Solved. Posted to help others avoid wasting time like I did.
Something I did broke my gui on desktop flat window mode. Don't know what.
clicking on Toggle UI or pressing U did not work. A slight side to side camera movement was happening when attempting to trigger GUI, so something was happening.
TL: DR, try VR gui and reset from there.
3 lines > user preferences > reset all settings.
quit VR, load flat mode again.
If no VR available : Delete or rename prefs.json and config files from Vam main folder.
Huzzah! flat mode / desktop UI works now.
-------
Didn't think to check VR mode till way later.
Tried moving cache, custom, BrowserProfile, AddonPackagesUserPrefs, and AddonPackages to another folder to see if problem was somewhere in something I did or added before going skyrim modding debug route of one by one. Good news, Vam is able to start up without any of those folders and load, bad and yet good: was able to create blank scene and attempt to trigger gui there. No dice.
tried sync after moving folders back to main vam folder. a few default vars I sorted into folders were re-acquired, but everything else was good.
Tried flat mode again. No dice.
Now what.
lets try VR
Huzzah! VR gui still worked.
pokes around in gui, quits, tries flat mode which is still broken, loads up VR again.
3 lines > user preferences > reset all settings.
quit VR, load flat mode again.
Huzzah! flat mode/desktop UI works now.
annoyance at an hour wasted (instead of 3 minutes) and settings have to be redone, but it works again at least.
Still not sure what the flip triggered broken ui and how to avoid it as I didn't mess with my settings for months before.
thinking on it more, deleting prefs.json and config files from Vam main folder could've worked too.
Dang, I could have moved them to another folder and then compared what changed without undoing all my tweaks.
terms: toggle ui window mode gui window ui desktop ui broken don't show
Now back to having fully functional Vam on second monitor with VamX 1.9 running with voice control.
Something I did broke my gui on desktop flat window mode. Don't know what.
clicking on Toggle UI or pressing U did not work. A slight side to side camera movement was happening when attempting to trigger GUI, so something was happening.
TL: DR, try VR gui and reset from there.
3 lines > user preferences > reset all settings.
quit VR, load flat mode again.
If no VR available : Delete or rename prefs.json and config files from Vam main folder.
Huzzah! flat mode / desktop UI works now.
-------
Didn't think to check VR mode till way later.
Tried moving cache, custom, BrowserProfile, AddonPackagesUserPrefs, and AddonPackages to another folder to see if problem was somewhere in something I did or added before going skyrim modding debug route of one by one. Good news, Vam is able to start up without any of those folders and load, bad and yet good: was able to create blank scene and attempt to trigger gui there. No dice.
tried sync after moving folders back to main vam folder. a few default vars I sorted into folders were re-acquired, but everything else was good.
Tried flat mode again. No dice.
Now what.
lets try VR
Huzzah! VR gui still worked.
pokes around in gui, quits, tries flat mode which is still broken, loads up VR again.
3 lines > user preferences > reset all settings.
quit VR, load flat mode again.
Huzzah! flat mode/desktop UI works now.
annoyance at an hour wasted (instead of 3 minutes) and settings have to be redone, but it works again at least.
Still not sure what the flip triggered broken ui and how to avoid it as I didn't mess with my settings for months before.
thinking on it more, deleting prefs.json and config files from Vam main folder could've worked too.
Dang, I could have moved them to another folder and then compared what changed without undoing all my tweaks.
terms: toggle ui window mode gui window ui desktop ui broken don't show
Now back to having fully functional Vam on second monitor with VamX 1.9 running with voice control.
