Alienchild Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 In Firefox on Windows 7, when I move my mouse over a flash game, the Mouse Locator window stops updating co-ordinates. The colours appear to keep on updating. It does not appear to happen in Facebook games but for for example www.armorgames.com - Mouse locator stops working there. This only happens in Firefox and not Chrome. This is a major issue for me. *** Update *** I just tested on Windows XP and this issue with freezing screen co-ordinates does not occur there - so limited to Windows 7. Obviously don't know about any other OS's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samrae Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 One thing to try is to Run Macro Express as administrator. If that doesn't work it may be something intentional by the people who write Flash or Firefox. The Mouse Locator, and Macro Express itself, communicate via something called the "Windows Hooks". Using hooks requires cooperation between any program that also uses the hooks. One program can block access to the hooks for all other programs. An indication of the hooks being blocked is when the Mouse Locator stops updating the position of the mouse cursor and the color beneath it. Some programs have implemented security features to prevent other programs access to them. Much of what a macro program does such as watching for and sending keystrokes and mouse events are also typical of malware. So, in the interest of security, some programs block these things. What you are experiencing may be related to features in Firefox or Flash to protect from malware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 FYI Alien ... I deleted your other post per your request. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienchild Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 FYI Alien ... I deleted your other post per your request. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienchild Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 One thing to try is to Run Macro Express as administrator. If that doesn't work it may be something intentional by the people who write Flash or Firefox. The Mouse Locator, and Macro Express itself, communicate via something called the "Windows Hooks". Using hooks requires cooperation between any program that also uses the hooks. One program can block access to the hooks for all other programs. An indication of the hooks being blocked is when the Mouse Locator stops updating the position of the mouse cursor and the color beneath it. Some programs have implemented security features to prevent other programs access to them. Much of what a macro program does such as watching for and sending keystrokes and mouse events are also typical of malware. So, in the interest of security, some programs block these things. What you are experiencing may be related to features in Firefox or Flash to protect from malware. Hi, I am running as admin. Also note that it is just the X,Y coordinates that stops working, the Color values continue updating. This seems to indicate it is not the application blocking the window hooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samrae Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 I am running as admin. Are you logged in as admin or are you running Macro Express as Admin? My Windows login is an admin login but Macro Express Pro runs with normal (non-admin) privileges. Also note that it is just the X,Y coordinates that stops working, the Color values continue updating. This seems to indicate it is not the application blocking the window hooks. Reading the color under the mouse does not use the hooks. It may still be an issue with the hooks. Maybe you should create a bug report with Insight Software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienchild Posted June 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Are you logged in as admin or are you running Macro Express as Admin? My Windows login is an admin login but Macro Express Pro runs with normal (non-admin) privileges. Reading the color under the mouse does not use the hooks. It may still be an issue with the hooks. Maybe you should create a bug report with Insight Software. Thanks for taking the time to try help Samrae, I appreciate it. To answer your question, All programs run as admin on my machine (yes I understand that is a security risk). I am also not sure why Macro Express requires a windows hook to show its position on the screen. It makes sense that it needs a hook for relative position on a window, but position on the screen should be a raw OS call, probably how the color indicator works I would think. It looks like this is a bug and I will file a bug report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienchild Posted June 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Update: I just tested on Windows XP and this issue with freezing screen co-ordinates does not occur there - so limited to Windows 7. Obviously don't know about any other OS's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe Posted June 18, 2014 Report Share Posted June 18, 2014 Alien - Not that it helps you any, but these are the problems that were fixed with Mouse Locator in the previous build 4.5.0.1 (Dec 2013): 9. The Mouse Locator now displays the pixel color in separate values for Red, Green and Blue.10. The Mouse Locator now displays the hexadecimal value of the pixel color in BGR format instead of RGB to match what is normally used by programs that accept hexadecimal values for colors.11. Pressing Ctrl-C in the Mouse Locator now copies the Screen Position and color values to the clipboard.12. Made a change to the Mouse Locator to eliminate a problem where the pixel color could flicker on and off even if the mouse is not being moved.13. Made a change to the Mouse Locator so the values displayed for the Pixel Color are updated if the color under the mouse changes even if the mouse does not move. I have seen no problems on my Vista-home, XP-pro, or Win7-64-pro ... one of these days, I'll get a Win 8.1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.