microsoft
tex extractor not working on second screen
Microsoft PowerToys version
0.64.0
Installation method
PowerToys auto-update
Running as admin
Yes
Area(s) with issue?
TextExtractor
Steps to reproduce
Use a second monitor and the cursor is on the second monitor. The text extractor only works on the primairy monitor.
✔️ Expected Behavior
Text extractor to work on the second monitor (follow the cursor)
❌ Actual Behavior
The textextractor used the primairy monitor
Other Software
/
Text extractor should start on the secondary monitor too. In my case it works on all monitors. Can you please send a screenshot? A /bugreport might help as well.
Hi there!
We need a bit more information to really debug this issue. Can you add a "Report Bug" zip file here? You right click on our system tray icon and just go to report bug. Then drag the zipfile from your desktop onto the GitHub comment box in this issue. Thanks! 
I have reported the same issue in #20603.
I noticed that Colour Picker works fine on all 3 of my monitors, however text extractor does not.
While the text extractor is active I can use the monitor that it does not work on without issues. Interact with windows, etc.
PowerToysReport_2022-11-10-10-51-09.zip
can we get a screenshot of your monitor layout? The Windows Settings would be good, wondering if there could be some bug. /needinfo
This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 5 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 5 days of this comment.
My monitor layout is:
3: 2560 X 1440 (125%) 2: 2560 X 1440 (125%) 1: 2736 X 1824 (200%)
I am having similar issues but have a much larger display than most so it could be contributing.
- Built-in / Intel Iris Xe Graphics 1920x1080 59.99hz 32-bit 150% Scale
- Asus VW224 / Intel Iris Xe Graphics 1680x1050, 59.85Hz 32-bit 100% Scale
- Samsung / Intel Iris Xe Graphics 3840x2160, 30hz, 32-bit, 125% Scale (PRIMARY DISPLAY) 4.Asus VW224 / Intel Iris Xe Graphics 1680x1050, 59.85Hz 32-bit 100% Scale
I use display fusion to cut up my monitors into additional virtual monitors and only the first virtual monitor on each display shows the text extractor shadow and response to the cursor. Extraction works just fine in those virtual monitors but it to work on all of the virtual monitors.
PowerToysReport_2023-01-06-19-08-05.zip
Thanks for your time and dedication to this and all the power toys products. I'm really a big fan.
This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 5 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 5 days of this comment.
Any chance this can be opened again? Multiple people have provided the logs, just not OP. My issue was closed as a dupe of this, and now this has been closed off and the issue is still happening. I'm happy to take over as OP.
As mentioned by @jasonmpotter iterating over "virtual displays" created by apps like display fusion is an issue. I will look into this.
I do have DisplayFusion, but I only use it for a few small features, such as wallpaper changing and window snapping. I do not use it for virtual desktops.
@Ben-ITLogic good note. I have had users of Text Grab say they have issues with DisplayFusion, so I'll check it out either way. But I'll also test with different feature sets turned on and off.
Here are what I have enabled:
- Window Snapping > Enable Window Edge Snapping to edges of Monitors
- Windows Management > Enable maximized window dragging between monitors | Enable Aero Shake
- Mouse Management > Allow the mouse wheel to scroll windows under the mouse cursor that are not in focus
- Wallpaper changing
However, I do believe that it does monitor configuration profiles while running whether you use them or not.
I'm glad to see work being done on compatibility with display fusion.
The features @Ben-ITLogic laid out are the exact ones that I use as well.
I would prefer to use the power toys solutions over others in general. However, the full screen window dragging is the main reason I still use DisplayFusion for virtual displays. Some apps just don't want to resize correctly when using FancyZones, especially if you're running on with High-DPI compatibility settings enabled on them. So I use those with the DisplayFusion fullscreen dragging to make them operable for me.
In order to get text extractor functionality I have resorted to a new tool. ShareX, which has replaced several other tools that I use to use. It's a good alternative to Text Extractor in my situation and has more OCR features as well, so I will likely not go back to text extractor on my main system.
I sincerely appreciate the effort you're taking for cross application compatibility and will monitor the thread to see how things turn out. I hope in the end, this can resolve issues with others' use cases since I have resolved my own. But I will probably still use Text Extractor when on other systems I and the Family use.
👍 🦸
@RebbePod I have been investigating this issue and trying to understand how different applications handle fullscreen windows with different DPI and scaling. No concrete progress to report.
Can you confirm the FancyZones editor scales correctly for you?
@TheJoeFin Fancy zones indeed works fine. It's actually quite elegant the way it only shows the zones on the screen where my mouse is.
@RebbePod can you share a screenshot of the Mouse Jump utility preview window here so I can see how that looks and is working?
@TheJoeFin Not sure what the similarity is there. It pops up this small view where I select which part of both screens to jump to. Seems to work fine.
First screen is black, 2nd screen has the photo viewer
Was hoping this one would be fixed in 2.0, but sadly still exists. :(
Great work on 2.0 though @TheJoeFin!
Great work. I saw something about windows snapshot tool getting OCR as well.
Was hoping this one would be fixed in 2.0, but sadly still exists. :(
@ben-ITLogic, yep. The multi-monitor approach has not changed. I tried a few new things on separate branches and didn't get consistent behavior. I didn't want to delay the release of the new 2.0 features so I released what I had.
Great work on 2.0 though
Thanks!
I saw something about windows snapshot tool getting OCR as well.
@RebbePod Yep, it is in the Snipping Tool. I'd be interested to know what works well and where Text Extractor is still valuable.
@Ben-ITLogic, yep. The multi-monitor approach has not changed. I tried a few new things on separate branches and didn't get consistent behavior. I didn't want to delay the release of the new 2.0 features so I released what I had.
Thanks for looking into this! I've had an issue with text extract only on my third monitor (main and second monitor works perfectly). It's a little inconvenient but have been able to work around it, happy to know there is a possible fix in the future.
@RebbePod Yep, it is in the Snipping Tool. I'd be interested to know what works well and where Text Extractor is still valuable.
I've tested the snipping tool and it works, but the text extract tool works a lot quicker. I'd use it over snipping tool any day as it is so much quicker and easier to use.
@michiel1000, changes have been made to Text Extractor can you please update to v0.80 and confirm if this is still an issue? /needinfo
This has improved things a lot, but still not 100%. Monitor layout is still as per this:
My monitor layout is:
3: 2560 X 1440 (125%) 2: 2560 X 1440 (125%) 1: 2736 X 1824 (200%)
Here is what it looks like during text extract. As you can see, monitor 3 and 1 are fine, however weirdly monitor 2 is missing the selection on the bottom 1/8th of the screen.