Global keys stop working after locking&unlocking [F1138]

[Romanski]

The global keys become unmapped in MediaMonkey sometimes, i.e. they stop working unless MediaMonkey is focused. One specific situation in which this seems to be happening reliably is when the workstation is locked.

MM3 is configured with all default settings and no plugins other than the default ones. I've mapped Ctrl+Shift+1 to Play/Pause, global.

1. Start MM3. Minimize it. The key works.
2. Lock the station and unlock it immediately. At this point, Ctrl+Shift+1 no longer does anything unless the MM window is focused.
3. Close MM3 and run it again. The key works globally again.

Reproduced on:
1. WinXP SP2, Xeon 3GHz, 3Gb RAM (PAE), MediaMonkey 3.0.1.1127, clean install
2. WinXP SP2, Athlon 64 3000+, MediaMonkey 3.0.1.1127, upgrade from MM2

[Romanski]

Bump. Reproduced on home computer, running WinXP SP2 also. Media keys like "Play/pause" also stop working, which is really annoying actually.

[Romanski]

Has anyone else experienced this? Can't use MM3 with this bug...

It's so easy to reproduce - perhaps the MM3 team could spare a few minutes to Confirm/Reject this? Otherwise I feel totally ignored

In case it makes a difference, I've got a gold licence.

[Romanski]

OK this bug has definitely been seen by others (http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25242). Can't ignore this forever surely! Come on devs!

Could it be that the mechanism by which MM captures keys (MMHelper.dll somehow attaching to other processes as far as I can tell) is not at all the right way to do this?

No other app I use that supports global hotkeys does anything like that. Google is full of Delphi samples of how to register global hotkeys in Windows.

Any comments?

[Ludek]

Thanks for reporting this. Added to our bug tracking system, we are looking into it.

[Romanski]

Thanks! Looking forward to a fix.

I would delete the poll but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that...

[Guest]

I found that if you unlock your workstation and the multimedia keys no longer work, hitting Win-D (show desktop) restores functionality.

Makes no sense to me, but it works.

[Ludek]

It is fixed in build 1136, as a good workaround before this release will be available is hitting WinKey after unlocking and the global hotkey functionality starts working again (as someone already mentioned).

[pbparker]

I'm running build 1137 and while the release notes indicate it was fixed, I'm still having the problem with the hotkeys disabling after lock.

[Ludek]

Anyone else?

Which shortcut do you use for locking the PC?
I suppose you are a member of a domain, aren't you?

For non-domain users it is surely fixed.

[pbparker]

Yup, I'm on a domain.

I did some testing, using Alt-L to lock out the screen doesn't cause the keys to fail. Using control-alt-delete does cause them to fail.

I'll report what the screensaver lockout does to MM after it kicks in and locks me out since there's no key combination for that.

[Romanski]

Confirming, build 1137 on a domain, Win+L keeps the hotkeys working while Ctrl+Alt+Del breaks them.

IN FACT: it's not the locking that breaks it, Ctrl+Alt+Del alone is enough! Just press Esc after Ctrl+alt+del and the hotkeys still get broken.

[Ludek]

Thank you both.
I am looking into it.

[pbparker]

IN FACT: it's not the locking that breaks it, Ctrl+Alt+Del alone is enough! Just press Esc after Ctrl+alt+del and the hotkeys still get broken.

Nice work. The screensaver lockout isn't breaking it, it's the Ctrl+alt+del to unlock it that's likely killing it then.

[Ludek]

Romanski,
I probably see the problem without testing this,
could you confirm that hitting Ctrl+Alt restore the global hotkeys functionality for you?