Possible Problem With Vista Performance Pack KB938979

[George Dingwall]

Hi all,

After downloading and installing this update, I found that my menus
were behaving differently to normal. When you clicked on a menu or
sub-menu option in any program, the menus would cascade out to the
left, instead of to the left as they had previously done.

Uninstalling the update put the menus back to normal.

Has anybody else who has installed this update had a similar problem?

In case you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, have a look
at these two screen shots to see the before and after effect.

The before image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/MenusOld.jpg

The after image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/Menus.jpg

Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

 

[Paul Smith]

If you've got Tablet PC settings under Hardware and Sound in Control Panel,
go and check the left-right handed settings, they swap the menus around.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Dave Cox]

Hi all,

After downloading and installing this update, I found that my
menus were behaving differently to normal. When you clicked on a
menu or sub-menu option in any program, the menus would cascade
out to the left, instead of to the left as they had previously
done.

Uninstalling the update put the menus back to normal.

Has anybody else who has installed this update had a similar
problem?

In case you are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, have a
look at these two screen shots to see the before and after effect.

The before image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/MenusOld.jpg

The after image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/Menus.jpg

Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

That is the way it is suppose to work the menus will fly out in the
direction with the most available room. As your pictures show IE is
larger and more centered therefore the menus can cascade to the
right, in the second picture IE is smaller and to the right
therefore the menus will cascade to the left. there is nothing
wrong.

 

[George Dingwall]

If you've got Tablet PC settings under Hardware and Sound in Control Panel,
go and check the left-right handed settings, they swap the menus around.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for that tip. I've just re-installed the update, and it changed
the handedness setting in the Tablet PC options so that menus were
flying out from the left instead of how it was previously from the
right.

I was beginning to go mad over this, as people I know who have also
installed the update did not have the same problem.

Thanks again, Paul, I really appreciate your help. I spent over two
hours on the phone, and with remote desktop access today, and they did
not think of that solution. I'm well pleased.

Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

That is the way it is suppose to work the menus will fly out in the
direction with the most available room. As your pictures show IE is
larger and more centered therefore the menus can cascade to the
right, in the second picture IE is smaller and to the right
therefore the menus will cascade to the left. there is nothing
wrong.

Wrong. Look at the arrows on the menu in the picture. He has already got
the solution to the problem, but it is strange that the update had changed
the registry key (or whatever) involved.

ss.

 

[DP]

That is the way it is suppose to work the menus will fly out in the
direction with the most available room. As your pictures show IE is
larger and more centered therefore the menus can cascade to the
right, in the second picture IE is smaller and to the right
therefore the menus will cascade to the left. there is nothing
wrong.

You are correct, Dave. The two photos are apples-and-oranges comparisons
because the IE window is in a different place. The only reliable comparison
is to do it pre and post-upgrade with the IE window in the same spot both
times.

 

[DP]

Wrong. Look at the arrows on the menu in the picture. He has already got
the solution to the problem, but it is strange that the update had changed
the registry key (or whatever) involved.

Nope, Dave is correct. I just tested it myself. And even though I got the
menus to swing out to the left, the arrows were still pointing right.

 

[DP]

Wrong. Look at the arrows on the menu in the picture. He has already got
the solution to the problem, but it is strange that the update had changed
the registry key (or whatever) involved.

Nope, Dave is correct. I just tested it myself. And even though I got the
menus to swing out to the left, the arrows were still pointing right.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

You are correct, Dave. The two photos are apples-and-oranges comparisons
because the IE window is in a different place. The only reliable
comparison is to do it pre and post-upgrade with the IE window in the same
spot both times.

Wrong. Look at the positions of the flyout arrows on the IE menus. That
can only happen in left-hand mode.

ss.

 

[DP]

The arrows are on the right side in both cases. If you take your IE window
and move it to the right of your screen and click on Favorites dropdwon
menu, the menus fly out to the left even though the arrows are pointing
right.
If you move the IE window to the right side of your screen, the arrows point
to the right and the menus fly out to the right.
Have you tried this?
Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?
The menus fly out to wherever they can find space, left or right, but the
arrows always point right.

 

[DP]

SS, I have looked at the pictures once again to make sure I'm not missing
anything.
I think I know what's going on. I think you're misreading the picture.
If you're talking about the arrows that are IMMEDIATELY to the left of some
of the folders in the menus, those arrows are actually part of the next menu
that has cascaded out. In other words each folder has an arrow far to the
right of it. The arrow is actually closer to the folder from the preceding
menu than it is to the folder it actually goes with. So, at first glance it
may look like the arrows are branching out from the left of the folder.
An easy way to prove this is if you look at the number of arrows that appear
to be branching from the left of each folder, there are more arrows than
there are folders.
The very first folder in the top-level menu appears to say "Banking &
Finance." You will note that there is no arrow to the left of that, though
there is an arrow to the far right.
Same thing with the folder right below that, which appears to say "forums."
Then there are several folders where it looks like there are arrows flying
out from the left. Actually, those arrows go with folders in the next-level
menu.
And if you look at the last folder in the top-level menu, the one that
appears to say "imported bookmarks," you'll notice there is no arrow to the
left of that one either.

That's the only explanation I can think of. Make sense?

 

[DP]

Sorry. I meant to say there are more folders than there are arrows.

 

[George Dingwall]

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/MenusOld.jpg

Hi all,

For those who think that there was nothing wrong with my menus, you
are wrong. The update changed the setting in the Control Panel/Tablet
PC options so that the menus flew out from the left instead of the
right.

I've done another couple of screen shots with IE7 in the same position
on both. The first one clearly shows the menus coming flying out to
the right as they were before the update. The second one clearly shows
the menus flying out to the left after the update was done.

The before image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/MenusOld2.jpg

The after image.

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk/images/temp/Menus2.jpg

Resetting the handedness setting in the Control Panel/Tablet PC
options put my menus back on the correct side.

I hope this clarifies things for those who had some doubts.

Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

 

[DP]

Yes, thanks. That's a much better comparison.
One question, though. What would happen when your IE window was all the way
to the left of your screen? That is, when there was no room for the menus to
fly out to the left. Would they fly out to the right then?

 

[George Dingwall]

Yes, thanks. That's a much better comparison.
One question, though. What would happen when your IE window was all the way
to the left of your screen? That is, when there was no room for the menus to
fly out to the left. Would they fly out to the right then?

Hi there,

If the cascading menus run out of room on either side, the next
sub-menu comes back in the opposite direction, but the position of any
menus already displayed does not change.

Hope this helps.Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

 

[DP]

Hi there,

If the cascading menus run out of room on either side, the next
sub-menu comes back in the opposite direction, but the position of any
menus already displayed does not change.

Hope this helps.

Sorry, George, I don't mean to drag this on longer.
What I meant was, say the left edge of your IE window was all the way up
against the left edge of your monitor screen. Would the top-level menus then
open to the right?

I'm just trying to get a handle on what exactly was changed with the update.
Normal behavior seems to be that if there's not enough room in either
direction, the menus cascade in the opposite direction.

I gather that what has changed -- and this is simply a guess -- is that when
there's enough room on either side, the default behavior would be to cascade
to the right but the changed behavior you're seeing is to go to the left
first. Is that what happened?

In other words, under the solution you found, there still will be times when
the menus cascade to the left when there's not enough room on the right.
Only it won't happen as often.

 

[George Dingwall]

Sorry, George, I don't mean to drag this on longer.
What I meant was, say the left edge of your IE window was all the way up
against the left edge of your monitor screen. Would the top-level menus then
open to the right?

I'm just trying to get a handle on what exactly was changed with the update.
Normal behavior seems to be that if there's not enough room in either
direction, the menus cascade in the opposite direction.

I gather that what has changed -- and this is simply a guess -- is that when
there's enough room on either side, the default behavior would be to cascade
to the right but the changed behavior you're seeing is to go to the left
first. Is that what happened?

In other words, under the solution you found, there still will be times when
the menus cascade to the left when there's not enough room on the right.
Only it won't happen as often.

Hi there,

The answer is yes. If there wasn't enough room on the left when the
menus were cascading to the left, they will still adopt the default
behaviour of going where there is room.

As you say, if there is room on the left when the settings have
changed, then the menus will cascade to the left until they run out of
room. When that happens, any further menus are displayed to the right.

Just one point of clarificatio, this wasn't just a problem in IE7. I
just used that as an example. It happened in all programs and all
menus, even right click menus. As this setting is windows wide, it
would obviously affect everything.

I'm just glad I found a solution in this news group. I still don't
inderstand why the update would alter this setting.
Bye for now,

George Dingwall

Invergordon, Scotland

http://www.georgedingwall.co.uk

 

[Paul Smith]

Thanks for that tip. I've just re-installed the update, and it changed
the handedness setting in the Tablet PC options so that menus were
flying out from the left instead of how it was previously from the
right.

I was beginning to go mad over this, as people I know who have also
installed the update did not have the same problem.

Thanks again, Paul, I really appreciate your help. I spent over two
hours on the phone, and with remote desktop access today, and they did
not think of that solution. I'm well pleased.

No problem. Luckily I've got some experience with Tablet PCs so that
setting came straight to my head. Why it would make any changes though
I haven't a clue.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Paul Smith]

PS some good astrophotographs on your website. Wish I could do deep sky
ones as good as that.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Nope, Dave is correct. I just tested it myself. And even though I got the
menus to swing out to the left, the arrows were still pointing right.

I know that you can have the arrows pointing to the right, and have the
menus flying out from the left if there is not enough space, but that is not
what was going on. If the arrows are pointing to the left, the GUI is in
lefthand mode.

ss.