Issue that Google Chrome, Edge, Brave and any chromium-based browser stop playing videos when the window is in Shrink/PiP mode (Update: Hack found!)

[gileli121]

More users complain about issue #117 with google chrome.
Google has a built-in feature that is designed to disable video rendering when it thinks that it is invisible.
This is in order to save computer hardware resources usage.

As a result, you get this issue when you Shrink window:

(Screenshot from #117)

The issue is that chrome thinks by mistake that it is invisible when it is actually not.
In Shrink + Live Preview mode, the real window is indeed invisible.
However, the window is cloned using Windows DWM API to another window owned by WindowTop

In this case, chrome is not invisible. The only invisible thing is the chrome window.
But you still see the window via the Shrink mode (a second window that cloning it).

So what we need to do to handle this issue:

Option 1
Open bug for and report about it so it will be fixed in google chrome browser
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src

Option 2
The software will suggest the user to open the following link:
chrome://flags/#calculate-native-win-occlusion

When you put the link in chrome, it will take you to here:

The software will suggest the user disable this feature:

Once the feature is disabled, we will no longer get issue #117

Update:

In the end, I did not use Option 1 and not Option 2.
I did Option 3. That is tricking chrome.
Option 3
See from
#146 (comment)

[gileli121]

Update:
More and more users complain about this issue.

I will have to implement something that the software will suggest this workaround until the bug will be fixed in chrome.

[gileli121]

EDITED

Technical solution removed to avoid Microsoft PowerToys losers to copy it one day

[gileli121]

Build with the hotfix:
WindowTop Build 22-09-21_1.zip

This hotfix was implemented for the following chromium-based browsers:

  case "chrome.exe":
  case "msedge.exe":
  case "brave.exe":
  case "vivaldi.exe":
  case "epic.exe":
  case "slimbrowser.exe":
  case "dragon.exe":
  case "AvastBrowser.exe":

It working like a magic.
I will ask users to test it

[gileli121]

This hack is not working right in Windows 10.
It working fine in Windows 11.

In Windows 10, there is a problem with the taskbar preview

[gileli121]

The following trick working without side effects

EDITED

Technical solution removed to avoid Microsoft PowerToys losers to copy it one day

[gileli121]

It passed the tests in Windows 10 and Windows 11

[gileli121]

New build for testing:

WindowTop Build 14-09-22_1.zip

[gileli121]

The last version of the hack did not work perfectly after more testing.

Sometimes the video will be blank in the preview.

EDITED

Technical solution removed to avoid Microsoft PowerToys losers to copy it one day

[gileli121]

Released in v5.5.8