No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

[wifiguy]

I uninstalled dMC R11.5-registered and dAP R2 by following the instructions in thread 6828, "uninstalling issues." I uninstalled all codecs and skins, then the programs. I used regedit to get rid of the dBpowerAMP key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Illustrate and I deleted the dBpowerAMP folder in C:\Program Files\Illustrate. I had to restart my PC twice, once after the uninstall of dAP and once after the uninstall of dMC.

I ran a registry cleaner program to make sure all was copacetic in my registry. For the umpteenth time, I looked at Control Panel/Folder Options/View to make sure the check box labeled "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items" was checked. It is and always has been.

I installed dMC R12.4-registered and here's some of what's in the R12.4 configuration window:

Versions tab
mp3 License & Power Pack: Registered

Music Converter tab
'Convert To' on Right Click Menu CHECKED
'Edit ID Tags' on Right Click Menu CHECKED
Enable Pop-up Information Tips CHECKED
Property Sheet 'Audio Properties' Page CHECKED

You know what? I don't get Pop-up Info Tips. If I move my mouse over an MP3 file in Explorer and leave it there for 30 seconds, I don't get a dBpoweramp pop-up. I had this problem with R11.5 and when I posted about it in this forum, I was told to upgrade to R12. Well, I've upgraded to R12 and I still have the problem. :headbang:

'Convert To' and 'Edit ID Tags' work OK. I get 2 dBpowerAMP tabs on my Property Sheet: Audio Properties and ID-Tag. That stuff is all fine.

I reinstalled dAP R2 and restarted my PC. I associated MP3 files with dAP. MP3 files now have a dAP icon. I unchecked and rechecked the check boxes mentioned above under Music Converter tab. No change; Pop-up Info Tips are still missing. The Versions tab of the configuration window still says "Install" after dBpoweramp Audio Player, even though my reinstalled dAP plays and shows Pop-up info tips if I hover over the track title in dAP.

I have just discovered the weirdest thing :shocked: which I hope will finally help solve this problem. I have the Desktop Toolbar on my Windows Taskbar. If I work my way to an MP3 file via the Desktop Toolbar, I get all or part of a dBpoweramp Pop-up Info Tip!! For example, if I click on the Desktop Toolbar and progress through C:\My Music\[Genre]\[Artist]\[Album], I'll get all the tracks in the album expanded in a pane. (It's kind of like if you enable "Expand My Documents" as a Taskbar property, then click Start/My Documents and move your cursor through consecutive expanded folders to finally get to a document.) If I then move my cursor over to one of the tracks and leave it there, I'll get at least part of a dBpoweramp Pop-up Info Tip. I haven't tried this with R11.5 yet, just R12.4.

Simpler example: I put an MP3 file on my desktop. I can leave my cursor over it forever, but I don't get a Pop-up Info Tip. If I go to my Taskbar and click the Desktop Toolbar, I can slide my cursor down to the MP3 file and I'll get a dBpoweramp Pop-up Info Tip right away. :confused:

Please don't tell me to upgrade to R13 to solve this problem. :teufel10:

[Spoon]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

Hold the mouse over a .txt Text file, does that show a popup? it sounds like they are globally disabed in Windows.

[Bill41]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

Make sure this is checked.

My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > (check) Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items

Hope that'll help and chill out.
Bill

[Wayne]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

Are you running any type of Windows Explorer replacements like Directory Opus?

[wifiguy]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

Spoon: As always, you da man! No pop-up when I hover my cursor over a .txt file in Windows Explorer.

Do I take this to Microsoft? I've already searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base for 'pop-up description' and 'pop-up description with cursor' but, as usual, the results returned are out to lunch and have nothing to do with the problem.

Anyone but Bill41 who wants a screen shot of my 'Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options.../View/Advanced settings' dialog box showing that I have the checkbox labeled "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items" checked is welcome to it. Just let me know the graphics file format of your choice and how you'd like to view it (email attachment, upload to some web site... whatever).
__________________________________

Spoon and Wayne: I've been using xplorer2 lite for a while (SO much better than Windows Explorer). I had the problem with no dMC pop-ups before I ever installed xplorer2 lite though, back when I was using dMC R11.5. Nonetheless, I uninstalled xplorer2 lite and restarted my PC, just as an experiment.

Here's another curious item: I got a small pop-up that said
"Type: Text Document
Size xxx KB"
ONE TIME in Windows Explorer when I hovered my cursor over a .txt file after my PC restarted, but never again.

When I use xplorer2 lite, I got little pop-ups when I hovered over .txt, .dll, .ini, .exe and probably lots of other file types as well. The pop-ups said:
"Type: whatever Windows Explorer says for Type
Size: whatever KB"
Anyway, xplorer2 lite is uninstalled now, my PC has been restarted, and I still don't have any pop-ups in Windows Explorer. It's not just dMC pop-ups that are missing.
___________________________________

<removed, please don't start flame wars>

===============================

Anyway, Spoon's on to it. I'll post in a Microsoft forum about the no pop-ups issue and see what shows up there.

[Bill41]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

[QUOTE

Anyone but Bill41 who wants a screen shot of my 'Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options.../View/Advanced settings' dialog box showing that I have the checkbox labeled "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items" checked is welcome to it. Just let me know the graphics file format of your choice and how you'd like to view it (email attachment, upload to some web site... whatever).]Quote

I was only offering a suggestion of a possible solution. I had no problems with popups until I unchecked this box and lost all popups including dmc. When I rechecked the box all my popups returned, so I thought I'd pass it on for whatever it's worth because it is kinda hidden away.
Bill

[wifiguy]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

I've posted my no pop-up description problem at Microsoft and at annoyances.org (that's Windows Annoyances if you're not familiar with them). I don't expect to ever hear anything from Microsoft; they're all into Vista now and I'm limping along on W2K.

I've stumbled into something that may or not relate to my current problem of no pop-ups for MP3 files. If this belongs in a new post, I'll gladly open a new post.

Here's what's up: about the time I installed R12.4, I lost all the columns in Windows Explorer that were ID3 tag info items, e.g., bitrate, genre, artist, album, track, etc. I actually first noticed this in xplorer2, but xplorer2 just gets its columns from explorer.exe, i.e., Windows Explorer. The problem continued in WE after I uninstalled xplorer2 lite.

To help track down the loss of ID3 tag info columns, I tried to uninstall dBAmp and dMC to see if installing R12.4 is where my loss of ID3 tag info columns came from. (I never knew about these columns when I was running R11 and R11.5; I found out about them because xplorer2 docs mentioned them.) I deleted the dBpowerAMP key from HKCU/Sofware/Illustrate with regedt32, then tried to delete the dBpowerAMP folder from C:\Program Files\Illustrate.

I couldn't delete dBShell.dll in the dBpowerAMP folder, so I restarted my PC. dBShell.dll remained in use and I couldn't delete it. When I looked for it using Sysinternals' Process Explorer, PE said that dBShell.dll was in use by explorer.exe, aka Windows Explorer, even though I didn't have a WE window open.

I could go on trying to get rid of dBShell.dll, but first I thought I'd ask: 1) is this related to my not getting pop-up info tips when I hover my cursor over an MP3 file? or 2) does this belong in a separate post because it's an unrelated problem?

When I did a clean uninstall of R11.5 before installing R12.4, I had no such problem and was able to blow away the dBpowerAMP folder. Maybe R11 didn't have dBShell.dll; I don't know. Nothing's installed now. :cry:

[Spoon]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

That dbshell.dll provides popup info.

[wifiguy]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

That dBShell.dll doesn't provide pop-up info for me, even though it may for everyone else.

When I had xplorer2 installed, I got pop-ups in xplorer2 for every kind of file, special folder (My Computer, Recycle Bin, My Network Places, etc.) and link to an application, except for those associated with dBpowerAMP. xplorer2 just gets its columns from explorer.exe (WE).

I hadn't used Windows Explorer in a while, but I lost pop-ups from dBpowerAMP before I ever installed xplorer2. I just didn't know that WE had ID3 tag info available as columns in Detail View.

So I uninstalled dBAMP and dMC (well, almost uninstalled them), deleted the registry key and have got a practically empty dBpowerAMP folder in C:\Program Files\Illustrate. BUT I can't delete dBShell.dll, even though I tried to uninstall everything from Illustrate.

How do I delete dBShell.dll? That's my question. Right now, the MP3 extension is not associated with any program on my PC. The reason is that I was trying to find out if installing R12.4 zapped all the ID3 tag info columns I had in Detail View in Windows Explorer. If I can't delete dBShell.dll, I'll never know because you say dBShell.dll provides pop-up info, i.e., ID3 tag info.

[wifiguy]

No joy

I used the Windows Recovery Console to zap dBShell.dll and the dBpoweramp folder in C:\Program Files\Illustrate. I still don't have the ID3 tag info columns available to me in Detail View in Windows Explorer when I go to a folder full of MP3 files. They were really handy in xplorer2 because I didn't have dBpoweramp pop-ups because (I assume) I stopped getting Windows Explorer pop-ups last August.

I don't know why I suddenly lost ID3 tag info columns, but uninstalling R12.4 didn't bring them back. I don't know why I lost pop-up descriptions in Windows Explorer (if that's what happened) last August.

The absence of ID3 tag info columns is a Microsoft Windows problem. Not having pop-ups in Windows Explorer is a Microsoft Windows problem (but oddly those pop-ups do appear in xplorer2--it's just dBpoweramp pop-ups that don't).

No MVP or anyone else who reads the Microsoft W2K general forum is going to reply to my post about no pop-up descriptions. End of story.

[bhoar]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

The reason you could not delete the dll was that it was still "registered" as a shell extension, which means that when ever a shell was running (such as explorer or xplorer2) the file was loaded into the codespace of the shell.

Normally, the uninstall process of dbpoweramp should unregister the shell and then subsequently delete it. It's quite possible that you had a failed uninstall of dbpoweramp or perhaps you installed three versions and uninstalled two and something got confused. Alternately, something was off about the registration of the shell extension, so newer versions could not uninstall it to install a new one.

There's a command line invocation for registering and unregistering shell extensions, I'd have to go look it up, but in the future, this can be helpful. In addition, reporting the shell extension version to the thread might have been a clue to spoon that it wasn't updated (if it wasn't) when you upgraded and that there was a deeper problem.

I wonder if perhaps xplorer2 wasn't "letting go" of shell extensions properly under all circumstances when they are unregistered (such as when dbpoweramp is uninstalled), leading to this problem.

-brendan

[LtData]

Re: No Pop-up Info Tips in R12.4; just like in R11.5

regsvr32 /u <path to dll file> is the command to unregister a dll. To register the dll, just don't put the "/u".

[wifiguy]

I have dBpowerAMP pop-ups again!

I have all pop-up descriptions now, not just dBpowerAMP pop-ups, in Windows Explorer. I can stop all of them from appearing or have all of them appear at will. How?

Simply by selecting Auto hide of my Taskbar in the properties menu or not selecting it. If Auto hide is NOT checked, I get all pop-ups. If Auto hide is checked, I get no pop-ups. I Auto hide my Taskbar because I have a small screen.

I was wrong. This is not a Microsoft Windows problem. This is a Microsoft Windows "undocumented feature" ! :rolleyes:

I also got all the columns back in WE Detail View that are ID3 tag info columns. How? By installing R11.5 registered. Figure that one out.

I cleanly uninstalled R11.5 and now have R12.4 showing me tag pop-ups. Now I'm just longing for the day when R12.4 will have a Tag-from-File-Name utility codec.

Was it Thomas Edison who said "When you think you've exhausted all your possibilities, you haven't." ? I haven't seen dBpowerAMP pop-ups since last August.