Vista - desktop background changing to black

Well, I'm glad that the rest of the system is behaving. You're quite right.
If this is all that's wrong, it's not much.

It sounds as though Dell loves to put lots of "extras" on systems there in
France, too. OEM images of Windows are a waste for me. I just don't use 'em.
I immediately scrub them off and put retail or volume license images
(depending on which machine, and where) on all of my systems. I have seen a
lot of crud in the startup configuration of a lot of OEM images, but 500 MB?
Wow! Heh, are they going for a record, or something?

;-)

"montyphyton@gmail.com" wrote:

>
> jimmuh je napisao/la:
> > Have you communicated with the vendor of the computer? Sounds like something
> > is fishy with their original system image. Does everything else seem to be
> > functioning properly?
> >
> > I really should get off my duff and do some investigating. I have become
> > complacent since the advent of Vista, relying solely upon active directory
> > and the policy editor to achieve whatever I want in the way of control of the
> > systems I support. But it would be useful to know the registry locations
> > affected by the policies. One can use a registry reference, or do it the fun
> > way -- using a tool like RegMon (Mark Russinovich, who now works for
> > Microsoft) to monitor for registry changes when the policy is applied. If I
> > get a chance to do play with this today I'll get back to you.
> >
> > In the meantime, have you considered contacting the notebook vendor or
> > talking with Microsoft about the hotfix?
> >
>
> not really because everything else works fine and this isn't some
> really big problem. and also, i'm currently in france (bought the
> laptop here too) and technical french isn't my strong side. can't
> understand a word the lady from dell says on the phone needles to
> say her english is worse than my french. anyway, for now i'll live
> with it. one thing, though. i've disabled cyberlink power cinema in
> startup (the monster ate more than 500 MB of memory). don't really
> think that is causing the problem, but maybe it's important to point
> that out.
>
>

jimmuh je napisao/la:
> Well, I'm glad that the rest of the system is behaving. You're quite right.
> If this is all that's wrong, it's not much.
>
> It sounds as though Dell loves to put lots of "extras" on systems there in
> France, too. OEM images of Windows are a waste for me. I just don't use 'em.
> I immediately scrub them off and put retail or volume license images
> (depending on which machine, and where) on all of my systems. I have seen a
> lot of crud in the startup configuration of a lot of OEM images, but 500 MB?
> Wow! Heh, are they going for a record, or something?
>
> ;-)

well, seems i'm not the only one that had problems with this
powercinema thing:
http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.ph...&#entry1367621
http://www.overclock.net/laptops-not...tops-know.html
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-623...sageID=2222228

In and of itself I wouldn't worry about a process that just has a large
memory footprint. Vista seems to have pretty good memory management and will
free memory as it's needed for other processes. But a process that hogs CPU
cycles is another matter. Though the PowerCinema software is mentioned in
those threads you linked, the threads themselves are pretty short on solid
information. I didn't read very carefully, though, because I'm in a bit of a
time bind. Did anyone in those threads discuss a problem with background
colors?

"montyphyton@gmail.com" wrote:

>
> jimmuh je napisao/la:
> > Well, I'm glad that the rest of the system is behaving. You're quite right.
> > If this is all that's wrong, it's not much.
> >
> > It sounds as though Dell loves to put lots of "extras" on systems there in
> > France, too. OEM images of Windows are a waste for me. I just don't use 'em.
> > I immediately scrub them off and put retail or volume license images
> > (depending on which machine, and where) on all of my systems. I have seen a
> > lot of crud in the startup configuration of a lot of OEM images, but 500 MB?
> > Wow! Heh, are they going for a record, or something?
> >
> > ;-)
>
> well, seems i'm not the only one that had problems with this
> powercinema thing:
> http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.ph...&#entry1367621
> http://www.overclock.net/laptops-not...tops-know.html
> http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-623...sageID=2222228
>
>

jimmuh je napisao/la:
> In and of itself I wouldn't worry about a process that just has a large
> memory footprint. Vista seems to have pretty good memory management and will
> free memory as it's needed for other processes. But a process that hogs CPU
> cycles is another matter. Though the PowerCinema software is mentioned in
> those threads you linked, the threads themselves are pretty short on solid
> information. I didn't read very carefully, though, because I'm in a bit of a
> time bind. Did anyone in those threads discuss a problem with background
> colors?

no, i didn't see anyone there complain about the black background
thing. i sincerly doubt that powercinema has anything to do with it.
but as for the memory management, call me paranoid but i feel a bit
uneasy having a program taking up 500 MB of RAM, no matter how good
the memory management is. beside, having to reallocate that much
memory certainly doesn't improve overall system performance...anyway,
i'm living with it for now.
However, i have another question: how can one make pdf files have the
default adobe acrobat icon? right now, i've associated adobe acrobat
reader with pdf filesm but the icon that is shown is always the first
page of that document. it's really annoying, because most documents
have blank first page, or just a title on the first page so they all
those icons look white and they are really hard to tell apart from
other documents. i would like to turn off this feature that i bet
microsoft (or adobe) is very proud of and have the standard adobe icon
(you know, the red thing). when i look at the properties for the file,
vista tells me that the icon that is shown is that adobe icon. so im a
bit lost here. i've tried looking in adobe reader preferences, but
haven't found anything that could help.

Concerning the Windows Explorer icon for Adobe Acrobat PDF files -- When I
cycle the "view" amongst the different choices available (extra large icons,
large icons, medium icons, small icons, list, details, and tiles) the only
ones which show the standard Acrobat PDF icon are small icons, list, and
details. The other views all show me the first page of the document, but
there is a tiny Acrobat (sylized "A") in white on red in the bottom right of
the page icons presented by the other views. Is that what you're seeing? If
so, that's normal. I do remember that the Acrobat icon itself changed
somewhere along the line (transition from version 7 to version 8?) so that it
has a lot more white in it that it had previously.

As regards the memory management and performance -- If a system running
Vista has sufficient RAM I don't think the paging behavior has much
performance affect at all. Windows is constantly working on that page file
and the journal to keep memory ready to accept new active tasks, if needed.
The disk writing for this has already been pretty much finished in the
background by the time a process has finished loading into memory. If the
memory taken by an inactive process is needed for a new active process, or
for a process which is suddenly demaning much more memory, memory containing
that inactive process can be cleared immediately. It causes a lot of concern
by some users who watch their drive activity because Windows seems to be
trashing the hard drive all of the time. In Vista this happens without much
noticeable penalty in user interface responsiveness -- at least if the system
is sufficient for running the OS.

You could probably test this yourself by bringing the system up both with
and without that PowerCinema software running. After the system has been up
for a while I'd be willing to bet that there isn't a lot of difference in the
speed with which the system opens new processes or accomplishes other tasks.
Unless PowerCinema is actually performing some prioritized function.

"montyphyton@gmail.com" wrote:

>
> jimmuh je napisao/la:
> > In and of itself I wouldn't worry about a process that just has a large
> > memory footprint. Vista seems to have pretty good memory management and will
> > free memory as it's needed for other processes. But a process that hogs CPU
> > cycles is another matter. Though the PowerCinema software is mentioned in
> > those threads you linked, the threads themselves are pretty short on solid
> > information. I didn't read very carefully, though, because I'm in a bit of a
> > time bind. Did anyone in those threads discuss a problem with background
> > colors?
>
> no, i didn't see anyone there complain about the black background
> thing. i sincerly doubt that powercinema has anything to do with it.
> but as for the memory management, call me paranoid but i feel a bit
> uneasy having a program taking up 500 MB of RAM, no matter how good
> the memory management is. beside, having to reallocate that much
> memory certainly doesn't improve overall system performance...anyway,
> i'm living with it for now.
> However, i have another question: how can one make pdf files have the
> default adobe acrobat icon? right now, i've associated adobe acrobat
> reader with pdf filesm but the icon that is shown is always the first
> page of that document. it's really annoying, because most documents
> have blank first page, or just a title on the first page so they all
> those icons look white and they are really hard to tell apart from
> other documents. i would like to turn off this feature that i bet
> microsoft (or adobe) is very proud of and have the standard adobe icon
> (you know, the red thing). when i look at the properties for the file,
> vista tells me that the icon that is shown is that adobe icon. so im a
> bit lost here. i've tried looking in adobe reader preferences, but
> haven't found anything that could help.
>
>

jimmuh je napisao/la:
> Concerning the Windows Explorer icon for Adobe Acrobat PDF files -- When I
> cycle the "view" amongst the different choices available (extra large icons,
> large icons, medium icons, small icons, list, details, and tiles) the only
> ones which show the standard Acrobat PDF icon are small icons, list, and
> details. The other views all show me the first page of the document, but
> there is a tiny Acrobat (sylized "A") in white on red in the bottom right of
> the page icons presented by the other views. Is that what you're seeing?

In list, details, and small icons view i see only the first page of
the document (without the Acrobat in the lower right corner). btw i'm
normally using details view. when i click on the pdf file, i see the
Acrobat in the lower right corner of the icon that is drawn in the
lower left corner of the window (hope you get what i mean). however, i
would like to change this behaviour - i'd like that the icon i
normally see in details view (currently, this is the first page of the
document) to be just the Acrobat (stylized "A") and nothing else. i
don't want to have to click on the icon to see that it is a pdf or
anything like that. it would be great to have the same thing i had in
win XP. that way, i can visually spot the pdf right away, without
having to look file extensions or anything like that. In short, i'd
like turn off the option of showing the first page as icon...

Hi Monteyphyton,

There is a free 15-day trial program that will let you change the icons for file types & much more. Catch is, must get it done on the 15 days. Here's the link for Vista Manager (Be sure to shoose the correct 32/64 bit version): http://www.yamicsoft.com/vistamanager/index.html

You need to use 256 bit .ICO files for Vista's icons.

Here's a link for some Adobe style icons. You can find other icons here as well. Just pick the 256 bit .ico you like.

http://search.deviantart.com/?section=browse&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5&q=Adobe+icons

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Yeah. What you're reporting doesn't sound normal at all. I tried fiddling
around with Explorer and couldn't get it to do what you're reporting. Just
for grins, what version of Acrobat Reader do you have installed on that
system? Has it had all updates available applied to it?

I would point out that I don't get the stylized white "A" on a red
background as the icon in any case. I don't think you get that icon with
version 8, and, AFAIK, version 8 is the earliest version that is compatible
with Vista. The small icon that I see in small icons / list / details view is
NOT a first page icon, but it does have a white background with the letters
PDF in white on a tiny red banner in the upper left hand corner of the icon
and a larger stylized "A" in red in the main field on the icon's white
background.

"montyphyton@gmail.com" wrote:

>
> jimmuh je napisao/la:
> > Concerning the Windows Explorer icon for Adobe Acrobat PDF files -- When I
> > cycle the "view" amongst the different choices available (extra large icons,
> > large icons, medium icons, small icons, list, details, and tiles) the only
> > ones which show the standard Acrobat PDF icon are small icons, list, and
> > details. The other views all show me the first page of the document, but
> > there is a tiny Acrobat (sylized "A") in white on red in the bottom right of
> > the page icons presented by the other views. Is that what you're seeing?
>
> In list, details, and small icons view i see only the first page of
> the document (without the Acrobat in the lower right corner). btw i'm
> normally using details view. when i click on the pdf file, i see the
> Acrobat in the lower right corner of the icon that is drawn in the
> lower left corner of the window (hope you get what i mean). however, i
> would like to change this behaviour - i'd like that the icon i
> normally see in details view (currently, this is the first page of the
> document) to be just the Acrobat (stylized "A") and nothing else. i
> don't want to have to click on the icon to see that it is a pdf or
> anything like that. it would be great to have the same thing i had in
> win XP. that way, i can visually spot the pdf right away, without
> having to look file extensions or anything like that. In short, i'd
> like turn off the option of showing the first page as icon...
>
>

jimmuh je napisao/la:
> Yeah. What you're reporting doesn't sound normal at all. I tried fiddling
> around with Explorer and couldn't get it to do what you're reporting. Just
> for grins, what version of Acrobat Reader do you have installed on that
> system? Has it had all updates available applied to it?
>
> I would point out that I don't get the stylized white "A" on a red
> background as the icon in any case. I don't think you get that icon with
> version 8, and, AFAIK, version 8 is the earliest version that is compatible
> with Vista. The small icon that I see in small icons / list / details view is
> NOT a first page icon, but it does have a white background with the letters
> PDF in white on a tiny red banner in the upper left hand corner of the icon
> and a larger stylized "A" in red in the main field on the icon's white
> background.
>

i'm using acrobat reader 8 for vista. i've made two snapshots to
illustrate the problem. if you' like to see them tell me and i'll try
to put them somewhere online...

I don't think it's necessary for me to see screen shots. I think I have a
pretty good iea from your description of what you're seeing. I just don't
understand how it's happening. I wonder if Adobe technical support could tell
you why this is happening? If many people are having this experience they
must be communicating with Adobe about it.

You don't see anything similar to this behavior with the icons of files
associated with other applications, do you? I have checked the associated
file icons of some other applications, like Visio, that show the first page
of a document in some of the views, but on my Vista systems all of those
others are behaving properly, too.

"montyphyton@gmail.com" wrote:

>
> jimmuh je napisao/la:
> > Yeah. What you're reporting doesn't sound normal at all. I tried fiddling
> > around with Explorer and couldn't get it to do what you're reporting. Just
> > for grins, what version of Acrobat Reader do you have installed on that
> > system? Has it had all updates available applied to it?
> >
> > I would point out that I don't get the stylized white "A" on a red
> > background as the icon in any case. I don't think you get that icon with
> > version 8, and, AFAIK, version 8 is the earliest version that is compatible
> > with Vista. The small icon that I see in small icons / list / details view is
> > NOT a first page icon, but it does have a white background with the letters
> > PDF in white on a tiny red banner in the upper left hand corner of the icon
> > and a larger stylized "A" in red in the main field on the icon's white
> > background.
> >
>
> i'm using acrobat reader 8 for vista. i've made two snapshots to
> illustrate the problem. if you' like to see them tell me and i'll try
> to put them somewhere online...
>
>