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 Post subject: Taskbar freeze
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:54 pm 
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Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2018 4:55 am
Posts: 53
I'm just trying to figure out why this issue is happening and how to prevent it. I just want to know if anyone else experienced it and how they solved it.

Upon resuming my PC from sleep, Windows freezes, my taskbar is unclickable, windows explorer uses high cpu (about 15-30%) and mouse pointer is busy. I tried to recover from this situation by restarting explorer in task manager, but that does not help. However, when I end WorkShelf process and then restart explorer I'm able to recover. Of course, I restart WorkShelf again after I recover from this freeze situation.

So, my question is why do the recover steps work only after I end WorkShelf process in task manager? Is WorkShelf causing this problem or is WorkShelf preventing from recovering from this problem? What role does WorkShelf have with Explorer, I mean does WorkShelf hook into Explorer application/process?

Trying to understand if this issue is somehow caused by WorkShelf. Maybe or maybe not. That's what I am trying to figure out. This problem is recurring enough number of times that it has now become frustrating for me.

Any help to resolve this issue would be great.


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 Post subject: Re: Taskbar freeze
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:25 pm 
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You had already reported a problem with Explorer freezing after accessing WorkShelf Preferences, had you not?

Neither this nor what you are describing in this post is normal behavior in any way, shape or form.

There WAS a problem where WorkShelf/Nexus (NOT Explorer!) could freeze for a long time with high CPU usage after returning from sleep or hibernation, but that was fixed a long time ago and was related to high resolution timers and a new hybrid Windows power saving mode used only (at the time) in Surface laptops.

This made it very difficult to diagnose until I was able to determine that the common factor to those suffering from this issue was that they all had a Surface laptop, that this laptop used the new InstantGo sleep state by default, and that InstantGo tried to be clever by not notifying applications of what was about to happen unless the application specifically requested to be notified. Couple that with the odd behavior of high resolution timers upon returning from sleep and you had the perfect recipe for disaster.

When using InstantGo, Windows would not report to the application that it was about to enter sleep or hibernation (as it should), this in turn prevented the Winstep application from destroying the high resolution timer before-the-fact, which would then fire *constantly* to make up for lost time on return from the power saving mode (thus freezing the Winstep application until it had finished making up for the time spent in sleep or hibernation).

But, as I said, this was fixed a long time ago and had no effect whatsoever on Explorer itself. My guess is that some 3rd party extension on your system (which also hooks to Explorer) is causing both issues.

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Jorge Coelho
Winstep Xtreme - Xtreme Power!
http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies


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 Post subject: Re: Taskbar freeze
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 6:22 pm 
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Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2018 4:55 am
Posts: 53
Thanks for reply Jorge. Yes, I also reported the problem with Explorer and taskbar freezing when I change preferences, which also causes the shelf to automatically move to 2nd monitor. This issue is still present and I have stayed away from changing preferences since then even though I need to do that to customize the shelf. Honestly, I'm not sure how I can work around it to change preferences and not crash.

I'm not sure what is causing this freezing issue upon resume from sleep, but I can tell you that WorkShelf may be preventing recovering from the issue because every single time this issue occurs, the only way I could recover from the situation is if I first end WorkShelf process and then restart Explorer. I cannot recover if I just restart Explorer while WorkShelf is still running. I guess I'll just have to live with this issue and do what I'm doing to recover from it.


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 Post subject: Re: Taskbar freeze
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 6:59 pm 
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While I can't help you much because this is obviously a system specific issue, my recommendation is that you stop focusing so much on WorkShelf and start looking at other applications you have installed on your system (could be your AV solution, some windows manager application, could be anything).

Unfortunately this is the type of thing you normally can only figure out by trial and error.

Just to give you an example: another user wrote an email to Winstep support angrily complaining that the clock voice would say a number, then pause, say another number, etc... Because this was happening in WorkShelf, he obviously assumed it was a bug in the Winstep application itself.

Now, I had never heard of this issue, and the clock voice obviously works fine for everyone else.

Turns out, after some digging around on his part, that it was actually caused by something called 'Nahimic Audio enhancement' which he had installed on his system. Good thing he figured it out for himself, because I had NEVER heard of that 'enhancement' myself so I couldn't offer him much help, other than directing him to re-install audio codecs, etc...

I can only fix what are indeed issues with the Winstep applications per se - I can't fix 3rd party code.

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Jorge Coelho
Winstep Xtreme - Xtreme Power!
http://www.winstep.net - Winstep Software Technologies


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 Post subject: Re: Taskbar freeze
PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:20 am 
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Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2018 4:55 am
Posts: 53
Thanks Jorge. Myself, I'm not complaining nor angry. Just stated my observations. Like you said, I will keep trying to figure out what is going on here.


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