Keyboard/Mouse stuttering or lag is caused by Auto-move Algorithm

[Ghost-Girls]

When I open the WindowTop, and turn on the Anchors, it really was the powerful tool. but I found it cause the mouse/Keyboard stuttering or lag.

I press the mouse lift-button on the Window Title, But there was no response，but I can using AltSnap tool to press and hold the ALT key to move the window. it seems like something's blocking mouse clik messages? so, Try to kill the program，till I killed the WindowTop，Fixed the issue! I realized that Windows Top has some features such as auto move the icon that might be performance consuming, or some hooks to read window state that might be causing this problem. I turn off the "Auto-move Algorithm ", then everything works fine!

How can it cause such a huge delay when it only takes up 2.1% of the CPU?

[gileli121]

@Ghost-Girls Hi, thanks for reporting it. But I need to understand exactly when you have the issue.

When AltSnap is not running, do you still have lags even when auto-move is enabled? If AltSnap causes it, do you have the lags with auto-move and without?

Is this issue started after some updates? Did it work well before? If so, what version did you have before the update?

Thank you.

[Ghost-Girls]

My computer is loaded with a lot of software, all running in the background, there is no lag until WindowTop is opened. I am using Window 10 LTSC 1903 and there are no updates.

Altsnap is just a tests tool and it gives me feedback that the software can't get WM_INPUT or anything like that. Then, I also used some keyboard detection tools, such as keyboardtestutility, which also couldn't read Key_Code. I close WindowTop, and there's no problem.

I tried that once, just by opening Vivaldi, opening a few tabs, and typing in some text on Google, I could even see a noticeable lags. This should indicate that it is not too much software that is causing the lags, but rather that specific conditions may be causing the delay.

emmmm，Then I also did a further test, and basically no lag was felt when the window kept moving at a certain speed. When I drag the window, that is, when the window starts or stop, and the system starts rendering the UI inside the window, there will be a lag.

These look like missing WM_INPUT, so that's all I can test for.

[gileli121]

@Ghost-Girls I remember that sometimes the dark mode can cause lags exactly like what you described. Can you check if dark mode is enabled? Sometimes, it is enabled without you seeing it because the window is already dark (and the effect only captures the window and waits until it is bright). You can also check it by opening task-manager and see if you have there Renderer.exe process.

I will also try to test myself and see how it works when having these programs (like AltSnap)

[Ghost-Girls]

@Ghost-Girls I remember that sometimes the dark mode can cause lags exactly like what you described. Can you check if dark mode is enabled? Sometimes, it is enabled without you seeing it because the window is already dark (and the effect only captures the window and waits until it is bright). You can also check it by opening task-manager and see if you have there Renderer.exe process.

I will also try to test myself and see how it works when having these programs (like AltSnap)

The lag problem I found earlier, which I have identified, is caused by a plugin that adds a menu to the title of the window. Adding objects to the title bar adds additional render objects and therefore additional processing computation for Windows Top.

It's called Actual Window Manager (Actual Title Buttons), and I've uninstalled it. In addition to this, I also found that when using Excel, WindowTop opens the anchor, which also causes lag.

[gileli121]

OK, thank you for the information. So, I will test it with Actual Window Manager and see if I can reproduce the problem. About the lags by Anchors, I guess that it is a little different issue (with the same outcome) I know that anchors work different between Windows 10 and Windows 11. What OS do you have?

[Ghost-Girls]

OK, thank you for the information. So, I will test it with Actual Window Manager and see if I can reproduce the problem. About the lags by Anchors, I guess that it is a little different issue (with the same outcome) I know that anchors work different between Windows 10 and Windows 11. What OS do you have?

Win 10 LTSC 1809

[gileli121]

@Ghost-Girls Sorry for the late reply. The issue likely happens due to Windows 10 because it works differently.

I still need to look more into it.

As a temporary solution (until I have more time to look into it), I suggest you turn off the auto-move if you don't need it. Or if you now have the issue only with Excel, you can exclude Excel from WindowTop (so the app will ignore Excel).

To exclude Excel from WindowTop, follow these screenshots: While Excel is open: Make sure that "Blacklist the specified programs" is checked. Otherwise, it will tell WindowTop to ignore all windows except Excel.

This will turn off WindowTop processing for everything with Excel windows (Anchors, Hotkeys, options to toggle always on top, etc.)

If you want to turn off the auto-move in Anchors feature, follow these screenshots: The "Stay away from text or image" should be OFF.

This may fix lag issues.

Let me know if it helps.