OBS does not survive DWM restart

[felixfour]

Operating System Info

Windows 11

Other OS

No response

OBS Studio Version

32.1.2

OBS Studio Version (Other)

No response

OBS Studio Log URL

https://obsproject.com/logs/JZs1OgFLe9ri2FO8

OBS Studio Crash Log URL

No response

Expected Behavior

After restarting dwm.exe, OBS should be able to continue video capture without freezing

Current Behavior

OBS freezes at the last frame that was on the desktop before dwm.exe was killed. Toggling on or off different graphics sources does nothing, it remains frozen

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Command Prompt as Admin
2. taskkill /f /im dwm.exe & dwm (note: C:\Windows\System32 SHOULD be in your path. if it isn't, use absolute address)
3. OBS graphics capture is frozen, with the only solution being restarting the program

Anything else we should know?

Restarting DWM is sometimes required when patching it or if it has issues, similar to how one must often taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & explorer when that bugs out

[Fenrirthviti]

Can you point to documentation that indicates this is a recoverable event? In my experience, not much survives a DWM crash/restart that is using it.

I also do not agree that killing either dwm or explorer is something that is normal or expected behavior.

[felixfour]

Killing explorer is normal for a Windows user because it can crash often, even on stable versions. Restarting DWM is rarer, but in most applications is recoverable without a restart of the program. For example, wcap freezes the capture after DWM is restarted, but if you stop and resume the capture it comes back normally, while OBS requires a full restart (it takes a long time for OBS to start up on my computer)

[Fenrirthviti]

As a primary Windows user since Windows 3.1, I do not agree that Explorer or DWM is expected to crash, and this is not something that is expected to be recoverable. I would expect this to be an issue with your environment.

I have tested intentionally crashing/restarting DWM and essentially nothing survives this event, and even Microsoft's own applications do not gracefully recover without some kind of issues.

A patch that "fixes" this may be considered, but this is not something that is, in my opinion, worth spending development resources on.