A Lot of Erratic Things are (no longer) Happening

A Lot of Erratic Things are Happening

I am not sure if I should make this three threads or not as I am wondering if there maybe any correlation between these three erratic behaviors.

Anyway, here goes.

Strange Occurrence One...
Sometimes at Windows startup Opus will load full screen (which I do NOT want).
Sometimes at Windows startup Opus will NOT load full screen (which I DO want).
Why is this happening and how do I tell Opus to stop opening full screen (at boot up) for good?

Strange Occurrence Two...
Auto Detect of file contents is erratic. I have drive D set to globally default to Details yet one submenu (D:\Other_Temp) wants to default to Thumbnails (sometimes). There are no images in that folder and even if there were, the global drive D setting for Details should not allow thumbnails to show up. The strange thing is that I can select another folder than go back to _Temp and it will show up as Details. I tried this several times and it was very erratic. I finally set D:\Other to Details but that did not help; every now and then Other or _Temp would show up as thumbnails. Is this a known bug?

Strange Occurrence Three...
The Status Bar image changes from its normal image (top image) to the same image but not stretched (bottom image). The only way I can make it revert to the correct image is to totally close and reload Opus. This will happen once or twice a day. Is this a known bug?

Doc

The three things seem unconnected to me.

[quote]Strange Occurrence One...
Sometimes at Windows startup Opus will load full screen (which I do NOT want).
Sometimes at Windows startup Opus will NOT load full screen (which I DO want).
Why is this happening and how do I tell Opus to stop opening full screen (at boot up) for good?[/quote]
What is Opus set to open at startup in Preferences?

[quote]Strange Occurrence Two...
Auto Detect of file contents is erratic. I have drive D set to globally default to Details yet one submenu (D:\Other_Temp) wants to default to Thumbnails (sometimes). There are no images in that folder and even if there were, the global drive D setting for Details should not allow thumbnails to show up. The strange thing is that I can select another folder than go back to _Temp and it will show up as Details. I tried this several times and it was very erratic. I finally set D:\Other to Details but that did not help; every now and then Other or _Temp would show up as thumbnails. Is this a known bug?[/quote]
There are no known bugs in that area. Have another read of the Folder Formats FAQ and see if it explains things. The last thing you mentioned there sounds like the "changes to temporary formats" thing to me.

[quote]Strange Occurrence Three...
The Status Bar image changes from its normal image (top image) to the same image but not stretched (bottom image). The only way I can make it revert to the correct image is to totally close and reload Opus. This will happen once or twice a day. Is this a known bug?[/quote]
What is the Status Bar set to in the bottom half of Preferences - Images? Shared or stretched? If it's shared, what is the image itself set to in the "when image is shared" drop-down in the top half of Preferences - Images?

Everything is set to Stretch (see image) but it sometimes comes up not stretched.

Doc


See image.

Doc


And this is exactly why we ask that people limit topics to one problem...

I'ii give it a read.

Thanks;
Doc

I hear you, but as I said at the beginning of the post so many erratic occurrences at once I could not help but wonder if they were related (you know, common sense and all that rubbish).

Next time I will not let my common sense get in the way but will instead make each post for ONE topic ONLY.

Doc

Status Bar:

Next time it goes wrong, open Preferences - Images and see if anything has changed.

Startup:

In your screenshot, Opus isn't set to launch at startup. How are you launching it?

By Double-clicking on the desktop or by a hotkey on my keyboard.

Doc

I have noticed that the Opus icon is always in the Task Try (after bootup) even though I have told Settings NOT to load Opus at Startup.

I have looked at all my startup functions using RegRun Start Control which shows me everything loading in Windows and the only thing showing for Opus is Direstory Opus Desktop DblClk.

I can close the Opus icon in the TaskTry and Opus can still be loaded with a double-click on the desktop. I don't know if that has any bearing on it or not.

So far today, Opus has not loaded on bootup which is good. I have rebooted several times without the problem showing up.

Next time it happens I wil look at the settings as you suggested.

Doc

Try this shortcut-code:

"C:\Program Files\Directory Opus\dopusrt.exe" /cmd GO NEW 100,100,800,600 LASTACTIVELISTER

NEW

Open a new Lister

Opens a new Lister with the specified position and size (x,y,w,h). Specify , for x,y to open under the mouse pointer.
max
Maximize new Lister
min
Minimize new Lister
norm
Display new Lister as normal (not minimized or maximized)

Hi Christiaan;

Is that not just going to open the last active Lister?

It is good to know about the switches, but how does it help with the erratic loading at Startup?

Doc

I created a desktop shortcut for the above, closed Opus and ran the shortcut.

I got the usual icon in the Task Try with no open Listers. Upon clicking on the icon a Lister opened at the specified size,

Soooo... what does this tell me?

Doc

If Opus isn't set to run at startup, and you haven't added it manually to your Start Menu -> Startup folder or anything like that, then I would suspect that something else is launching a folder at startup which is, in turn, causing Opus to run (since Opus is set to handle folders if you have Explorer Replacement turned on).

That would also explain why you don't see the expected window size/position.

Tracking down which program or shortcut is launching folders during startup can be a pain, but it's often as simple as a folder (or a shortcut to a folder) being present in the Start Menu -> Startup folder.

Yes; i have used THREE different programs trying to track down where it could be starting from. As I mentioned earlier, I have used RegRun Start Control which has for years been my number one workhorse finding errant start up problems. I have also run both MS Config Startup Tool, and MS AutoRuns none of which showed any Opus loading other than DblClk.

Doc

[quote="DocLotus"]Yes; i have used THREE different programs trying to track down where it could be starting from. As I mentioned earlier, I have used RegRun Start Control which has for years been my number one workhorse finding errant start up problems. I have also run both MS Config Startup Tool, and MS AutoRuns none of which showed any Opus loading other than DblClk.

Doc[/quote]

Yes, but Leo suggested that the problem may not be Opus explicitly loading, but a folder opening for some other reason which initially has nothing to do with Opus.

Hi Bob;

Ah, now it is starting to make some sense.

I did not realize it could be a simple folder opening; this gives me something else to look at.

I assume the folder would have to have some kind of association with Opus; is that right?

Thanks;
Doc

Doc, here is what Leo had to say a few posts ago, I think this is the answer for you:

Hi Alan;

Yes; I know, I read all that, but how does one find the folder in question?

The reason I asked about file associations is that is the only thing that I can think of that may be loading Opus at startup. If a folder somehow got itself associated with Opus and somehow is randomly loading at startup then that would do it, would it not?

So how does one find one errant folder association? Years ago, back in the Win 95 days, I had a utility that would list all folders on my hard drive and show file associations. It was a simple matter of sorting by associations until the folders in questions were found. Do you know of any such utility today for Win XP? For that matter can Opus do that? If so, how?

This never happened before Opus was installed; so if it did not happen under Explorer why now (under Opus)? Would the folder not pop up on the screen if it was loaded? None does.

I ran the computer through several cold boots and reboots and it did not happen one time over the last two days yet this morning I booted up and it happened again. I have made no changes to my startup yet it will happen randomly. So, if nothing has changed in the startup, why is it so random?

One further bit of information is where Opus is going when this happens; it is showing C:\Program Files\ATI. The normal default is D:\Other when I load Opus manually.

I am not sure which one of the three ATI software packages this is the root directory for. I have ATI 9600 video, ATI Multimedia Center and ATI DTV card with software. The video card and the DTV card have software with similar names so it makes it difficult to identify which is which.

Thanks;
Doc

Try turning off Explorer Replacement mode in Opus, then reboot. I expect you will see an Explorer window. You can then tell whether or not what you're seeing is anything to do with Opus and investigate appropriately.