Preferences not applied after reboot, it seems

[Guest]

Hi, I am using BatteryBar Pro v3.4.3 on a Windows XP SP3 laptop. In the preferences I have checked the "Hide BatteryBar when the battery is fully charged" option. I have found that even though my laptop is powered via A/C and the battery is at 99+%, I always see the BatteryBar toolbar at Startup. If I open the preferences and simply click Save, the toolbar disappears. It would nice if the toolbar is hidden following Startup if the battery is fully charged.

By the way, what is the threshold for being "fully charged"?

[Chris]

I've debated about labeling that particular feature as experimental or even removing it completely because there are some difficult issues to deal with.

First and foremost, Windows only reloads toolbars that were active when Windows was shutdown. In previous versions, that meant that if the toolbar was off (since the battery was full), then Windows wouldn't reload it when you started up and you'd have to manually re-enable it. To get around that, version 3.4.3 adds a program to run at startup to force the toolbar to restart. I guess I need to add some code to check if the battery is full upon startup.

The thing is that the toolbar must load in order to start checking the battery. If it doesn't load on startup (as you suggestion), then it won't even be able to know when you remove the power cord (since it's not running).

I would either recommend not using the feature or, at this point, understanding the limitations. Alternatively, you may wish to start using Sleep mode rather than doing a Shut Down. This means that BatteryBar will always be loaded and you won't have the problem. I never shutdown my laptop except for Windows updates. I leave it in Suspend/Hibernate even for days at a time.

[Guest]

The way I infer the option is that if I have the toolbar hidden and the battery capacity drops, the toolbar will automatically appear. And if then the battery is fully charged the toolbar would disappear. Is that correct? If so, that is exactly what I am looking for because my taskbar is pretty crowded and would like to hide the BatteryBar toolbar if the battery is fully charged.

If the above is correct, then why couldn't the toolbar always start up so that the program loads at Startup as you specify is a requirement. Then if after a battery check BatteryBar ascertains the battery is fully charged (and maybe the threshold can be made configurable) then it would automatically hide the toolbar. Hmm, maybe that is what you were conveying when you said "add some code to check if the battery is full upon startup"?

By the way, using sleep or hibernate mode is not a viable option for me (unfortunately). I have experienced too many issues if I do not reboot when changing configuration options (e.g., docked vs undocked).

[Chris]

Yeah, that's basically what I was saying. The toolbar would have to load and then do a check once it's started up to see if it's fully charged or not.

[Guest]

Acknowledged. Thanks, Chris.