Window locations not persistent - Solved!

[brownstone96]

For some time I have an annoying problem that after starting Paint.NET the Layers and History windows are centered within the main window. When I select the Reset Window Locations command they are repositioned but the locations are not remembered. I failed to find this issue in the forum, so I'm trying to raise it here.

I am using the currently latest version 3.5.6, on Win XP Pro SP3.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

This may not be the same thing, but there was a reported issue with ATI Hydravision. If it is installed then you should probably read these threads:

Tools and dialogue size

Toolbars expand to fill screen

Question: are you running a dual monitor setup?

[Rick Brewster]

If the window positions aren't being remembered, you could have an issue with the security/permissions settings on the registry key where Paint.NET stores its stuff.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Paint.NET

Delete the thing.

If there's an issue writing the window position values there, Paint.NET will silently skip past it ... instead of crashing.

[brownstone96]

Thanks for the answers, however none of them helped to solve the issue.

• I do not have ATI Hydravision installed
• I do use dual monitor setup
• I am using the machine with administrator rights, so the registry access should not be the problem (after deleting the key it was recreated)

But, when experimenting a bit with the application, I can describe the symptom hopefully better:

• This issue occurs only when I close the application maximized.
• Next start shows the app window maximized with history and layer windows in the center
• Restoring the app puts them properly to the side
• Maximizing again - the windows stay on the side

[Toli]

Does not reproduce (windows 7 professional 64bit)

[Rick Brewster]

Doesn't repro here either.

[brownstone96]

I got it - it was the NVIDIA Desktop Manager - so apparently a similar problem as with ATI Hydravision - thanks for the tips!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Can you give us some more details on the fix so others might benefit? Did you disable, delete or adjust settings?

[brownstone96]

Well, not really too much to talk about, generally I do not use or even like this kind of applications. I wanted to give it a chance some time ago and used a feature of snapping the windows to the screen border when closed enough to it. Not sure if this was the cause. Now I completely disabled the Desktop Manager.

[itsmee]

Cool idea - deleting other applications to solve specific problems. I do use ATI Hydravision since some years on a 4-Monitor Desktop without any problems (except some minor issues with TortoiseSVN) and wanted to give paint.net a try.

So I found this thread and others proposing the solution to delete ATI Hydravision. This is not an option for me; I would rather delete paint.net in first place. But I did not want to give up so quickly and definitely not delete Hydravision.

But it was simple: Use the application setup of Hydravision (red arrow at top right of the window) to switch the application to the single monitor window. Paint.Net seems not being cabable to detect the monitors and the canvas properly, so Hydravision will help by restricting the pane to a single monitor. After start of paint.net you then can resize the window over all monitors without problems.

Hope this helps someone, who also does not want to delete Hydravision.

[Rick Brewster]

Paint.Net seems not being cabable to detect the monitors and the canvas properly, so Hydravision will help by restricting the pane to a single monitor.

This is a bug in Hydravision, and not Paint.NET's "fault" -- what you've stated is not a correct conclusion. However, I'm glad you found a workaround/fix.

[itsmee]

This is a bug in Hydravision, and not Paint.NET's "fault" -- what you've stated is not a correct conclusion. However, I'm glad you found a workaround/fix.

If you read carefully, then you'll see that I did not mention that it is Paint.NET's 'fault'. May be after reading the sentence again you will detect that I blame neither Paint.NET nor ATI Hydravision.

[RpD]

Old thread, but the topic is exactly pertinent (except the 'Solved!' part).

 

I've done PC/network/CADD support for a living, so I have some experience with PC's.

 

As long as I can remember using Paint.NET, the main window has not kept a persistent location for me... but the Colors and Tools windows do maintain locations.

 

Editing the registry doesn't appear to help, deleting the Paint.Net branch doesn't help.  Even if I don't move the main window, the location will change between shutdown and re-open.  For some reason, the size of the main window is often kept... but not always. 

 

I'm on Windows 8 now... before you say it's not supported, this problem existed on Windows 7 and different machines... probably before Win7 as well.

 

I have no idea why it moves around, or how to lock it down.  Often it seems to reset along the bottom of my screen and not in the middle... however, if maximized, it will remember that it is maximized.

 

What does Paint.NET do differently when writing the Top, Left coordinates for the main window to the registry, that's different from the Colors and Tools windows???

 

NO other programs that I run have a problem retaining their windows locations.

This is tiresome to keep moving the window after it opens, because it's usually showing up -under- the Colors and Tools windows which I have placed off to the right side of the main window (when it's where I place/size it).

(My current Toshiba notebook has the Intel HD Graphics 3000 display adapter. Paint.NET is 3.5.10. I use an external HDTV for a monitor, but it doesn't make a difference if I switch to my notebook's panel only.)

 

.

Edited April 28, 2013 by RpD

[Ego Eram Reputo]

@RpD:   Please open a new thread if you wish to revive this topic.  It's been dead for 2 1/2 years.

 

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