My Computer Thinks Pale Moon Is A Game

[suzyne]

This is not a problem! But the overlay and alert is meant for when a game is opened. So without knowing how GeForce decides whether a program is a game, I was wondering if anyone has an interesting theory about why Pale Moon might be detected as a game when I start it?

[moonbat]

It uses hardware acceleration by default; so if the driver detects those API calls it assumes that the invoking application must be a game.

[suzyne]

It uses hardware acceleration by default; so if the driver detects those API calls it assumes that the invoking application must be a game.

That's a good theory, but there must be more going on because Pale Moon is the only browser that it happens with, and I checked that hardware acceleration is on with my other browsers too.

There is something special about Pale Moon!

[Nuck-TH]

There is something special about Pale Moon!

Not being in driver's "not-a-game" list.

[suzyne]

Not being in driver's "not-a-game" list.

This is an interesting theory. Do the card manufacturers have a list of software that uses the 3D hardware but is not a game? Later when I have time, (I am on not on my GeForce computer right now) I will restart Pale Moon with the hardware acceleration turned off and see what happens. It would also be interesting to test some other obscure browsers too.

[moonbat]

It would also be interesting to test some other obscure browsers too.

Won't help much given all other browsers are just Chrome wrappers and so easier for the nVidia utility to detect.

[suzyne]

Won't help much given all other browsers are just Chrome wrappers and so easier for the nVidia utility to detect.

Is GeForce bothering to scan the contents of folders, or if there is "a list" would is only be of the name of the main executable?

I was thinking of trying K-Meleon, because I imagine it is even more obscure than Pale Moon?

[moonbat]

Maybe they just go by what calls are made to the driver.

[Moonchild]

This is an interesting theory. Do the card manufacturers have a list of software that uses the 3D hardware but is not a game?

Yes, they do, to prevent exactly this kind of support topic
Maybe you can poke NVidia Support so they can add Pale Moon to it.

[therube]

Perhaps because of the word "palemoon.exe"?
(If that is the case, you'd expect that a Linux user would not be (might not be) affected, as the word would be, "palemoon" [I'm guessing] [& depending on what GeForce might key in on].)

Exit PM. Rename palemoon.exe to suzyne.exe.
Fire up PM (suzyn.exe) & see if PM is still a game?


Discord detecting Everything as a Game



Speaking of that...
My computer has "two" video cards. One on-chip & one... AMD Radeon.
And (if I'm remembering correctly), in the AMD end, their "amd driver utility", you could add/remove the applications that would/could use the AMD "card".

(I don't need to use any "special" video card. And as it turns out, any application that you specify to use the AMD card, does so - but, it then also, automatically, causes the CPU fan to spin up [creating a bunch of racket]. And as I don't need anything "special", the AMD software was promptly removed... [along with the noise].)

[suzyne]

Yes, they do, to prevent exactly this kind of support topic

Well, I wouldn't call this "support" just an interesting question, which is why I opened with this is not a problem and put it in General Discussion.

Okay, so this is what I have found, turn off "Use hardware acceleration when available", and the GeForce overlay does not appear. Turn it back on, and it appears. With the theories so far, this is to be expected.

Exit PM. Rename palemoon.exe to suzyne.exe.
Fire up PM (suzyn.exe) & see if PM is still a game?

But now it gets really intriguing, I tried this. Renamed palemoon.exe to suzyne.exe and kept Use hardware acceleration when available turned on, and surprisingly the GeForce overlay did not appear! I wasn't expecting that.

There must be something else going on beyond the theories so far!

To be clear, I am not looking for support with this post. I just thought it is interesting behaviour and might possibly be a nice change from the usual "Why doesn't Pale Moon work with my favourite website?" type of discussion.

[somdcomputerguy]

But now it gets really intriguing, I tried this. Renamed palemoon.exe to suzyne.exe and kept Use hardware acceleration when available turned on, and surprisingly the GeForce overlay did not appear! I wasn't expecting that.

Pale Moon Games - itch.io - https://palemoongames.itch.io/
Seems Pale Moon is a popular 'name'. There's probably a beer named like that too..

[suzyne]

Good find. I wonder if Pale Moon Games may well explain everything!

[Blacklab]

Seems Pale Moon is a popular 'name'. There's probably a beer named like that too..

Yes, there's at least one beer... Pale Moon Belgian-style Pale Ale... one of the 'Blue Moon' beer varieties... and Belgian White beer is seriously yum! Nice labels too.

And if you've been around here a while you'll have seen one of this forum's long-time members 'billmcct' uses a Pale Moon beer 6-pack bottle carrier as his avatar.

Pale Moon beer.jpeg

[somdcomputerguy]

And if you've been around here a while you'll have seen one of this forum's long-time members 'billmcct' uses a Pale Moon beer 6-pack bottle carrier as his avatar.

Ya, that's what I had in mind, my unsubtle sublteness continues to amaze, confuse, and sometimes embarass me..