[BUG REPORT] ASUS Display Widget Win11

[GalacticPrez]

For some reason, the ASUS Display Widget for my ASUS ROG Strix monitor will install, but it won't function, and after running the application, it appears only briefly as a right click menu option, but doesn't open the user interface, and whether you attempt to or not, it will eventually shut itself down also, all without producing any error message or feedback as to what is the problem, so I cannot tell you anything about why, but I suspect it is because it may be conflicting with other software (Intel Arc/Iris) that does a similar job for my laptop's inbuilt monitor, and it would be nice if you could work with Intel to make it compatible (if that is indeed the cause) because Intel can't do anything much for my external monitor, and ASUS Display Widget can't do anything for my inbuilt laptop screen ... so I kinda need both if I want to take advantage of the functionality for both screens ... IF THIS IS NOT THE CAUSE, please contact me to let me know how I can help determine the cause

[Aureliannn_ASUS]

Hi @GalacticPrez ,

could you provide a video showing the issue with Display Widget for our reference? 

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling it? 

Could you also provide the model of your current monitor? 

You can refer to the download and uninstallation steps in the following link. 

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1045142

Thank you.

[GalacticPrez]

I haven't got a video, but I just took screen captures to ask the same question to my laptop manufacturer - as you can see below, the two external monitors are recognised by nVidia but not the inbuilt monitor, which I suspect is because that one is controlled by an onboard Intel chip, but I am still surprised not to see it listed here ...

... meanwhile, the operating system (Win11) and Intel Graphics Command see all 3 monitors, even though Intel isn't controlling the ASUS Rog Strix ...

... I have this monitor shared (DisplayPort-Thunderbolt) on DP1 and DP2 between my two main laptops, with keyboard and mouse also shared via simple USB KVM switch, so I simply press one button to switch keyboard and mouse between the two machines, and then press the button on the back of the Rog Strix XG27UQ to switch between the two input channels DP1 and DP2 betweeen the two laptops ... but that other laptop can use the ASUS Display Widget just fine, and it is a similarly high powered desktop replacement laptop from the same manufacturer ... so both machines have an onboard IntelHD chip, plus a desktop powered nVidia GPU...

NOTE: this older laptop also has a 4th screen attached, but you can ignore screens 3&4 for the purposes of this issue ...

So, it is kind of strange that on one machine I can do this with ease, but on the other it has issues -

Here are the only differences I know about which may affect it somehow:

1. The laptop on which it all works fine didnt get the Intel Arc/Iris nor the Intel Graphics Command software installed, the onboard chip doesn't appear to be running any displays and it isn't even listed as a graphics adapter under the device manager, there is only the GeForce RTX 3070 ... and this machine is running win10
2. The laptop that has the problem is newer (by a year) and is runnning Win11 (which I hate with a passion, and Microsoft are $^T*&#*& morons for wrecking their own operating system with some of the dumbest changes I could ever have imagined), lists in Device Manager the onboard Intel UHD Graphics display adapter alongside the GeForce RTX 4080

What I tried (but which didn't work) was to uninstall both the Intel Arc/Iris driver and the Intel Graphics Command application ... then I rebooted, I ran a junk file sweep to remove as many remnants as it could find, rebooted again, and then reinstalled the ASUS Display Widget ... which still installs just fine, it simply won't run ... I can see it in the system tray as an icon after installation, but I cannot get a right click menu from it, and any attemp to run it causes it to crash instead of opening the application.

So it seems to me there is some kind of conflict going on here, which prevents this laptop from properly recognising that monitor and connecting it to the Display Widget, or something else ... but this is a brand new laptop, so it can't have any issues, and this is very strange ... I can't think of what else to try, so I am all ears if you have any suggestions ... I do like this Display Widget and the functionality it provides for dividing up that external monitor and offering such a nice easy way to drop windows into different partitions of the monitor, or onto another monitor with the heads up display it provides ... so getting it running would be great (I also don't like such unsolved mysteries, as they make me think something worse is just waiting and lurking in the shadows, ready to cause problems the moment I accidentally trasngress whatever flaw is causing it).

[GalacticPrez]

Is it possible that what is going on here is something like this:

• on the older laptop on which everything runs fine, the onboard Intel graphics is being bypassed instead of running the inbuilt monitor, and so everything is running off the nVidia RTX 3070 GPU
• this allows the ASUS Display Widget no confusion, and it easily connects to the external monitor
• meanwhile the newer laptop doesn't bypass the onboard Intel HD graphics adapter, which runs the internal monitor, while the nVidia RTX 4080 runs all other monitors, and for some reason this makes the ASUS Display Widget confused about the presence of that external monitor (ROG Strix XG27UQ)
• So while I can install the software, it cannot connect to the monitor, and it wasn't coded with any mechanism to redirect itself with the user's help, to using the other graphics adapter, and instead has assumed it needs to connect via the onboard graphics, but which isn't running that monitor

... OR ...

• is it more likely that the Intel Arc/Iris and Intel Graphics Command - despite being uninstalled - have somehow disconnected the ASUS Display Widget from functions it would otherwise perform in order to find and connect to the ROG Strix monitor

... I don't know if either of these ideas are valid, but they seem like places to start from my understanding of things (which I admit is limited in this field).

[GalacticPrez]

I finally got it working after a reply from the manufacturer of the laptop, but only after an enormous amount of difficulty during which I discovered a massive flaw (critical bug) in Windows11, whereby the ASUS Display Widget software and the ASUS Armoury Crate & Aura software were able to be uninstalled, yet continued to run and continued to exist on the Win11 system, with the Control Panel > Programs & Features (add/remove programs) convinced they had been uninstalled, but the new Settings > Apps > StartUp Apps showing the Display Widget as still being set to auto start, and the Settings > Apps > Installed apps disagreeing with the Control Panel > Programs & Features, saying the apps still existed ... and this was even after several attempts to uninstall including running AVG PC TuneUp to clean up any broken registry entries etc ... and in the end I had to not just reboot and run that a second time, but then also go into the file system, delete their folders under C:\ProgramFiles\ASUS and C:|ProgramFiles\PortraitDisplay (or whatever it is called) ... AND THEN reboot and run AVG PC tune up again, AND THEN reboot again, AND THEN run AVG again, AND THEN reboot again, AND THEN reinstall the app

This shows Microsoft has stuffed up right royally with Win11, and I intend to format the hard drives and go back to Win10, because this should all not be possible, as the operating system is supposed to have control over the mechanisms by which applications can install, and even if you guys screwed up in the way the app was developed, you still shouldn't be able to get it to do this, because Win11 should stop it, and the fact that it doesn't shows that Win11 is deeply flawed ... anyway, it is working for now, but I will go back to Win10 and reinstall it under that operating system, which, despite also being a disaster when first released, was at least fixed, but I cannot see anything good at all about Win11, it is just a bad idea, it has no design improvements, and in every respect I have seen so far, it gets rid of all the good design decisions made in the past with Win7 and Win10, and changes them to absolutely **bleep**ing stupid design decisions, which are also quite clearly very poorly implemented, and barely tested at all, so I would consider Win11 barely even a beta of a **bleep** design