Coualt Causing MSFS Lose Focus

[B777ER]

As found out by myself and others in the below thread, Couatl is causing MSFS to lose focus. Even if I shut it down via the GSX menu button and have the option to select GSX off above 10k/250kts, it is still happening. Only shutting down Coualt via the taskbar will stop it from happening. Program in post 7 showed Coualt as the offender. Any solutions to this?

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/644741-msfs-losing-focus-while-in-full-screen/

[virtuali]

You are referring to an old thread from May and yes, back then it was a problem.

And it wasn't caused by the Couatl64_MSFS.exe, it was caused by the rebooter, which constantly GAVE BACK focus to MSFS at regular intervals, and this caused problems in case users would wanted to run other apps on the foreground, like BATC for example.

This was fixed in June, with version 3.0.3:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/couatl_liveupdate_notes.html

GSX Pro Fix: Couatl restarter will only restore focus to MSFS in the event of a crash.

This change only matters when the rebooter is GIVING BACK focus to MSFS, which now happens only once after the rebooter detected it was forced to restart Couatl64_MSFS.exe because it crashed.

[B777ER]

Why is it happening every flight and multiple times per flight then on the latest version of GSX? It won’t stop doing it until I shut it down in the task manager.

[virtuali]

Why is it happening every flight and multiple times per flight then on the latest version of GSX? It won’t stop doing it until I shut it down in the task manager.

It shouldn't, and after that update, nobody ever reported any problem with focus.

Is it possible you are not running the restarter, so you are starting the Couatl .exe manually ? Even in that case, the only time where GSX would take the focus, is when it restarts, surely not constantly. Unless it IS restarting constantly, but even in that case, if the restarter is running, it will give back focus to MSFS when doing so, that is unless the restarting is not working.

Note that, even if the restarter is running, but you use the Couatl menu in the Traybar to Quit the Couatl engine, this is considered a "voluntary exit", so the restarter will stop restarting for the whole session, because it assumed you had your reasons to quit intentionally, so it won't try to restart and consequently it won't try to give back focus to the sim.

So, if you manually quit the Couatl engine, if you want the automatic restart and give-back focus feature that comes with it, you must terminate the restarter itself, and restart it again, so it will start afresh not taking into account your previous manual quit.

If this is not the case, we have a diagnostic log for the restarter in the %APPDATA%\Virtuali\couatl64_boot.log, so posting it (ZIP and Attach) might be useful.

[B777ER]

Coualt starts automatically with MSFS. The in-sim menu on load in for GSX is highlighted indicating it’s on. I go through my aircraft startup, etc.. and takeoff. I then start getting these lose focus episodes about every 5 minutes or so I would say. So I shut down Couatl in the toolbar. What is odd is I have had GSX for only about 2 weeks. When I first installed and was using it for a couple days it did not do this. For whatever reason it started doing it of its own accord. Next time I fly I’ll send the log to you. Is that sent via a support ticket?

[virtuali]

Coualt starts automatically with MSFS

The important thing is knowing if the couatl64_boot.exe also started, so the one that started the main Couatl64_msfs.exe is couatl64_boot.exe NOT the simulator itself, this is how it used to be until a few months ago, now the simulator is only supposed to start the couatl64_boot.exe, which will then start Couatl64_msfs.exe, and that's the only way to have BOTH the auto-restart function AND the "Give back focus to MSFS when it happens" function.

If MSFS is starting Couatl64_msfs.exe directly (instead of couatl64_boot.exe), that suggests you might have an outdated EXE.XML for some reason.

[B777ER]

It did it to me twice tonight, first being about 30 minutes after takeoff while cruising at FL350 and then again about 15 min thereafter. I updated to latest version of GSX prior to starting MSFS. I also ran the installer afterward.

Here is the XML -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>exe.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>FenixA320</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>C:\Program Files\FenixSim A320\deps\FenixBootstrapper.exe</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>Couatl</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>C:\Addon Manager\couatl64\couatl64_boot.exe</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>


Below is the couatl64_boot log file. At time stamp 2058 is when I went into the task bar to manually quit Couatl64_msfs.exe after I lost focus twice, the first time at time stamp 2025 and again at 2038.

7/23/2024 19:00:50: Couatl64_boot Log started
7/23/2024 19:00:50: Working folder set to C:\Addon Manager\couatl64 according to FSDT registry root key
7/23/2024 19:00:50: Thread "couatl64_MSFS.exe"  added to monitoring
7/23/2024 19:00:50: Starting couatl64_MSFS.exe
7/23/2024 19:00:50: Process Couatl64_MSFS started successfully with ID 10548
7/23/2024 19:00:51: Connected to Couatl64 shared memory
7/23/2024 20:25:27: No processes found for couatl64_MSFS.exe during update
7/23/2024 20:25:27: Process is null after update. Attempting to restart.
7/23/2024 20:25:27: RESTARTING couatl64_MSFS.exe
7/23/2024 20:25:27: Process Couatl64_MSFS started successfully with ID 33600
7/23/2024 20:25:27: Setting focus to FlightSimulator
7/23/2024 20:25:27: SetForegroundWindow for Flightsimulator
7/23/2024 20:38:13: No processes found for couatl64_MSFS.exe during update
7/23/2024 20:38:13: Process is null after update. Attempting to restart.
7/23/2024 20:38:13: RESTARTING couatl64_MSFS.exe
7/23/2024 20:38:13: Process Couatl64_MSFS started successfully with ID 53824
7/23/2024 20:38:13: Setting focus to FlightSimulator
7/23/2024 20:38:14: SetForegroundWindow for Flightsimulator
7/23/2024 20:58:35: Couatl has been closed by user, we are not restarting it
7/23/2024 20:58:45: No processes found for couatl64_MSFS.exe during update
7/23/2024 20:58:45: Process is null after update. Attempting to restart.
7/23/2024 20:58:45: Not restarting couatl64_MSFS.exe because shouldRestartCouatl returned false.

[B777ER]

Umberto, bumping this for you to see and comment. Thanks

[Barnes]

Umberto, bumping this for you to see and comment. Thanks

Hi Eric/Umberto.

Just popping in to report that I am seeing the same issue with MSFS losing focus due to Couatl activity.

This happens to me in repeating intervals of about 15 seconds - MSFS runs fine for about 15 seconds and then loses focus for about 15 seconds. Task manager shows Couatl drawing about 15% of the CPU resources during 15 seconds loss of focus.

My EXE.XML looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
    <Descr>SimConnect</Descr>
    <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>MSFS2020_AutoFPS</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>C:\Users\david\AppData\Roaming\MSFS2020_AutoFPS\bin\MSFS2020_AutoFPS.exe</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>FSLTL Traffic Injector</Name>
        <Disabled>false</Disabled>
        <Path>C:\MSFS\Community Addons\FSLTL Traffic\fsltl-traffic-injector\fsltl-trafficinjector.exe</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>FenixA320</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>C:\MSFS\FenixSim A320\deps\FenixBootstrapper.exe</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>Couatl</Name>
        <Disabled>False</Disabled>
        <Path>C:\MSFS\Addon Manager\couatl64\couatl64_boot.exe</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
    <Launch.Addon>
        <Name>FSRealistic</Name>
        <Disabled>false</Disabled>
        <Path>C:\MSFS\FSRealistic\FSRealistic.exe</Path>
    </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

Regards,
Dave

[psolk]

Another one to add to this list...   I usually have to manually click on the MSFS window to bring it back "in focus" 
Haven't tested with 3.07 yet been too busy with other GSX issues to fly and test but had it with the prior version 3.05 I think it was. 

[Barnes]

Sorry,

Forgot earlier to include my couatl64_boot.log for what it's worth. Started flight at 3:00:17 and manually shut down Couatl at 3:06:33.

During this time MSFS would lose focus every 15 seconds and then focus would return automatically after 15 seconds (unless I intervened earlier by clicking the MSFS window). This cycle continued until I closed Couatl.

3:25-Jul-24 3:00:17 PM: Couatl64_boot Log started
25-Jul-24 3:00:17 PM: Working folder set to C:\MSFS\Addon Manager\couatl64 according to FSDT registry root key
25-Jul-24 3:00:17 PM: Thread "couatl64_MSFS.exe"  added to monitoring
25-Jul-24 3:00:17 PM: Starting couatl64_MSFS.exe
25-Jul-24 3:00:17 PM: Process Couatl64_MSFS started successfully with ID 4732
25-Jul-24 3:00:18 PM: Connected to Couatl64 shared memory
25-Jul-24 3:06:33 PM: Couatl has been closed by user, we are not restarting it
25-Jul-24 3:06:46 PM: MSFS has exited
25-Jul-24 3:06:46 PM: Task was cancelled.

[Barnes]

For what it's worth, the problem seems to have been sorted out on my system after I went through a few steps:

1/ In EXE.XML, I changed the "disabled" line for couatl64_boot.exe from "false" to "true" to disable the start up of Couatl so I could confirm that MSFS runs normally without it. I ran a few flights without Couatl and there were no loss of focus issues.

2/ I changed the line in EXE.XML back to "false", however after starting up MSFS, the GSX entry was now missing from the toolbar, even though Couatl was running. In this state there were no issues with loss of focus either.

3/ In an attempt to fix this new toolbar issue, I ran the FSDT Universal Installer and ran the "Check" option for GSX.

4/ Once the check was complete, I started MSFS and now the toolbar entry for GSX was back, but now there were no longer any issues with loss of focus.

Bottom line - Running the "check" option for GSX from the Universal Installer seems to have fixed the problem for me.   

[B777ER]

Clearly this bug is back and not gone. I cannot stop it from making MSFS lose focus. I have to manually shut it down in the task bar for it to stop. As others are still getting it, I assume it is not isolated to just me.

[virtuali]

Clearly this bug is back and not gone.

That's not what the last posted said, after updating:

4/ Once the check was complete, I started MSFS and now the toolbar entry for GSX was back, but now there were no longer any issues with loss of focus.

As you can see from your log, the couatl64_boot.exe is giving back focus to MSFS, so I don't understand why it doesn't work for you and it works for the latest poster. We haven't updated neither couatl64_boot.exe nor the main Couatl64_msfs.exe in this update.

But there's one thing the updater does, and is resetting the Compatibility flags to default for the Couatl64_MSFS.exe, that's the only thing I can think of it might make some difference. The correct setting is Windows default, no Windows 8 Compatibility enabled.

I also think run As Admin is best not used but, this setting is not changed by the updater, because some user are forced to use it (because they have a limited windows account)

[B777ER]

The workaround I found to get it to not do it is shut down coualt after load in and restart it. If I do that, no more issues.