Desktop changes won't stay saved

[Andacar]

OK, my turn here. I’m trying to make some basic changes to the screen personalization but they won’t stick. I'm in administrator mode, by the way. Every time I log back in, they revert. In particular, I’m trying to change the way a slideshow is displayed. I go to Desktop Background and change Position to Fit. I Save Changes and all seems to be well. I also save the desktop theme under My Themes. But when I log back in it goes back to Stretch. Am I missing some kind of permissions thing? Or do I just not understand how desktop themes get saved? It seems harder than it should be to do this.
Andacar

 

[Anak]

Take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/452-desktop-slideshow.html

And check out the bottom of the tutorial, there are more related tutorials on slideshows.

 

[Andacar]

OK, I was in fact doing everything the tutorial suggested. And here's something interesting: I rebooted and when the background initially came up, it was in fact set the way I wanted. But then I saw the screen change to the default stretched setting, as though a new setting was being loaded over the initial one.

Still very puzzzled.

 

[Anak]

OK, I was in fact doing everything the tutorial suggested. And here's something interesting: I rebooted and when the background initially came up, it was in fact set the way I wanted. But then I saw the screen change to the default stretched setting, as though a new setting was being loaded over the initial one.

Still very puzzzled.

Somewhere there is a setting or command that is causing this.

In: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Ease of Access Center\ There are two settings to stop any unnecessary animations.

Scroll down to Explore All Settings They are located at:
\Make the computer easier to see
Scroll down to "Make things on the screen easier to see"
Click to "Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)"

Go back to the start page of the EoA Center at the bottom:
\Make it easier to focus on tasks
Scroll down to "Adjust time limits and Visuals"
Click to "Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible)"

Try these two I'm still on the hunt......

 

[Anak]

Have you tried creating another User account to see it the problem can be re-created?

Another Idea:
With me only having Home Premium I don't have a lot of experience with the Group Policy Editor, but after reading up on your situation I ran across a similar problem.
You should be able to get to it with your Pro edition.

The solution was to:
Disassociate whatever policies you have with your desktop and/or wallpaper, and reboot your machine. I surmise this would be part of any of your user accounts.

Then set your wallpaper to center instead of stretch. If that setting is already picked, click off of it and then click back on it. Apply, Save Changes, and OK your way out.
Then re-apply the policy, reboot your machine to see if it corrected itself..
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3652-local-group-policy-editor-open.html

 

[Andacar]

UPDATE: PROBLEM SOLVED

This is apparently a known issue:

http://windows7themes.net/windows-7-unsaved-theme-bug.html
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/793ef338-8872-41fb-b691-75c821b6ed47

Evidently the problem comes along when you use desktop manager software like Earthview. I had recently started using Nvidia nView desktop manager. They seem to get into conflicts with Windows 7's own theme software and create a new unsaved theme upon startup whether you want them to or not. I got rid of nView and the problem went away.

Moral: don't use 3rd party desktop managers with Windows 7.

 

[Anak]

That is good news Andacar. I saved your link!

It would help by going up to the red triangle, and asking one of the Admins or Mods to mark this solved with a green check-mark.

 

[janisian]

Tried them all

I'm running a Lenovo T430, and a Lenovo T530 (both Windows 7), as well as an older Fujitsu laptop. None have special graphics cards. None use a desktop background manager. I know just enough about computers to be dangerous to myself - for instance, all the laptops have NVIDIA, but on checking the control panel for it I see that "other applications control" everything from color settings to desktop, so I assume Windows is still controlling the desktop. It is definitely not NVIDIA nVIEW.
No multiple displays are set, only the one.
I've tried every solution I could find on line, from the HP fix to re-loading everything to running as admin or just as user, on three different computers. I've also tried all the solutions I could find here. Despite that, no matter what I set my personalization preferences to for the desktop background, on reboot it reverts to "stretch". This is indeed a known issue, and I really wish Microsoft would issue a global fix for it. Very annoying!!
If anyone knows of a global fix, or something I should be doing with the NVIDIA, please let me know!
Thanks