Live Application WIndows preview feature inside SpaceSys is currrently only available on Windows 7 x64 SP1 OS, support for other versions of Windows will be added in future development cycles. If your OS is different, all the buttons related to Live Windows feature will be disabled in current version of SpaceSys.

Live Windows currently works by using a proxy to D3D10 runtime with a single version of D3D10_1.dll. This means that a single Windows Platform Update (KB2670838) needs to be uninstalled from the system if it is already applied, in order to be able to use Live Windows feature. When you run SpaceSys Config tool, it searches for that single platform update in a background thread, so you may have to wait for a few seconds for the Config tool to find what version of D3D10 runtime you have installed on your system. After this had been established, Config tool will allow you to:

1. Uninstall KB2670838 if it is already installed, if you wish to allow Live Windows feature to be used, or
2. Reinstall KB2670838 if it is not installed, or you wish reinstall it. If you reinstall KB2670838, Live Windows feature will not be available

This is how the Config tool looks on a Windows 7 SP1 x64 OS with KB2670838 applied (you can see the UAC shield applied to the buttons because actions related to Live Windows feature require elevated privileges):



If you click on the [Uninstall Platform Update (KB2670838)] button, an UAC elevation prompt may pop first if Config tool is running without elevated permissions:



After accepting UAC elevation, the Config tool will restart with elevated permissions. On some systems, Config tool may fail to restart itself and will apper to have only closed. If this situation repeats, you may use the shortcut from Program Menu to launch Config tool with elevated permissions:



After restarting Config tool with elevated permissions, it should look this way:



Clicking the [Uninstall Platform Update (KB2670838)] button will pop a confirmation prompt:



After accepting, Config tool will start the uninstallation of the Platform Update (KB2670838):



In a few moments the uninstall process should complete with a dialog informing you that a reboot is required in order to finish the uninstall process:



After restarting your computer, uninstall operation will complete and the Config tool will look like this (with elevated permissions):



You can now enable Live Windows by clicking the [Enable Live WIndows] button. After accepting the confirmation prompt:



Config tool will stop the Desktop Window Manager service, replace the system D3D10_1.dll with a proxy, and restart DWM service again. This process may last 2-3 seconds and your screen may flicker twice during that time. This is not unusual and is due to restarting DWM service. In rare occasions, this action may lead to issues with display driver, but is in no way dangerous to the system itself. Anyway, this is a preview feature in very early stage of development and you should not use it if you are doing important work that is not saved. You should also start this action when SpaceSys is not running. After completing this action, the Config tool should look like this:



With Live Windows enabled, you can launch SpaceSys and will find windows of open applications as objects inside SpaceSys environment. We shall explain in detail later how these window objects may be manipulated, you may find the basic info on controls in SpaceSys controls manual.





After exiting SpaceSys, you may disable Live Windows feature until you need it again in SpaceSys. After confirming the prompt:



... the Config tool will replace the proxy with the original D3D10_1.dll, for the best compatibility and performance. This action can also flicker your screen because of restarting DWM service.

If you experience performance issues (slowdown, slower refresh in SpaceSys..) after running your system with Live Windows enabled for a longer time, you may click the [Restart Live WIndows] button to reinitialize the Live Windows and it will reinitialize the function without replacing the proxy dll:



If you don't want the Live Windows feature to be available any more, you may reapply the Windows Platform Update (KB2670838) by clicking the [Reinstall Platform Update (KB2670838)] button (this button is only enabled when Live Windows is not enabled). After accepting the following prompt:



The Config tool will start the install operation:



This operation can take a few minutes to complete with the information about reboot requirement:



After restarting your system the install will finish and you will no longer be able to use Live Windows feature in SpaceSys until uninstalling the KB2670838 again.

We will explain how to manipulate and use Window objects in SpaceSys in a different post.

Bummer. I don't run Windows 7 anymore since I am a developer. At least on the PC I use the rift on won't have it due to massive latency issues with Win7. 8.1 and Windows 10 are much much better to aim for.

knotbeer wrote:Bummer. I don't run Windows 7 anymore since I am a developer. At least on the PC I use the rift on won't have it due to massive latency issues with Win7. 8.1 and Windows 10 are much much better to aim for.

This is very high on our priority list and we will proceed very soon with expanding Live WIndows availability on newest MS operating systems. We will post the roadmap in the following days, but moving to next gen engine, support for Oculus DK2 and developing Live Windows to its full potential are on top of our list.

We are trying to enable the Live Windows feature. We are running o Win 7 x64 SP1 and already uninstalled the update but it seems that the enable button is still disabled. What can be the cause of this? Thanks,