Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#21

Post by znpy » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

dgfitz wrote: post #16

LeoPanthera wrote: post #2

This reminds me of how in Windows 95, installers would complete quicker if you constantly moved the mouse, but would take longer if it was still.

I discovered a bug in a microsoft software installer where it would hang unless you moved the mouse over the progress bar. Discovered this when trying to use a java api to make silent installers for programs that didn't have them. The solution was to use the java api to move the mouse back and forth over the progress bar.

> The solution was to use the java api to move the mouse back and forth over the progress bar.

Oh the memories of playing with java.awt.Robot...

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#22

Post by seanthemon » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

tracker1 wrote: post #11

PlunderBunny wrote: post #8

Hands up all the people that used computers before desktop pictures were a thing and still set the desktop to a solid colour because “it will draw faster and use less memory.”

I did that for a long time... mostly in that I didn't like the distraction. Now, I have a directory (a few actually) for wallpapers. Currently shuffling a different landscape photo every few minutes.

Ah! I can share something, you can setup an app called displayfusion to show satellite shots from google earth iirc, it's endlessly interesting

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#23

Post by scifi » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

OK, but the article seems to focus on boot time and not performance afterward. During the netbook craze, it seemed like a big performance boost to remove a hi-res desktop in favor of a solid color. At least that's my recollection years later.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#24

Post by gulikoza » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:42 PM UTC

PlunderBunny wrote: post #8

Hands up all the people that used computers before desktop pictures were a thing and still set the desktop to a solid colour because “it will draw faster and use less memory.”

Windows before some version (maybe before XP?) only supported BMP wallpapers. BMP is uncompressed, a 1024x768 24-bit BMP is 2.25MB. That could be 7% of the 32MB system RAM and if the image got paged out - you were looking at it being redrawn line by line...yeah, I'm not doing that :)

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#25

Post by quesomaster9000 » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

thrtythreeforty wrote: post #20

quesomaster9000 wrote: post #19

Is it just me, or does the linked microsoft.com page hijack the back button?

Many microsoft.com pages do. I don't know how it hasn't infuriated them enough to fix it.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if their site loaded a WASM-compiled remote-desktop viewer to interact with 'Edge in the cloud' just to view the page you want.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#26

Post by yial » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:45 PM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #2

This reminds me of how in Windows 95, installers would complete quicker if you constantly moved the mouse, but would take longer if it was still.

I had an issue like this once installing windows 2000. If you didn’t move the mouse during the installation, it would hang and fail. Finally got it to install by sitting there moving the mouse.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#27

Post by thereisnospork » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:46 PM UTC

Maybe it's been fixed in 11, but in windows 10 the automatic accent color option would lag the entire machine in order to pick a color. Which if you use the slideshow option can be quite frequent.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#28

Post by dgfitz » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:46 PM UTC

SteveNuts wrote: post #18

dgfitz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discovered a bug in a microsoft software installer where it would hang unless you moved the mouse over the progress bar. Discovered this when trying to use a java api to make silent installers for programs that didn't have them. The solution was to use the java api to move the mouse back and forth over the progress bar.

>The solution was to use the java api to move the mouse back and forth over the progress bar. And I thought browsers highjacking the scrollbar was bad!

Ha nah, the whole goal was unattended installs. Nobody felt hijacked except me for wasting so much time.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#29

Post by ClassyJacket » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:46 PM UTC

gulikoza wrote: post #24

PlunderBunny wrote: post #8

Hands up all the people that used computers before desktop pictures were a thing and still set the desktop to a solid colour because “it will draw faster and use less memory.”

Windows before some version (maybe before XP?) only supported BMP wallpapers. BMP is uncompressed, a 1024x768 24-bit BMP is 2.25MB. That could be 7% of the 32MB system RAM and if the image got paged out - you were looking at it being redrawn line by line...yeah, I'm not doing that :)

I mean, you have to uncompress an image to display it anyway, so it would've made no difference.

Re: Windows 7 boots slower if you set a solid background color

#30

Post by mystified5016 » Tue, Jan 28, 2025, 9:50 PM UTC

quesomaster9000 wrote: post #25

thrtythreeforty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many microsoft.com pages do. I don't know how it hasn't infuriated them enough to fix it.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if their site loaded a WASM-compiled remote-desktop viewer to interact with 'Edge in the cloud' just to view the page you want.

Edge your users by bringing Microsoft Edge to edge devices with Edge Cloud edge Edition Advantage!

E: 365