Hi,

is there any way to make the Document Explorer stop flickering? Whenever the browser part gets the focus it refreshes, when the contents tree gets the focus it refreshes. Both refreshes cause a very visual flicker effect.

That's really painful when browsing the content basically it makes convenient browsing impossible. Is there anything that can be done about that?

Using a brand new Visual Studio 2008 Pro install version 9.0.21022.8 RTM.

Regards
Markus

I have the same issue on my machine, i have Visual Studio 2005 installed, and Visual Studio 2008, but if you select in shortcut properties "disabled visual styles" you can run "document explorer" with AERO and works fine.

I have exactly the same problem on my machine. Here is my hardware and software specs:

Compaq nx8220, 2 GB RAM, Vista Business (with all updates)

Document Explorer 9.0.21022.8 RTM

Chris

Looks like this is related to http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2346070&SiteID=1. Have you checked to see if you have the latest video drivers?

Anand..

The system has not had graphics driver updates but it up-to-date otherwise and quite capable too (Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2G RAM). The new document explorer is the only application that is behaving that way (not even the old version did that).

From the feel of it, it appears to be a bad interaction between repainting and mouse/focus-event response functions, they are so extreme that somethings the thing needs close to 1 second to repaint the area that is being updated (which is a long time on a machine like that). The real question is why a repaint of that scale it even necessary when the focus changes.

I don't think it's a graphics driver issue (the post you're referring to doesn't indicate that either), but I'll get the latest version and see if that helps.

Markus

New drivers don't change the behavior. Not surprising as it didn't really look like a driver issue.

Are you saying you don't see a delay or flickering of the TOC and IE area when selecting any topic?

Markus

Markus,

I am not seeing this issuein my machine. However I do believe this is an issue we need to resolve. We have receive similar reports. I am following this with the team responsible and will get back with answers.

Anand..

Hi Markus - can you tell me a little more about your scenario? I'm not able to repro the issue at the moment.

- Did you previously use Visual Studio 2005? Did you get the same flicker with Document Explorer in that version?

- Does it make any difference if you load Document Explorer from the Start Menu directly, or via Visual Studio?

- What are you doing to change focus? Keyboard or Mouse?

many thanks,

Ken Watson - Visual Studio Platform

Sure, here we go:

1) The Visual Studio 2005 version (installed side-by-side with VS2008 on the same Vista machine) does not flicker at all.

2) There is no difference how the Document Explorer is started, the flickering is the same.

3) I'm using the Mouse, just tried with the keyboard and it flickers the same.

Another other observation:

The TOC pane refreshes visibly when clicking in the IE content area. This happens every time it is clicked (even though the content has the focus already). The refresh is not as slow as the "real" thing in that the view doesn't go blank for a long period of time. Only the tree seems to be repainted.

When clicking any topic in the TOC both TOC and IE Content pane go blank for I'd say 0.3-0.5 seconds and are repainted then.

Hope this helps, if you need anything else please let me know.

Regards
Markus

I have seen similar behavior from other software. The first example that comes to mind is the XP Media Center. Maybe this fix will be a cure, or at least a clue in the right direction.

Turn off your mouse trails.

I don't use mouse trails.

Regards
Markus

I'm experiencing the same thing. I have to admit that I can't get the MSDN installation to complete. It installs all files, startup menu items, and finally starts the "merge all" activity. It gets about 98% into the installation and then my laptop completely locks up. Once I reboot, I can start up the document explorer. It thinks for about 10 minutes to "merge my changes". But then it starts up and appears to contain the entire table of contents.

Clicking on either the table of contents pane, the content pane or even on the same horizontal pane as the page Tabs I see flickering. Clicking on a table of contents topic or a hyperlink erases both pane completely, pauses for 2 to 5 seconds and finally redraws the table of contents tree and the contents pane.

It's strange thatalso noticed it does nothappen when I Remote Desktop to my laptop from another workstation. I do not have mouse trails. In fact, I uninstalled IEPro, thinking that that might be a problem.

Since it appears that at least a few people are experiencing this that it must be more of an intrinsic problem than Microsoft is ready to admit.

I have the same issue on my machine, i have Visual Studio 2005 installed, and Visual Studio 2008, but if you select in shortcut properties "disabled visual styles" you can run "document explorer" with AERO and works fine.

I can confirm that "Disable Visual Themes" in the "Compatibility" tab of the shortcut property dialog indeed fixes the issue (the shortcut the installer creates in the Start Menu). What really is surprising is that its also seems to fix the issue if the IDE starts the help system or if any other help system is being viewed. This must be a property that is stored with the executable in some way, not the link.

Thanks for the tip.

Regards
Markus

Yes, that worked for me as well. Great catch.

Thanks!

\Steven

Just to add some more information:

If I invoke Doc Explorer from within VS08 (for example, from the "What's new in Visual C#" link under "Getting Started" it loads online help and flickers like crazy. Just dragging the mouse across the splitter between the online help panes causes the content pane to flicker painfully. Also if I drag the mouse across the "Navigation" menus at the botton of the topic causes the same flicker.

If I start Doc Explorer from the start menu shortcut, it loads local help and there is no flicker; it's rock steady.


This is on a Dell Inspiron 6000, 2GB RAM, Vista Business 32, ATI Mobility Radeon X300, Pentium M 2.1Ghz.

Execellent. Problem solved.

More than 1 year passed and SP1 did not solve this problem. Why Microsoft leave such bug?

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Develop with pleasure!

I do not know the reason of this problem, I just "disable visual themes" in the "compatibility tab" of the property of the"Microsoftvisual studio 2008 document explorer"shortcut, then then the "flickering" disappeared.

It's your hardware, not the software.

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Mark the best replies as answers. "Fooling computers since 1971."