Desktop window appears stuck behind all other windows

[BobK]

Hi... this is a new one for me and I can't identify anything I'm doing differently of late that would trigger this problem. I use HandBase desktop version 4.1.5 (exe file is dated 2/6/2009 -- which last I checked appeared to still be the latest version) on Windows 7 Enterprise ( I know THAT's dated too but my employer says we're moving to Win 10 soon) on a Dell Latitude E7250 laptop. Despite the age of both programs, everything worked great until a few days ago.

It's possible my computer may have gotten some operating system patches pushed to it in the last few days; that's the only thing I can think of that may have changed.

Now, when I try to open HandBase, the window pops open briefly and then recedes to the task bar. If I try it again, I get a second window in the task bar. When I put my cursor on the HandBase rectangle(s) in the Task Bar, I see a small image of a database but clicking on it does nothing. When I toggle between windows (where HandBase appears just as other open programs do using alt-tab), the HandBase window does not open.

I've tried rebooting to no avail.

I tried copying the exe file and a database to another computer and it works fine on the other computer, suggesting that the exe file is not corrupted.

It feels like HandBase desktop is stuck permanently behind other windows -- could this be something in the registry that's doing this?

In any case, I can't use the program on my primary computer until I can fix the problem.

Any suggestions? Thanks much, and happy 4th.

[curtterp]

You will get this behaviour if you had multiple monitors hooked up before, and now you only have one monitor hooked up. Example would be having a laptop with an external monitor hooked up. If you last used a program on the external, then unhooked the monitor, the windows thinks it's opening the program on the external monitor, but you are not seeing anything because you just have the laptop monitor running.

Check your video settings and see if a second monitor is showing up. Look for a setting to "Mirror" displays. Then try to open HanDBase again. This should solve the problem.

[BobK]

Curt,

THANK YOU! That's probably it, as I normally have my laptop hooked up to two monitors when I am docked at my office, and I am away from there now.

That said, when I go to control panel - devices and printers - display - connect to an external display, it shows just the one "mobile PC display" and I don't see any other options, including "mirror". So I have been unable to change the settings.

Can you walk me through how to fix this?

I really appreciate the help.

Bob

[curtterp]

I would try cold booting the laptop first. Shut down the laptop, remove the external power and battery.

wait 2-5 minutes, then put the battery back in, hook up external power, and fire it up.

try opening HanDBase. If you still cannot see it, right click on the HanDBase button on the task bar and choose "Cascade Windows"

If still no joy (cannot see HanDBase)

Right click on the desktop. You might see 2 different entries for video, one is Windows video, the other might be either the laptop manufacturer or video card manufacturer video control panel. You want to left click on the manufacturer control panel.

Again you are looking for a multiple/external display section. You want to try to mirror the displays.

if still no joy

Hopefully you are at a business (like an external salesman or something like that) and you can ask them if they have a spare monitor that you could hook up to for about 5 minutes. Once you have an external monitor hooked up, open HanDBase. Move the HanDBase window to you your laptop display and close it. Disconnect the external monitor, reboot and open HanDBase up again. It should be visible.

Remember, this is all from an old Random Access Memory module, being feed by an old 8" floppy disk, and there is no inline error correction. (Yes, I am an old fart in a young kids game)

[BobK]

Thanks again, Curt. No joy with either #1 or #2 responses but I will be going into an office later today with a spare monitor so hopefully #3 will work! I will keep you posted. Bob

[ddhsoftwareadmin]

Hi there,

Sorry for chiming in late. The settings INI file is where we save the settings for the screen- if you were to delete/remove that file you'd probably be back in business. I am going on memory because I'm not near my windows PC at the moment but I believe it was in the same folder as the .exe and called HanDBase.ini or HanDBaseDesktop.ini.