Malfunction of Directory Opus when left for a while

Help & Support
1

I have been having this issue for many months now. It happened on the previous version of Directory Opus, and I recently upgraded to Version 12 hoping this might fix the problem, but it hasn't. It's a little hard to describe, so I have included a screenshot. Basically the problem is this - I go to lunch (for 30-45 minutes every day), and when I come back the interface of Directory Opus has gone strange - for example, the area that holds the back, forward, up and favourites buttons has turned black, and all buttons have been replaced by stars. The toolbar buttons develop thick black lines and there are large grey areas in the directory listing area (like I said, screenshot shows it better than I can describe it). While Directory Opus continues to work in this visually degraded state it is really slow and takes ages to redraw each screen.

If I close Directory Opus down and reopen it, everything is back to normal again.

I am running Windows 7 SP1 x64 with 16Gb of RAM and an NVidia Quadro 2000 graphics card. None of the other programs that I leave running over my lunch break experience any problems, just Directory Opus. And it ALWAYS does this, EVERY lunchtime (or every time I take a break of more than a few minutes)

187bcfc96b37cf6e5fc2e507f34b1135300335fc.png1190×383 40.5 KB

2

It looks like the process is running out of GDI handles. If you use the Processes tab in Task Manager you can add a GDI Handles column there to test the theory. It will be 10,000 or so if it is the problem.

If there is a GDI leak it is probably not Opus itself but a shell extension, plugin, video codec or similar which is loaded into the Opus process and misbehaving. But let's confirm GDI handles are the problem first.

3

Hi Leo,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I checked when D.O. went funny, and the Handles column was showing 9995.

4

That's definitely a GDI handle leak in that case.

The question now is what is leaking, and is it Opus or something that has been loaded into Opus, such as a shell extension.

The effect of the bug is conspicuous but we have not had any similar reports, so it is likely to be caused by something fairly unusual: Often a 3rd party shell extension, or sometimes using or configuring Opus in an uncommon way.

Does it only happen if you leave Opus looking at folders containing particular types of files? Are those folders being modified while Opus is left there?

For example, it may be worth closing most of the other folder tabs and windows, to test whether it only happens for particular ones.

If the problem is, say, a shell extension involved with PDF files, then the issue may only happen if PDF files are being shown in the viewer, and possibly only if they are also being modified. (When they are modified, Opus will refresh them in the file display, which means doing things like asking for their icon again, which could then call into a 3rd party shell extension.)

When testing which things do or don't trigger the problem, you don't need to wait for the grey squares to appear. Instead, keep Task Manager open and see if the GDI Handles count is still steadily rising. It's normal for the count to fluctuate a bit, but if it is continually rising by hundreds of handles, then that usually indicates a leak.

I don't know if it is relevant, but if you are using a recent, but not completely up-to-date version of TortosieSVN, then there was a bug like this in that briefly. It is fixed after updating to the latest version.