ShadowFX and Tiles Don't Play Nice Together

from Stardock Forums

Windows 8.1 Pro x64

nVidia graphics

Dual quad-core Xeons

16 GB RAM

I boot into the Win8 Start Menu because I like reading/looking at the Live Tiles while I wait for the system to finish booting.  With ShadowFX and Tiles enabled at start up, I get flickering at the bottom edge of the screen (likely the auto-hidden taskbar) and I can't get to the desktop at all.  None of the metro tiles or desktop apps will open and Task Manager won't open. (Actually, it probably opens but I can't see it or get to it because I'm locked into the Start Menu.)

The only way to get unstuck from this situation is to either reboot, or sign out and sign back in, then access the desktop quickly before either or both of those programs become fully active.

I have Decor8, ModernMix and Start8 also, but they don't affect either ShadowFX or Tiles when either of those 2 apps (but not both) are started at boot.

I figure my setup isn't a configuration that was tested much, if at all, because all the buzz since Windows 8.0 has been about booting into the desktop.

Jeff

3,300 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Would it be possible for you to make a video of this flickering and send it along with screenshots and the support tool to us?

support@stardock.com - It's best to link the video from youtube or dropbox if you can.

http://sd.stardock.com/Support/supportToolTest/SDSupportTool.exe - This tool will collect the logs from our software and any error logs.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Email sent.  Thanks!

Jeff

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Update for those of you playing along at home.  I'm sending the same info to Stardock as part of my support ticket:

This is incredibly hard and frustrating to troubleshoot.  The issue isn't limited to the combo of ShadowFX and Tiles.  It's the combo of Tiles and any of several other autostart programs and services.  Plus, the issue doesn't appear on every startup.  For example, (with ShadowFX uninstalled) I was able to start my system with every single autostart item enabled, including Tiles, successfully.  On the next reboot, the issue came back.

So I eliminated all of my startup programs and services and added them back one-by-one.  I was able to add several back without the issue occurring, and I was able to get several successful restarts in a row in that configuration.  When I enabled the next autostart program, the problem appeared again.  So I disabled that most recently added startup item, which took me back to my known good configuration.  When I rebooted, the issue appeared again!  My stable, successful startup configuration wasn't stable any more.  I had this same experience with several different combinations of startup programs.

I really want to use Tiles.  It's close to me needing to use Tiles.   :)  I have found a workaround.  I disabled autostart in Tiles, and when I boot to the Start Menu, I just click the Tiles tile instead of the Desktop tile to get to my desktop.  That will have to do for now, until (or if) a fix is found.

Cheers,

Jeff