I read the description. It matched some holes that I have with the current multi-monitor product I use. So, I bought the family licence on sale and replaced the current product with DisplayFusion. Then i discovered it wouldn't allow me access to True LaunchBar on the non-primary monitor. Reading discussions here were bluntly disappointing. Especially hate the now seven-year long kicking the can down the road. So, I just want to confirm ...

I should NOT hold my breadth that DisplayFusion will ever support True LaunchBar on non-primary monitors.

It's disappointing. I COULD cope with it. But the upside in making the switch isn't worth the time or the now long-gone money. My fault for not reading and investigating any further than I did. I program for a living and I have a style and bedrock beliefs. If your belief is that the monitors from the taskbar up are what you are all about and you aren't interested in the taskbar, then I can understand that. I'd make it clear to potential users to avoid ill feelings up front, just as I do when I tell my customers what database backbone they will be using. I refuse to even talk about alternatives. But I make sure they understand that up front so no one wastes time and money. I'm too old to be wasting time.

As you can see, I'm a bit worked about this, mostly over my own stupidity. But the intransigence coupled with the "I'll add it to the list and we'll let you know," approach is more grating than you obviously think. The initial explanation that the custom built taskbar is designed to be instantly Windows update compatible and won't take non-DF objects is a decision that was yours to make. You explained then that keeping DF Windows update ready was most important. Okay. Reasonable. But intimating that you would eventually solve this issue multiple times ... and then didn't follow through.

Bad, very bad.

This was not a plea to get my money back. If you could give me my time back I'd accept in a heartbeat. You sell a product, I bought it. MY FAULT for failing to do enough research. I pay for my mistakes. That said, thank you for the offer. I'll decline.

The toolbar issue isn't a small issue that warrants stabs every now and then. There's obviously a need for this in YOUR target audience. Some evaluate the product and decide that what you provide is worth rebuilding (not that that works mostly, given what I've now read). Others simply go back to what they were using because they TRIALED DisplayFusion for free before discovering the hole in the product. Again, MY FAULT for not doing that. I'd still leave a comment, but I'd have approached the night of work differently. Windows Media Center some how made a mysterious appearance for the first time since I loaded Windows 7 sometime in your youth and Java has been borked three times through reboots. And I tried to beat your product a dozen different ways. Lost each time. Sigh.

Look, the fact is that your product has an enthusiastic user base that appears satisfied in the main. Not completely satisfied, but I KNOW my main client right now isn't satisfied with my programming either. All software disappoints somebody some of the time. I TRY to be honest, knowing the 3x rule about suggesting time and cost. The difference is you are trying to skate by what is a self-made problem. The API issue is one of your own design. I'm blown away by the "so we're stuck trying to figure it out blindly." statement. It's like you inherited code after the mad scientist created the monster and you are stuck riding the bronco. BUT, at least that answer is honest.

Here's what I suggest you do: In a noticeable place, state in black letters against a solid yellow background, "DisplayFusion does not support third-part toolbars." Later in a roadmap of the future, you can have an item with a 1 priority (1 being the lowest), that you will attempt to work with third-party toolbar makers and see if their toolbar can be made compatible. That off-loads SOME of the focus, keeps it honest and lets you refer to both the roadmap AND the warning on the front page when answering discussions. Heck, I'd even introduce a separate page in the installer to state it in BIG BOLD LETTERS. Obviously, if you have thought of doing all this and decided against it, you made that decision based on scaring sales away. But given your swift and gracious offer to return my money, the sale is lost money AND TIME. Why not skip the part where you waste support time on the likes of me?

I'm going to uninstall DisplayFusion after this reply. Might install it on the laptop with Windows 10. My Win7 box gets replaced next summer. Maybe by then you've hooked up with Yuri at True LaunchBar and made everything work.

Again, thanks for a swift and honest answer with the offer to make it up. GM

@Gary,

It's interesting the different ways people use Windows. You love the Quick Launch feature of the task bar. I have always avoided the QL feature because I thought it was a gimmick to get around the worst aspects of the horribly designed Start Menu. I've been using start menu replacements since Windows 3.0 and it hasn't meaningfully improved (well, Windows 10 is a reverse exception, it got measurably worse...).

My start menu replacement of choice today is Start Menu X. My main desire was to eliminate all the cascading menus with the regular Start Menu. On Windows 7 it works well. Windows 10 has two different kinds of start menu items, only some of which show up when clicking the start menu button. Start Menu X works with the traditional kind but not the new kind. There is a newer version, Start Menu 10, that may work with both types but I haven't tried it.

Also, in Keith's defense, have you asked the True Launch Bar people to add a disclaimer to their website that it will not integrate with DisplayFusion? (Maybe Keith doesn't want this though, I don't know.)

As you are no doubt fully aware, software is messy. No company does a very good job supporting other company's products. Even Microsoft with its billions fails regularly (remember when Windows XP was first released? or Vista? or Windows 8? to name the obvious ones). Apple is marginally better but only because of the "walled garden" of the Apple ecosystem.

I remember a project meeting from years ago, a vendor had built a feature of their product around a value that was in the buffer overflow area. We had made a change to the OS (fix a bug, new feature...) that as a side effect changed the data that was getting put in this overflow. So the vendor wanted us to un-do the change, or write a new set of code to expose this buffer overflow value so they could continue to use it in their product. We told the vendor: No (because as far as we were concerned, this was garbage data).

My point here is that I can sympathize with Keith and BF. This is just the way the world of software is today.

sandmann,

Different strokes for different folks. In fact, I have contacted Yuri to see what he could do from his side idea-wise. I look for solutions where I can find them. As for disclaimers, your point seems to me to be disengenuous. The taskbar for DisplayFusion is an in-house created artifact that they seem to lack documentation for. And is, or should be, a taskbar like the one on the primary monitor where things DO work with True LaunchBar and other software of that sort (I assume). Nothing TLB does results in something that doesn't work LIKE IT APPEARS. Again, as I said, I stand by programmer's decisions to make design decisions. That's their right. Tell me about those stances and I have no problem. Passively-Aggressively skate by the issue implying a possible solution is being worked on for close to a decade? No, that I don't like.

You and I differ on customer support. I'd fired a client about three years ago when I was informed 2 years ago that my 20 year old program was about to run out of width for the key field. WE, the company and I, had put a forecast on sales back during the original design and the company had exceeded those numbers by two factors, eventually turning from a small company to a global one. I certainly didn't want to work with these people, who'd fired my brother in a cost-cutting exercise. But I support my software. I wrote in a routine that turned the key field from a numeric ID in a string field, using hex 10 into one that used hex 19 (no vowels, no 1, or o). THEN that company started eating four or five possible IDs for every one that was used. It was their server. But I worked on figuring that out because my word that I support my software is my bond. It was completely free work in both instances. Did I like it? No. But when I say bugs are fixed free, they are fixed free. Even if the company is, and will continue to be, a bunch of screwups in a niche that's idiot-proof. Apparently.

Look, there is no denying the value of DisplayFusion to some people. It's got potential value and a glaring lack, for some more. And there's a whole lot of people who will never, ever see a need for a second monitor and wonder what all the fuss is about. You are very happy with DF and Start Menu X. I happen to own two licences for Start Menu X myself. But I have a LOT of programming environments and applications on my computer. I test a LOT of stuff (and use Revo Uninstaller to clean it out, including some PreFetch files that were left over from the DF uninstall). I use TLB to pare down my library to regularly-used functions. Every now and then, I even take a look at times run, which TLB tracks. If that number doesn't represent something at least once a month, I pare it off. TLB keeps a visible ticker on my time up (I run 24/7, making backups, LOTS and LOTS of backups, when I'm sleeping). Sometimes, I let it go a little long between reboots. And in Windows, that's a BAD habit. Other discussions here will show TLB's use for each hoper that DF and TLB could work together.

My argument is one of sufficient and truthful notice. I offered up a potential solution. I declined a refund because programming-wise, the company had produced the product I bought. It DOES what it says. I just didn't investigate far enough OR TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE TRIAL. That's on me. I do not wish ill of the DF crew. Just the opposite. I've kept my family licence. Maybe, one day when we are all trapped in a Win 10 world with no passwords, things will change and I can have both products. Until that time, I have reverted to a competing product that does support TLB.

Thank you for your thoughtful sharing of your experiences with the difficulty of supporting customers. It's good to know I'm not alone. GM