V244 GUI Does Not Appear - MainWindowHandle = 0

[1LUC1D4710N]

V244 GUI Does Not Appear - Application Starts But No Window Created

🐛 Issue Description

FanControl V244 processes start successfully but no GUI window is created. The application is completely invisible to the user - no main window, no system tray icon, nothing. Processes appear in Task Manager as "Responding" but with MainWindowHandle = 0.

📋 Symptoms

• ✅ FanControl.exe processes start successfully
• ✅ Task Manager shows processes as "Responding = True"
• ❌ MainWindowHandle = 0 (no window handle created)
• ❌ No system tray icon appears
• ❌ No visible GUI whatsoever
• ❌ Multiple ghost processes accumulate when trying to restart
• ❌ Processes cannot be terminated normally (require Force kill)

🔧 System Information

Affected Version:

• FanControl: v244.0.0.0
• ProductVersion: 244.0.0.0+54218684a606f9d4b0b986816d54aabd3f67257a
• LibreHardwareMonitorLib.dll: 1,085,952 bytes
• Install Date: 2025-10-12 (fresh install)

System:

• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
• OS Version: 10.0.26200
• .NET Runtime: .NET 8.0.20 (Microsoft.NETCore.App)
• Target Framework: net8.0 (confirmed via FanControl.runtimeconfig.json)
• Desktop Framework: Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.0
• Architecture: x64

Previous Working Version:

• V241 worked perfectly with GUI appearing normally

🔄 Reproduction Steps

1. Completely uninstall any previous FanControl version
2. Download and install fresh V244 from GitHub Releases
3. Launch FanControl.exe (either from Start Menu or directly)
4. Observe: Process starts but no GUI window appears
5. Check Task Manager: Process exists with MainWindowHandle = 0

Expected Behavior: FanControl main window should appear and system tray icon should be visible

Actual Behavior: Process runs but no window or tray icon appears

📊 Diagnostic Data

PowerShell diagnostics show:

Get-Process FanControl | Select-Object Id, MainWindowTitle, MainWindowHandle, Responding

Id  MainWindowTitle  MainWindowHandle  Responding
--  ---------------  ----------------  ----------
xxx                                 0        True

Findings:

• ✅ Process is responding
• ❌ MainWindowHandle is 0 (no window)
• ❌ MainWindowTitle is empty
• ✅ No errors in Windows Event Viewer (Application log)
• ✅ No .NET Runtime exceptions logged
• ✅ Correct .NET 8.0 runtime installed and functional

💡 Workaround

Downgrade to V241 - Last confirmed working version with stable GUI

🔍 Additional Context

Version Comparison:

• V241: LibreHardwareMonitorLib.dll = 798,208 bytes (Working)
• V244: LibreHardwareMonitorLib.dll = 1,085,952 bytes (+36% size increase, GUI broken)

Analysis:

• The LibreHardwareMonitorLib.dll update in V244 appears to include the ATAStorage null reference fix from LibreHardwareMonitor (which is excellent!)
• However, a regression was introduced causing the GUI to fail initialization
• The issue is specifically in FanControl.exe window creation/initialization, not the LibreHardwareMonitor library

Possible Causes:

• Window initialization sequence changes in .NET 8.0 migration
• UI framework updates (WPF/WinForms changes)
• Thread/async initialization issues
• Missing window creation code in startup sequence
• Dependency version mismatches

🎯 Impact

Severity: Critical - Application is completely unusable in V244

All users upgrading from V241/V242/V243 to V244 will lose FanControl functionality entirely until downgrading or a hotfix is released.

📝 Additional Notes

• This issue was discovered immediately after V244 release on 2025-10-12
• Multiple installation attempts (including full uninstall/clean reinstall) all exhibited identical behavior
• Behavior is 100% reproducible, confirming this is a legitimate bug in V244 itself
• No configuration corruption involved (fresh install with no %APPDATA%\FanControl directory)

Thank you for the amazing tool! Looking forward to V245 with this fix. 🙏

---

Tested Versions:

• ✅ V241: Working
• ❌ V244: Broken (this report)

[Rem0o]

What's your specs? Do you run the program with a custom scheduled task?

[1LUC1D4710N]

No, I'm not running it with a custom scheduled task - just launching directly from the Start Menu or by double-clicking FanControl.exe.

I did provide full specs in the original issue report above. The key details are:

Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200)
.NET 8.0.20 runtime
Fresh install, no custom configurations
MainWindowHandle = 0 (process starts but no GUI appears)
Regarding logs/minidumps: Microsoft has disabled minidumps by default in recent Windows clean installs, so I don't have any available.

The issue is 100% reproducible with a fresh installation:

V241: Works perfectly
V242: Kinda works, but unable to refresh sensors - scan doesn't finish
V243: Runs, but no GUI appears. It seems elevation issues, when processor can't be killed and creates secondary application run.
V244: Same as V243, doesn't create a window at all. Here it also has elevation issues, becomes again two application running, other that can't be killed.

Happy to test a newer patch if that comes, or provide any additional technical details that don't involve logs.

If by "specs" you mean hardware (CPU, RAM, etc.): AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx, 2.0 GHz, 4 cores, 8 logical processors.

Do we need to download a separate plugin for AMD Ryzen support?

Thinking, maybe it's time to buy a newer device.

[Rem0o]

By specs I meant hardware specs yes. And I can see the problem: laptops are plainly not supported.