Strange behaviour on 1709 with Crimson 17.10.1
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Hello,
I'm using f.lux for a little while since (at least since Windows 1703) and my eyes enjoy it very much. Sadly after freshly installing Windows 10 1709, sooner or later strange things happen. I don't know what triggers it, but I think it is restarting instead of shutting down and manually reboot. What happens is that the Windows Defender Icon appears in the task bar and the color of the screen goes back to normal for ~10 seconds. There is no warning screen or error.
I started to investigate this after seeing the Defender Icon reappear, because I disabled it in autostart. After two new fresh installs of Windows 10 in the last 2 days I observed that the short interruption of f.lux and the Defender Icon start to appear on the same boot. After the first time it happens, it will appear on every boot no matter what except when I uninstall f.lux. The Icon then doesn't show up, as it should.
I know it sounds a bit crazy but that's why I currently can't use f.lux.
edit:
To add more info: I did not change hardware, I did not install or uninstall programs I (un-)installed before. Short: All that changed is the Windows build.
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This post is deleted! -
I did some tests in a virtual machine and reproduced the icon behaviour in a certain way.
When you use f.lux in a fresh installed Windows 10 1709 in a VMware Player, Defender Icon disabled, Fast Startup disabled, and you change a setting in the Defender settings (Cloud-based Protection and/or Sample submission) and you restart the VM, the Defender Icon appears for this startup. Change a setting of the Defender again and restart, the Icon appears again. This does not happen when f.lux is uninstalled.
It is not the same as on my private pc where the Icon appears almost on every startup (not when fast startup is enabled or restarting after boot) but it is an evidence that f.lux does something to the Windows startup resulting in showing the Defender Icon.
I tried the same with a fresh Windows 10 1703 virtual machine installation and got the same result. The Defender Icon only shows up when f.lux is installed. This is surprising, I expected a different result. Could it be the f.lux version causing trouble? I will try older ones.
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I did some more testing and come to the conclusion that not the Windows version, but the Amd Crimson Driver is at "fault". Windows 10 1709 with old AMD drivers (17.8.1) result in no Defender Icon at all, but the current drivers (17.10.2) do result in the Defender Icon being active. That said, to be active, f.lux needs to be installed. So f.lux still seems to trigger something in Windows and the current Crimson Driver to display the Defender Icon.
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I found a workaround. I used DDU to uninstall Crimson and installed Crimson again. No Defender Icon in sight. That's probably the reason why I never had this problem jet, because I only have used f.lux for a short time and very likely used DDU to update the Crimson Driver before installing f.lux.
So I'm still not certain what causes it, but most likely something in the Crimson Driver that disappears after using DDU.
edit: No, the icon is back again. This is frustrating.
To clarify, the jump to blue and back at startup is gone, what's left is the Defender Icon. I could overlook this, but I just don't want to run a software that changes something somewhere in Windows where it shouldn't. I just found out that the version 3.17 does not trigger the Defender Icon. I will use this one. Still makes me wonder why.
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I uninstalled f.lux 3.17 to test the current version with the current 17.10.3 drivers. The Defender Icon appears after restart.
Dear f.lux team, I would be glad if there is at least a "Duly noted" reponse from you. At the moment I feel like I'm being ignored.
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The Windows Store version of f.lux 4.55 does not trigger the Defender Icon. I'm happy now, but would still like to know why.
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We don't control the Defender icon - can you explain what's going on? Is Defender trying to remove f.lux?
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Thank you for your reply.
@herf said in Strange behaviour on 1709 with Crimson 17.10.1:
Is Defender trying to remove f.lux?
No. The Defender Notification Icon in the Notification Area shows up although I disabled it (How to). It doesn't show an error, it does not inform me of something, it simply appears although I disabled the appearance. That is my problem. Apart from that f.lux and Defender work as intended. As I found out a week ago, with the Windows Store version of f.lux the Defender Icon does not show up.
So I am happy now but there is something in your code in the 4.55 standalone version that activates the Defender Notifiaction Icon.
