Global alt+space hotkey grabbing - weird keyboard focus behaviour - c++

I'm grabbing Alt+Space global hotkey using xcb_grab_key, as follows:
xcb_key_symbols_t *keysyms = xcb_key_symbols_alloc(c);
xcb_keycode_t *keycodes = xcb_key_symbols_get_keycode(keysyms, XK_space), keycode;
// add bindings for all screens
xcb_screen_iterator_t iter;
iter = xcb_setup_roots_iterator (xcb_get_setup (c));
for (; iter.rem; xcb_screen_next (&iter)) {
int i = 0;
while(keycodes[i] != XCB_NO_SYMBOL) {
keycode = keycodes[i];
xcb_grab_key(c, true, iter.data->root, XCB_MOD_MASK_ANY, keycode, XCB_GRAB_MODE_SYNC, XCB_GRAB_MODE_SYNC);
i += 1;
}
}
Then in Qt's QAbstractNativeEventFilter subclass I process it and emit a Qt signal if key matches Alt+Space:
xcb_keycode_t *keycodes = xcb_key_symbols_get_keycode(keysyms, XK_space);
int i = 0;
bool found = false;
while(keycodes[i] != XCB_NO_SYMBOL) {
if(event->detail == keycodes[i]) {
if(event->state & GetModifier(c, keysyms, XK_Alt_L) || event->state & GetModifier(c, keysyms, XK_Alt_R)) {
xcb_allow_events(c, XCB_ALLOW_ASYNC_KEYBOARD, event->time);
emit gotHotKey();
found = true;
} else {
xcb_allow_events(c, XCB_ALLOW_REPLAY_KEYBOARD, event->time);
}
break;
}
i += 1;
}
if(found) return true;
(GetModifier is copied from VLC but I think this part doesn't matter since Alt-key is matched correctly)
The problem I'm having is that after show()ing main window when the hotkey is pressed, keyboard is most of the times1 not focused properly. I can type, but the cursor is not visible, input's border is not highlighted, and the shortcut Ctrl+Q for quitting desn't work. It can be worked around by moving the window, or pressing space - then focus is restored - cursor+border reappears and Ctrl+Q works. What might be causing this behaviour?
I'm using Qt 5.0.0 and xcb 1.8.1. Complete application can be downloaded for compiling from github.
1 it means sometimes the issue is not reproducible - focus is set correctly even for repeated window hide/shows, but then other times it happens multiple times in a row of hide/shows. It occurs more often than not overall.
(Edit: I've implemented a (very ugly...) workaround, so to reproduce the issue for the github project, the following code needs to be removed)
#ifndef WIN32
// Very ugly workaround for the problem described at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14553810/
// (just show and hide a modal dialog box, which for some reason restores proper keyboard focus)
hackDialog.setGeometry(0, 0, 0, 0);
hackDialog.setModal(true);
hackDialog.show();
QTimer::singleShot(100, &hackDialog, SLOT(reject()));
#endif

Related

Multiple key presses detected on SFML, can't solve it in any other way and works differently on different machines

this is my first post here.
I am trying to solve a problem I am having with my SFML project where I am using multiple clients, that communicate through texts that can be typed in the rendered window and then sent to the other sockets using a selector.
My problem is that everytime i press one button of the keyboard, the window detects like 3 or 4, and if I try it on another machine, the behaviour changes.
I tried almost every solution, including the setKeyRepeatEnabled(false);
This is the update function
void Client::Update(Input* input,sf::Event& Ev, sf::Font& font, sf::RenderWindow& window)
{
if (input->isKeyDown(sf::Keyboard::Return))
{
sf::Packet packet;
packet << id + ": " + text;
socket.send(packet);
sf::Text displayText(text, font, 20);
displayText.setFillColor(sf::Color::Red);
chat.push_back(displayText);
text = "";
input->setKeyUp(sf::Keyboard::Return);
}
else if (input->isKeyDown(sf::Keyboard::Backspace))
{
if (text.size() > 0)
text.pop_back();
}
else if (input->isKeyDown(sf::Keyboard::Space))
{
text += ' ';
}
else if (Ev.type == sf::Event::TextEntered)
{
text += Ev.text.unicode;
return;
}
//sf::Event::TextEntered
//text += Ev.text.unicode;
}
This is the render one.
void Client::Render(sf::Font& font, sf::RenderWindow& window)
{
sf::Packet packet;
socket.receive(packet);
std::string temptext;
if (packet >> temptext)
{
sf::Text displayText(temptext, font, 20);
displayText.setFillColor(sf::Color::Blue);
chat.push_back(displayText);
}
int i = 0;
for (i; i < chat.size(); i++)
{
chat[i].setPosition(0, i * 20);
window.draw(chat[i]);
}
sf::Text drawText(text, font, 20);
drawText.setFillColor(sf::Color::Red);
drawText.setPosition(0, i * 20);
window.draw(drawText);
}
I don't recognize the isKeyDown function as part of SFML, so I assume you either is something you implemented or is part of a previous version of SFML (being the current 2.5.1).
There are three ways to detect input from keyboard in SFML.
sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed: looks like this is the one you are using. It will be true every cycle that the key is pressed. You definetly don't want this. The window.setKeyRepeatEnabled(false) will obviously not work because you don't get the input through the window, but directly from the keyboard.
sf::Event::KeyPressed and sf::Event::KeyReleased events: for this, window.setKeyRepeatEnabled(false) will work, but still it's not the recommended way to deal with text input, as it would require a lot of juggling by your side to handle key combinations (accents, uppa.
sf::Event::TextEntered event: now, this is the best and recommended way to handle typing. Check the tutorial to see how to use it.

Quit application call twice the closeevent

I have wrote an application in Qt/c++ on OSX. When quitting the app, I'm catching the closeevent to display dialog box
void MainUI::closeEvent (QCloseEvent *event)
{
if( DeviceUnplugged == false) {
ExitDialog = new DialogExit;
ExitDialog->exec();
if(ExitDialog->result() == QDialog::Accepted) {
m_device.CloseDevice();
event->accept();
}
else {
event->ignore();
}
}
}
The dialog box is correctly displayed when closing using the red cross or using the menu "quit".
but when I'm closing the app using the right click on the icon in the dock, the dialog box appears twice the close event is called twice.
Any idea why ?
Yes, I think it is normal for Mac, at least I had this in my Qt application, too (only on Mac).
I used the following workaround:
void MainUI::closeEvent (QCloseEvent *event)
{
if (m_closing)
{
event->accept();
return;
}
if( DeviceUnplugged == false) {
ExitDialog = new DialogExit;
ExitDialog->exec();
if(ExitDialog->result() == QDialog::Accepted) {
m_device.CloseDevice();
m_closing = true;
event->accept();
}
else {
event->ignore();
}
}
}
By default, boolean variable m_closing should be initialized by false of course in your class. This way second time nothing will be done (processing will be skipped). This worked for me.
Looks like this is a QT bug:
See: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-43344
Also had this problem when using qt-5.6_4 ,
In my case it happened when using CMD+Q but didn't happen when using the red x button.
Used a similar patch.
I avoided accept or ignore since this is a bug and I don't think we should "talk to it" :-)
Instead I simply return when called more then once.
static int numCalled = 0;
if (numCalled++ >= 1)
return;

WinAPI, ShellHook and "hint windows" AKA (tooltips)

I wrote my own task bar replacement, I am using it for many years happily (sort of) but I have some issues unresolved. Please help! I have "hint" windows appear in my task bar. Those (usually yellow) windows that appear when you hover the mouse over a tab in a browser or a button or a link in some program. Normally those windows should disappear once you move your mouse, and normally they should not be detected as separate windows and should not be displayed in the task bar. Bot for me they are often not closed and stay on teh screen forever, until reboot, or closed partially, the yellow window with a text of a hint disappears but the "shadow" that was surrounding it stays in place (sometimes with a white box
).
Please help to understand how to avoid those windows to be detected as "normal windows" and explain why I have them unclosed.
I looked into ReactOS task bar source code, but for me it looks very similar to my own implementation, I cannot find any serious difference. SO I must be missing something. Here is some code I use:
//making taskbar window
SHELLHOOK = RegisterWindowMessageA("SHELLHOOK");
SetTaskmanWindow(prog->handle);
RegisterShellHookWindow(prog->handle);
prog->setCaption("Shell_TrayWnd");
SendMessage(prog->handle, SHELLHOOK, 0, 0);
SendMessage((void*)0xffff, tray.WM_TASKBARCREATED, 0, 0);
//enumerating windows to put into taskbar
int __stdcall enum_proc(void * H, WindowsList &L)
{
// try to filter out unnecessary windows
if (H == mainWindow.handle) return true;
if (
GetWindow(H, GW_OWNER)
|| !IsWindowVisible(H)
|| !IsWindow(H)
|| GetParent(H) != 0
) return true;
str s; s.setLength(1024); // try to filter out 'tooltips' by classname or size
s.setLength(GetClassNameA(H, *s, s.length));
s.lower();
if (s.pos("tooltip") >= 0) return true; //did it work? (nope)
int S = GetWindowLong(H, GWL_STYLE);
RECT R; GetWindowRect(H, &R); int h = R.bottom - R.top;
//if (h > 10 && h < 30) return true; // this is not a solution sadly..
if (S & TTS_NOPREFIX) return true;
if (S & TTS_ALWAYSTIP) return true;
L.addWindowHandle(H);
return true;
}
void get_sys_window_list(WindowsList &L)
{
EnumWindows(enum_proc, &L);
}
I don't know how did you missed it while looking at the source code of ReactOS, but tooltips have the WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW extended style. Windows with this style set should not be displayed on the taskbar.
Relevant line in ReactOS.
As for the issue about:
"shadow" that was surrounding it stays in place
I didn't understand how that's related to the issue. You attached a screenshot of Chrome. Does it mean that somehow your taskbar causes the tooltip's shadow to stay on screen?

How does MFC's "Update Command UI" system work?

I'd like to know more about how this system works, specifically when and how the framework actually decides to update a UI element.
My application has a 'tools' system where a single tool can be active at a time. I used the "ON_UPDATE_COMMAND_UI" message to 'check' the tool's icon/button in the UI, which affected both the application menu and the toolbars. Anyway, this was all working great until some point in the last couple of days, when the toolbar icons stopped getting highlighted properly.
I investigated a little and found that the update command was only being received when the icon was actually clicked. What's strange is this is only affecting the toolbars, not the menu, which is still working fine. Even when the buttons in the menu are updated the toolbar icon stays the same.
Obviously I've done something to break it - any ideas?
EDIT:
Never mind. I'd overwritten the Application's OnIdle() method and hadn't called the original base class method - that is, CWinApp::OnIdle() - which I guess is where the update gets called most of the time. This code snippet from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3e077sxt.aspx illustrates:
BOOL CMyApp::OnIdle(LONG lCount)
{
// CWinApp's original method is involved in the update message handling!
// Removing this call will break things
BOOL bMore = CWinApp::OnIdle(lCount);
if (lCount == 0)
{
TRACE(_T("App idle for short period of time\n"));
bMore = TRUE;
}
// ... do work
return bMore;
// return TRUE as long as there are any more idle tasks
}
Here's a good article that kinda explains how to do it. Don't use his code example with WM_KICKIDLE though, instead scroll down to the comments section. There are two code samples that explain how to do it better. I quote:
//Override WM_INITMENUPOPUP
void CDialog::OnInitMenuPopup(CMenu* pPopupMenu, UINT nIndex, BOOL bSysMenu)
{
CDialog::OnInitMenuPopup(pPopupMenu, nIndex, bSysMenu);
// TODO: Add your message handler code here
if(pPopupMenu &&
!bSysMenu)
{
CCmdUI CmdUI;
CmdUI.m_nIndexMax = pPopupMenu->GetMenuItemCount();
for(UINT i = 0; i < CmdUI.m_nIndexMax; i++)
{
CmdUI.m_nIndex = i;
CmdUI.m_nID = pPopupMenu->GetMenuItemID(i);
CmdUI.m_pMenu = pPopupMenu;
// There are two options:
// Option 1. All handlers are in dialog
CmdUI.DoUpdate(this, FALSE);
// Option 2. There are handlers in dialog and controls
/*
CmdUI.DoUpdate( this, FALSE );
// If dialog handler doesn't change state route update
// request to child controls. The last DoUpdate will
// disable menu item with no handler
if( FALSE == CmdUI.m_bEnableChanged )
CmdUI.DoUpdate( m_pControl_1, FALSE );
...
if( FALSE == CmdUI.m_bEnableChanged )
CmdUI.DoUpdate( m_pControl_Last, TRUE );
*/
}
}
}
See if this helps - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/essk9ab2(v=vs.80).aspx

My MFC Application Freezes if I Switch to Another App

Commence V 2.0 of this question.
My VC++ MFC application compiles and runs just fine. That is, until I switch to another window. As soon as my program loses focus, it freezes; I cannot switch back to it and if I move a window that is in front of it, my app window displays white in the space that the other window was covering.
Since I first posted this question I have been able to pinpoint what portion of my program is causing this behavior, but I still don't know what lines of code are wrong or why.
The main dialog of my MFC application contains a CTabCtrl called m_MainTabControl. This main tab control holds onto two tabs labeled "Basic Design" and "Advanced Design", each of which are tied to their own dialogs. Both dialogs contain a CTabCtrl with several tabs. And thus my problem is born.
When I first created this tab-within-tab structure, I was having problems with my program freezing up when I tried to switch between inner tabs. Needless to say I was puzzled by this, until I noticed that if I first clicked on a control on one of the inner tabs I could then switch tabs just fine. So without fully understanding what the problem was, I set the focus to the first inner tab of the first inner tab on program startup. Problem half solved. When I ran the program I could click around on the first set of inner tabs just fine; if I switched to the second outer tab and tried clicking around its inner tabs without first clicking on a dialog control, it would freeze again. So I made a Focus function to focus the currently selected inner tab of the currently selected outer tab and called that in my tab change event (the one that goes off when you click on another tab).
That is how I got to the point I was at when I first asked this question. I thought my program was working just fine, until I played around with it a bit more and noticed it wasn't playing nicely when I flipped back and forth between it and another window or program. More specifically, as soon as my program goes out of focus some process goes haywire and takes up an entire CPU's worth of processing.
And now, the reason I explained my little tab structure and focus problems in such great detail: after much experimentation, I found that if I commented out the second tab on my outer tab structure (i.e. the "Advanced Design" dialog and all of its little children tabs) the remaining bit of my program runs fine, and I can switch to another window and back without a fight. "Great," I thought, "that's only about 90% of my program that I just commented out to get this working. Let's try and pare it down further." I put the "Advanced Design" tabbed dialog back in, but commented out the tabbed dialogs created by the tab control within "Advanced Design" and everything still worked fine. One by one I put back the tabbed dialogs belonging to "Advanced Design"'s tab control and every time I reintroduced The Error regardless of what tab I uncommented. I should also point out that one of the first tabs I tried putting back in (alone, of course) was my "Margins" tab, which is a MarginDlg class that I ALSO USE UNDER MY "Basic Design" TAB WITHOUT TROUBLE. This leads me to believe that there is something specific I have to do when creating tabbed dialogs within tabbed dialogs that I am not doing, or am doing incorrectly, kind of like how I had to mess with focusing to make it work at first.
I would be EXTREMELY grateful for any light that can be shed on the situation. I am including what I think are relevant snippets of code; as always, let me know if more is needed.
variable declarations from main dialog's .h file:
//tab stuff
CTabCtrl m_MainTabControl;
vector<CDialog*> m_tabPages;
SimpDesDlg* simpDesDlg;
AdvDesDlg* advDesDlg;
When my application starts up, it creates my main dialog, and the OnInitDialog() is called:
(everything above the TODO: comment is default VS stuff dealing with the stupid about dialog)
BOOL CspAceDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
CDialog::OnInitDialog();
// Add "About..." menu item to system menu.
// IDM_ABOUTBOX must be in the system command range.
ASSERT((IDM_ABOUTBOX & 0xFFF0) == IDM_ABOUTBOX);
ASSERT(IDM_ABOUTBOX < 0xF000);
CMenu* pSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(FALSE);
if (pSysMenu != NULL)
{
CString strAboutMenu;
strAboutMenu.LoadString(IDS_ABOUTBOX);
if (!strAboutMenu.IsEmpty())
{
pSysMenu->AppendMenu(MF_SEPARATOR);
pSysMenu->AppendMenu(MF_STRING, IDM_ABOUTBOX, strAboutMenu);
}
}
// Set the icon for this dialog. The framework does this automatically
// when the application's main window is not a dialog
SetIcon(m_hIcon, TRUE); // Set big icon
SetIcon(m_hIcon, FALSE); // Set small icon
// TODO: Add extra initialization here
///////////////////////////////////////
DrawResultsArea();
DrawTabs();
theApp.Calculate();
Focus();
//simpDesDlg->Focus();
//DrawToolbar();
return FALSE; // return TRUE unless you set the focus to a control
}
DrawTabs() is where I create the tabs for my outer tab control:
void CspAceDlg::DrawTabs()
{
simpDesDlg = new SimpDesDlg;
m_tabPages.push_back(simpDesDlg);
advDesDlg = new AdvDesDlg;
m_tabPages.push_back(advDesDlg);
// create a tcItem to hold the name of each tab during creation
// and then get inserted, and arrays holding the tab names and IDs of
// the dialogs they refer to
TC_ITEM tcItem;
PSTR pszTabNames[] = {"Basic Design", "Advanced Design"};
UINT pszTabItems[] = {IDD_SIMPLEDESIGNTAB, IDD_ADVANCEDDESIGNTAB};
//every member of m_tabPages[] will become a tab
for (int i = 0; i < int(m_tabPages.size()); i++)
{
//set up the tab name
tcItem.mask = TCIF_TEXT;
tcItem.pszText = pszTabNames[i];
tcItem.cchTextMax = int(strlen(pszTabNames[i]));
//insert the new tab into the tab control and create the dialog window
m_MainTabControl.InsertItem(i, &tcItem);
m_tabPages[i]->Create(pszTabItems[i], &m_MainTabControl);
}
//redraw so that the dialogs don't appear in upper left corner and cover the tabs
CRect tabRect, itemRect;
int nX, nY, nXc, nYc;
m_MainTabControl.GetClientRect(&tabRect);
m_MainTabControl.GetItemRect(0, &itemRect);
nX=itemRect.left;
nY=itemRect.bottom+1;
nXc=tabRect.right-itemRect.left-1;
nYc=tabRect.bottom-nY-1;
m_tabPages[0]->SetWindowPos(&wndTop, nX, nY, nXc, nYc, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
for(int nCount=1; nCount < int(m_tabPages.size()); nCount++){
m_tabPages[nCount]->SetWindowPos(&wndTop, nX, nY, nXc, nYc, SWP_HIDEWINDOW);
}
}
Main dialog's Focus() method:
void CspAceDlg::Focus()
{
int curSel = m_MainTabControl.GetCurSel();
m_tabPages[curSel]->SetFocus();
//if it's the basic design, we need to focus its first tab
if (curSel == 0)
{
simpDesDlg->Focus();
}
//if it's the advanced design, we need to focus its first tab
else if (curSel == 1)
{
advDesDlg->Focus();
}
}
code for m_MainTabControl's tab selection change event:
void CspAceDlg::OnTcnSelchangeBuildtabs(NMHDR *pNMHDR, LRESULT *pResult)
{
for (int i = 0; i < int(m_tabPages.size()); i++)
{
m_tabPages[i]->ShowWindow(m_MainTabControl.GetCurSel() == i ? SW_SHOW :
SW_HIDE);
}
Focus();
*pResult = 0;
}
SimpDesDlg and AdvDesDlg's tabs use identical code except for tab initialization (just creating different tabs for each) so here's the code for AdvDesDlg:
OnInitDialog():
BOOL AdvDesDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
CDialog::OnInitDialog();
DrawTabs();
return false;
}
adding in the tabbed dialogs:
void AdvDesDlg::DrawTabs()
{
//Make the dialogs for the tabs
antennaDlg = new AntennaDlg;
commSEDlg = new CommSEDlg;
encryptorDlg = new EncryptorDlg;
marginDlg = new MarginDlg;
miscDlg = new MiscDlg;
transRecDlg = new TransRecDlg;
//add them all to the tabPages vector
m_tabPages.push_back(antennaDlg);
m_tabPages.push_back(commSEDlg);
m_tabPages.push_back(encryptorDlg);
m_tabPages.push_back(marginDlg);
m_tabPages.push_back(miscDlg);
m_tabPages.push_back(transRecDlg);
//m_tabPages[0] = new AntennaDlg;
//m_tabPages[1] = new CommSEDlg;
//m_tabPages[2] = new EncryptorDlg;
//m_tabPages[3] = new MarginDlg;
//m_tabPages[4] = new MiscDlg;
//m_tabPages[5] = new TransRecDlg;
//antennaDlg = (AntennaDlg*) m_tabPages[0];
//commSEDlg = (CommSEDlg*) m_tabPages[1];
//encryptorDlg = (EncryptorDlg*) m_tabPages[2];
//marginDlg = (MarginDlg*) m_tabPages[3];
//miscDlg = (MiscDlg*) m_tabPages[4];
//transRecDlg = (TransRecDlg*) m_tabPages[5];
// create a tcItem to hold the name of each tab during creation
// and then get inserted, and arrays holding the tab names and IDs of
// the dialogs they refer to
TC_ITEM tcItem;
PSTR pszTabNames[] = {"Antenna", "Comm Support", "Encryptor", "Margins", "Misc", "Trasmitter/Receiver"};
UINT pszTabItems[] = {IDD_ANTENNATAB, IDD_COMMSETAB, IDD_ENCRYPTORTAB, IDD_MARGINTAB, IDD_MISCTAB, IDD_TRANSRECTAB};
//every member of m_tabPages[] will become a tab
for (int i = 0; i < int(m_tabPages.size())/*(sizeof(m_tabPages)/sizeof(m_tabPages[0]))*/; i++)
{
//set up the tab name
tcItem.mask = TCIF_TEXT;
tcItem.pszText = pszTabNames[i];
tcItem.cchTextMax = int(strlen(pszTabNames[i]));
//insert the new tab into the tab control and create the dialog window
advTab.InsertItem(i, &tcItem);
m_tabPages[i]->Create(pszTabItems[i], &advTab);
}
//redraw so that the dialogs don't appear in upper left corner and cover the tabs
CRect tabRect, itemRect;
int nX, nY, nXc, nYc;
advTab.GetClientRect(&tabRect);
advTab.GetItemRect(0, &itemRect);
nX=itemRect.left;
nY=itemRect.bottom+1;
nXc=tabRect.right-itemRect.left-1;
nYc=tabRect.bottom-nY-1;
//m_tabPages[0]->SetWindowPos(&wndTop, nX, nY, nXc, nYc, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
for(int nCount=/*1*/0; nCount < int(m_tabPages.size())/*(sizeof(m_tabPages)/sizeof(m_tabPages[0]))*/; nCount++){
m_tabPages[nCount]->SetWindowPos(&wndTop, nX, nY, nXc, nYc, SWP_HIDEWINDOW);
}
}
And the Focus() and tab changing:
void AdvDesDlg::Focus()
{
this->SetFocus();
for (int i = 0; i < int(m_tabPages.size())/*(sizeof(m_tabPages)/sizeof(m_tabPages[0]))*/; i++)
{
m_tabPages[i]->ShowWindow(advTab.GetCurSel() == i ? SW_SHOW :
SW_HIDE);
}
int curSel = advTab.GetCurSel();
m_tabPages[curSel]->SetFocus();
}
void AdvDesDlg::OnTcnSelchangeAdvDesign(NMHDR *pNMHDR, LRESULT *pResult)
{
for (int i = 0; i < int(m_tabPages.size())/*(sizeof(m_tabPages)/sizeof(m_tabPages[0]))*/; i++)
{
m_tabPages[i]->ShowWindow(advTab.GetCurSel() == i ? SW_SHOW :
SW_HIDE);
}
int curSel = advTab.GetCurSel();
m_tabPages[curSel]->SetFocus();
*pResult = 0;
}
Debug your app, get it into this state, then go Debug / Break All. Find the main thread in the Threads window, then look at the call stack. Somewhere in the call stack will be your code that's causing the hang.
Note that in order to get a sensible call stack you'll need to point Visual Studio at Microsoft's symbol servers; see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b8ttk8zy.aspx
The behavior you describe usually occurs when you are running some process without allowing the message pump to run.
What does your app do? I assume you start it, and then either hit a button or select a menu item to start some process.
If the program behaves normally when you first start it (before you click to start your processing), but then behaves as you describe after starting the process, then that's your problem.
You'll have to move that processing into another thread to allow the MFC GUI to remain responsive.
I just stumbled about a very similar situation. My setup:
A CPropertySheet containing several CPropertyPages
A CTabCtrl inside one CPropertyPage
Several CDialogs as part of the CTabCtrl
Using a control in one specific CDialog and then switching to another application (e.g. Visual Studio via a hit breakpoint) will stall my application (the respective CPU core ends up at 100% load)
Using a control in the same specific CDialog but then switching to another CPropertyPage before switching to another application will not result in any problems
After some research I found this Knowledge Base article which hinted me to a solution. The specific CDialog which triggered the stall had the line EXSTYLE WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT in its resource definition. Removing the line solved the problem.
This prevents being able to tab into the CDialog, but that problem is slightly less serious and I might come back to it another day.
I had a similar issue. I had multiple nested windows, some with the WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT style, some not. The thing is: Either all inner windows have to have this style, or none of them (at least apparently).