games minimize when started in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kyuso Cahi
  • Start date Start date
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Kyuso Cahi

I am having a strange problem where most of the games (StarCraft, Croc 2,
Wing Commander Prophecy, etc.) start up then minimize in a few seconds, and
no matter how I try to bring it up from the taskbar, it keeps going back to
minimized state.

This happened recently and I remember they worked probably a year ago. I
haven't touched the system for quite a while since I started using linux,
and I don't recall ever installing anything new since.

I searched the google groups and website, and tried many kind of fixes
suggested for people with similar problems (checked viruses, windows fixes,
latest drivers, etc.) and none of them solve the problem.

The weird thing is, I have one user account that actually works!! All the
rest of the accounts have the problem, even though every account has the
same privileges. This suggests that it may have nothing to do with updates,
fixpacks, etc. that are not tied to individual accounts.

Obviously this one account is not the answer since I need different accounts
for different people.

I do not want to spend time re-installing and re-configuring XP the way it
is exactly, now that I am so used to not touching OS ever. And it's not
worth the time solely to allow game playing.

Any simple solution?
 
Hi Kyuso,

"The weird thing is, I have one user account that actually works..
I do not want to spend time re-installing and re-configuring..
Any simple solution?"

Have the other users right click and select the "Run As..." option
to use the account that works to play the game. Simple enough. ;-)

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

|I am having a strange problem where most of the games (StarCraft, Croc 2,
| Wing Commander Prophecy, etc.) start up then minimize in a few seconds, and
| no matter how I try to bring it up from the taskbar, it keeps going back to
| minimized state.
|
| This happened recently and I remember they worked probably a year ago. I
| haven't touched the system for quite a while since I started using linux,
| and I don't recall ever installing anything new since.
|
| I searched the google groups and website, and tried many kind of fixes
| suggested for people with similar problems (checked viruses, windows fixes,
| latest drivers, etc.) and none of them solve the problem.
|
| The weird thing is, I have one user account that actually works!! All the
| rest of the accounts have the problem, even though every account has the
| same privileges. This suggests that it may have nothing to do with updates,
| fixpacks, etc. that are not tied to individual accounts.
|
| Obviously this one account is not the answer since I need different accounts
| for different people.
|
| I do not want to spend time re-installing and re-configuring XP the way it
| is exactly, now that I am so used to not touching OS ever. And it's not
| worth the time solely to allow game playing.
|
| Any simple solution?
|
 
Jimmy S. said:
Hi Kyuso,

"The weird thing is, I have one user account that actually works..
I do not want to spend time re-installing and re-configuring..
Any simple solution?"

Have the other users right click and select the "Run As..." option
to use the account that works to play the game. Simple enough. ;-)
Click to expand...

I don't want to borrow this user's password just to run games. Besides, that
didn't work either.

I finally found that if I open the command line, cd to the directory, then
type the program name, it works!!!

What is this? Is there something different with running a program directly
from start menu compared to running from command line in XP? Is there an
option to turn this off? This is so weird!

For now, I am forced to command line typing in XP. I tried to create a batch
file to automate this but that didn't work. I tried compatibility mode off
and on with no avail.

I still need a better solution since other users have no clue about the
command line.
 
Kyuso Cahi said:
I am having a strange problem where most of the games (StarCraft, Croc 2,
Wing Commander Prophecy, etc.) start up then minimize in a few seconds, and
no matter how I try to bring it up from the taskbar, it keeps going back to
minimized state.

This happened recently and I remember they worked probably a year ago. I
haven't touched the system for quite a while since I started using linux,
and I don't recall ever installing anything new since.

I searched the google groups and website, and tried many kind of fixes
suggested for people with similar problems (checked viruses, windows fixes,
latest drivers, etc.) and none of them solve the problem.

The weird thing is, I have one user account that actually works!! All the
rest of the accounts have the problem, even though every account has the
same privileges. This suggests that it may have nothing to do with updates,
fixpacks, etc. that are not tied to individual accounts.

Obviously this one account is not the answer since I need different accounts
for different people.

I do not want to spend time re-installing and re-configuring XP the way it
is exactly, now that I am so used to not touching OS ever. And it's not
worth the time solely to allow game playing.

Any simple solution?
Click to expand...

Well nice to see someone else but me with the problem...
I wonder if it has anything to do with an windows update..but then
more people should be affected I guess.

I have tried to scan for viruses with Norton, scanned for trojans and
other malicious software with adaware and spybot.

I have tried to delete Norton since some though this could be a problem.

I have tried installing newer (nvidia 61.77) and older drivers.

Nothing seems to help..

Kyuso, did you ever find out what the problem was?

/KillerAdmin
 
I know of one solution, remove or turnoff any keyboard software. I know of a
number of people that were having this problem due to keyboard software
runnning.
 
Kevin Christian said:
I know of one solution, remove or turnoff any keyboard software. I know of a
number of people that were having this problem due to keyboard software
runnning.
Click to expand...

Yeah i read about that also under some thread. Only thing is I dont use any.

/KillerAdmin
 
I haven't been able to find a good solution to this problem. I know
Alt-Spacebar, N minimizes a window. So does clicking the taskbar icon in
the title bar of the application. I wonder if the application is somehow
getting the windows titlebar (perhaps because another app is grabbing focus
or it started windowed) and then sending mouseclicks to the taskbar icon?

Maybe if keyboard software causes problems it could be mouse software too?

I saw a post mentioning Internet Explorer & pop-ups. The person found an
Internet Explorer session every time their application minimized that was
caused by "invisible" pop-ups. You might look at the processes list to see
if some other application is getting triggered. For example, it might be a
firewall client set to display no messages trying to open a port for a
network-capable game that's failing the attempt, etc.

You could try downloading power tools and disable the "windows steal
application focus" check box.

Are you running any refresh rate setting software in your driver? It could
be your application is trying to set the monitors refresh rate and stealing
focus. Perhaps there's a setting that only works on the admin account and
that's why the other users are failing because the regkey can't be set and
the application keeps looping in a vain attempt to set the refresh rate.
 
Neil Dela Osa (MS] said:
I haven't been able to find a good solution to this problem. I know
Alt-Spacebar, N minimizes a window. So does clicking the taskbar icon in
the title bar of the application. I wonder if the application is somehow
getting the windows titlebar (perhaps because another app is grabbing focus
or it started windowed) and then sending mouseclicks to the taskbar icon?
Click to expand...

That could be. I found out that during the short while the games are
full screen if i click the mouse it stays that way.
Maybe if keyboard software causes problems it could be mouse software too?
Click to expand...

Maybe. I have to try and delete my logitec mousedrivers.
I saw a post mentioning Internet Explorer & pop-ups. The person found an
Internet Explorer session every time their application minimized that was
caused by "invisible" pop-ups. You might look at the processes list to see
if some other application is getting triggered. For example, it might be a
firewall client set to display no messages trying to open a port for a
network-capable game that's failing the attempt, etc.
Click to expand...

Firewall it couldnt be on my system since i dont use one but it must
be some program that does it. Strange thing is that some games
work fine.
You could try downloading power tools and disable the "windows steal
application focus" check box.
Click to expand...

Ok I will try that also.
Are you running any refresh rate setting software in your driver? It could
be your application is trying to set the monitors refresh rate and stealing
focus. Perhaps there's a setting that only works on the admin account and
that's why the other users are failing because the regkey can't be set and
the application keeps looping in a vain attempt to set the refresh rate.
Click to expand...

You know my monitor "clicks" when I change resolution or refreshrate.
When running the games that minimize it clicks quite a few times.

I am using the driver specific to my monitor. I dont think that makes the
problem since i have used that driver since 2001 or something :)

Well thanks everyone for your post. I will try to see if I can get it to
work right
and then report back here.

/KillerAdmin
 
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