deactivated functions are activated again after reboot

[Matzeeee]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.53.1

Running as admin

• Yes

Area(s) with issue?

General

Steps to reproduce

i have deactivated awake, fancyzones and mousetools.
after restart of powertoys they are activated again.

✔️ Expected Behavior

No response

❌ Actual Behavior

No response

Other Software

No response

[crutkas]

I tried to repro and didn't fail.

/reportbug to see if we can't see something in the logs.

[ghost]

Hi there!

We need a bit more information to really debug this issue. Can you add a "Report Bug" zip file here? You right click on our system tray icon and just go to report bug. Then drag the zipfile from your desktop onto the GitHub comment box in this issue. Thanks!

[crutkas]

@adam1book too

[adam1book]

PowerToysReport_2022-01-12-07-55-58.zip

@crutkas Zip file uploaded. I disabled all tools except for FancyZones, File Explorer add-ons, and Mouse utilities; restarted PowerToys; and created the zip. All disabled tools were re-enabled after the restart.

Maybe this issue is occurring because of a PowerToys upgrade instead of fresh install, or file/folder access issues arising from corporate system usage? Saw this issue on a (mostly) locked-down corporate system, will test on a personal system when possible.

[Matzeeee]

ok here is my zip file
PowerToysReport_2022-01-12-16-20-55.zip

[Matzeeee]

P.S. on an other system i have the same behavior

[jaimecbernardo]

Tried replicating by copying in the settings from the bug report to my local settings folder, but PowerToys reacts to it as expected on my machine.

This might have something to do with access, has suggested by @adam1book .

Could we please try something to get more info?
In file explorer, navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys and check the settings.json file properties, like security to check if you'd have access. Check for weird flags as well, like read-only, hidden, etc...
Also check if after enabling/disabling PowerToys that file gets changed or its date gets modified.

When editing settings for a specific PowerToy, try to see if the *-settings.json file inside each PowerToy folder gets edited as well.

[franky920920]

PowerToysReport_2022-01-12-16-16-52.zip

But I will move conversation into that other thread.

Originally posted by @t-makaro in #15491 (comment)

@t-makaro Please check what @jaimecbernardo requested in the previous comment too.

[t-makaro]

This occurs still after I did a fresh install of Powertoys. If the computer reboots with powertoys open, and powertoys launches on startup this does not occur. This occurs if I manually exit powertoys from the system tray and reopen it; just to be clear.

The settings.json file is not read-only, and I do have permission to edit it. Yes, that file is changing if I make a setting change in powertoys. When I closed powertoys from the system tray, the settings.json file also changed, but I'm not sure what. When I launch powertoys. I notice that the settings.json file changes to contain:

"enabled":{}

which if I then open the powertoys settings the settings.json file repopulates with all of the toys enabled set to true.

[Matzeeee]

Tried replicating by copying in the settings from the bug report to my local settings folder, but PowerToys reacts to it as expected on my machine.

This might have something to do with access, has suggested by @adam1book .

Could we please try something to get more info? In file explorer, navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys and check the settings.json file properties, like security to check if you'd have access. Check for weird flags as well, like read-only, hidden, etc... Also check if after enabling/disabling PowerToys that file gets changed or its date gets modified.

When editing settings for a specific PowerToy, try to see if the *-settings.json file inside each PowerToy folder gets edited as well.

i have full access to these files, they are updated if i change something in powertoys

[jaimecbernardo]

So, PowerToys is populating the "enabled":{} field when you open it and then reverting it to "enabled":{} when you close it?

Could you please give some more details about what's happening to the "enabled":{} field? That's where the enabled/disabled settings of PowerToys get saved.

[Matzeeee]

i have more information:

• when i start powertoys whith its autorun option form task sheduler (at logon) the error does not occur,
  only if i start it from startmenu or from my (autostart-)batchfile.
  the difference is that in task sheduler it starts with max privileges?
• the error occurs not with te videotools options.

Edit: when i restart from startmenu as admin the error does not occur.

[t-makaro]

@jaimecbernardo Powertoys is deleting the entries inside "enabled":{} when I start Powertoys from the start menu. The toys that I disabled don't know that they should be disabled, so they must be using some default. When I load the settings UI then the entry inside of settings.json gets repopulated with the defaults.

@Matzeeee is right. If I click "Run as Administrator" on Powertoys in the start menu. Then this does not happen. This only happens if I run powertoys but just hitting "Open" (or an equivalent) even though Powertoys does give a UAC prompt when opening this way.

[jaimecbernardo]

Interesting. I'm not aware of a reason why PowerToys would be unable to read the file properly but then would be able to save it.
It might be something else, like a general load fail where we end up going to a code path that resets that main file. Are settings that are unique to each PowerToy getting reset as well?

Would you mind creating a new bug report and sending it? We might be able to pick up a pattern with the added entries in the logs from repetition.

[Matzeeee]

powertoys started "normal" (no admin) with error reenable some tools
PowerToysReport_2022-01-14-14-44-19.zip
:

[Matzeeee]

powertoys started as admin with no error
PowerToysReport_2022-01-14-14-46-02.zip
:

[Matzeeee]

p.s. the option "run as admin" in powertoys was always enabled

[stefansjfw]

As I can't reproduce this, could someone try this test build and let me know if something has changed?

installer .exe can be found here:
https://github.com/stefansjfw/PowerToys/releases/tag/v0.0.1

[Gieted]

I can't reproduce this

This is completely impossible. Are you sure you are testing it on PowerToys v0.55.0 and are following the following instruction:

1. Make sure your PowerToys don't start in administrator mode on itself, when Always run as administrator is disabled
2. Ensure Always run as administrator is enabled
3. Disable Awake module (or any other)
4. Close PowerToys
5. Launch it again and make sure it's running in administrator mode.
6. Enabled modules should be reset to defaults by now

[stefansjfw]

I can't reproduce this

This is completely impossible. Are you sure you are testing it on PowerToys v0.55.0 and are following the following instruction:

1. Make sure your PowerToys is not running as administrator.
2. Tick Always run as administrator
3. Disable Awake module (or any other)
4. Close PowerToys
5. Launch it again and make sure it's now running in administrator mode.
6. Enabled modules should be reset to defaults by now

1 and 2 is not possible in regular PT usage (see image bellow), only when PT is started by installer after installing/updating (see #15487).

So this only happens for you right after installing/updating PT ? Or you can reproduce it somehow when manually starting PT ?

Did you try test build ? Could you try and and reattach /bugreport?

Thanks in advance

[ghost]

Hi there!

We need a bit more information to really debug this issue. Can you add a "Report Bug" zip file here? You right click on our system tray icon and just go to report bug. Then drag the zipfile from your desktop onto the GitHub comment box in this issue. Thanks!

[Gieted]

@stefansjfw Sorry, I wasn't aware of this behavior, so I gave you incorrect instructions. I've already corrected them. The issue happens when PowerToys is restarting to open in administrator mode, here the settings are saved before modules() have been initialized.

[stefansjfw]

@stefansjfw Sorry, I wasn't aware of this behavior, so I gave you incorrect instructions. I've already corrected them. The issue happens when PowerToys is restarting to open in administrator mode, here the settings are saved before modules() have been initialized.

This is exactly what I'm trying to solve :) So, I just need confirmation that test build works. Could you try it please ? :)

https://github.com/stefansjfw/PowerToys/releases/tag/v0.0.1

[stefansjfw]

@Gieted Thanks for your help! I believe this is now (properly) solved

[t-makaro]

I can confirm. That this appears resolved now.

[franky920920]

Shipped with 0.55.1 release.

[crutkas]

This should be fixed with 0.55, we're closing this out with the 0.56 release