by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2010/06/24 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2010/06/24/10028177.aspx
And over in the Suggestion Box again, this time it is CFynn asking:
Suggested Topic: Getting MSKLC working properly on Windows 7!
MSKLC 1.4 installs and runs - but when I load an existing keyboard, all I get is a blank screen in the middle (no keyboard layout displayed).
Searching around for a solution it appears others have the same problem - but I cannot find a solution.
I wonder, is CFynn Chris Fynn? :-)
Well, either way, this looks like A picture that can't be easily described with words all over again, and clearly it still can't be described any easier with words.
It isn't just a Windows 7 issue, or even just an MSKLC 1.4 issue (it has been repro'd on XP with 1.3), in fact.
I'll add the picture again:
Now once again the problem is a known WinForms issue that as far as I know has never been fixed.
This bug was found for MSKLC during the 1.4 beta in our very last RC.
I coded a fix for it, and we tested the fix.
And then we had a meeting.
There had to be a very serious conversation about whether this was a recall class bug.
We knew it could be worked around by futzing with DPI settings, we knew that it was rare (half a million downloads, just a few reports of the problem).
In the end we decided not to hold up the release.
In retrospect that decision was probably a mistake (given that the MSKLC project was moved to another team that has never shipped an updated version and as far as I know does not have such a release scheduled -- they have a whole bunch of other work they are doing and none of the scenarios I listed in my internal-eyes-only vision document about v.Next MSKLC and v.Next MSLB are priorities for them).
So we should have just fixed the bug.
But no one knew it was going to be moved and buried, so it isn't like anyone knew how it would turn out....
Anyway, to work around the problem, just futz with the per-application and overall DPI settings, and eventually it will work.
I wish I had a better answer; this is the one serious problem that really remains in MSKLC that I think a fix is truly needed for (there are a few other less common issues with specific layout problems that aren't MSKLC bugs so much as KBDUTOOL/KBDTOOL bugs that no one wants to touch for stability reasons).
Azarien on 27 Jun 2010 11:27 AM:
Now this makes me sad. *You* may compile and use a fixed version of MSKLC (or Notepad, or whatever)--but the rest of the world can't. Even if the fix would be trivial, it is never released because the project got shelved. I'm not a big fan of open-source, but I think that all abandoned software should be eventually released with source code. Not neccessarily on GPL, of course.
Michael S. Kaplan on 28 Jun 2010 7:00 AM:
For what it's worth, it makes me sad too, though more because something got (maybe temporarily, maye not) shelved that I don't think should have been....
KAIFS on 14 Aug 2010 10:09 AM:
all right, had the same problem. Attempt to install custom Russian and Ukrainian keyboards (I learned to type in those two by phonetically modifying my keyboards as I have never had a REAL comi keyboard(s) to learn on...). at any rate, msklc 1.3 and 1.4 has not worked. 1.4 gave me a 'twin' screen as above. All I had to do is change DPI on my win7 64-bit over to 200% (was default at 125% with my new custom Lenovo W701) and normal settings have displayed (you have to log off/on each time you change DPI for setting to take effect, just an FYI). After I loaded and validated my .klc, i was able to verify my install package and create an MCI. After that back to 125% on DPI and add a keyboard on your 'languages' screen. Good luck
Ice-Wolf on 14 Jan 2011 2:04 AM:
And finding this blog post with a "solution" took a long time. I've been futzing with it off and on for over a month trying to get it to work. I never would have considered trying the DPI settings.
Steve C on 5 Dec 2011 6:51 PM:
THANK YOU! I used to use MSKLC on my old computer that ran Vista without a problem. My new PC has Windows 7 Home 64bit, and for the past 2 hours I've been trying to get MSKLC to work. Although other have written about this problem online, yours is the first work-around that actually works for me.
I fiddled around with my DPI setting and got the keyboard to appear at 126%, only 1% over the default.
Again, THANK YOU!
Michael S. Kaplan on 5 Dec 2011 9:27 PM:
Glad I could help! Feel free to leave comments on those other sites pointing them here.... :-)
Steve C on 6 Dec 2011 9:05 AM:
Sure will! Thanks again.
TomHR on 28 Mar 2012 2:00 AM:
Hi guys.
Sorry, but for the uninitiated, what's the DPI fix all about.
No idea where/how to do that, so could you please explain.
Thx
Tom
sba923 on 9 Nov 2012 11:05 PM:
Is there any chance we might get a fix for that? 100% scaling yields text that's just too small for me...
referenced by