Instances of "iSeries Access for Windows" are frozen when started

No help/solution to offer but I can confirm I've seen this before (not with iSeries) with other software such as the vWorkspace admin console (gotta laugh) and Office Communicator 2003 message windows.

So I don't think this issue is just down to your package. Actually I've been meaning to log this for some time.

I've seen strange behavior regarding buttons that are on the application title bar not working either such as the quick save icon on Office 2007 and the top half of tabs in Google Chrome...

I've just made this video: http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/~ku14028/seamlessissues.wmv

Basically, The first app is seamless word 2010 which allows me to move the window, resize it, etc and the second app is the vWorkspace admin console which only allows me to minimize or maximize but not resize or move it, etc.

Is that the same issue as you or have I completely misunderstood?

I also noticed that while using seamless apps, drag and drop gets disabled on the local machine. For example I cant move a desktop shortcut icon on my local device until I logout and back in again.

Cheers,

Dan.

Hi Ben,

Some ideas:

One might sound like a weird suggestion but have you tried vWorkspace 7.2 beta 1?

There is a new feature that allows you to use a different seamless engine, which might help.

Two, from the 7.1 release notes: “With seamless windows, using different Windows Themes between the Windows access device and the remote desktop can cause problems with the buttons used for minimizing, restoring, and maximizing windows. We strongly recommend you use the same or very similar theme in your remote and local Windows configurations whenever using the seamless windows functionality.”

7.2 sounds promising then

The problem with themes, is that "we" don't always know what the end-point device is! However since you pointed out the section from the release notes I tried again this time disabling the theme in AppPortal's properties.

I can now resize the window! However I never had issues with "the buttons used for minimizing, restoring, and maximizing windows" which is odd but it must be theme related?

Adding to that... I was using identical themes before when I couldn't resize the window.

I was planning on setting up a test 7.2 beta server in the next few weeks - I'll add this to my things to test.

Dan.

Michel,

No, I haven't tried the 7.2 beta yet.  I'll get it installed and give it a try if I can't find another solution.

I don't believe I changed anyhitng related to themes so I would imagine that it is set as the default.

Ben

"Visual styles" is the Windows theme setting. It might change some other visuals too.

Dan

Dan,

Thanks for the video. Yes, that is exactly the same issue that we are experiencing.  It is good to know that it's not necessarily related to the software package that we are using. No one has reported any issues with the buttons like you are describing and I haven't tried the drag and drop functionality so I can't say whether we are experiencing those issues at this point.

Ben

Dan,

Where did you go to disable the theme in the AppPortal properties?  I can't find any settings that specifically reference themes.  I tried disabling "Desktop composition", "Persistent bitmap caching" and "Visual styles in the Experience section of the farm properties; but that didn't seem to do anything.

Thanks,

Ben

ok, I just wanted to post a status update on this, though it needs more testing.  I have had mixed success with this solution.  It did seem to resolve the problem for some users; but then I turned visual styles back on and after logging back in they were still able to move the window around; so there might be more to it.

Also, for some users it did not work at all.  I'll continue to update this post as I discover more.

Ben

It's stopped working for me now too! After a reboot. Very odd!

Hi Ben,

Seamless application support assumes that an application uses standard window manager API calls that can be "transferred" between the client and virtual host sessions to ensure compliant behavior from both ends. vWorkspace hooks these API calls to handle seamless application windows on the client.

In an ideal world it would just work but reality is that any number of applications don't use standard windows manager API calls. This is also complicated by Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 because the way the window manager works is quite different. The end result is that seamless support, by any manufacturer, is incomplete and there will inevitably be exceptions where applications don't behave as they should.

Life gets a bit easier with 7.2 because we can piggyback over RemoteApp technology which now gives us 2 different seamless mechanisms, greatly decreasing the likelihood of not being able to support most applications. But as stated, there will still be exceptions where the application won't behave properly as a seamless application. That's the stuff that keeps our developers busy.

MR1 has a number of seamless application enhancements which might just sort out your problem, and since it's a maintenance release for 7.1 should be a bit more palatable than beta code.

Rick

I'll be trying 7.1 MR1 tomorrow and will report back on this issue.

Dan.

This all seems inline with the issues I've been having as well.  All my installations have been win2008 R2 I think. At any rate, I'm going to likely blow away my 7.1 MR1 and install the beta.

Shawn Sloan wrote:
This all seems inline with the issues I've been having as well.  All my installations have been win2008 R2 I think. At any rate, I'm going to likely blow away my 7.1 MR1 and install the beta.

Update:  I just upgraded 7.1 MR1 to 7.2 Beta 2.  Inplace upgrade...  I changed my buggy application to " use Microsoft Seamless window mode" and now it works very well. This appears to be the fix at the moment.