Long time bug: after committing the TortoiseSVN hides behind explorer.

[San San]

Hello,

So this is a long term bug on Windows. It's not a functional bug, more like a UX bug. I hoped others would notice and it'd get fixed but since it's been 5+ years (or forever?) I might as well report it.

Basically, sometimes, when I want to do a commit on a folder. (Right Click on folder -> SVN Commit...) and then press OK to commit, the resulting "Commit Finished!" window is getting hidden behind the Windows Explorer window (the parent folder that's open where I had just right-clicked on the folder that I am committing). This is annoying because then I have to go to the task bar to click on the TortoiseSVN window icon to open it and then close it.

This doesn't always happen. Basically it happens the first commit, but then if I commit a bunch more time within 15 minutes or so, then all those times it won't do this bug and the Commit Finished! window displays normally above all other Windows. However if I haven't committed anything or interacted with TortoiseSVN for a while, then the first commit will have this UX bug again, consistently. I think something happens where the Explorer takes Z depth priority over the TortoiseSVN for some reason, maybe because of some background refresh or something, I don't know.

In short, the "Commit Finished!" should always appear and make sure to be above all other Windows including Explorer when it spawns and not get spawned behind Explorer.

Technically I'm guessing the previous "Commit" window of TortoiseSVN should hand over foreground priority to the "Commit Finished!" window using SetForegroundWindow() or BringWindowToTop() WinAPI or something else.

Thanks!

[Stefan]

I don't think this is a bug in TSVN. I have a strong suspicion that you have some tool installed that causes this behavior.

You see, ever since Win7 Windows decides itself which window gets to be in front. That was because many apps started to misbehave and forced their window to the foreground, annoying users who were typing in another window.

That's why a process can not bring it's own window to the front anymore. See the remarks section for the SetForegroundWindow API:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-setforegroundwindow

Also, I've never seen this kind of behavior myself, and I'm using TSVN on multiple machines with three different OS versions (Win7, ok that one will be replaced soon, Win10 and Win11).

[San San]

I see, yes it could just be Windows. I'm using Windows 10 by the way.

It could be that because I'm doing a Commit, Explorer is told somehow to "refresh" (to show the green TortoiseSVN icon I suppose), and this causes it to take priority and become the front window. Perhaps, because the "Commit Finished!" window is not in cache because I've not been using TortoiseSVN for while, it loses the race between who gets to be on front between the Explorer and "Commit Finished!" TortoiseSVN window.

Perhaps this is happening because I also have Dropbox on, which likes to watch and manage folders and files all the time too.

[San San]

Although I'm not ready to give up and shove it under the "blame Windows" rug. This only happens to TortoiseSVN. I suspect it's just that spawning the Commit window has a problem when it spawns first time. Too bad it's like a Schrodinger's cat problem and I can't get it to bug when I'm trying to record it.

[San San]

https://streamable.com/rzkc28

That's how it looks. I have to go to taskbar to open it (pressing twice there on task bar icon because its behind Explorer, so I'm minimizing it first then again to make it appear). I could also minimize explorer to see it but I don't usually do that.

[Nathaniel GuggenHeim]

Have the same problem. Worked for years with win7, never happened. Changed to win10, bug happens.

[San San]

Do you know if it happens on Windows 11?

[San San]

Not fixed in latest version 1.14.6 unfortunately