GP Power Tools build 22 hotfix available for download (May 02, 2017)

Good day GPUGgers !

As many of you may know (or not), I’m an avid user of GP Power Tools (former Support Debugging Tool, aka SDT) since the tools was launched in 2006, and recently worked very closely with David to bring fixes & enhancements to the product, as I’ve been running Windows 10 since a few months in production on my laptop, where I’ve GP 2013 R2 & GP 2016 R2 (in Test) clients installed.

Windows 10 having changed quite a few things in regards of screen management and multi-monitor setup, plus a few other small hindrance (like the invisible window frames), it has been quite an interesting journey in the past months.

Here are the changes that were brought into this update for the build 22:

Version 16.00 build 22 (Released 02-May-2017) Installer: 16.00.0022.4

Updated Trigger Setup window to stop asking to reset script when changing Menu Trigger text.
Updated Company Color Themes to use User Display Preference settings for Link Fields and Required Fields.
Updated Company Color Themes to override User Display Preference color settings when needed for inverted themes.
Added fix for Dynamics GP Bug where Apply button on User Display Preferences only works one time.
Added additional checks to ensure correct window handle is used when repositioning and retitling windows.
Update default values for Email, Logging and Administrator settings to enable recommended features for new installs.
Adjusted window repositioning code when capturing window handle for 3rd party products to use foreground window method.

One of the important updates for me is about the handling of the windows, as I’m running a setup with 3 displays (Laptop LCD + 2 external 22″ monitors), and I think that nowadays this is a pretty common setup. Since the Windows position memory feature was introduced in build 22 by David, I had a few issues where my other application windows (Outlook, Office, Explorer) would randomly be snapped to the the lower right or left corner of the display it was showing, even it was not related to GP, and this specially annoying when you had a larger posting batch going on your GP client, as you couldn’t work with other windows without having them snapping away under your mouse :-).

Based on the feedback I provided to David, he was able to correct his code and now checks for the proper identification of the window’s title, and if that title does not match the expected value, the code will stop the Automatic Window Position check (this can also happen with 3rd-party ISV products, though part of GP, they are not recognized as such).

Thanks to a feature added a while ago, but not fully used yet, it provides an additional DEX.ini settings that allows you to trace in detail what’s going on with your GP forms while your client is active. That helped us to identify the issue caused by non-GP windows.

MBS_Debug_LogWinData=TRUE

Be careful to not leave that option on longer than it would be necessary for you to debug a problem with some forms in GP, because it will fill up the GPPT log quite quickly.

Each GP form/window entry would look something like this (extract from the GPPT log):

2017-05-05 09:44:07 : ** Start of Log **
2017-05-05 09:44:07 : Version: 12.00.0022, Last Modified: 02-May-2017.
2017-05-05 09:44:07 : Automatic Trigger Mode Trigger CPY_DIR_DEPOSIT Unregistered
2017-05-05 09:44:07 : Automatic Trigger Mode Trigger VENDOR_EFT Unregistered
2017-05-05 09:44:07 : ** End of Log  **

2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Automatic Window Position    : window UPR_Employee_MNT of form UPR_Employee_MNT.
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Dynamics GP Application Pos  : (114,57), Content Offset: (202,167).
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Dynamics GP Zero Position    : (316,224).
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Primary Desktop Actual Size  : (1680,1050), not used if per monitor setting available.
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Primary Desktop Work   Size  : (1680,1010), not used if per monitor setting available.
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Monitor Desktop Actual Pos   : (0,0) - (1680,1050), Size: (1680,1050), Device: \\.\DISPLAY1.
2017-05-11 08:02:24 : Monitor Desktop Work   Pos   : (0,0) - (1680,1010), Size: (1680,1010).
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Monitor Desktop Physical Size: (1680,1050), DPI Scaling: 100%.
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Dexterity reports Window Pos : (9,33) - (656,489), Size: (647,456).
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Windows reports Window Pos   : (332,257) - (981,771), Size: (649,514).
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Windows Window Scaled Pos    : (332,257) - (981,771), Size: (649,514), use instead of Dexterity settings.
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Windows Window Border Offset : (7,3).
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Adjusted Dynamics GP Zero Pos: (323,224), adjusted horizontal position for border offset.
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Updated Dexterity window Pos : (9,33) - (658,547), Size: (649,514).
2017-05-11 08:02:25 : Dexterity Window + Offset Pos: (332,257) - (981,771), Size: (649,514).

Quite interesting and helpful when you’re an administrator and trying to figure out what’s going on with your GP client, especially if you run that on a shared environment like Citrix or Terminal Server.

If you’re already a GPPT subscriber, go and download the latest build 22 from the Mekorma site and install it. If you’re not a GPPT user yet, I encourage you strongly to grab a copy and ask for the free 30 Days trial key. You’re going to love it.

Until next time, have a great Day!

@GP_Beat