Unresponsive Keyboard in SE after Opening File in Windows Explorer

[Rob W]

Hello,

I searched the forum for various combinations of the terms Unresponsive, Keyboard, and Focus but couldn't find anything similar to my problem.

I've been happly using SE v11 for twelve years and I decided to try the latest version (v22) and I'm experiencing a problem where the keyboard is unresponsive unless I perform a special action.  I normally use Windows 7 with "Focus Follows Mouse" and I thought my problem might have something to do with that so I tried reproducing it both with and without Focus Follows Mouse and I get slightly different behavior, but ultimately the same problem.  Here are the steps to reproduce:

Scenario A - Focus Follows Mouse is Enabled in Windows:

• In Windows Explorer, I double-click on a source file, test.vhd, and it opens in SE and SE is in focus.
• In SE, I try using the keyboard for anything and it's completely unresponsive.  This is the problem.
• In SE, I click the mouse to various lines in the open file and the cursor moves to where I clicked, but the keyboard is still unresponsive.
• In Windows, I move my mouse to hover over the open window of any other program and that program gains focus.
• In Windows, I move my mouse to hover over SE causing SE to gain focus again.  Don't click just hover.  Now the keyboard works perfectly.  The point is that SE has to lose and regain focus in order to enable the keyboard.

Scenario B - Focus Follows Mouse is Disabled in Windows:

• In Windows Explorer, I double-click on a source file, test.vhd, and it opens in SE and SE is in focus.
• In SE, I try using the keyboard for anything and it's completely unresponsive just like in Scenario A.
• In SE, I click the mouse anywhere in the open file and the cursor moves to where I clicked and now the keyboard works perfectly.  A single click within SE restored the keyboard.

I get the same behavior in these cases:

• I start out with SE closed and double-clicking the file opens SE.
• SE is already open and I double-click a new source file to edit.
• SE is already open and I double-click a file that's already open in SE.

Any idea why SE is unresponsive to the keyboard upon opening a new file? 

My system details are listed below.

Thanks,

-Rob

----------------------------
-- From Help -> About --
----------------------------

SlickEdit Standard 2017 (v22.0.2.1 64-bit)

Serial number: WBS_TRIAL_4MKN6M
License type: Trial
License expiration: 2018-05-31 17:00:00
License file: C:\ProgramData\slickedit\22-s\slickedit.lic
Unlicensed Pro Features:Build, Debugging, Context Tagging(TM), Version

Control, Pro Macros, Beautifiers, Pro Diff, Merge, Refactoring, Java Real

Time Errors

Build Date: February 12, 2018
Emulation: Brief

OS: Windows 7 x64
OS Version: 6.01.7601  Service Pack 1
Memory: 11% Load, 3613MB/32648MB Physical, 3991MB/65295MB Page File,

245MB/8388607MB Virtual
Shell Information: C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /q
Screen Size: 2560 x 1440

Project Type: Single file project - Other
Language: .vhd (VHDL)
Encoding: Automatic

Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SlickEdit Standard 22.0.2\ (non-

removable drive,NTFS,628316MB free)
Configuration Directory: C:\Users\6175\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\22.0.2

-s\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,628316MB free)
Migrated from: C:\Users\6175\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\11.0.0\

[Graeme]

Maybe Windows is sending the keys to the wrong application or maybe the keys go to the wrong "child window" in slick?

How exactly do you enable "focus follows mouse" in Windows 7?

Try removing it completely, reboot your PC and see if the problem is gone.
You could try using process monitor from sys internals to track what happens to the keypress.

[Rob W]

Hi Graeme,

How exactly do you enable "focus follows mouse" in Windows 7?

In the Control Panel, open Ease of Access Center. Click on "Make the mouse easier to use". Then check the box next to "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse".

Try removing it completely, reboot your PC and see if the problem is gone.

Tried it, no difference.  It still behaves exactly as I described in Scenario B:  double-clicking a .vhd file in Windows Explorer opens that file in SE and SE is now in focus but the keyboard is completely unresponsive.   I click the mouse anywhere in the open file and the cursor moves to where I clicked and now the keyboard works perfectly.  A single click within SE restored the keyboard.

You could try using process monitor from sys internals to track what happens to the keypress.

I opened Process Explorer, but I can't see how to "track what happens".  I see that vc.exe becomes activated when I double-click the .vhd file but that's about it.  I don't know how to use Process Explorer to track keypresses.

I'm starting to become suspicious of the way SE installed the trial version.  Their installer has done something clever to prevent me from opening my old version of SE (v11) and the new trial version of SE (v22) at the same time.  Here's how it works:

• If I have new-SE open and I click my shortcut to old-SE, then new-SE becomes focused and old-SE never opens.
• If I have old-SE open and I click my shortcut to new-SE, then nothing happens at all.  Old-SE remains open and new-SE never launches.
• If I have new-SE open and I double-click a .vhd file in Explorer, then that file opens in new-SE but the keyboard is unresponsive.
• If I have old-SE open and I double-click a .vhd file in Explorer, then that file opens in old-SE and the keyboard works perfectly.

I discovered this because I wanted to open both versions of SE side-by-side so I could compare various options.  It seems they don't want me to open both old and new versions at the same time.  I guess the next step is to uninstall old-SE but I'd rather not do that. 

Thanks,

-Rob

[Rob W]

Hi Graeme,

I see now you said "Process Monitor" not "Process Explorer"!  So I just opened Process Monitor and it's incomprehensible to me.

Thanks,

-Rob

[Graeme]

ok, sorry. I wasn't sure if process monitor could do it or not  -  it chucks out so much stuff I thought it might.

MultiMon can
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads
When it opens, tick the "keyboard" checkbox on the left, then the green arrow on the toolbar at top left.  Then fire up slickedit etc.  - press the up arrow key or something.
Multimon will tell you the process that got the key as well as the window title and PID.
If the focus is in the MDI window, then the name and path of the file being edited will be in the window title, if the focus is in search results then the window title will be "search results" etc.  Check the PID against what task manager shows.

Slickedit definitely doesn't stop you from running multiple instances of slick and they can be any version.  To run multiple instances you need to use the +new switch when you invoke slick
ve.exe +new  - so in the properties dialog for the shortcut you use to start slick, add +new into the "Target" setting at the end.
When you start V22, make sure in task manager that slick isn't already running.

If you still can't resolve it you could try this macro
https://community.slickedit.com/index.php/topic,16114.msg61880.html#msg61880

[Lee]

I enabled "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse" in Windows 7 and I am not able to reproduce any problems with using Windows Explorer file associations.  I tried all the scenarios you have listed, SlickEdit Standard 2017 open & closed, with no files open, file already open, and I did not have any issues with files opened by dbl-click in Windows Explorer.  Are there any other settings you have enabled that you might also have enabled that?  You state that SlickEdit does have focus after double-clicking, does the open editor control have focus (cursor-blinking) or maybe some other window has focus?

[Rob W]

I've got it working correctly now!

I tried Graeme's suggestion to add +new to v22's shortcut target.  When I did this, I could use desktop shortcuts to open both v11 and v22 simultaneously but double-clicking a .vhd in Windows Explorer no longer launched v22 as it did before (it launched v11 instead).  So I right-clicked a .vhd file and chose Open with... -> Choose default program... and I experimented with choosing first SlickEdit v22 and later SlickEdit v11 and they both work perfectly now.  It works perfectly whether I'm running with Focus follows Mouse or default mouse mode.

So I think choosing the default program (SlickEdit v11 or SlickEdit v22) is what ultimately fixed my problem.

Note that I only need +new if I want to open both v11 and v22 simultaneously. 

Thanks Graeme and Lee for taking the time to help me with this.

-Rob