Compatibility issue: MTool hangs when Windhawk is active (resolved via exclusion list)

[Orgnolf]

MTool is a javascript software by AdventCirno that allows you to inject into videogames to translate them.
When Windhawk is active, even with no mods enabled, running MTool causes MTool to not function properly.
I found that adding MTool’s folder path to Windhawk’s process exclusion list resolves the issue entirely.

Windows version: Windows 11 Pro, Version 24H2
Windhawk version: v1.6.1

[m417z]

What do you mean by "not function properly"?
I downloaded it and it runs for me. What are the steps to reproduce the problem?

[Orgnolf]

The kind of failures that I was experiencing:

The program opens, but it displays errors at the bottom after roughly 20 seconds, such as not being able to use cmd.
Trying to load a game through MTool fails to open the game (regardless of which one) and displays errors about being unable to inject, among others.

[m417z]

I understand that it'd be difficult for me to reproduce locally, as a game and some configuration is needed, right?

Perhaps it's similar to #525. Is there a process which uses lots of CPU at the time the problem occurs? If there is, can you dump it via Task Manager (see #525 (comment))?

Can you also check if there are any crashes at this time? You can use event viewer, see:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/how-to-find-crash-report-from-windows-event-viewer/591676

I found that adding MTool’s folder path to Windhawk’s process exclusion list resolves the issue entirely.

Can you find out which process specifically should be excluded to have it solved?

[Orgnolf]

Is there a process which uses lots of CPU at the time the problem occurs?

There is no notable increase in CPU load or any such process active.

Can you also check if there are any crashes at this time?

There are no crashes listed in event viewer for that timeframe.

Can you find out which process specifically should be excluded to have it solved?

\MTool\Tool\MTool.exe

For requirements to reproduce this explicitly, one would need an RPGMaker game and to have installed its corresponding free RTP from https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/run-time-package.
Regardless of this, simply opening MTool and leaving it open for about twenty-or-so seconds should show a certain error message at the bottom of the window, even without any game to run.

[m417z]

Regardless of this, simply opening MTool and leaving it open for about twenty-or-so seconds should show a certain error message at the bottom of the window, even without any game to run.

I don't see it.

Have you tried reporting it to the MTool authors? Perhaps they'll know what causes it right away. If not, at least they can debug it and see where the issue happens.

[Orgnolf]

I have reported the issue to the MTool author's Discord server on the day that I figured out how to resolve the issue on my end and created this issue thread.
They said that "they'll try something for it".

[Orgnolf]

Before I figured out that the issue is caused during Windhawk's operation, there used to be more messages related to debugging the issue inside the #issues-report channel, but the dev likes to keep the thread relatively clean and ended up removing all of that conversation.
I do not recall the debugging steps that I was asked to perform, but in the end, I was told that I "may need to reinstall the system".

[m417z]

I joined the server, so if you ever discuss it with the author again, feel free to ping me.

[m417z]

We identified the problem in a Discord investigation session.

The problem is that a helper tool exits by returning to the OS, which exits the main thread. But Windhawk spawns an additional thread in the process. The result is that Windhawk's thread is left waiting for events forever, and the process never exits, which causes everything to be stuck. I knew about this problem, but it's very rare in practice, because programs normally either exit with ExitProcess, or return from main to CRT/another runtime which calls ExitProcess for them.

I'll look into handling this case in Windhawk.

[m417z]

Fixed in version 1.7.