Invisible “About” popup over blank vDos window

[whathim]

Jos



Re. version 2023.05.01



I’ve noticed an anomaly with the new 3-hourly “About” popup that only seems to occur on my Windows 11 laptop and not on my Windows 10 desktop. This is what happens:



If I have vDos running and I leave the machine unattended for some time, when I come back the vDos window is blank (all black) as shown in the attached Snip 02.png. The window is also unresponsive (e.g. right-clicking the title bar does not popup the vDos menu). This, I realize, is because the “About” popup has activated but is invisible. If I then move the mouse pointer over the window area, sooner or later I get lucky and the pointer passes over the invisible “About” box “X”, which then becomes visible as shown in Snip 03.png. If I click on this X, the vDos window returns to normal (pressing Alt-x also works).

[Jos]

That’s strange, the window is seemingly completely cleared after the About box is displayed.

What happens when the About box is displayed by “About vDos” of the vDos system menu?

Perhaps also of interest: What is the resolution of the screen and TEXT= setting in config.txt?

Alt-x also closes the About box, seemed a logical option.

Jos

[whathim]

Menu > “About vDos” displays as normal – see Snip 04.png.



Screen settings are pretty much default:

System > Display settings are:

Display resolution: 1920 x 1080 (Recommended)

Scale: 125% (Recommended)

Display orientation: Landscape



Config.txt statements are:

CTRL+V = OFF

FONT = FONTS\LUCON.TTF

THEME = 6

TEXT = 50x80



Autoexec.txt statements are:

@echo off

EMSMAGIC /NOXMS /FORCEEMS

USE C: C:\

Rem CALL OpenV3_2\OpenV.bat

CALL vDos\Pause.bat

EXIT



And Pause.bat, which I’m diverting to purely for testing this anomaly, contains just:

PAUSE

[Jos]

I created the same setup, and will leave the vDos window alone…

Doubtful to get the same result, but perhaps I’m surprised.

Jos

[Jos]

I waited 3+ hours, selected the vDos window, but it was not cleared.
And after some 20 minutes still isn’t.



I suspect it is something with your system. To ease testing, I could send you a vDos.exe that for instance displays the About box every 5 minutes (instead of 3 hours).

Jos

[whathim]

Thanks for looking at that, Jos.



Yes, a vDos that displays the “About” every 5 minutes would ease testing although, to be honest, I can’t immediately imagine where to start looking. Windows 11 has many “sillies” in my opinion and limited experience. I may just elect to live with this one.



Will report back if I find anything interesting.

Many thanks.

[Jos]

I’ve sent you that 5 minute About box.

My handicap is I cannot replicate this behavior. The code to display the About box is the same, manually induced or time triggered.
So no clue what would be the cause. Perhaps some Windows utility or driver interfering…

Jos