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Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

devblogs.microsoft.com

171–180 of 311 posts

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#171
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most annoying one is that Windows machines have lost the ability for deep sleep. Laptops that slept perfectly 5 years ago are now left as 24/7 zombies, with the CPU, fans and hard disks running non stop. I'm certain that some idiotic change just like the ones suggested in the article destroyed this perfectly working feature, and nobody is bothered to fix it because it would impact the latest harebrained scheme to…

I have never had a windows computer that was able to do any sort of sleep without crashing, either in the sleep mode or randomly a time after waking up. First thing I do is disable it, I have lost enough time trying to find the cause of it and the crashes usually stop if I don't use sleep modes. Most of my computers and friends computers have been ASUS though, maybe that is a connection. (Windows user since 3.11 but…

ACPI implementations have been terrible for a very long time, ASUS is no exception. This is where a good portion of sleep-related issues stem from. The other side is garbage drivers. I have a joystick from Virpil, which has it's own drivers (extensible configuration) that prevented sleep.

That said, if I remove the joystick from the picture, my ASUS-based Am4 system sleeps just fine.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too busy to discuss your preferences. Not busy enough to not discuss your being too busy to discuss your preferences on internet forums. I'm not trying to be mean here, I'm just fascinated by what people will consider to be a waste of time.

Evangelizing KDE is not something I care about

Hm. It seems like you care about it at least a little, otherwise why would this thread exist? It's okay to care about things.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GNOME removed all UI controls for setting solid color backgrounds, but still technically supports it if you manually set a bunch of config keys — which seem to randomly change between versions There's the peak GNOME experience.

Or the display sleep menu which offers choices like 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 and 30 min timeout but no more than that unless you use external config editor.

30 minutes? That's a luxury! For me it has always been limited to 15 minutes in the GUI.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#174

As someone who prefers a solid color background, I’m always surprised by how often this simple preference leads me into bizarre rabbit holes. Some additional examples beyond the OP: - In the latest macOS, trying to set a custom solid color background just gives you a blinding white screen (see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256029958?sortBy=rank ). - GNOME removed all UI controls for setting solid color backgr…

I checked in KDE, since I'm generally confused as to why it's not more popular now: in the wallpaper settings you choose `wallpaper type: plain color` and it gives you a color picker to set it. It also shows you the screen you set it for, and a boolean to set it for all screens at once.

I think it's historic reasons.

KDE used to be the "bloated" desktop way back when (I know, pretty silly and laughable now given the current state of things).

That cemented Gnome/Mate into a lot of major distros as the primary DME. Ubuntu being the most famous.

The QT licensing situation is also a bit of a bizarre quagmire. There are certainly people that don't like KDE for more ideological reasons.

Personally, none of this bothers me and it's what I use for my personal computer. KDE is just so close to exactly how I'm used to interacting with computers anyways growing up through the Win95 era. It is so close to the Windows experience you want to have.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#175
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too prefer a solid color. However, I've noticed, there's not much point in changing it. Showing the desktop is a waste of screen real estate because of the generations of abuse of desktop shortcuts. Even if you are careful, it becomes a cluttered wasteland (on Windows anyways). I just learned to never use the desktop for anything and always have windows up on various monitors.

I thought Windows programs generally asked if you want to make a desktop icon for them. (But I only use Windows as a video game console).

Not always. It's up to their installer. And the installer doesn't have to ask (it can just do it).

The situation is better these days, with windows store apps. Still, I developed the habit of just never using the desktop in the XP days when things were really bad.

There was a war over your eyeballs, which had shady software vendors warring over desktop space, start menu space, taskbar space, even fucking file associations. I recall for a little RealPlayer and Windows Media Player used to yank back and forth file associations each time they ran, even if you tried to make them stop.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#176

As someone who prefers a solid color background, I’m always surprised by how often this simple preference leads me into bizarre rabbit holes. Some additional examples beyond the OP: - In the latest macOS, trying to set a custom solid color background just gives you a blinding white screen (see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256029958?sortBy=rank ). - GNOME removed all UI controls for setting solid color backgr…

The number of times my solid color preference has been replaced with all black over the last 10 years is absolutely astounding. I have no understanding of why this seems to be so difficult.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#177
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too prefer a solid color. However, I've noticed, there's not much point in changing it. Showing the desktop is a waste of screen real estate because of the generations of abuse of desktop shortcuts. Even if you are careful, it becomes a cluttered wasteland (on Windows anyways). I just learned to never use the desktop for anything and always have windows up on various monitors.

Windows 10 has a setting to allow you to choose if it should show or hide desktop icons. Dunno about 11.

Yes, you can hide icons in windows 11 just by right clicking on the desktop and going to view > show desktop icons.

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I checked in KDE, since I'm generally confused as to why it's not more popular now: in the wallpaper settings you choose `wallpaper type: plain color` and it gives you a color picker to set it. It also shows you the screen you set it for, and a boolean to set it for all screens at once.

I think it's historic reasons. KDE used to be the "bloated" desktop way back when (I know, pretty silly and laughable now given the current state of things). That cemented Gnome/Mate into a lot of major distros as the primary DME. Ubuntu being the most famous. The QT licensing situation is also a bit of a bizarre quagmire. There are certainly people that don't like KDE for more ideological reasons. Personally, none o…

KDE still seems pretty bloated

Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I checked in KDE, since I'm generally confused as to why it's not more popular now: in the wallpaper settings you choose `wallpaper type: plain color` and it gives you a color picker to set it. It also shows you the screen you set it for, and a boolean to set it for all screens at once.

Those of us that use KDE don't necessarily broadcast it

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Re: Why did Windows 7 log on slower for months if you had a solid color background?

#180
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too prefer a solid color. However, I've noticed, there's not much point in changing it. Showing the desktop is a waste of screen real estate because of the generations of abuse of desktop shortcuts. Even if you are careful, it becomes a cluttered wasteland (on Windows anyways). I just learned to never use the desktop for anything and always have windows up on various monitors.

I thought Windows programs generally asked if you want to make a desktop icon for them. (But I only use Windows as a video game console).

No one of my biggest complaints about windows is the sheer number of apps that add an icon without asking. Sometimes it's even worse than an app, and Nvidia or AMD will add one in a driver update. Drives me nuts.
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