Virtual Disk Wizard minimized

[nob...@nonospam.org]

I'm running VPC 2007 SP1 on a Windows XP Pro SP3 system. I have used
virtual disc wizard in the past with no problems. Today when I start it,
it starts minimized and right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar does
nothing. I tried uninstalling and re-installing VPC 2007 but it didn't
help. The last time I shut down my virtual PC before this happened, VPC
crashed and sent a report to Microsoft. What should I try next? Thanks!

John
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email address to prevent spam. Thank you.

[VanguardLH]

nob...@nonospam.org wrote:

> I'm running VPC 2007 SP1 on a Windows XP Pro SP3 system. I have used
> virtual disc wizard in the past with no problems. Today when I start it,
> it starts minimized and right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar does
> nothing. I tried uninstalling and re-installing VPC 2007 but it didn't
> help. The last time I shut down my virtual PC before this happened, VPC
> crashed and sent a report to Microsoft. What should I try next? Thanks!
>
> John

One possible cause is that the window isn't actually minimized but
hidden behind another window. Although a program should change the
focus for its window (to be on top), sometimes that doesn't work or they
forget to do that. You might find the wizard's wizard is underneath
another window. Drag the windows off the side of the monitor (even so
far as to only leave a small portion of their window on the screen) to
see if the wizard's window was underneath.

Are you using multple monitors or multiple desktops?

[nob...@nonospam.org]

I am using dual monitors, but I closed all other programs and still
don't see the Virtual Disk Wizard window. The New Virtual Machine Wizard
shows up normally, but not the Virtual Disk Wizard.

Is there some way having dual monitors could contribute to this?

[VanguardLH]

nobody wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:

>
>> nobody wrote:
>>
>>> it starts minimized and right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar
>>> does nothing.
>>

>> One possible cause is that the window isn't actually minimized but
>> hidden behind another window. Although a program should change the
>> focus for its window (to be on top), sometimes that doesn't work or
>> they forget to do that. You might find the wizard's wizard is
>> underneath another window. Drag the windows off the side of the
>> monitor (even so far as to only leave a small portion of their
>> window on the screen) to see if the wizard's window was underneath.
>>
>> Are you using multple monitors or multiple desktops?
>
> I am using dual monitors, but I closed all other programs and still
> don't see the Virtual Disk Wizard window. The New Virtual Machine
> Wizard shows up normally, but not the Virtual Disk Wizard.
>
> Is there some way having dual monitors could contribute to this?

I don't that dual monitors contributes to this problem only that I've
seen other apps that opened a window and it showed up in the wrong
monitor than expected.

Another cause is you dragged the window completely off the screen. It's
open but off screen. With a typical setup, dragging with a mouse means
the mouse can only go to the screen edge so there will still be a pixel,
or more, of one side of the window that you dragged over the edge.
However, if you have virtual desktops, especially if they are setup to
present a desktop that is larger than the monitor size (i.e., you have
to scroll to see all of a desktop) or with dual monitor setup, the mouse
might be configured to go off screen (into the oversized desktop area or
to the other monitor). That means you could end up dragging a window to
off screen and not be able to see it.

When you right-click on the wizard's taskbar icon, what context menu
entries are available?

Try the following (which you will have to do in the blind):
- Click the app's taskbar button to give it focus to its window.
- Hit Alt+Spacebar. This opens the window's control menu (the leftmost
icon in the window's titlebar).
- Hit Alt+X. This is the key shortcut to the Maximize menu entry.
- The window should maximize to the size of the current screen.

If maximizing the window doesn't get it to show in the screen, or if
restoring the window to normal size puts it off screen again, you could
try moving the normal window from off screen to on screen:
- Click the app's taskbar button to give it focus.
- Hit Alt+Spacebar to open its control menu.
- Hit Alt+M to activate the Move entry. You'll see the cursor change to
a 4-way pointer (if the window were on screen).
- Use the arrowpad keys to move around the window. Hold down the left
or right arrow keys for awhile to see if the off screen window happens
to roll into view, or the same for the up/down arrow keys.
- When the window is in view, hit the Enter key to accept the new
position (don't hit Esc as that undoes your Move and the window
bounces back to where it was).

[nob...@nonospam.org]

I finally resolved this problem!

In the directory
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Microsoft\VirtualPC
there is a file named Options.xml

In that file there is a this section:

<virtual_disk_wizard>
<left_position type="integer">208</left_position>
<top_position type="integer">229</top_position>
</virtual_disk_wizard>

Somehow the number in the left_position type section had become
corrupted. It was about 10 digits long! Editing this file to change the
number to a reasonable value fixed the problem. The Virtual Disk Wizard
now appears onscreen when it is started and works correctly.

John