Windows Pro 10 preview build 14291 - issue

[srdavis]

With this new preview build (released March 18/2016) the clocks on the taskbar have disappeared. this happened with the release of 5310. so I'm not sure where the problem lies. the desk clock appears and the functionality seems there (e.g. right click and get menus, etc.) but the clocks do not appear on the toolbar as in past. noticed when reboot after upgrade to latest windows 10 preview.

[srdavis]

see known issue on MSFT Site feedback-hub:?contextid=156&feedbackid=a78e63ca-d3af-4dd0-acf3-63cb846349ed&form=1&src=2

[admin]

see known issue on MSFT Site feedback-hub:?contextid=156&feedbackid=a78e63ca-d3af-4dd0-acf3-63cb846349ed&form=1&src=2

Could you please provide a working link to the known issue? Thanks.

[srdavis]

sorry - link is for app in Windows 10 "Feedback Hub". newest preview version of Windows 10 (14316) still has the problem. when the computer boots it loads a single clock and the time is frozen on that clock display, the desktop clock continues to work as do the functions on the program. something has happened with the taskbar in these new versions. i hope you are investigating with Microsoft.

i have screen shots i could send - i don't know how to insert them into this post.

[peter]

i have screen shots i could send - i don't know how to insert them into this post.

To post an image or another attachment: click on the Post Reply button on the topic. Do not use "Quick Reply". Scroll to the bottom of the image below to see the Post Reply button.

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Hope it helps,

[peter]

sorry - link is for app in Windows 10 "Feedback Hub". newest preview version of Windows 10 (14316) still has the problem. when the computer boots it loads a single clock and the time is frozen on that clock display, the desktop clock continues to work as do the functions on the program. something has happened with the taskbar in these new versions. i hope you are investigating with Microsof.

What you describe sounds like a Microsoft Windows 10 Beta bug affecting builds 14291-14316 and it is best to report the problem directly to them.

[srdavis]

here are the screen shots

[admin]

Well, what can I say when things break when you run beta software from Microsoft Insider Preview?

Looks like they broke stuff again in these builds (I see the issue with build 14316). Best to report the bug to them.

Taskbar clock does not show at all, although a right-click menu is there, at least it allows you to move the clocks onto the desktop instead (by opening Preferences, then selecting "Show this clock on Desktop" instead of "in taskbar").

We'll try to do some digging around to see what exactly is broken, but apparently we cannot fix Windows, which is a closed source OS without hope.

[admin]

I did some investigation, and if I read things correctly, it looks like things are broken on the Windows API level. This is preliminary, of course, as I may be mistaken somewhere.

Long story short: to display in taskbar we need to inject a DLL into the Explorer.exe process (which is a UI shell that shows up everything on desktop including taskbar with a system clock inside). Our DLL then "draws" a custom clock.

We do the injection with the help of SetWindowsHookEx Windows API. Here is the code:

Code: Select all

if (dwThreadId)
{
    DebugLog(L"hook.cpp HookStart() Installing hook procedure on taskbar message processing thread");
    // Install hook procedure on taskbar message processing thread.
    g_hHookProc = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CALLWNDPROC, 
                                       (HOOKPROC)ExplorerHookProc, 
                                       g_hHookInstance,
                                       dwThreadId);
    // Post a message to taskbar for the hook clock to initialize.
    if (g_hHookProc)
    {
        DebugLog(L"hook.cpp HookStart() PostMessage(g_hwndTaskbar, WM_SIZE, SIZE_RESTORED, 0);");
        PostMessage (g_hwndTaskbar, WM_SIZE, SIZE_RESTORED, 0);
    }
}

It looks like the API call succeeds, because I see both log messages on the insider build.

But the ExplorerHookProc is never entered, this seems to be the root cause of the problem. API succeeds but is not working apparently.

This is something for a Microsoft engineer to investigate further and fix.

However, I will check things again in a few days to see if my assumptions are correct... Hope it helps.

[srdavis]

Thanks for the investigation. not sure how to forward all this the MSFT, but will try.

[srdavis]

update to Windows 10 build 14328 - still not fix. something with task bar. no further word from MSFT. any help you your end in solving the issue?

[admin]

update to Windows 10 build 14328 - still not fix. something with task bar. no further word from MSFT. any help you your end in solving the issue?

I am not sure how we can solve a problem with a broken Windows build. It is a moving target full of bugs, it seems. What do you want us to do? I reported the issue to them using the Feedback Hub. I suggest everybody who is affected to do the same. If enough people report it, perhaps they will get the message eventually. Or care to reply here, perhaps suggest a workaround or something. Or maybe someone with enough motivation explores further why the API that was always working is now broken.

In the meantime I can only suggest not to use insider builds at all.

[srdavis]

thanks - all we can do at this point. i appreciate your reporting. i did as well/

[blyrhoodman]

This has not been fixed in build 14332.

[srdavis]

Remains a problem in release 14342 as well