Upgraded to 4.5.3.1: issues with not quitting, and with QuickTime...

[JerryL]

Hi Kirk -

Just upgraded our machines to 4.5.3.1, and have run into three consistent issues.  One that was machine-specific, the other two are 100% consistent on all machines (each running WinXP).

1. Laptop specific:  After upgrading from 4.5.2, PM would take a very long time to launch.  The splash screen would just appear to hang.  Eventually, a warning dialog that stated my version of QuickTime was too old!!!!  What in the world?  I upgraded to 7.6, and the warning dialog has gone away, and it seems PM is launching faster.  I had cleared out the PM cache manually but that was to no effect.

2. All machines:  PM will not quit after File/Exit.  Windows are gone, but the process is still alive.  Have to use Process Mgr to kill this; 100% consistent.  This is problematic - if I want to launch PM again, the windows will not reappear, and it appears as if clicking the PM shortcut button does nothing.  Again, have to use Process Mgr to get around this.

3. All machines - the top level menus just act weird.  If I hover over, or click <say> on "File" there's an extremely brief intermediate window dropdown that shows (too fast to see the content), and then the File menu itself will appear.  True for all menu items, not just "File".

FWIW, with this version, the splash screen now blinks momentarily while PM is still launching.

Thanks as always for your support!
Jerry

[Kirk Baker]

Jerry,

Just upgraded our machines to 4.5.3.1, and have run into three consistent issues.  One that was machine-specific, the other two are 100% consistent on all machines (each running WinXP).

1. Laptop specific:  After upgrading from 4.5.2, PM would take a very long time to launch.  The splash screen would just appear to hang.  Eventually, a warning dialog that stated my version of QuickTime was too old!!!!  What in the world?  I upgraded to 7.6, and the warning dialog has gone away, and it seems PM is launching faster.  I had cleared out the PM cache manually but that was to no effect.

PM does not require QuickTime to be installed in order to function, though if you do have QuickTime installed, then it needs to be a newer version since the older versions have problems with file paths that have non-ascii characters in them.  I take it that this issue is solved then?

2. All machines:  PM will not quit after File/Exit.  Windows are gone, but the process is still alive.  Have to use Process Mgr to kill this; 100% consistent.  This is problematic - if I want to launch PM again, the windows will not reappear, and it appears as if clicking the PM shortcut button does nothing.  Again, have to use Process Mgr to get around this.

I have heard from one other user (on Vista, but you didn't say which OS you're running) that has this problem.  I cannot reproduce it on my Vista system.  It would be very hard to fix an issue that I cannot reproduce.  I am sorry that you're having this problem, but if you can help me reproduce the problem then I will fix it.

3. All machines - the top level menus just act weird.  If I hover over, or click <say> on "File" there's an extremely brief intermediate window dropdown that shows (too fast to see the content), and then the File menu itself will appear.  True for all menu items, not just "File".

I don't know what would cause this, but basically when Microsoft releases their new MFC library, we will switch to it entirely and you likely won't have this problem any longer.

FWIW, with this version, the splash screen now blinks momentarily while PM is still launching.

Sounds like the OS is telling PM to redraw the splash screen repeatedly.

-Kirk

[JerryL]

Hi Kirk - actually I did mention the OS at the very beginning:

"... each running WinXP".

1. For QuickTime, once I upgraded that to the latest version PM no longer complained about it.  That was an unexpected behavior from PM, though, and suggested some kind of dependency.

2. This is 100% repro for us on our WinXP boxes.  Steps simply are launch PM (typically I do this from within File Explorer, by right-clicking a folder and having it open PM).  When closing, simply hit File/Exit.  The process stays alive, although all windows immediately go away.  If you weren't familiar with Task/Process Mgr, it would look like PM quit, but cannot ever launch again (until rebooting the machine.

3. Perhaps this also existed with prior "dot" releases of PM, but it seemed to be something new with 4.5.3.1

And for the splash screen - yeah - there's a repaint, but that also seemed to be something new with this "dot" version. 

Obviously item #2 is the only one here that's a real issue, as I now have to have my assistants using Task/Process Mgr to quit PM on our on-site laptop.

Curious to what you may find!

Thanks again,
Jerry

[Kirk Baker]

Jerry,

Hi Kirk - actually I did mention the OS at the very beginning:

"... each running WinXP".

Sorry I missed that.

2. This is 100% repro for us on our WinXP boxes.  Steps simply are launch PM (typically I do this from within File Explorer, by right-clicking a folder and having it open PM).  When closing, simply hit File/Exit.  The process stays alive, although all windows immediately go away.  If you weren't familiar with Task/Process Mgr, it would look like PM quit, but cannot ever launch again (until rebooting the machine.

I see.  Well, I develop Photo Mechanic on Windows XP and I have never been able to reproduce this.  Maybe you have some software installed that modifies how other apps behave?  You mentioned that PM exits unexpectedly when editing text fields as well.  I have never experienced that behavior either.

3. Perhaps this also existed with prior "dot" releases of PM, but it seemed to be something new with 4.5.3.1

Nothing has changed in the menu drawing code since 4.5.1.1 and that was just for Vista compatibility.

And for the splash screen - yeah - there's a repaint, but that also seemed to be something new with this "dot" version.

I haven't changed the splash screen code for a few years now.

-Kirk