EQ1: mouse unlocks when i switch to the next instance of eq

bot · Post by **bot** » Sat May 28, 2005 11:11 am

Hi just subscribed to the pro features ,and so far im very unhappy=(

My main gripe is that when playing on dual monitors at full screan when i switch to another instance of eq my mouse pointer unlocks.

on my old setup i would just ALT-tab to get to another instance, now i have to hit alt/ctrl/x or z and also hit scroll lock while dragging my mouse over to the other monitor.

Thats just to much stuff to do, is there anyway you can just flip between the instances without the mouse unlocking?

Post by **Lax** » Sat May 28, 2005 11:41 am

You can still just Alt+Tab, that's a windows feature and nothing besides windows is going to stop you from doing so. If you cant alt+tab, you need to follow the instructions for enabling Alt+Tab in Windows by using the Application Compatibility Toolkit -- Windows has a very old setting built in that disables alt+tab for EQ1.

http://www.icynic.com/~don/EQ/age.faq.htm#Q3.6.1

3.6.1 Q: How do I get Alt+Tab to work for Windows XP?

A: (From the EQ Live FAQ, with some modifications owing to the dead link they provide): Windows XP keeps a list of program compatibility information. Up until recently, EverQuest was not built to allow Alt+Tab, and so our executable ended up in this list explicitly preventing the Alt+Tab functionality. Obviously that has changed. We are working on getting that changed. But in the meantime, if you are using Windows XP and you would like to enable Alt+Tab, there is a way to get it to work.

First, you'll need the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/appcom ... olkit.mspx
(if that URL wraps around, try http://tinyurl.com/9bf1).

You'll need to download and install the toolkit. Then:

* Open the Compatibility Administration Tool.
* At the top go to Search - Query.
* Search for EverQuest.
* Double click the item the search finds.
* Right-Click the EQGame.exe entry and choose Disable.

I'm not sure what you mean about the mouse unlocking exactly. It doesn't automatically unlock when you hit CTRL+ALT+X or CTRL+ALT+Z. The times it will automatically unlock is a) When the game does not request anything from the mouse for over half of a second (usually being loaded), and ... that's it. And even when it does automatically unlock, it automatically locks it again too, when the game requests info from the mouse again. So I'm not sure why you would have this problem, but perhaps after enabling Alt+Tab it wont be an issue?

bot · Post by **bot** » Sat May 28, 2005 11:50 am

Lax i just tested it out on the 1 monitor setup and its working perfect.

For some reason on the dual monitor setup, instead of flipping to the next instance , it unlocks the mouse and makes me drag the mouse pointer to the second monitor..

Not a big deal tho, i found its much easier just to run everything on 1 monitor

Post by **Lax** » Sat May 28, 2005 12:20 pm

What kind of dual monitor setup are you using? You should use the Windows XP built-in dual monitor system rather than using the NVIDIA desktop manager (which kills DirectX performance) or whatever it is you're using. From what you said in this last post I can only assume it's something weird -- I've used dual monitors for testing WinEQ since .. last ... August or so I'd say. When using Windows XP's built in system, there's no reported problems.. but with other desktop managers, there's major performance hits and now some weird mouse thing?