Dexpot Forum

Even if some do not want to believe it, there is evidence that an ongoing download interferes with the startup of Dexpot.
If I disconnect the Internet when starting Windows 7, the icons are often well ordered even at the first start of Dexpot.
Or then, at least after the restart with my batch file.

But if I am connected to the Internet when I start Windows 7 and a download to my Internet Security occurs right at the start,
the icons are messed up at the first start of Dexpot and even after restart, if a download is still going on.

This needs further investigation!

Can you open the task manager soon after the start up to see what else might be going on?
Under Win 10 there is an antimalware executable which all too often hogs the CPU, specially at start up time.

I know what is going on.
It is my Emsisoft Internet Security that is downloading an update or two.

So if you delay the Dexpot startup until after it has finished, do you still have the same problem?
I now I do. I have delayed Dexpot startup by 30 secs and it still does not help.

Hi guys, don't know if this will help you guys, but it works for me. I don't have dexpot start on startup BTW but sometimes windows will stuff up my icon positions (most the time it doesn't) and it will remain that way unless I fix them.

In order to fix them I'll actually use dexpot by starting it up which will sometimes fix them but sometimes not. If it doesn't fix them I go to dexpot's settings, and in the "General" section there is the profiles area where there is a load button. I press that button then a pop-up window appears where I select the Only Sections option then the Icon positions checkbox and hit OK, which fixes them.

Naturally you'll need a profile saved with the correct Icon positions though otherwise it won't work. To keep the profile current, you could select the save profile on exit and make sure you never exit dexpot with messed up Icons otherwise those will become the new positions, or you can manually go into the settings and save the profile whenever you make changes you want to keep. I do the save on exit thing which is why I don't auto start it anymore.

Multi wrote:So if you delay the Dexpot startup until after it has finished, do you still have the same problem?
I now I do. I have delayed Dexpot startup by 30 secs and it still does not help.

As written above, I have Dexpot autostart with Windows and then automatically restart after 40s (delayed start of the batch file).
That usually works well enough.
Occasionally a download to my Internet Security lasts longer and then I can restart manually by clicking an icon for it in my desktop.
That will sometimes be needed, not often.

What I would like to have is to delay the connection to the Internet for, say, 30s. But I did not find a way to do that.
Then the download would follow after Dexpot has started.
The start of a corresponding service can be delayed, but only for a few seconds.

Who has a solution?

When the batch file trick sometimes does not work, after all, the download to the Internet Security is still going on.
Then I start the batch file once more manually.

In rare cases this still does not work and then I discover that a profile backup is damaged!
I have two backups: Backup 1 and Backup 2, intended to be identical.
But in such a case Backup 1 does not fix the icons, but Backup 2 does!

How can a backup become disordered?

Well, I think I have the answer to the last question.
I had "save profile on exit" marked and it will have saved a disordered profile to Backup 1.
It had expected that it would save it to "Default".

There can be no doubt, anymore...
The startup of Dexpot IS interfered with by an ongoing download.
1. Icons disordered right after autostart: my Internet Security downloaded while Dexpot was starting.
2. Rare case: Icons ordered right from beginning: No download during autostart.
3. Sometimes the case: disordered even after delayed autostart of the bath file: download was not yet finished.
4. Manually running the batch file again after the download is finished: ordered icons.

This is one important factor, but there could be another, too.

I have not worked on this for a little while - am still trying analyze what I find - but, a question came to mind:
At what "process" priority do run Dexpot.
If it isn't high enough, Dexpot might get preempted by other processes during the icon update, with other processes in the meantime also modifying/adding/moving icons

I have set the Dexpot.exe and Dexcontrol.exe to high and see no real difference.

VirtuaMan wrote:I have set the Dexpot.exe and Dexcontrol.exe to high and see no real difference.

That refers to setting the "process priority" in 'Settings -> Dexpot' to 'high' I presume.

I have had mine set to anything from normal to 'real-time' with no difference.
In my earlier post I was merely saying that the priority 'may make a difference' if the bad behavior related to the priority - it hadn't in my case, but since we are the only ones complaining, I conclude that for some people it seems to work, or else we are the only ones still using/fighting with Dexpot

Do you have a suggestion for a good alternative to Dexpot?

Not yet, but I am looking - unfortunately I am a bit short of time to experiment and try different app because it would mean having to remove Dexpot and then restoring it after. I'll have to find another machine to use for this.

FWIW, I just came across these comments from another list
https://forum.eset.com/topic/6033-windo ... installed/
http://www.tenforums.com/general-suppor ... aving.html

I don't have any of the programs mentioned there installed on my machine, - AFAIK - and my only problem related to the icon positions.

This issue with Eset confirms what anyway has become definitely clear to me to be an ESSENTIAL FACTOR here, even though maybe not the only factor.
There is no doubt anymore in my experience: the icons get confused if when Dexpot starts up (in autostart) a download is going on at the same time, mainly a download for updating the Internet Security.

Remarkable.
A scan with Super AntiSpyware found PUP.OpenCandy/Variant in Dexpot Uninstall ...
Probably a false alarm ...?

None of my anti-spy-malware-virus software has ever complained, but then I don't use too much of that

For while, I had used Dexpot on another machine (with exactly the same graphics card and driver - but likely not exactly the same driver configuration) and did not encounter the same problems.
But I had that machine only for about a month and it is back at the 'garage' for some hardware fixes, so it will be a while before I can test it again.
FWIW, the machine I am have trouble with is a 4-core AMD Phenom, the one I did not have trouble with is/was an Intel i7 8-core machine.

,

VirtuaMan wrote:A scan with Super AntiSpyware found PUP.OpenCandy/Variant in Dexpot Uninstall ...
Probably a false alarm ...?

OpenCandy was a part of the installer some time ago. then. It's a false positive, though.

Where does Dexpot store the positions of the icons for the resp. desktops?