Windows Vista Security Update KB3057839 breaks dBpoweramp

[Spoon]

There have been many reports that the recent security update KB3057839 to Windows Vista is breaking dBpoweramp (CD Ripper and Batch Converter will not show).

We have not been able to reproduce this issue locally, however it has been found that functionality can be restored by either:

1) Uninstall the update KB3057839

or

2) Right click on CD Ripper and Select Properties >> Compatibility and enable the option 'Disable Desktop Composition'

Note once KB3057839 has been uninstalled, you can check for updates using Windows Update, then right click on it and select Hide, this will make sure it is not auto-installed.

[Spoon]

Re: Windows Vista Security Update KB3057839 breaks dBpoweramp

As time has progressed it has been shown this update breaks Inuit Quicken, and Putty, just 2 examples of popular programs, and many other programs.

Looking at the development logs for Putty, it seems they were creating the Window in question wrong "Our config boxes are constructed using the CreateDialog() API function, rather than the modal DialogBox(). CreateDialog() is not that different from CreateWindow(), so windows created with it don't appear on the screen automatically; MSDN says that they must be shown via ShowWindow(), just like non-dialog windows have to be. But we weren't doing that at any point!". They have fixed their bug and the issue is resolved for them.

However dBpoweramp is creating the Windows with DialogBoxParam, which according to the MS documentation: "The function displays the dialog box (regardless of whether the template specifies the WS_VISIBLE style)", in addition we tested a page with WS_VISIBLE set also, it made no difference, there is nothing we can fix around this bug on Vista, other than redesign how all the affected pages display (by not using a fundamental API call - modal dialog boxes, dBpoweramp is a large program with lots and lots of dialogs, such as Codec Settings, etc, all in all there are possibly 100 areas of the program which would need redesigning). At this time we hope that the next Windows Update will fix this bug.

The code in question here, has been the same since Windows 95, it has been in use for 15 years without issue.