ToolTipFixer 1.0.1 not persistently working

[Robooter]

I was SO glad to finally find a solution for this stupid problem having the tooltips behind the taskbar.

I installed ToolTipFixer 1.0.1 on top of my Vista Home Premium.

Now SOME tooltips appear in front of the toolbar, but others are still hidden (or are unclearly visible behind and through the semi-transparent task bar).

It's not that easy to generate test cases :nerd:

I tried "Windows Media Center" to be forced to download TV-program files - and can now see the message in front of the task bar that always was behind it before.

And I tried Nokia PC-Suite to connect and disconnedt the phone - and those messages are still behind the task bar like before.

The service is running all the time...

 

[mqudsi]

Hi Robooter, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

ToolTipFixer isn't officially compatible with Windows Vista.
For the most part, Windows Vista does not have this bug. I haven't been able to reproduce the hidden tooltip effect on Vista regularly, though I'd be very interested if you know how to make that happen?

 

[Robooter]

ToolTip Effect

The funny thing is, when I was running XP earlier, I didn't know about the hidden tooltip effect, since the task bar was solid - and I just did not see that there were tooltips...

As said, I just remarked that the tooltips are behind the task bar - without doing anything special. They just are there. They are completly behind the task bar.

Oh, I did something special: I have the toolbar not "fixed" and pulled it's upper edge higher to make it 6 rows high (having space for 6 rows of icons in the quick start area).

Now if I try to force tooltips coming up, I currently have only 2 scenarios:

Windows Media Center: Inside WMC you can force the TV-programs to be downloaded (I have only the german menue but I try to translate -> TV-Program- using right mouseclick: settings-tv-tv program-download new program list). This makes WMC opening a tool icon that brings that tooltip-message up. It's in front of the task bar with ToolTipFixer and it's behind the task bar without ToolTipFixer.

Nokia PC Suite - It's not part of Vista of course, but I just have it installed for my phone. I can connect and disconnect the cable which also brings a tooltip-message up. This is always behind the task bar.

Are you with me?

 

[Mak 2.0]

This might not have anything to do with Tooltip but more with the fact you have it stretched to 6 rows high. Have you tested it out by taking it down to say 2 rows and see if they show up? Plus as Mahmoud said Tool Tip isnt fully Vista compatible yet.

 

[mqudsi]

It should still appear above the taskbar anway, I think, regardless of the size.

I was actually under the impression that Vista had, more or less, fixed the problem and never even considered running TTF on Vista!

 

[Robooter]

So it's a good feeling that some things never go to change, is it? (They could become worse...)

Today I tried to shot a pic with a tooltip box in front of the task bar - and found that I cannot reproduce it.

Means: even with ToolTipFixer running, all tooltip message boxes are hidden behind the task bar.

I HAD the Windows Media Center tooltip box ON TOP of the task bar, but this partial positive effect just "has gone with the wind"...

I made my association with ToolTipFixer - but grabbing deep in my mind, it could be that those tooltip boxes JUST SOMETIMES appear in front of the task bar - voluntarily and accidentally.

I got it back and attached 2 pics:

When running WMC in full-screen mode, forcing the tv-programs to be downloaded, minimizing WMC and watch the Vista desktop: the tooltip message appears IN FRONT of the task bar (first pic). This happens with the ToolTipFixer service running OR NOT.

When running WMC in a window and do the same procedure: the tooltip message appears BEHIND the task bar (second pic).

I hope this helps a bit against the confusion. So far I got the impression that ToolTipFixer (running or not) has no effect on that problem.

And to make it clear:

The situation on pic 1 is the very exception. Usually all tooltips apear as shown on pic 2 and are hidden and not readable.

 

[Mak 2.0]

So this isnt so much a bug in Tool Tip Fixer as it is the fact that TTF is not compatible with Vista. Since this was unknown that Vista had this issue. TTF was created with XP in mind not Vista. So now it is up to Mahmoud to see if he wants to rework this and make it Vista Compatible.

 

[mqudsi]

OK, here's the thing:

I have the code that checks for the correct Z-Index for tooltips, and it should work on Vista the same as it does on XP, in theory.

However, here's the thing. At the moment, I'm more inclined to think that this is not the same issue - I'm thinking that there is something in your particular configuration that is causing it, for more than one reason. First is because my MS contacts assure me the bug has been fixed, and the steps that I used to reproduce the bug on XP do not work on Vista (namely, opening a folder by right-clicking in the start menu) and second is how you're telling it me it happens almost constantly.


This leads me to believe that this is a similar but not identical issue, and it is not caused by the same bug in Windows Vista.

I cannot reproduce this tooltip effect on a clean Vista install, either.

I'm not saying that because I cannot reproduce it means that it does not exist - thankfully that's not the way I view bug reports

However, under the current circumstances, I think I'm forced to say that this doesn't seem to be the same issue, especially since ToolTipFixer's code has no effect whatsoever. If, perhaps, when you first start ToolTipFixer it works but not later on, or something else of that sort; by all means.

Have you always had this behavior on your Windows Vista install?