HomeSeer hide & seek

[Rick Tinker]

Yes, I would like to know what we are being asked to do.

FYI... If you change HomeSeer's configuration to not start in the system tray, then it will appear when you run it. There is an option under general settings, but if you cannot get to that, then edit settings.ini in the config folder, look for this line:
start_in_tray=0

And if it is set to 1, then set it to zero as is shown above. Then restart HS and it will not start up in the system tray.

[johnwpb]

Rupp & Rick, This has all been mentioned above in this thread, but here it is again:

JohnWPB Wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Is there a way to have HS just maximize when clicked to run, instead of telling you that it is already running. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think that sums it up.

This way it can be restored when the tray crashes, which happens quite a bit in XP. Right now, when the tray crashes, there is NO WAY to restore HS without the 3 finger shuffle, and end tasking it, and then running it again... messy.

You can test this by minimizing HS to the system tray. Then CTRL-ALT-DEL and End Task "EXPLORER.EXE. Explorer will automatically reset itself and clean things up. (Make sure nothing important is running or not saved just in case) However you no longer can get to HS in the system tray

When the tray crashes, ALt-Tab does not work, and in the task manager, when click process, switch to, it will not maximize either.

As mentioned above as well, ALL other programs I have on my system will just maximize if they are selected to run again (if they are already running in the "hidden system tray"). They will maximize so they can be gotten to, and not just a dialog box that tells me the program is already running.... HS is the only one that I have that does not.

I do not set it to NOT run in the tray, because that would be VERY annoying having on the task bar at all times. So I do want it to run in the tray, but a way of getting to it is needed when the system tray crashes. I have noticed with ANY type of desktop gui, windows explorer ect crash, the tray is lost. I am a computer consultant on the side, and I see this happen a LOT on most of my customers machines.

[Rupp]

Why is the tray crashing? I have not had a single tray crash on my HS server using XP Pro.

I agree if its as easy as changing HS to maximize rather than the message, but can the HS gui be displayed if the tray crashes?

[johnwpb]

Ask Bill

Honestly, MANY things can cause the windows explorer to crash. When it does, everything resets, the desktop goes blank for about a second and then all comes back, with exception of the system tray. So, yes, the HS GUI and all other programs remain TOTALLY efected, and continue just fine. I have been in the middle of burning a disk, and the explorer crash, it recovers and the disk is still burning successfully.

[electron]

The tray crashes when explorer.exe crashes, which does happen unfortunately. Here is a temporary solution:

http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~tsr22/apps/#wherzit

Download wherzit, it's a tiny exe (I love tiny exe's!) which can show hidden windows/tasks, so if you can't get to the GUI, you can restore the window by 'show'ing the window. Try it out, works great.

[johnwpb]

I just posted a poll to see if anyone else is having this problem or it is an isolated incident. Please take a second to vote so we can get an idea if it is an isolated incident ot not
LINK TO POLL

[CFGuy]

I have had explorer crash on me, not on my HS server, but on my work station.
When it does, isn't better to just reboot the whole computer so you hopefully clear whatever caused it to crash?

[rjh]

I have no idea how to make an application re-activate when you launch a second copy, so this would take some research. Doesn't seem like a request that is worth spending a lot of time on. I would assume most people run HS on a dedicated PC and don't really use the windows interface. I assume you can still access HS from the web interface?

If someone can find some sample code or API call that we can make to activate the currently running HS, I guess we can put that in there.

I have only seen the explorer crash a couple of times, and when this happens I don't trust the state of the PC so I re-boot. If this is happening to you a lot, a better solution would be to fix that problem first.
-Rich

[Chas821]

I want to make sure we're not talking apples and oranges here; I was always taught that the System Tray was at the far right of the Task Bar. When I have HS running, it appears in both places: a small house icon in the system tray and the button on the task bar representing the HS GUI minimized. When the one and only time (since upgrading to XP Pro) that explorer.exe crashed, the minimized HS disappeared from the task bar. I was able to restore the GUI by ALT-TABing to HS.

I agree with Rich. I don't think he needs to spend time to fix something that really ain't broke. It can be easily fixed by a reboot.


Chuck

[electron]

San immediate reboot isn't an option, I have ran into that several times. I do agree that this isn't a homeseer bug, but making it so running the shortcut would open an existing process instead of starting it twice would be a very welcome feature for sure (but not a high priority especially as there is software out there already which can show hidden windows).

As for code samples, I am thinking something like this (I only did a quick search):

http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/s...=1027&lngWId=1
http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/s...39311&lngWId=1 (so you can show the hidden window again)

[Rick Tinker]

If you are asking for the system tray icon to be restored, then we can look into doing this when you attempt to run another copy of HS, but we will add it to the 2.0 development list only.

[JoeMahn]

I used to have this problem when I was running the unreg'd version of homeseer..

Use alt-tab +tab to navigate to the hidden missing homeseer

Joe

[HardwareHacker]

I think maybe we are getting away from my original problem. When my server recovers from a power failure sometimes I can’t get to HS. The only way is to reboot the computer.
Rick do you know if this a problem with my PC, Windows or HS?
Thanks
David

[rjh]

I did try the App.Activate and it didn't work.

-Rich

[TomGoerz]

From Planet Source Code.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
another way
On Main Form load

If
App.PrevInstance Then

ActivatePrevInstance
End If
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>