Unable to group Slack window in Win 11

from Stardock Forums

Hi,

Until the last few days, I was able to add the Slack windows app to any group of tabs. Since yesterday, I am unable to add this to any group of windows. All other applications are able to be grouped. Is this a known issue and are there any steps to resolve?

Info:

  • PC: Dell XPS 15
  • Windows 11 - Version 21H2 Build 22000.556
  • Slack windows app - Version: Production 4.25.0 64-bit

Thanks

Gurdeep

slack groupy
40,317 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

It looks like the latest Slack window may no longer be flagged as a window with a caption.  Because of this it is considered unsuitable for grouping.

Quite why they have done this I cannot say.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I have been having the same problem with Slack in Windows 10 - cannot add it to any Groupy tab group! 

Please fix!

Steve

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 1

It looks like the latest Slack window may no longer be flagged as a window with a caption.  Because of this it is considered unsuitable for grouping.

Quite why they have done this I cannot say.
End of Neil's quote

Just so we're explicitly clear, does this mean that Stardock is not going to do anything to remedy the situation? Is it possible for there to be a setting to apply exceptions to this rule for certain executables?

If Stardock's perspective is that this is a "won't fix" issue, then what does Slack need to change, technically speaking (i.e. can you point me to a Microsoft docs page that outlines the specific caption property you're referring to), to reenable support?

Thanks,

Mike

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

In the meantime, as a workaround, people can download version `4.24` on https://slack.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions (at your own risk). Running the executable will start Slack in the older version (even closing Slack if it's already open), but you'll need to manually run it each time Slack is restarted. This workaround isn't a forever fix as eventually `4.24` will eventually become obsolete and incompatible with Slack's APIs.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting mikeseese, reply 3


Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 1

It looks like the latest Slack window may no longer be flagged as a window with a caption.  Because of this it is considered unsuitable for grouping.

Quite why they have done this I cannot say.



Just so we're explicitly clear, does this mean that Stardock is not going to do anything to remedy the situation? Is it possible for there to be a setting to apply exceptions to this rule for certain executables?

If Stardock's perspective is that this is a "won't fix" issue, then what does Slack need to change, technically speaking (i.e. can you point me to a Microsoft docs page that outlines the specific caption property you're referring to), to reenable support?

Thanks,

Mike

End of mikeseese's quote

Groupy will generally only group windows which fit certain specific requirements.  One of those is that the window has the WS_CAPTION window style.  It is considered normal for applications to have this style for top level windows if they have a titlebar.

As an alternative we also factor in if the window is marked as show on taskbar because most windows which have no caption but have fake captions will mark themselves as show on the taskbar.  But unfortunately they have also removed the WS_EX_APPWINDOW flag from their window.  I assume they are telling the shell directly to opt the window in instead which isn't something so easily detected.

To make matters worse it is an electron framework app which means the class for the window is simply a chrome window which are used in a variety of apps in a variety of ways so we cannot make assumptions about that either.

One of the most visible side effects of their design choices is if you minimize and restore the application you will notice it does not animate but simply vanishes.  This is because they (or their framework) have chosen to deviate from OS norms so the OS doesn't know to animate them either.

Currently there is no way to tell Groupy that the window is an actual program window vs say a splash screen or something else top level that isn't actually a window you would want to group.

+1 Loading…
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 5

Groupy will generally only group windows which fit certain specific requirements.  One of those is that the window has the WS_CAPTION window style.  It is considered normal for applications to have this style for top level windows if they have a titlebar.

As an alternative we also factor in if the window is marked as show on taskbar because most windows which have no caption but have fake captions will mark themselves as show on the taskbar.  But unfortunately they have also removed the WS_EX_APPWINDOW flag from their window.  I assume they are telling the shell directly to opt the window in instead which isn't something so easily detected.

To make matters worse it is an electron framework app which means the class for the window is simply a chrome window which are used in a variety of apps in a variety of ways so we cannot make assumptions about that either.

One of the most visible side effects of their design choices is if you minimize and restore the application you will notice it does not animate but simply vanishes.  This is because they (or their framework) have chosen to deviate from OS norms so the OS doesn't know to animate them either.

Currently there is no way to tell Groupy that the window is an actual program window vs say a splash screen or something else top level that isn't actually a window you would want to group.
End of Neil's quote

 

Great, thanks for the details. I'll see if I can reach out to Slack to see if they can revert the change. It looks like in the previous version they had WS_CAPTION but not WS_EX_APPWINDOW. I can confirm the new version removed WS_CAPTION and that adding it back manually (using Window Detective) was able to let me dock it.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Sandwiched, reply 7

@mikeseese, any news on Slack's end?
End of Sandwiched's quote

No update; I'll be sure to post something when I hear back

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

After further investigation, it appears this bug was introduced in Electron versions 14.2.6, 15.3.4, 16.0.8, 17.0.1, 18.0.0. I have made Slack aware of the issue with recommendations to revert to earlier versions of Electron.

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Sandwiched, reply 7

@mikeseese, any news on Slack's end?
End of Sandwiched's quote

FYI Slack has flagged this issue with the wider desktop app team, and they're looking further into the issue given my recommendations.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Just signed up to thank everyone for the discussion here. Was very frustrating not to be able to dock Slack this morning.

I downloaded Window Detective and added the WS_CAPTION back to Slack as Neil suggested. That is a pretty good workaround until (hopefully) Slack sorts themselves out. Its amazing that they've even broken the window animation in their quest to... what even is the quest?

Anyway, thanks again!

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

@mikeseese thanks very much for the tip on Windows Detective, at least I can group it for now even if it is a pain to do manually. And thanks for reporting to Slack, hopefully they will fix this issue.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting madgick, reply 11
 Its amazing that they've even broken the window animation in their quest to... what even is the quest?
End of madgick's quote

 

It doesn't look like Slack intended this behavior; the bug exists as an accident in the desktop app framework they are using called Electron. They updated their dependencies and got this big with it. Other Electron apps will likely soon have this issue when/if they update their versions (e.g. Discord, Atom editor, Visual Studio Code).

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

This is driving me crazy. The same thing recently happened with the Trello Windows app. I have Windows Detective  now. Would you mind giving explicit instructions on how to implement the workaround? Thanks!

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting ptopo, reply 14

This is driving me crazy. The same thing recently happened with the Trello Windows app. I have Windows Detective  now. Would you mind giving explicit instructions on how to implement the workaround? Thanks!
End of ptopo's quote

 

I put together a quick video to go over how to do it: https://youtu.be/HtcQ2B3X9sA

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

@mikeseese thank you for the update and taking the baton on this. Can confirm it is working for me with the latest slack version too. Have a great easter all.