No "toolbar" with XPe web desktop components.

[Ian_m]

With XP Pro you can create web desktops (Display -> Properties -> Desktop ->
Customize Deskop -> Web) where web page is displayed on your desktop.

With the desktop web pane created by this process, hovering the mouse near
the top of the pane pops up a tool bar enabling the pane to be made full
size, full size - icons, minimized, a pop "properties" menu as well as being
able to re-size and move the pane.

This web pane creation process works fine under XP Embedded (both SP2 and
FP2007) however there is no "popup tool bar" and the pane is fixed in size
and cannot be resized or moved.

Any thoughts which embedded components is missing ?

I am seeing this on both my own builds of XPe (SP2 and FP2007) as well 3rd
party systems already supplied with XPe

[KM]

Typically that toolbar (the popup you're referring too) gets disappeared when you have the desktop components locked. Components
include the web pages you assigned to the active desktop.

To verify and change that you should check the following registry entry:
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\Components],"GeneralFlags"=dword
(it is a bit mask)

If it is set to "2" (or better say, the second bit set) the desktop items are locked and the toolbar won't be sliding out.
You should reset it to 0.

The same can be done with GUI. Just open up that Desktop Items dialog (Display -> Properties -> Desktop -> Customize Desktop -> Web)
and clear the "Lock desktop items" checkbox at the bottom.

--
=========
Regards,
KM

[Ian_m]

Nope thats not it, the registry entry is 0, still no tool bar.

Locking and unlocking via the GUI, no change either.

Using IE7 from FP2008, web desktop is bigger, but not full screen and still
no tool bar.

Anyone know a reference for IE registry entries, in case its one of the
other IE registry values causing issues ?

Ian

[KM]

Ian,

Just wanted to let you know that the feature works fine on my XPe image here (XPProEmualtion from www.xpefiles.com). Note that to
get it to work there didn't require any custom registry entries to be populated for IE.

This doesn't give you a clue what's missing but it tells you are definitely missing a component or a set of component.

A few more hints that may bring you up to speed on debugging the issue:
- Shell32.dll must be in the image (well, it is since you are running Explorer shell).
- Make sure "Primitive: Browseui", "HTML Rendering Engine", "Primitive: Oleaut32" and "Primitive: Shlwapi" components are in
your image (last 3 components are already in your image, I believe).
- Make sure the user you are logged in have Admin privileges
- Check if Desktop.htt file gets generated under <%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer> folder.
- Make sure "Active Desktop Mover" object is registered. It will be mentioned under
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{72267F6A-A6F9-11D0-BC94-00C04FB67863}] key. Basically this object is what you see as the toolbar when you
move mouse cursor over the top area of the page.
- Make sure the Low security settings for My Computer (local) Internet explorer zone are set.

To explain you why I ask you to check the above, I will have to explain you how the ActiveDektop feature works with a Web component
setup. When you set it up in the Desktop Items dialog, Explorer Shell generates an html based file - Desktop.htt - under a user
profile folder (the one I mentioned above). That HTT file is the Web page you see on your Desktop. It may contain a few components
(Web pages) - they are all FRAMEs within the HTT (htmll) file (tag IFRAME used). The HTT page also has an object embedded on the
page (OBJECT tag used) - Active Desktop Mover - that is basically the toolbar you see when you move mouse cursor over the top side
of the page.
All the Web components and the toolbar appearance are controled by a set of values and subkeys under
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\Components] key.

Please note that you can open that Desktop.htt file within IE as a regular dhtml page - you will notice it looks like your Desktop.
Obviously, there is no default association for .htt file so you will have to either manually associate it with IE or simply launch
the following command line:
iexplore "%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop.htt"
(replace the %UserProfile% with the actual value of the env.var)
When launched, you will have to allow IE to render the page with the ActiveX control embedded (the Active Desktop Mover control) via
a little popup appearing as the IE info bar.

All the above applies to IE 5.5 and any other later version.

What launch in IE gives you? A perfect tool to test whether the toolbar appears or not when you move the mouse over the top of the
page.
You can fire Regmon/Filemon (better Process Monitor) from sysinternals.com while running IE instance and monitor what's going on
there when you navigate the browser to the HTT page. It will show you all the object Dlls loaded, registry access, etc. Or, better,
run the above command line and the mouse hover test through DependencyWalker Profiler (www.dependencywalker.com, open \program
files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe, hit F7, type in the full path to HTT file and hit OK). It will show you in red if any Dlls is
missing while you are testing the page.

Sorry if you already knew all the stuff above, hope other newsgroup readers who may run into similar problems can benefit from the
info as well.

--
=========
Regards,
KM

[Ian_m]

KM,

bit limited in time today, was trying to get round to filemon and depends as
you suggested. The files, registry entries are all present, so is a .htt file
albeit much smaller that one generated by XP Pro.

However adding the Shell Applications Compatibility macro to a build
produces a correctly functioning web desktop. Now to find which bit causes it
to work/not work ?

Ian

[KM]

Simply try including "Images and Media".
Please let us know here if it helps.

--
=========
Regards,
KM

[Ian_m]

Yes that fixed it. Thankyou.

This component is rather large (over 3MB) as it contains loads of bit maps,
.jpg etc, so I only included the .htt + a few .inf files and web active
desktop works fine.

The give away is in the help file for this component :-
"Hypertext template (.htt) files that are used by Active Desktop"

Ian

[KM]

Yup, you only needed the HTT file - desktop template used by the shell to generate your Web Desktop.
This is basically how I found the missing component - was searching for the template. Btw, I should've mentioned that component
earlier since I knew where the template lives. I was just under impression your image included it, obviously I was wrong.

Anyway, I am happy we have fixed the issue finally :-)

--
=========
Regards,
KM