Panel flickering: Every minute the folder list disappear and come back

[betaspin]

And you're currently using no content plugins?

No content plugins. The plugins I have installed are: cloudplugin, webdav, sftpplug, wcx_bz2, ISO and DiskDirExtended.

[Hacker]

betaspin,
If you currently aren't, can you try sorting by Name?

Roman

[betaspin]

If you currently aren't, can you try sorting by Name?

Thanks, just tried this---no change. Was editing a google document in the meantime, and the refresh delays meant that on occasion I had to stop typing for a second in order for the word to appear. Of course, it could have been the internet connection playing up but unlikely, once TC was closed, there were no delays.

[ghisler(Author)]

Try adding the line
DeviceChange=0
to the wincmd.ini, section [Configuration], then restart Total Commander.

If this helps, you are having a misbehaving device, e.g. a USB device which doesn't get enough power and so disconnects/reconnects in quick succession. I had this once with a USB dongle for an X-Box S controller on a USB hub. The hub didn't provide enough power for this dongle.

Please check in Control Panel - device manager whether you can see any devices arriving/disappearing there.

[betaspin]

Try adding the line
DeviceChange=0
to the wincmd.ini, section [Configuration], then restart Total Commander.

If this helps, you are having a misbehaving device, e.g. a USB device which doesn't get enough power and so disconnects/reconnects in quick succession. I had this once with a USB dongle for an X-Box S controller on a USB hub. The hub didn't provide enough power for this dongle.

Please check in Control Panel - device manager whether you can see any devices arriving/disappearing there.

Thanks, tried DeviceChange=0 yesterday, together with updating several programs that install their own services. The device manager had been checked earlier---I certainly have no misbehaving USB devices (and my USB devices are connected to USB 3/USB C ports which supply way more power than USB 2). The redraw problem is still present, sometimes it is a bit faster and sometimes, a bit slower. It is more noticeable in the file list and happens for folders, in which I am sure that nothing has changed. However, most if not all visual elements in the Total Commander window are also redrawn, faster than the file list but still not fast enough to go unnoticed. This includes the "Files Mark Commands Net Show Configuration Start" menu.

[ghisler(Author)]

Do the Windows desktop icons also redraw all the time?

[betaspin]

Do the Windows desktop icons also redraw all the time?

The Windows desktop icons are redrawn upon starting TC. They are not redrawn when TC is refreshing its window/file lists, but do get redrawn from time to time, quite infrequently. I have checked the Event Viewer for possible errors but there is nothing obvious (for example, for the last 24h the number of errors is just 3 and these are not Explorer/TC related).

[ghisler(Author)]

So far I couldn't reproduce it. However, I could reproduce a different problem with Windows 10 which may be related:

When I go to the Desktop or Computer virtual folder in Total Commander, it starts beeping every time I copy or delete a file in Explorer. This seems to be a bug caused by a recent Windows patch, it didn't occur before. The beeping stops only after closing TC, and only starts again when going either to the Desktop or the Computer virtual folder. It looks like Windows is then sending invalid directory update notifications.

[betaspin]

Just tried it, I get a single beep on copying a file to the Desktop, or on deleting a file from the Desktop (both in Total Commander). No constant beeping though.

My feeling is that this started less than a month ago, otherwise I would have noticed it earlier, as I keep Total Commander running all the time (I do almost everything in it). I have now found another program with slow window refreshing, AIDA64 (https://www.aida64.com/). Could it be calls to some library routine that Microsoft are phasing out and not using themselves?

[ghisler(Author)]

It was recently dicussed in the German forum - it happens due to problems with a function to watch folder changes, caused by a recent security update. I'm currently working on a fix, so far it's looking good. You can avoid the beeping by not going to any virtual folders:
- Desktop (go to c:\users\yourusername\desktop instead)
- My Computer
- Network neighborhood

[betaspin]

Thanks, I shall be happy to be involved in testing a beta version, if required.

[ghisler(Author)]

Please contact me by e-mail. You have to confirm that you will not give the beta to anyone else.

[betaspin]

Just a line to say that I never got the beta version but managed to resolve my "flickering" problem. It turned out that it was due to a Windows setting, "automatically pick an accent color from my background" which causes a complete screen redrawing on every change of the desktop background (mine was set to change every 1 min).