Problem: Tool pointer turns back to default Microsoft Windows pointer

VJ
Posted By
Vincent_Jacquemin
Mar 5, 2004
Views
568
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I have had a problem with Photoshop CS ever since I’ve installed it. Here’s the description (to the best of my knowledge):

Sometimes when I direct my mouse pointer out of the picture I’m working on, and I click (in the main toolbar, or the layer window, or any other toolbar or window), and I return the mouse pointer to my picture, it changes form the selected tool pointer to the default Microsoft Windows pointer. From then on, I can’t modify my picture by clicking on it anymore (paint, manual crop, smudge, etc.). Every other window in the program seems to react correctly to my mouse clicks. I can still change tools (even thought the pointer won’t change to reflect the tool switch), change layer options, and work with all File, Edit, Filters, etc. menus. The only way I found to get back control of my picture is to save it, close Photoshop CS, and restart it.

It is not a show stopper, but it happens fairly frequently (about every 20/30 minutes), and it’s just fairly frustrating. I guess I’ve just been used to work with bug free software when I buy from Adobe (I’ve been a Photoshop user since version 4.0, and I’ve never encountered any problem in any of the versions since then, save for CS).

My system specifications are as follows:
PC running Windows XP Home edition
Pentium 4 processor 2.0 GHz
GeForce 4 5200 128 MB
768 MB of RAM
111 GB of scratch disk

I have reinstalled Photoshop a couple of times, and tried to reproduce the problem with bigger and smaller files. It seems to happen with both small and big files (from 1 layer 1024*768 JPEG files, to 20+ layer, 5 MegaPixels files).

I was just wonderng if this problem has already been reported, and if maybe a patch or workaround has been issued. I could not find an answer on the Adobe website. (obviously, I would like to consider every possible option rather than reformatting my hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch)
Related Tags
back default pointer problem tool turn windows

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DM
dave_milbut
Mar 5, 2004
do you have something like tweakui where you can "stop applications from stealing focus"? some other app might be popping up a dialog you’re not getting to see because of that.

one other possibility is that you’re missing a dialog box. try resetting your prefrences per the faq.
W
wes
Mar 5, 2004
Vincent, this happens to me on occasions also and what I do is just click somewhere on the image and the PS pointer will come back. I have tweak UI set to "Prevent applications from stealing focus" and it still seems to crop up. This is very rare in my case however. I have done what Dave has suggested but it will still crop up from time to time. Again I just click somewhere in the image. To me this means that focus was probably taken away by something in the background but I have no idea what since nothing shows up in the task bar when this happens.

wrote in message
I have had a problem with Photoshop CS ever since I’ve installed it.
Here’s the description (to the best of my knowledge):
Sometimes when I direct my mouse pointer out of the picture I’m working
on, and I click (in the main toolbar, or the layer window, or any other toolbar or window), and I return the mouse pointer to my picture, it changes form the selected tool pointer to the default Microsoft Windows pointer. From then on, I can’t modify my picture by clicking on it anymore (paint, manual crop, smudge, etc.). Every other window in the program seems to react correctly to my mouse clicks. I can still change tools (even thought the pointer won’t change to reflect the tool switch), change layer options, and work with all File, Edit, Filters, etc. menus. The only way I found to get back control of my picture is to save it, close Photoshop CS, and restart it.
It is not a show stopper, but it happens fairly frequently (about every
20/30 minutes), and it’s just fairly frustrating. I guess I’ve just been used to work with bug free software when I buy from Adobe (I’ve been a Photoshop user since version 4.0, and I’ve never encountered any problem in any of the versions since then, save for CS).
My system specifications are as follows:
PC running Windows XP Home edition
Pentium 4 processor 2.0 GHz
GeForce 4 5200 128 MB
768 MB of RAM
111 GB of scratch disk

I have reinstalled Photoshop a couple of times, and tried to reproduce the problem with bigger and smaller files. It seems to happen with both small
and big files (from 1 layer 1024*768 JPEG files, to 20+ layer, 5 MegaPixels files).
I was just wonderng if this problem has already been reported, and if
maybe a patch or workaround has been issued. I could not find an answer on the Adobe website. (obviously, I would like to consider every possible option rather than reformatting my hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch)
VJ
Vincent_Jacquemin
Mar 5, 2004
Hi Dave,

Thanks for your quick answer! I do not have tweakui installed on my machine presently, but I’m pretty sure this problem isn’t caused by other application popping up a dialog box. If it were the case, wouldn’t the dialog box still be on my screen (and then visible) when I close Photoshop? Maybe I’m missing something here…

As for resetting my preferences, I’ve done it a few times already, and it did not seem to do the trick.

Thanks for helping me try to figure that out!
SJ
Sandy_J
Mar 5, 2004
I think Dave was suggesting that tweakui was the solution, not the problem. Read about it or download here:
<http://download.com.com/3000-2341-2830963.html?tag=lst-0-5>
SJ
Sandy_J
Mar 5, 2004
oops
VJ
Vincent_Jacquemin
Mar 5, 2004
Hi Sandy,

I know he was proposing it as a solution. I was just letting him know that I did not have tweakui installed on my computer at the moment (I used to… a long, long time ago), but that I was pretty confident it would not fix the problem (for the reason stated in my first reply: wouldn’t a pop-up window from another app still be opened after I close Photoshop?). Sorry it did not come out right. It’s still early morning, and I have only had two cups of coffee. 🙂 I’ll look into tweakui this evening. How has it progressed since a year or so ago?

Thanks for the help!
SJ
Sandy_J
Mar 5, 2004
Tweak UI 1.33 was added to download.com in Sept 2000 so I doubt it’s progressed.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Mar 6, 2004
For anyone interested, TweakUI was updated for Windows XP to version 2.0; older versions should not be used, according to Microsoft. The link for downloading only TweakUI is < http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-4 5a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe>

If you are interested in other PowerToys for Windows XP, they may be found at < http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.a sp>

Regards,

Daryl

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Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

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