Leo, I am in desperate need of your expertise. I have done as much research on the forums and the help manual as I can, and I am at a complete loss about what further I can do to address these issues. I'm not exactly certain when these issues began, but it began with me noticing that when I open a new lister it would open behind already existing listers which was not normal behavior that I was used to for the program. I then began to become frustrated with being unable to correct this behavior and started noticing that the startup command for the shortcut in the start menu is not properly executing when Windows loaded. Then, I realize that the program in the task manager had a very bizarre suffix to it which is as follows:
I found a topic that addressed this exact issue, but your suggestions for this individual did not make any progress with me. Your recommendation checking the collections folders and clearing them out did not make any difference for the behavior of Opus. Another person that you were given advice on, you recommended seeing how the program was running and whether it was in an elevated state or not. I have checked in task manager and found that dopus.exe and the dopusrt.exe are both elevated but as you went on to explain this is not to be a concern if I have disabled windows UAC. I have gone through every setting that I can imagine and read as many of the entries in the help manual as far as what each setting of thanks and I cannot make much progress as to the following:
Having the autostart command for "C:\Program Files\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\dopus.exe" NOAUTOLISTER STARTUP actually execute successfully when Windows loads.
Getting Opus to open listers in the foreground, on top of other windows, instead of behind all other programs open windows.
I want to add additionally to all the information I have given here that I have created exceptions in Malwarebytes to ignore the Dopus folder, in case it was preventing the program from running properly. I have tried to fix this on my own and I am flat out of ideas. I also reinstalled the software and the behavior continues. Can you assist me in trying to figure out what in the world is making this occur? Thank you so much, Leo, or any one of the other incredible opus experts out there!
If Opus is set to launch on startup but dopus.exe isn't even in the Task Manager / Processes tab a minute or so after you've booted, then something is probably blocking it from launching.
That usually comes down to antivirus. In addition to Malwarebytes etc., Windows itself can also disable startup items (via Task Manager). Windows Defender may also be running on your machine in addition to any other antivirus, and has been causing all sorts of weird problems lately.
Try disabling all aspects of Defender and Malwarebytes (or uninstall them if you can, since some antivirus sometimes still causes issues when disabled if it's still installed, even though they shouldn't) to test if they're involved. If Opus launches normally after that, it tells you where to look. If not, reinstate them and we can find other places to look.
That's normal if Opus was launched via the installer and you haven't rebooted since then.
(Edit/Correction: Also normal in other situations. I don't think it's important.)
Thank you so much for your quick response! just going to give you some more details that I should have included in the original post:
when I first installed Windows, I went through using the group policy editor and disabled Windows defender and as many of its components as I could, so could it still be somehow blocking or affecting opus?
Your response stating that the shortcut with all of the nonsense at the end standard if I have not rebooted since installation I don't think really applies to my situation as that is what displays for the opus.exe program in task manager every time program runs, regardless of how many times I have rebooted since the installation of the software. What do you could be causing this?
I had a crazy thought that perhaps one time I may have adjusted or modified the default Lister immediately after installing opus and somehow this has stuck with me ever since due to backing up the configuration of the software and using the backup in each subsequent installation of the software. I went and used the start menu shortcut to open the program which then resulted in a normal entry in task manager for opus, and then I made a new default Lister. let's see if that fixes that issue.
That doesn't seem right, unless something is re-installing Opus each time you boot. (Edit/Correction: It is in fact normal in other situations as well; see my next reply.)
What is actually launching Opus when you reboot? It would normally be the shortcut in the Start Up folder, but you mentioned looking at that and that it didn't have the same arguments, so it can't be that.
If you reboot now and then look at the command line, what does it say?
Ok, so I was going to either way, but just want to illustrate the lengths that I have gone to find a fix for this issue. I reformatted my PC and reinstalled Windows, and it was a completely clean slate to install Opus. However, I am back to the same issue.
As to your question, the startup entry for Opus is twofold: One for Opus.exe and one for opusrt.exe. This is normal and as expected. The entry for opus.exe looks normal in the task manager, it is set to load the link in the startup folder that has the command of "C:\Program Files\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\dopus.exe" NOAUTOLISTER STARTUP. Again, all normal. Opusrt.exe loads with a command from the registry "C:\Program Files\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\dopusrt.exe" \dblclk.
Yet, when I load opus in ANY fashion other than using the link in the startup folder in the start menu (double clicking on the desktop, Win+E, Taskbar, etc.) the task manager lists the Opus applicationlication running under the command line of "C:\Program Files\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\dopus.exe" nodef dblclk event dopusrt-startup-00016646. I believe the numbers on the end change at times as I have seen while trying to troubleshoot this issue.
I took your advice and tried to make exceptions under Malwarebytes as well as Windows Defender, and nothing has made a difference. I just want to clarify that I always backup my setup prior to a reformat and then import it using the "Backup and Restore" feature. Stupidly, I did not look to see if the issue occurred before I imported the backup, but it surely is doing it now.
Looking into this more, the nodef event dopusrt-startup-0028c2e0 part of the command line is something we added recently and not only used by the installer as I thought earlier. It's normal for that to be on the command line when Opus is launched in certain ways (e.g. desktop double-click).
If you launch it via the Windows Task Bar icon (assuming Opus is pinned to the taskbar, and not already running in the background), it won't have those extra arguments.
What makes you think the command line is involved in whether the windows open on top or behind other windows? (That seems to be the main issue here, unless I've missed something.)
You are right, I may be getting side tracked from the primary issue. However, I noticed that when I see all of this stuff at the end of the command line for opus, that is when the lister opens underneath all of the open windows, so I thought that it was related. I have been known to be wrong many times before, so that may be a possibility!
So, back to the original question, how can I ensure that each lister I open, regardless of the method I open it, always opens in the topmost position and I don't have to go digging through open windows to get to it?
When I was able to find a way to get the listers to open with the (what I thought was) the proper command line, it always would open properly and on top of all open windows. Fault in my logic, I apologize.
That may indicate that the problem only happens if you launch Opus in some ways and not others. Is there a pattern?
For example, does it only happen when double-clicking the desktop? Or double-clicking a folder in something else? Or when opening via the taskbar? Some but not all?
Does it matter or not if Opus is already running in the background?
Do you have anything installed that changes the way the desktop works, or that hooks the mouse or keyboard to enable system-wide gestures, or anything like that?