List box animation + focus problem (W2K SP4)

[matevzb]

I have a problem which seems to arise when using TC (6.x) on Windows 2000 + Service Pack 4. Every now and then the system settings
seem to change, turning on list box animation and disabling focus on foreground windows. The funny thing is that the settings in the registry
remain unchanged
(e.g. HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\UserPreferencesMask),
however TweakUI detects the change. I have also written a program to monitor these changes (WM_SETTINGCHANGE is sent to each window),
but they don't arrive. When I run TweakUI and apply some changes, the program receives them fine.

Note that this is happening on two very different configurations (AMD Duron, Intel P4) with only things in common being:
1. W2K + SP4
2. Total Commander 6.03a (licensed at work, shareware at home)
3. NVidia GeForce2 MX (with different drivers)
I also tried TC 6.50 and the problem remains.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem (and potentially resolved it)?

rgds,
matevzb

[ghisler(Author)]

Maybe some program is changing these options programmatically?

licensed at work, shareware at home

You know that your licence at work allows you to use the key also at home, if the company has enough licences?

[matevzb]

Maybe some program is changing these options programmatically?

I thought of that and the only way to do this (at least that I'm aware of) is via SystemParametersInfo() API, which eventually sends WM_SETTINGCHANGE to all windows. That's why I wrote the monitor program.

You know that your licence at work allows you to use the key also at home, if the company has enough licences?

Hmm... no, actually I didn't. When I received email regarding the licenses, it said they can only be used for work-related purposes (or something like that). So I'm also writing a plugin, if the offer is still valid (and even if not )
Oh and the licence number is #114411 (200 User licence).