Vista - Problems with tablet/hand drawing - Redux

Hi. A few months ago I posted about a problem concerning using my tablet with the hand drawing feature in Windows Live Messenger.

Basically, the problem was that if I used the tablet to draw, after a few seconds of drawing it would tell me that the drawing could not be send, no matter what I did.
However, with a mouse, or if I only drew for ~5 seconds before sending, it would work fine.

Of course, I preferred the tablet since it gave me pen pressure and better control.
Now, I've come to the conclusion that the pen pressure must be the cause.
I tried reinstalling WLM, tablet driver, and updated both to the latest version, with no success. The thing is, I've used other Vista PC's although not x64, and it worked fine there. The tablet is Wacom Bamboo, for the record. I haven't found anything helpful on their site.

So, if there is still no known solution to this, or if nobody can help me, would it be possible to disable pen pressure so I can atleast draw properly?
Of course, I would prefer the former.

Thanks.

Try disabling the tablet service.
I have found this to solve many problems with my tablet. Your tablet should still work if it is using its own drivers.

Oh? Sounds like it might work. I can't seem to find exactly how to do it, so if you don't mind...

Greetings,

In previous versions of Messenger prior to 2009 (where this was fixed), Messenger was known
to not send handwriting after awhile of usage. However, it wouldn't matter if you were using
the mouse, tablet or anything else.

What still can be a problem however is what I believe (I have to admit I've never actually
been able to 100% verify this) sending handwriting that is too complex/large (filesize wise),
in which case it'll simply say it can't do it. Just as a test, when you have this problem
happening, try sending a single dot to see if that sends.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

"Darentei" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:21c72827af7821eb0d1f0852f18593d3@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

It does stop after awhile of usage, but it only seems to happen with tablet.
But I could also have something to do with the filesize. I tend to draw really detailed stuff, and I enlarge the drawing window to maximum size. Since the latest WLM + Vista apparently supports pen pressure, it seems like it adds to that.
Either way, it won't send. It doesn't seem to happen with mouse drawings.
I can send a single dot without problems, so this might be the cause. But the pen pressure must be a big part of the reason, since the mouse drawings work.

Hi Darentei,

I see, that could very well be it, I'm afraid I'm not really that familiar with what
Microsoft sends in its "digital ink" format.

Another thing worth trying (although this is a really lousy workaround) is uninstalling the
wacom drivers and letting Windows just use the standard HID driver for the tablet. The
standard driver doesn't support the pressure information and basically treats the tablet as a
mouse.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger
MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
MessengerGeek Blog: http://www.messengergeek.com
Messenger Resources: http://messenger.jonathankay.com
(c) 2009 Jonathan Kay - If redistributing, you must include this signature or citation
--

"Darentei" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:a83f860da40ab583b9aec2422f610707@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

That won't do. The cursor automatically jumps to wherever the pen is pointed on the designated area of the tablet. If I disabled it, I'd have to lift the pen and drag from the other end of the tablet like you sometimes do with mice.
Wouldn't be able to draw at all.

roy69 said you could try disabling the tablet service. I'd like to try it, but I still don't know how.

Click on the start ord.
click on search and type in services.msc
look for the tablet services and disable.

I tried it...
First I stopped Vista's tablet service. For some reason this resultet in heavy lag (my cursor would move really slow and stuff like that).
Anyway, it stopped when I closed the services window.
The tablet still reacted correctly as far as movement goes.
When I started WLM, the "Ink to text" tab was gone.
If I clicked the Hand Drawing tab, WLM would kinda freeze; I couldn't draw (the cursor became the hand) and I could click anything but the Text tab, at which point it worked again.

Disabling the driver service didn't do anything but screw up the tablet, as mentioned.

So basically I have no idea if it worked.

Several months after I first encountered this problem, I have finally recorded other cases of it happening.
Searching Google, there is just about five people who had this problem. Neither found a solution, and I believe I'm the only of to ask for real support.

However, it seems older versions of WLM still works. As such, until a solution is found (if ever), I would like to know:
Is there a way that I can have both WLM 2009, and WLM 8.5 installed at the same time on the same PC? And how?