HideRootWindow ini switch NT vs. W2KP

[Spaz]

Hello wireworkers!
I use LabView 6.0.2 on both NT 4.0 and 2000Pro machines. I have used the LabView.ini switch HideRootWindow=True to hide the extra taskbar entry in NT 4.0 for some time and a bonus result is (or at least I thought it was) that there is only one task bar entry regardless of how many VI's I have open in the development environment. Likewise only one LabView icon is visible in the Windows popup for using ALT-TAB to toggle between apps. While this is highly desireable the trade-off has been that the only way to switch between vi's is via the LabView 'Windows' menu item (unless a portion of the desired panel or diagram is visible to click on or I CTRL-ESC\SHFT-CTRL-ESC through the child windows. In fact some of the
LV dialogs (i.e. find) are only accessible by CTRL-ESC or 'refinding' because they do not have an entry in the Windows menu. Yet I find this less annoying than tons of taskbar items for each panel and diagram that I have open.

My problem is that the insertion of the HideRootWindow=True in 2KP, while it hides the root LabView taskbar item, does not emulate the NT behavior outlined above. I have perused both LabView.ini files on each system looking for an additional switch I may have omitted but I find none that seem related.

Any ideas?

[mikeporter]

Frankly I haven't noticed any change in the behaviour of the ini switch you mentioned. All it does it get rid of the extra labview tab in the taskbar. you always get a tab for every window you have open, regardless of the setting of that switch. If NT operated the way you described, it was a fluke...

Sorry about that...

[Mark A. Hanning-Lee]

mikeporter wrote:
>
> Frankly I haven't noticed any change in the behaviour of the ini
> switch you mentioned. All it does it get rid of the extra labview tab
> in the taskbar. you always get a tab for every window you have open,
> regardless of the setting of that switch. If NT operated the way you
> described, it was a fluke...

In LV 5.1 each VI shows an entry on the Windows taskbar if and only if
you have checked the "Allow User to Resize Window" entry in VI Setup.

In LV 6.0.2 each VI shows an entry on the Windows taskbar if and only if
you have checked the "Allow User to Minimize Window" entry in VI
Properties. That's under the Window Appearance category, via the
Customize... button.

I guess that if you can't minimize the window, then it
doesn't have to
appear on the Windows taskbar, because you never need to go to the
taskbar to restore it!

That seems common in other Windows software.

Mark

[Spaz]

Mark-
That's how the knowledge base says it's supposed to work but on my computer with NT4 that's not how it IS working. I have only one LabView taskbar item regardless of how many windows I have open with the "Allow User to Minimize Window" option selected, when I click on the LabView icon they all come to the foreground (sort of like documents in word except there not all bound within the confine boundaries of the parent.)

I forgot to add that when I minimize the VI windows that they shrink to the title bar only with a fixed width of approximately 10 characters of the name showing followed by "..." and the control box icons on the right and they dock at the bottom left of my screen. (like minimized word docs do in the confines of the word parent) They line up left to right as they would on the task bar but they are definitely not on the task bar. In fact my taskbar (which is set to the autohide property) obscures them when it pops up. Once another app obscures them they cannot be seen until that app, or any others that share that portion of the screen is closed or moved out of the way. When I can see them, I can individually size them to their original size, maximize or close them by clicking on the correct portion of their control box. If I select the single LabView icon from the taskbar or alt-tab to the single labview icon in the pop-up then they all return to their original sizes and position. The vi that was most recently foremost is foremost again. This is the easiest way to get them back. This certainly reduces the LabView icon clutter on the taskbar and less annoying than alt-tabbing thru all those individual LV icons in the windows popup to go back and forth between a single vi and another app.

I've worked both ways and this apparent fluke is definitely preferable in my view. It's worked this way for over a year, in LV5.xx and, to the best of my recollection, in 98 also. (No 98 machine right now but I don't remember any similar agitation while working in 98) I just can't duplicate it in W2KP.

Hope I never have to reinstall LV on the NT machine. If I figure it out, I will post the solution.

Thank you for your response.
Spaz.

[Spaz]

Aha! Try adding this undocumented LavbView.ini entry:

UseTaskbar=false

Special thanx to: http://labview.brianrenken.com/INI/

As always use undocumented Labview.ini entries with caution. (I've used this one for over a year with no apparent side effects.)

Life is good again. Try it you'll like it. There were several blank lines preceeding it in my .ini file and I thought I was at the end of the file. Duh!

Thanx for responding Mike and Mark. I hope you try it and like it so I wasn't wasting your time. I think it's great if you work with many LV windows open.