[Condor-users] Win32 GUI application fails with USE_VISIBLE_DESKTOP=TRUE

[Robert Mortensen <bobm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We use Condor to run automated tests of our Win32 GUI application. In  
this scenario we set USE_VISIBLE_DESKTOP to TRUE so we can monitor  
what is happening (while this is not required, it is useful,  
especially for our developers who have figured out how to connect a  
debugger). I had "hacked" the starter(?) for 6.8.3 to work around a  
bug that caused this to stop working after several jobs ran and we've  
been using that version for sometime.

I am trying to upgrade to the latest version, 7.2.3, which appears to  
have this fixed, but with a new problem. Our non-GUI application works  
just fine, we can see the cmd.exe window show up when something is  
running, but our GUI application crashes immediately. With  
USE_VISIBLE_DESKTOP=FALSE, our GUI application runs just fine and  
gives correct results.

I tried a test using notepad, and while this does not crash, something  
is not setup correctly and the notepad window never repaints (although  
I can click the close box if I can guess where it is). I'm assuming  
that whatever causes this problem with notepad is also causing our app  
to crash. I'm running on Window XP Pro SP2.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob Mortensen

Here is a .sub and .bat file that demonstrates this:

runnotepad.bat:
echo "About to start notepad...."
notepad
echo "Notepad completed."

runnotepad.sub
universe = local
executable = runnotepad.bat
output = run.out
error = run.err
log = run.log
notification = never
queue