Copying any item causes complete blocking of Windows

[Ismail Hassani]

When I try to copy/past an item from layout, Windows becomes totally unusable.
I cannot open or close a window or perform any action.
The only thing I noticed is that the screen keeps blinking (refreshing) with a 1-2 second interval.
Because of this, using mouse or keyboard is almost impossible.
The only way is to restart windows.

I found this behavior also in the Photo and Publisher applications.  

[Komatös]

Hello @Ismail Hassani and welcome to the forums.

Please try with deactivated hardware accelleration in Affinity apps. In the apps go to Edit -> Preferences -> Performance and untick.

But, it is worth to see if the GPU drivers and Windows are up-to-date.

[Ismail Hassani]

3 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hello @Ismail Hassani and welcome to the forums.

Please try with deactivated hardware accelleration in Affinity apps. In the apps go to Edit -> Preferences -> Performance and untick.

But, it is worth to see if the GPU drivers and Windows are up-to-date.

Hi Komatös,
Your solution seems to work. I don't know why, but it does.
Everything is up to date as it should.

Thank you.

[Komatös]

10 hours ago, Ismail Hassani said:

Thank you.

You are welcome.

[Ismail Hassani]

After updating this issue came back. While hardware acceleration is off, the effect is less disruptive than when on. But still cannot do anything detailed like selecting.
The program(Affinity Photo and Designer) keeps getting and losing focus.
As a software developer I think that this behavior should never occur unless a UI application is used as background service which I suspect is running.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ismail Hassani

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear this @Ismail Hassani - are your GPU drivers fully up to date, directly from the manufactures website? 

Are you running the latest Windows update? Is this Windows 10 or Windows 11?

Do you have a clipboard manager application installed? Does this only occur when copy & pasting within the Affinity apps?

Can you please provide a screen recording of the behaviour you're seeing? If you're unsure how to take a screen recording, please check out our FAQ linked below - 

 Many thanks in advance

[Ismail Hassani]

1 hour ago, Dan C said:

- Are your GPU drivers fully up to date, directly from the manufactures website? Yes 
- Are you running the latest Windows update? Is this Windows 10 or Windows 11? Yes
- Do you have a clipboard manager application installed? The only one I think have, is the default Microsoft Clipboard (Windows key +V)
- Does this only occur when copy & pasting within the Affinity apps? Yes

 

[Ismail Hassani]

2 hours ago, Dan C said:

- Are your GPU drivers fully up to date, directly from the manufactures website? Yes 
- Are you running the latest Windows update? Is this Windows 10 or Windows 11? Yes
- Do you have a clipboard manager application installed? The only one I think have, is the default Microsoft Clipboard (Windows key +V)
- Does this only occur when copy & pasting within the Affinity apps? Yes

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for the screen recording provided - I can confirm this is an issue with Windows 11 and not the Affinity app. I've seen other reports of this issue online and affects multiple users, who are not using Affinity:

I'd recommend reinstalling Windows 11 if possible, or contacting Microsoft support for further assistance - as the Affinity apps have no control over this section of Windows.

I hope this clears things up

[Ismail Hassani]

16 hours ago, Dan C said:

Thanks for the screen recording provided - I can confirm this is an issue with Windows 11 and not the Affinity app. I've seen other reports of this issue online and affects multiple users, who are not using Affinity:

I'd recommend reinstalling Windows 11 if possible, or contacting Microsoft support for further assistance - as the Affinity apps have no control over this section of Windows.

I hope this clears things up

The issue mentioned here has nothing to do with my problem with Affinity.
My issue starts when I copy something from Affinity Designer and Photo.
With no other application I have this problem.
It's also a regressed error. Previously disabling hardware acceleration solved this issue, but now (after the latest updates) it remains (little less intrusive than when enabled). It's impossible that this is related to the mentioned issue. This was a glitch when hovering over the taskbar.

In my case there is something running periodically, like a background worker or service which is claiming and releasing the focus of the application.
The devs of Affinity should know if this is the case. 

[Dan C]

As confirmed in my above post, Affinity has no control over the Windows taskbar UI - and this is an issue that's been reported for Windows 11 since it's release by users not using the Affinity apps - the above link was merely an example of this.

I suspect that reinstalling Windows 11 should resolve the issue, but as mentioned above, Microsoft Support should be able to assist further