Scroll inactive window, with EXCEL open

[ddelo]

XMBC Version: 2.17 (installed), ALL Default installation settings, Only Default profile
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro x64, Version 1803 Build 17134.48
Mouse Information (brand/model): hp KY619AA USB 3-button Optical Mouse, Driver 10.0.17134.1
Computer Information: hp 250 G4 Notebook, CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-5200U 2.20 MHz, RAM: 8 GB DDR3
Did the problem occur after an upgrade of XMBC or Windows?: On going problem since Aug. 2016
How long have you used XMBC?: A few days
What language and keyboard layout do you use in Windows?: English (US), US & Greek Keyboards

Clear description of the problem: When Microsoft Excel is open (and has the focus) the “Scroll inactive window” feature does not work as it is supposed to. To be precise, when Excel is open, it does not allow scrolling any other inactive window. This a known Microsoft problem, which was supposedly fixed in version 1803, but it didn't.

Installing XMBC, made things a lot better, it worked great within Excel (i.e. scrolling to cells when writing a formula in the formula bar), but again some glitches are still present when scrolling inactive windows.

To make the issue as clear as possible, I have created 3 test cases to reproduce the problem.

Applications used:
Microsoft Office 2016 64-bit, 16.0.4639.1000
Microsoft Edge 42.17134.1.0

Test Scenario 1:
--------------------
1. Open Excel & Microsoft Edge and put the two windows side by side.
2. Focus on Edge, result: Edge scrolls / Excel scrolls
3. Focus on Excel, result: Edge DOES NOT scroll / Excel scrolls
4. Click on taskbar, i.e. take focus from Excel, result: Edge scrolls / Excel scrolls

Test Scenario 2:
--------------------
1. Open two Excel windows and put them side by side.
2. Focus on Excel Window 1, result: Excel Window 1 scrolls / Excel Window 2 DOES NOT scroll
3. Focus on Excel Window 2, result: Excel Window 1 DOES NOT scroll / Excel Window 2 scrolls
4. Without closing the two Excel windows, open Edge (focus goes from Excel Window 2 to Edge), result: Edge scrolls / Excel Window 1 DOES NOT scroll / Excel Window 2 scrolls (the last that had the focus, before opening Edge)
5. Without closing the two Excel windows, close Edge, put the focus on Excel Window 2 and then open Word (or notepad or Windows Explorer), (focus goes from Excel Window 2 to Word), result: Word scrolls / Excel Window 1 DOES NOT scroll / Excel Window 2 scrolls (the last that had the focus, before opening Edge)
6. With the three above windows open, (focus on Excel Window 1), result: Word scrolls / Excel Window 1 scrolls / Excel Window 2 DOES NOT scroll

Test Scenario 3:
--------------------
1. Open Excel & Word (or any other application - I tried OneNote, Windows Explorer and Notepad) and put the two windows side by side.
2. Focus on Word, result: Word scrolls / Excel scrolls
3. Focus on Excel, result: Word scrolls / Excel scrolls
4. Having open Word & Excel, open Edge (focus is on Edge), result: Edge scrolls / Excel scrolls / Word scrolls
5. With the three above windows open, (focus on Word), result: Edge scrolls / Excel scrolls / Word scrolls
6. With the three above windows open, (focus on Excel), result: Edge DOES NOT scroll / Excel scrolls / Word scrolls

All 3 scenarios were run with Windows 10 "scroll inactive window" setting both on and off, with identical results.

[phil]

Hi,

Excel is a royal pain the the A*S. It has been a problem for longer than since 2016 in my experience but there is nothing I can do about it. Well no more than I am already doing. I'm afraid I gave up a long time ago trying to fix specific problems with Excel.

Having said that, I just tried your test case 1 here on my Windows 10 laptop (1803) and Excel 2016 (office professional, not 365) and it worked (with and without XMBC running) - I'm pretty sure it didn't work before so maybe something has changed in 1803?!

Telling the difference between two excel windows (test case 2) is impossible the way XMBC currently recognizes windows, because they are both the "same" process, the message gets sent to the focus window - when I tried anything else it the past, neither scrolled (which was definitely worse!).

I might have another play now MS seem to have changed things, but in reallity, its Excel that needs to change as it is only Excel that behaves in this very strange way, other MS and non-MS windows don't suffer this (often) which means Excel is breaking some windows message rules somewhere or other.

Regards,
Phil

[ddelo]

Thanks a lot Phil

You're "luckier" I guess with Test 1, as with Edge I have the described problem with XMBC. Without XMBC, forget it... does not scroll anything when Excel is open!!
It seems that the combination, Excel/Edge is "deadly"!!!!!

Just FYI, Microsoft officially announced to have fixed the Excel problem in build 17133.73 build update on Apr-10, as well as latest Excel Monthly channel 1803 Build 9126.2152 update on Apr-11.

Unfortunately I have a Volume licensed Office ProPlus x64, version 16.0.4639.1000 and do not have the luxury of the Monthly channel, where in the above version the issue was fixed. (I'm talking about Test Cases 1 and 3, whereas 2 seems to be more difficult to cure, even for Microsoft)

Best Regards. Dimitri

[mousceponi]

Would love to know how to make this work on Windows 7 with XMBC given the recent updates to Excel 2016 (monthly).

[phil]

I'm afraid, if MS have changed something in Windows 10 to fix this, then I suspect you are out of luck with Win 7!
XMBC is not able to fix it properly as I said before, this one has had me stumped for some time!