Annoyances

[rap33042]

Now, don't get me wrong- I really like Windows 7. No, really!

Before W7, XP was Microsoft's best work so far, IMHO.

Here's what I don't like:

1. Power settings don't stick
2. Individual Window positions don't stick (fix: 3rd party software)
3. Individual Window settings don't stick (fix: 3rd party software)
4. Individual System Tray settings don't stick
5. Per drive Recycle Bin settings don't stick
6. Per drive System Restore settings don't stick
7. Screen Personalization settings don't stick
8. There are more that I can't think of off the top of my head

Here's what I like: Everything else

By "don't stick" I mean that I find myself re-setting these items from session to session. Been doing that for a year now.

I finally gave up on them and let Windows have its own way. Just easier that way...

Ya know? Never had any of these situations in XP. Now, why would Microsoft retrograde? Did they think these were Bugs? :sarc:

 

[Trucidation]

I love XP too. Btw surely you don't think those are universally true? E.g. if power settings don't stick there'd be legions of laptop people flaming about it. From your specs it looks like a custom desktop build, looks nice. So far my peeve is Personalizations, had to tweak the reg a bit for a kludge. Don't quite like Aero's overall monolithicity but I'll live with it. The other issues you mentioned sound bad though. You tried creating another admin-level account and seeing if the problems happen there as well?

 

[LiquidSnak]

What fixes have you attempted so far?

 

[rap33042]

Trucidation: I don't believe they are universal. I believe they are directed at me personally It's Bill, I tell you! He's had his eye on me for years!

LiquidSnak: No fixes, actually (except for the 3rd party software I mentioned)

Let's take one example that particularly annoys me- namely the System Tray Icons.
Now, I know about the settings available to turn on/off the display of particular icons.
I've done this a hundred times and can't seem to get it right.
For example, I don't want the Action Center Flag to show all the time, so I set it to only show notifications.
Next time I boot the system, well, guess what! Yep! It's back. and if I check all the other settings I made, they're all different.
I've had no luck whatsoever with this and have no idea where to begin to locate the problem.

On top of that, there are sometimes duplicates.
Sometimes there are icons for programs that I don't have installed anymore (I know how to fix that, but it seems to me that W7 should "know" that I've uninstalled a program and that it's not necessary to show the icon anymore)- I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

If you have a solution, or even a place to begin looking for one, I'd be much obliged.

I think this particular applet needs a lot of work.

Have you had a problem with this type of thing?

 

[1Bowtie]

Trucidation: I don't believe they are universal. I believe they are directed at me personally It's Bill, I tell you! He's had his eye on me for years!

LiquidSnak: No fixes, actually (except for the 3rd party software I mentioned)

Let's take one example that particularly annoys me- namely the System Tray Icons.
Now, I know about the settings available to turn on/off the display of particular icons.
I've done this a hundred times and can't seem to get it right.
For example, I don't want the Action Center Flag to show all the time, so I set it to only show notifications.
Next time I boot the system, well, guess what! Yep! It's back. and if I check all the other settings I made, they're all different.
I've had no luck whatsoever with this and have no idea where to begin to locate the problem.

On top of that, there are sometimes duplicates.
Sometimes there are icons for programs that I don't have installed anymore (I know how to fix that, but it seems to me that W7 should "know" that I've uninstalled a program and that it's not necessary to show the icon anymore)- I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get it to work.

If you have a solution, or even a place to begin looking for one, I'd be much obliged.

I think this particular applet needs a lot of work.

Have you had a problem with this type of thing?

As far as unistalling prog's, sometimes you have to go alittle deeper and remove any folders associated with the prog you uninstalled. I've never had to use 3rd party prog to hold settings, not completely sure what you mean. Overall Win 7 works flawlessly when set up right

 

[Lunarpancake]

1. Power settings don't stick - Mine stick
2. Individual Window positions don't stick - Mine Stick
3. Individual Window settings don't stick - Mine Stick
4. Individual System Tray settings don't stick - Mine Stick
5. Per drive Recycle Bin settings don't stick - dont know
6. Per drive System Restore settings don't stick - dont use sys restore
7. Screen Personalization settings don't stick - Mine Stick

Considering the amount of settings you are complaining that dont stick and the fact that I have never experienced these issues on my machines. I think you have an administration / permissions issue and not an issue with a windows 7 bug or something of that sort.

Make sure you are setup as an administrator for your machine and try setting these options.

 

[DeaconFrost]

For the love of all things sane....when are people going to learn that when something doesn't work for them (but works for the majority of others) that the finger shouldn't be pointed at Microsoft...but something unique on their systems???? Honestly, it is a simple concept. If it was a big with Windows 7...everyone would be affected.

Okay, now that my rant is over, let's look at some examples. Aside from the fact I disable System Restore, all of the other 6 points stick for me on several personally owned systems, and for the 30 systems I rolled out at work. If they aren't sticking for you, chances are you either have a corrupt profile, or some of these third party apps are interfering.

The reason for my rant, aside from the fact it makes no sense to blame Microsoft...is that people who blindly assume these are bugs sit around waiting for a patch or fix that will never come. Instead, spend your efforts on solving the issue. Create another user account and see if the same issues are present. If so, start looking at your third party apps and your fixes.

 

[rap33042]

Lunarpancake:
Thank you for your response. I am definitely set up as Admin on this computer.

1Bowtie: I use an uninstaller for that, so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem- but thanks for the advice. Incidentally, whenever I trip upon a folder that I know shouldn't exist, I get rid of it. (Guess I'm a little compulsive...)

Regarding the 3rd-party software I mentioned, that was so the individual window/folder settings would 'stick'; I use ShellFolderFix for that.
XP did it on its own...

An aside: I really don't want to sound like I'm sniveling...

How about the Power settings, then?
I set it to sleep after 1 hour; set displays to go down after 45 minutes. May last one day, or three, but sooner or later I wake up to see the computer still wide awake and, as far as I know, hasn't gone to sleep at all.
Point: All 'wake-ups' are disabled both in BIOS and Windows, unless, of course, I'm missing something.

Maybe it's just me... sigh...

 

[rap33042]

DeaconFrost:
I never intended to belittle MS- that was meant to be a joke. Paranoia, as it were...

I agree with you that these problems are unique to my system, but I have not been able to isolate the problems/solutions I mentioned.

It never occurred to me to create another account- I never did that before.

I will try that and see what happens and I thank you for your input.
---

Did it really seem that I was blaming Microsoft? :shock:

 

[1Bowtie]

There were many threads about the power settings not holding but for the life of me i can't remember the cause or the fix, but i know it was simple. I personally don't use third party uninstallers, the add and remove prog's in Windows works fine for me.

 

[smarteyeball]

Power settings don't stick

I've noticed that. Previously when I've played with sleep/hibernate etc it would misbehave / not stay asleep. The settings don't change, but they tended to occasionally be ignored completely.

The only power saving I use now is to turn off display @ 15 mins and every now and then it simply.... doesn't.

Individual Window positions don't stick (fix: 3rd party software)
Individual Window settings don't stick (fix: 3rd party software)

Always been a slight irritation - I might have to finally look at those 3rd party apps.

individual System Tray settings don't stick

Easier to disable / set to 'hide icons and notifications' for those troublesome ones. Barring a few recalcitrant icons, they generally do as they are instructed.

Screen Personalization settings don't stick

What particular aspect doesn't stick?

My desktop icons like to move around like a party girl on coke. Multiple monitors and certain fullscreen apps on exit really like to shake placement up. Bloody annoying.

Every now and then my border colour / taskbar goes back to default colour and opacity. Aside from those two, everything tends to stay the same.

Maybe it's just me... sigh...

It's not

 

[DeaconFrost]

Did it really seem that I was blaming Microsoft? :shock:

My rant was more of a generalization, to intended just at you. People who post threads like yours usually do blame Microsoft, and the issue turns out to be the user or some third party app.

 

[rap33042]

smarteyeball:

I am truly happy that I am not the only one to suffer these minor inconveniences.
Thank You so much for your response.

The 3rd-party software I refer to is ShellFolderFix. That takes care of the amnesia W7 suffers regarding Folder Options.
It can be gotten here: ShellFolderFix Brings Saved Folder Positions Back to Windows 7
By virtue of the fact this App was created demonstrates I am not alone.

System Tray Icons:
I have learned to live with it- I guess...
I don't really want to disable notifications- I like to know what's going on; but maybe I'll disable them for a while to see...
Thanks.

Display Personalization:
The main problem I have is that the slide-show thing doesn't want to behave.
If I change a picture in the directory I have chosen as default, it will start all over from the beginning.
No big deal, but bothersome when I have a few hundred pictures in the folder- I'd rather see the 'new' ones...
Also, like you, the Task bar and Title Bar colors don't seem to stay the same- I have to keep fiddling with them.
It's not important enough to keep messing with; it's just an observation.

I truly appreciate your kind information.
I guess paranoia is not the answer, after all.

 

[DeaconFrost]

By virtue of the fact this App was created demonstrates I am not alone.

Not necessarily. It is more of a sign that the developer was late to the game. The Folder options issue was a problem with Vista and required third-party apps to fix. Microsoft fixed the problem in Windows 7 and it isn't an issue anymore. When I say it isn't an issue anymore, I meant by default...the OS is not the culprit. Given all of your issues, I'm still leaning towards a corrupt profile, or a conflict with something you installed.

If you don't want to jump right in on a fresh install, try creating a new user account, as I suggested above. Or, pull out an older system and install Windows 7 on it to test. You'll have 30 days (or more) to play around with it.

The bottom line is, something unique is going on with your system causing the OS to not behave in a way it is supposed to. The Folder Options "sticking" is one of the first things we've all noticed with Windows 7 as being a fix/improvement over Vista.

 

[rap33042]

DeaconFrost:

Sorry, but I don't follow you.
You say the "The Folder Options "sticking" is one of the first things we've all noticed with Windows 7 as being a fix/improvement over Vista."

What I'm seeing is that Folder Options now seems to be universal; ie, if I change the options of one folder, it becomes the default for all folders.

Case in point:
I have a folder on my desktop. When I open it, I want it to display its contents as a List. I don't want navigation bars or anything else; just a list of Programs in that folder. I can set it up that way and close it. It will open back up in the same state as I left it. Great! That's what I want.

Now, if I open an instance of Windows Explorer, and change its size, layout, etc., then the next time I open the Desktop folder, it has all the properties I set up in Windows Explorer. This is not what I want.

My settings for the Desktop folder have been lost and replaced by the last settings I instituted in Windows Explorer.

This is a huge nuisance since there are many folders I'd like to open with their last settings intact whether it be with/without navigation bars; lists, or details, or icons, and so on, ad infinitum.

This 'memory' of individual window Positions and States were all operative in XP and, in my experience, worked flawlessly.
This feature seems to have disappeared in W7.

Opinions? Solutions?

 

[DeaconFrost]

The size and position of the window never stuck for me, even in XP. I prefer everything full screen, and it is always an annoyance that this doesn't happen. The common problem that people have complained about, and I assumed you were complaining about is that in Vista, you would set Explorer to look the same way, such as details, status bar, etc. You would instruct the system to make every folder look this way, yet it wouldn't save that layout. Each folder would open differently. That was what bigged a lot of people, me included, because we want Explorer windows to look the same each and every time. That has been resolved with Windows 7.

I've never heard of anyone wanting all their folders to be different. However, have you gone into Folder Properties and tried the Reset Folders button?

 

[James Colbert]

Have you checked Event Viewer? Any shutdown issues?

James

 

[rap33042]

DeaconFrost:

I have done this and tried variations on this theme.

Here's a shot of one of the Desktop Folders I have.
If I close that Folder, and open Windows Explorer, change its properties, then close it, when I re-open the Tool Box Folder, it would have the same properties I had set up in Windows Explorer- get my drift?

This is not what I want and W7 doesn't seem to support this. XP did.
It was called "Individual Folder Options", and there was a setting for it...

I don't use Windows Explorer- never have; but once in a great while I need it for Windows-specific things; like if I click on Computer to see a list of HDD's. Then I expand the window to get a good look. Well, that screws up my Tool Box Folder next time I open it.

I hope I am explaining this in a lucid, understandable manner.

Writing has never been my strength...

 

[DeaconFrost]

I know exactly what you mean...I just have never come across anyone who wanted different configurations for different folders.

When you say you don't use Windows Explorer....does this mean you have some third-party shell installed?

 

[James Colbert]

Windows Explorer should remember settings on a window by window basis, unless you Apply it to all folders of type in Folder Options. Also, if Win7 is not remembering your settings 'between sessions', this is also an issue.

Have you tried running http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html ?

You should note that allowing SFC to repair changes to system files may produce some undesirable results, i.e., any hacks or fixes you've applied that impact system files.

James