BUG: User accounts can't be found, Speech can't be found...

[gerroon]

Checks

• I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.

• I am using the latest version of Flow Launcher.

Problem Description

Hi

Once in a while FL shows me these popups and I don't understand why it is showing me them. It seems like there is an issue with something, and it triggers these. Basically it shows these popups one after another, I have to click all of them to go away but i get these multiple times a day, as if these are happening after some kind of scan.

To Reproduce

Start FL
Let it do its thing, not sure how to repeat this.

Screenshots

Flow Launcher Version

1.19.4

Windows Build Number

26100.2605

Error Log

No response

[jjw24]

Hmm they look like Windows settings options.

1. Do you have these installed on your Windows?
2. Can you please attach the log (search open log location and find the correct dated log)

[gerroon]

I have the Windows settings plugin enabled.

This is the one with dated from today
https://paste.kodi.tv/uwameqimiq

[gerroon]

Btw I also get a lot of "missing shortcuts" errors which you can see in the log. It would be nice if they are discarded because the user has to press 10s of times to get rid of the those :(

[jjw24]

Btw I also get a lot of "missing shortcuts" errors which you can see in the log. It would be nice if they are discarded because the user has to press 10s of times to get rid of the those :(

Those errors in the paste screenshot i.e log don't seem to be related to your original problem. They can be ignored.

Not sure what you mean by had to press 10s of times, but these errors were intended to be logged for us to eventually fix, but I think now it's just noise, we may need to change the log level to suppress them until needed.

For your original problem, I meant would there be a chance you have disabled those Windows settings e.g. Accessibility Options?

[gerroon]

Thanks for the reply. Sure, they can be ignored but I can't ignore them as a user since I need to click on them to make them go away. That is the annoyance part, it keeps showing me these every couple of hours.

I am not sure why the log doesn't have those errors. Is it possible that the plugin doesn't log them?

I will test disabling the Settings plugin.

[gerroon]

Is there a way for me to disable the settings plugin periodic scanning? If you could tell me which part of the code is responsible for it, i can maybe disable it locally in the code and try to recompile it. I do like the plugin and use it a lot.

The Window settings plugin home page diverts to FlowLauncher Github, I am guessing it doesn't have its own repo.

[gerroon]

I now think that the Windows Settings plugin was meant for an older version of Windows, that is why it is not able to find all those settings. These error come from the Windows Settings plugin unfrotunately.

[gerroon]

These popups are fired after a new program installation, it seems like any kind of app installation triggers FL to scan and throw these popups.

[jjw24]

Is there a way for me to disable the settings plugin periodic scanning? If you could tell me which part of the code is responsible for it, i can maybe disable it locally in the code and try to recompile it. I do like the plugin and use it a lot.

The Window settings plugin home page diverts to FlowLauncher Github, I am guessing it doesn't have its own repo.

WindowSettings plugin doesn't do any periodic scanning.

Let's disable both Programs & WindowsSettings plugins and see if those pop ups still occur. You can do this via Flow's settings --> plugins -> WindowsSettings for example. Then enable them one by one.

If you want to dig in the code and completely eliminate Programs plugin's scanning code-

Flow.Launcher/Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.Program/Main.cs

Line 173 in e463292

if (cacheEmpty || _settings.LastIndexTime.AddHours(30) < DateTime.Now)

[gerroon]

Thanks for the reply. I think I have finally found the original issue.

Apparently one of the programs I used in the past had created shortcuts for all this stuff, but they were stale since they were original for like Win7. What happens is that every time there is some system change like adding or removing an app, periodic scans (and some other things I didnt figure out yet), one of the Flow plugins triggers a system/program scan. Once a scan in place this scanner also hits those old stale shortcuts that point to nothing, and in return all these popups are shown as part of the report.

So the system settings or the explorer plugin isn't responsible for it for it as far as I can tell.

Overall it would be nice if the plugins doing these scans aren't concerned about the dead shortcuts because it can be cumbersome. Given it knows it is a dead shortcut, it should ignore them instead of reporting them over an over, at least that is couple cents.

[jjw24]

Hmm, need a reproducible method, is there a way to make those stale shortcuts? Can we reproduce it by creating a normal program shortcut and remove the target?

[gerroon]

Those are shortcuts that are not pointing to anything. I think you can create shortcuts for some executables on the desktop then remove those apps, so they are broken shortcuts.

Apparently I have hundreds of broken shortcuts on my system (like from old app folders etc), it was never an issue because no other program or scanner was reporting them.