NOT get focus. Trying to drag the window by the title bar fails under some conditions. Clicking inside the data part of the window WILL give it focus, and it will drag ok by the title bar after that.

2. The surest way to duplicate this problem is to start from the Wealth-Lab main window, with the indicator window already open, on my second monitor. If that does not produce the problem, try giving focus to another application. I have had this happen to me when IE had the focus, and then I wanted to move the indicator window out of the way of another window, but this was not consistent.

3. The surest way to succeed dragging the window on first try is to come from having focus on the Fundamental Data window or the WS QuickRef window. Neither of these other two windows exhibit this problem.

Cheers

Eb

Continuation of the same problem in a different thread:

Window management problems in Windows 7 64

QUOTE:
New windows management problem, new thread, rather than mix it in with the other windows issues.

But, I'm seeing a trend. On this dual monitor machine Wealth-Lab seems unable to provide consistent window management.

Latest problem: Updating data in Data Manager.

I start with WL sized to about 3/4 of the screen, on completion with one data provider (?Fidelity Analyst Ratings?) suddenly the WL main window is resized to maximum without user interaction.

I was working in the unused part of the window. This is highly disruptive.

My earlier complaints about window management are back. The most frequent problem is, that somehow WL restores windows sizes to oversize! More than the monitor has to offer! Windows extend to the second monitor. I try to keep WL main window on one monitor, and as many as possible of the smaller WL windows on the other monitor. What I would expect from WL is, that it tracks screen position and size of each pane, saves them into a configuration file, when a window is closed, and restores these same settings, when the window is reopened.

Is this expectation unreasonable?


The following windows routinely, but not reliably, open to a size larger than a single screen, even after having been shrunk to more appropriate size before closing:

Technical Indicators, Open Strategy, Extension Manager, Preferences.


I would really like to see a fix for these problems.


Eb

Finishing an update by some data provider as a trigger for window size going berserk may be a promising hint. Thanks.

Could you keep off for some time from dragging Wealth-Lab's windows to the second monitor? Would working with Wealth-Lab on the primary monitor only minimize the issue?

QUOTE:
Could you keep off for some time from dragging Wealth-Lab's windows to the second monitor? Would working with Wealth-Lab on the primary monitor only minimize the issue?

OK, I moved everything off the 2nd monitor.
Before restarting, the windows mostly still opened to max screen.
After restarting WL most windows behaved as one would expect, opening to the resized condition.

Except for Data Manager. It opens within the main window, but resizes the WL app window to max, at roughly the same point (it went by too quick to spot the exact point, since there wasn't any data to update since yesterday.

There is one point I'd like to repeat. I installed the "64-bit" edition of Wealth-Lab on a 64 bit machine, into the default destination folder, which turned out to be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Fidelity Investments", the **32-bit** Program Files directory. I have to wonder, if that makes a difference in how WL interfaces with the OS.

QUOTE:
There is one point I'd like to repeat.

How did you determine that?
Is the 64-bit WealthLabPro.exe process tagged with *32 in the Task Manager?

Hmmm,

QUOTE:
How did you determine that?

Originally I found the installation of the 64 bit setup file had located the program in the (x86) folder. I assumed it looked for the existing Fidelity folder, found it Program Files x86, so it installed there. Now I'm having second thoughts.

QUOTE:
Is the 64-bit WealthLabPro.exe process tagged with *32 in the Task Manager?

Task manager shows only one WealthLabPro.exe, and it is tagged "*32". If it is 64 bit or not is not clear.
The distribution file I downloaded does show
How do I determine the (*-bit) version of the installed executable?


Eb

QUOTE:
Task manager shows only one WealthLabPro.exe, and it is tagged "*32". If it is 64 bit or not is not clear.

No, that clearly is the 32-bit version of WLP. 32-bit apps running in a 64-bit OS are marked with "*32".

Update on the windows management problems.

Windows management in WL is getting intolerable.

While most problems with WL windows management are merely constant irritants, there is now one problem, that makes me want to tear WL out by the roots! The SEARCH window, accessed from the code editor, opens full screen, covering the entire WL window, i.e. the target text I want to search. There are no resize options. The options in the upper left corner drop-down menu include Move to Monitor 2. When I chose that, the search menu disappeared entirely. Now when I try to search, I get nothing! Not even the full-screen search window.

There is nothing on monitor 1, nothing on monitor 2.


WHY SHOULD A USERE HAVE TO RESORT TO THIS KIND OF CRAP?!


Here is a suggestion about the root of some of the problems:


As mentioned in my post of Jan 11, 11, Wealth-Lab's window size configuration uses numbers GREATER THAN available screen space, for whatever twisted reasons.

QUOTE:
settings (in WealthLabConfig.txt) ... for most windows were larger than available screen space 1936 vs available 1920 pixels.

This configuration extends the WL windows onto the second monitor! In addition, Windows 7 has an automatic maximize feature, when a user drags a window to full screen height. Perhaps this is being triggered by the WL's excess sizing?

Is there a fix in the works? When?

Extending user's desktop beyond the physical screen dimensions is triggered by Windows 7 i.e. "automatic maximize feature". WL6 uses the screen coordinates "reported" by operating system.

With the 3rd party hydra-grid/multi-desktop features enabled, the process may get less predictable. I'd suggest turning off "automatic maximize feature", and whatever related features you may find.

Speaking of a fix, it requires at the very least to be able to reproduce the problem, and considering the number of reports (this thread) it could be an issue specific to your particular system.

QUOTE:
With the 3rd party hydra-grid/multi-desktop features enabled

I do not have this feature enabled.

QUOTE:
I'd suggest turning off "automatic maximize feature", and whatever related features you may find.

Took me a while to find this in Windows Help, where they call this feature "Snap".

In case someone else has similar problems, & needs to turn Snap on or off:

On by default, turn it off in the "Ease of Access Center"

CODE:
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QUOTE:
Speaking of a fix, ... it could be an issue specific to your particular system.

Groan. I can see where there might be issues with my particular video board, but I cannot see how the weird sizing in the Wealth Lab config file has anything to do with my system. There are deliberate settings of "- pixels" (negative pixels positions) in the configuration. I dop not believe you get these from the system. I suspect, that some clever jokster thought to gain a few more pixels from the windows frames for display, at the expense of stepping out of bounds of normal programming practices (trying to fit a 100 ton elephant through a 90 ton gateway).

For example:

QUOTE:
DataWindowForm.Location=-8,-8

QUOTE:
There are deliberate settings of "- pixels" (negative pixels positions) in the configuration.

We need to ask the developers about this.

For the record, which edition of WLP you run by now, 32-bit as before or pure 64-bit one?

QUOTE:
Except for Data Manager. It opens within the main window, but resizes the WL app window to max, at roughly the same point (it went by too quick to spot the exact point, since there wasn't any data to update since yesterday.

Question re: roughly the same point. If you keep getting the WL window restored, could you recollect what message/text is on top of Data Manager's Log window at this time? I'm interested whether the window clear event has to do with it as a trigger: it clears the DM log box after 1000 lines to speed up.

QUOTE:
which edition of WLP you run by now, 32-bit as before or pure 64-bit one?

CODE:
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QUOTE:
re: roughly the same point. If you keep getting the WL window restored, could you recollect what message/text is on top of Data Manager's Log window at this time?

It goes by so fast that it's hard to tell - hence "roughly the same point". It appears to be during the daily data download, and shortly after the resize it goes to fundamental. But trying to use a screen capture to freeze the moment probably didn't stop the download.

I've been trying to reproduce the issue with WLD6 x64 on Windows 7 Enterprise x64 but didn't succeed at all. Have done all these operations such as drag windows to the 2nd monitor, inspect the Search box state, maximize/restore, close WL and inspect the the configuration file etc. With "Extend these displays" option selected, the configuration file always contained expected values not exceeding the display coordinates. My experience was smooth.

My last suggestions are:

* Use "Extend these displays", pixel by pixel, no automatic maximize stuff of any sort
* upgrade the video drivers,
* or fall back to generic video drivers to test,
* disable any related 3rd party utilities (seriously, the maximized window problem + lost focus issue could be anything including a 3rd party mouse utility issue)
* reinstall operating system from scratch, no fancy drivers, install WL6, test, connect 2nd monitor, test.

Answering a couple of posts ago:

QUOTE:
With the 3rd party hydra-grid/multi-desktop features enabled, the process may get less predictable.

I've had this disabled for some time now, but it hasn't made any difference.

QUOTE:
I'd suggest turning off "automatic maximize feature", and whatever related features you may find.

I've turned this off. The maximizing of windows that shouldn't maximize continues. The only discernable change is, that the WL windows, when maximized, no longer extend into the next monitor.

QUOTE:
Speaking of a fix, it requires at the very least to be able to reproduce the problem

I understand this, but suspect, that you're testing on a system optimized for WealthLab. Mine is optimized for general use, though I havn't been using for anything else for a while. Every time I sit down at this PC I'm troubleshooting Wealth Lab, it seems.

QUOTE:
considering the number of reports (this thread) it could be an issue specific to your particular system.

Perhaps others are just quietly waiting for a fix.

QUOTE:
reproduce the issue with WLD6 x64 on Windows 7 Enterprise x64

That's not an exact match. I'm using WL Pro x64, WLD. My OS is Windos 7 Ultimiate N.

QUOTE:
configuration file always contained expected values not exceeding the display coordinates

I think this is an important point. You're not suggesting that it isn't Wealth-Lab writing these settings?!

On quick inspection, I currently have 7 settings pushing the screen borders:

CODE:
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QUOTE:
My last suggestions are:
* Use "Extend these displays", pixel by pixel, no automatic maximize stuff of any sort
* upgrade the video drivers,
* or fall back to generic video drivers to test,
* disable any related 3rd party utilities (seriously, the maximized window problem + lost focus issue could be anything including a 3rd party mouse utility issue)
* reinstall operating system from scratch, no fancy drivers, install WL6, test, connect 2nd monitor, test.

In order of your suggestions:
done, done, impractical without replacing the video board, there are no 3rd arty utilities running, and finally
Reinstall the OS: I may try to repair the OS, rather than (shudder) a full reinstall.

QUOTE:
That's not an exact match. I'm using WL Pro x64, WLD. My OS is Windos 7 Ultimiate N.

There is no groundbreaking difference between Ultimate and Enterprise editions. WLP and WLD is the same application, the differences are in authentication, data providers etc. but not in the way they write the config file.

QUOTE:
You're not suggesting that it isn't Wealth-Lab writing these settings?!
...
DataManagerForm.Location = -8,2 8 pixel to LEFT of LEFT edge

Look, Wealth-Lab is a client application. It's no display driver or operating system to determine the screen coordinates. Operating system sends them to Wealth-Lab and it respects them.

QUOTE:
Perhaps others are just quietly waiting for a fix.

Hmm, first activation of a WLD5 trial on a Win7 Ultimate (beta) happened over 2 years and 2 months ago. Perhaps someone else should have noticed. Probably it's something pretty specific to your system (e.g. a combination of screen resolution with something else...)

QUOTE:
Wealth-Lab is a client application. It's no display driver or operating system to determine the screen coordinates. Operating system sends them to Wealth-Lab and it respects them.

Well, you were right, that the symptoms disappeared by a fix of the OS. Service Pack 3 saved me the hassle of reinstalling the OS (though it took over an hour, from a DVD).
I would have a hard time with this, exceptfor the fact, that the problem seems to be fixed!

Nevertheless, the WL config file still has negative numbers for positioning and excess screen sizes (i.e. MainForm.Size=1936,1056). I doubt that these settings come from the OS. In fact, they indicate, that the OS reports the screen size as 1920 X 1080.

In any case, this experience has generated a STRONG desire for resizing controls on all windows. Just in case the problem hasn't gone away, but is just hiding from the nasty SP1. Could we add this to the wishlist?

Thanks for your efforts, Eugene.


Eb

PS
Isn't it curious, that the W7 service pack's filename starts with "windows6.1", not "windows7.1"?

Glad you did it.

QUOTE:
Nevertheless, the WL config file still has negative numbers for positioning and excess screen sizes (i.e. MainForm.Size=1936,1056). I doubt that these settings come from the OS. In fact, they indicate, that the OS reports the screen size as 1920 X 1080.

Have you tried stopping WL, removing the lines containing screen coordinates from the config file, and restarting WL? Does it change something?

QUOTE:
Have you tried stopping WL, removing the lines containing screen coordinates from the config file, and restarting WL? Does it change something?

Yes it changed something. Since I started messing with that file I have been crashing WL. See error below. This does not change, when I restore the config file to what it was just before I messed with it. It may be related to a crash I had earlier, when I changed an indicator plot from:

CODE:
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to:

CODE:
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However, trying to comment out the offending (?) indicator plot in the strategy's xml file does not help.

CODE:
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Try the following:

1. Close WLP, remove the WealthLabConfig.txt file, restart WLP. Better do not restore it, let WLP create it from scratch.
2. Open your Strategy that crashes (the one with the indicator plot), copy the code in a new Strategy window, save, work with this new copy and notice any changes.

QUOTE:

1. Close WLP, remove the WealthLabConfig.txt file, restart WLP. Better do not restore it, let WLP create it from scratch.
2. Open your Strategy that crashes (the one with the indicator plot), copy the code in a new Strategy window, save, work with this new copy and notice any changes.

I've tried step 1 above, no change in behavior, which prevents me from trying step 2, because any strategy, including new ones, never get as far as the editor.

It appears the problem was not directly connected to the indicator, or to a specific strategy, but to strategies in general.
As if it chokes on too many files, or folders, while trying to open the associated files. Is there a limit to the number of folders and/or files in the strategy folder tree? or in the WL Data folder tree? or in any of its subfolders?


"Open strategy" lets me select a folder, select a strategy, click OK, then WL displays the outline of the strategy window, and crashes .
"New strategy from code" crashes, suggesting it is NOT a specific strategy. Crash is same as "open strategy" crash.

"New chart" works ok.
"New strategy from rules" works ok with a trivial set of rules, including buys and sells. This mode even lets me view the strategy code, but of course it's not the editor, but a pop-up dialog box. BUT...
When I click on "Open Code in new Strategy Window", I get the same crash as above. Is it the Editor?! which crashes from the clipboard?

The error message:

CODE:
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See Strategy editor does not function. Any single workaround out of 3 there will work.

The short story, one of the fixes you suggested worked, the others did not.

QUOTE:
See Strategy editor does not function. Any single workaround out of 3 there will work.

The long story:
Not until I installed WL 32-bit did I actually see the error message described in the fix. WL 64-bit offers the options to quit or debug. The debug option invokes VS, which only says:

CODE:
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Once I saw the confirming error, I tried the suggestions.
1. overwriting the editor config file with the backup 147 failed.
3. deleting the Editor=5.1 line in WL config also failed.
2. deleting the editor config file did seem to fix the problem - in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Summing up: the QWhale editor causes crashes if it's config file somehow gets out of synch, or a user defines a color, that the editor doesn't like. It also crashes WelathLab when trying to copy code from one part of the editor window to another.

With such a finnicky editor, the option to ignore the error (WL 32-bit) and continue is by far better, than the option to debug before quitting (WL 64-bit). Is it worth the huge loss in RAM that the 32-bit version represents?


Comment about searching the database: it would never have ocurred to me to search for Strategy editor does not function, when WL crashes, even if I had known that the editor was at the root. I searched for "crash"!

There's a known bug with the QWhale editor component when e.g. user "plays" with custom color. In other words, when the editor config file has customizations. Marked as a "5.x-something issue" in the Wiki, in reality it's a live issue. I'm under impression that leaving things as is (i.e. having enough workarounds for the issue) was preferred considering it's a 3rd party control, so I quit trying.

Re: editor copy/paste issues -- this is probably going to be fixed in 6.2. Last time it was work in progress so we've yet to test and confirm the fix.

Re: comment about searching -- it's absolutely OK that you probably couldn't find that by searching for "crash". Despite the crash is something unexpected here (I'll mark it for reproducing it in Win7 x64), I realized that you might have had customizations in EditorConfig.xml and removing the WealthLabConfig.txt file could have triggered the infamous Editor malfunction behavior (your charts were working well) so I directed you right to that page.

QUOTE:
probably going to be fixed in 6.2

Tell me "probably" is just a figure of speech, and it WILL get fixed ;=) I still crash at least once a week when copying code.

Anyway, thanks for the help getting me going again.

I was just telling that the developers were still working on a fix last time I checked it.