[bug] Groupy destroys Task Bar after latest Windows 10 update kb5003214

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

That appears to be a preview update, which we would not support, but I will look into it.

Thank you for the report.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Groupy should have absolutely no impact on the taskbar.

Are you sure it isn't something else running?

Yes... I am SURE.

Installing kb5003214, groupy active, reboot, task bar broken (see images above).

removing kb5003214 groupy active, task bar working again.

installing kb5003214 + groupy active, broken again.

deactivate groupy + reboot with kb5003214, working.

enabling groupy + reboot with kb5003214, broken.

deactivate groupy + reboot with kb5003214, working again.

100% SURE.

I dont use ANY other programs which alter Windows 10 21h1 19043.1023. It is a german system, 4k resolution, 200% dpi scale.

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

I have it and I cannot reproduce it:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/2021-05-27_13-33-08.mp4

Full disclosure, I am on Groupy 1.49 but the changes to it should not be relevent:

https://forums.stardock.com/504868/page/1/#3805960

It very well could it be a specific setting (in Groupy, another 3rd party app, Windows) you have that makes it so but I am afraid it would be up to you to see what that might be.

To eliminate a group setting, when uninstalling, there should be a 'remove settings' option:

Please keep us posted. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager 

I dont use any 3rd party apps like I said. Groupy is doing this. I can always reproduce it. activate groupy reboot, broken, deactivate groupy reboot, working. I did that now 3 times in a row.

Good news and bad news.

Good, we can repro if the primary is not at 100% scaling.

Bad news, it isn't us.  It seems that patch has a defect in it which breaks if anything sets hooks from a system process.  Even a 32 bit hook causes that visual issue on a 64 bit OS (which is utterly illogical).  The very same issue can be reproduced with Stardock WindowFX.

You may well have to wait for Microsoft to resolve it.  Please do file a bug with Microsoft and then I recommend you uninstall that preview update.

Nice. So it is a bug with your software. Good you can reproduce it now.

Why would I report this to MS if it is your software (: You have to report this obviously. I guess you dont want all your customers to have this issue, right? I also cant report anything because I have set all diagnostics to off on my machines and Feedback Hub wont work because of that.

My guess is this is not a bug but MS just changed something, how hooks work with this update. so you have to change your software. This update will become a permanent update in a short period of time, which includes major updates to Windows 10. There is no way to ignore the update for maybe just a few weeks until it becomes major.

I think you have misunderstood me.

There is no bug in our software, Microsoft have accidentally introduced a bug in THEIR update which is being exposed whenever a system process installs a hook.  There are multiple apps which can do this and I can think of two Stardock ones off hand both of which are causing explorer to show the issue.  I believe there will be products from other companies too.

Microsoft are somewhat unlikely to introduce an intentional change which causes an unrelated bit of the UI to paint incorrectly when on a non 100% dpi monitor especially when hooks have been a stable feature of Windows since I think Windows 3.  If they were to make a change they would stop something working, not introduce a random repaint glitch in an unrelated process.

In short, the issue IS Microsofts, we will file a bug with them too but the more bugs they get the more they tend to pay attention.  They release preview patches so that customers who install them will report issues to them.

With regards to the patch, I have advised you to uninstall it for now to avoid the issue.

Well. That the programmers at MS are totally incompetent since a few years sadly is nothing new. Wonder why that is the case. Mostly because all the "old guys" from the Windows team retired, and those young kids from college (or even not from college) never learned how to program properly or how the Windows system works.

Cant remember a Windows update with no issues in the past years.

Maybe this issue has something to do with their new "news and weather" feature in the task bar, and they use a hook too to implement it in the task bar interfering with your hooks?

I did wonder about that, but thats been in the insider builds for ages and as far as I am aware this is brand new in this patch.  It is certainly a head scratcher as to how this happened.

We have filed the bug here so if anyone else wishes to upvote it feel free : https://aka.ms/AAcr4gx

I'm running 21H1 with Groupy 1.49 and this also happened to me. It hosed my entire system. Luckily I had an Image backup. I didn't realize that it might be Groupy. I run my display scaled to 125%. I uninstalled the update and paused updates until I see a revised version of this update. I agree that it might have something to do with the implementation of News and Interests ( which I hate by the way). I upvoted your bug report.   

Just to update. My Surface pro 4 which has the display scaled to 250% and is running 21390.co release 210521-1658 does not have this issue. Hopefully MS will fix this update before the wide release on June 8th.   

I can confirm this. I just formatted and installed 21H1 1023 with the KB already installed. With only groupy installed I get the same results. Uninstalling KB5003214 Everything is normal again.

I did the same thing (format, install windows,install program) for each stardock program I have one at a time. the following all caused the issue.

Windowblinds

Groupy

WindowFX.

It's def. a MSFT issue and im not sure if there is a workaround for it so hopefully with enough upvotes MSFT will fix it.

Just to check something as you have reported it being an issue with WindowBlinds which isn't something we are aware is being impacted by this Microsoft bug (it works differently to the other two)

Are you sure the WindowBlinds issue is not purely limited to the area behind the weather widget being transparent to the desktop wallpaper rather than the issue with Groupy and WindowFX where the taskbar repaints the system tray icon area etc badly?  That would be a case of WB simply not being aware of that new control and is something thats not Microsoft's fault directly (or SD), it is purely something new that WB needs to be enhanced to support it.

It's likely you are correct. It isnt the same problem with WB as it is with groupy and wFX. I did notice that painting returned to normal in WB when the widget was removed.

Several of the more prominent tech news sites have articles on this issue now. Hopefully Microsoft gets the message.

have you upvoted the feedback on it?

Incidentally:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-10-kb5003214-update-causes-taskbar-display-glitches/

An example of these display glitches is shown below, where you can see the system tray icons all overlaying each other in a mess.

After users experimented with different settings, it was determined that the bug is caused by disabling the News and Interests widget on the taskbar. 

Once disabled and a new system tray icon is shown, it triggers the glitch. Once you enable the News and Interests widget again on the taskbar, the icons begin to display correctly.

Windows 10 users affected by this bug found that it could be fixed by uninstalling the KB5003214 preview update, but unless Microsoft fixes the issue before June 8th's Patch Tuesday, all users will be faced with this issue.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

I never had the news and weather "widget" enabled btw from the beginning, I had disabled it before even I had installed this update. Yet no source or news portal seem to write, what we here discussed, that it is related to "system hooks". How is that related? I mean I have kb5003214 installed and the "news and weather" disabled right now, and I have no glitches, with Groupy disabled.

How on EARTH didnt NOONE at MS notice this while """testing"""?

We suspect there are a few triggers for the issue.  Both Groupy and WindowFX share the same issue with hooks and they certainly seem to be the root cause when they are on a machine, but there may be other things which also trigger it as we have had reports about Fences which doesn't work like Groupy or WindowFX.

It may well come down to some odd timing issue or memory thats not been cleared somewhere correctly.

We cross our fingers this gets sorted before that patch goes properly live.

Installed KB5003637 (19043.1052) today and everything seems to be fairly stable, but News and Interests doesn't like to be turned off. If I turn it off and restart, things get a little whacky until I turn it back on. Having Groupy turned on or off doesn't seem to make any difference. Hopefully MS will get it stabilized in the next few updates, because I really want to turn it off. Let me know if any of you who have installed this update are experiencing any issues, Thanks