Docker for Windows collides with Razer Synapse driver tool

[German]A short note for Windows users who intend to experiment with Docker for Windows. There are conflicts with the Razer Synapse driver tool. Funny is the reason why the two programs fails to work together.


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The manufacturer Razer offers under the name Synapse 3 software that allows users to customize the peripherals of this. Razer has this website with download options for the Windows software. The Razer support site for Synapse 3 can be found here. Docker for Windows is a platform to use Docker containers under Windows – this website has some information about it. 

Collision due to programming errors

The following tweet has brought to my attention the problem that Docker for Windows does not work with the Razer Synapse driver management tool.

The problem: Both software products try to ensure that only one copy is running at the same time. To do this, they try to find out the GUID of the .NET Assembly under which they are currently running. This could theoretically prevent another start by stopping the copy of the last started program.

The programming flaw

Quite good in theory, in practice the developers have nailed themselves. The functions they use to determine the GUID return as GUID the type of assembly, as @Foone explains on Twitter. The end of the story: Once Docker for Windows is started or the Razer Synapse driver management tool is used, the other software can't be used anymore. It is simply blocked by the other software.


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A wrong stackoverflow forum post and the consequences

The hillarios part of the story: In 2009, a user "Nathan" asks on the Stack Overflow platform how to determine the GUID of a running assembly. After 12 minutes an answer came from a user named "Cerberus". But the 'hellhound' gave a wrong solution.

After 13 months, a user with the alias "Yoopergeek" pointed out that a wrong GUID was returned. Three years later, Cerberus tried an update on the Stack Overflow forum. But because an error occurred during the answering process and the accepted answer cannot be deleted, the wrong solution meanders through the web and has been used in many a project. In many Tweets @Foone outlines the history of the problem and the above example as a consequence of it. It's just good that I don't have any activities in .NET programming anymore. My last exercises were probably done in 2008, when writing a VB book.


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