Published on February 3, 2005 By ama02 In Windows Software
I realize ColorPad is no longer being developed or supported (and usually very hard to locate) but...

I've had the program for a few years now, and use it often. I like it because it's simple and very small. I needed to use it today, and when I clicked on it (Start Menu) nothing opened, but I could see it in the task bar. I tried minimize/maximize and restore, but the actual interface was no where to be seen. I tried opening it by going into my Program Files directory and double-clicking on the .exe file, same thing...only a button in the task bar. I also maxed out my resolution to 1600x1200 to see if it was hiding off screen...no luck there. I then deleted the files (no way to uninstall) and re-downloaded the zip. I still get the same thing.

Wondering if anyone here has any ideas what's happened...anyone with similar problems? If anyone could help me get things back to normal, I'd really appreciate it. I know there are other color picker apps out there, but I'd really like to keep this one. Thanks!

Comments
on Feb 03, 2005
Hmm it may be at negative coords. Try unlocking your tasking and drag it to different spot on screen, such as top. Usually that resets the windows to be within the screen.

If you happen to know where it saves its settings in registry and knows how to edit it, then back it up first, then change coords ( X and Y location ) to about 100, it should be within the screen no matter what your current resolution is.
on Feb 03, 2005
ColorPad stores its location at these keys:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Orbit\ColorPad\xPos
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Orbit\ColorPad\yPos

They're in hex though, but just enter 0 and it should pop up in the top left.
on Feb 03, 2005
Thanks for the help! I'll check my registry.

edit: okay, here is what I found under the colorpad keys:

xPos > 0xffff8300 (4294935296)
yPos > 0xffff8300 (4294935296)

should I be changing the numbers within the paranthesis () to zero?
on Feb 03, 2005
thats insane...

That's WAYYYY off screen! change both to 0 or 100. Either hex or decimal.
on Feb 03, 2005
Thanks, I went ahead and modified the xPos and yPos, zero'd them out...and now I'm able to see the little window.

I have absolutely NO idea why or how it got to be that way. It's possible, the last time I used it I didn't close it before shutting down my PC, dunno! But it works great now, thanks again guys!
on Feb 04, 2005
Glad we helped you.

4294935296 is such a huge number. Compared to highest res ever seen by myself: 1600. Yep thats just approx 0.00006% of 4294935296. No wonder you couldn't see it when you tried higher res.
on Feb 04, 2005
That happened to me too. I re installed Windows and everything worked ok.
on Feb 04, 2005
Reinstalling is a bit of an extreme solution.

Seeing that the hex number starts with an f, I suspect it's actually a negative number. Then again, that would yield -32000, which is still insane.
on Feb 04, 2005
Oh yeah, I forgot about reversal of hex numbers means it's negative. It does end with 0 too.
on Jan 14, 2007
Guess I am a bit late here but what the heck. If you are still looking, I found version 2.4 here http://www.skinnables.org/archive.php?¤t_dir=archive/colorpad Michelle
on Jan 14, 2007

So far off screen it was on someone else's computer...

Check with the house next door...

on Jan 16, 2007
Whoa. This is darn near 2 years ago!!

Lol was fun reading my OLD posts.
on Jan 16, 2007
Saw this on the homepage and got curious. I've had this same exact problem for several months now. Even the registry values were identical. I made the changes and there it bees. Thank you craeonics and XX. I think mine was in the next country someplace
on Jan 16, 2007
"I've been to another planet ma..."
on Jan 20, 2008
It's another year later   
You solved also mij problem, exactly the same. I see my Colorpad!!
Ulyssa, The Netherlands