Is there a way to make inactive windows have a little more contrast around their borders? I have added a screenshot which I hope illustrates the issue. Everything just kinda blends together and I would like it to have a little more color so individual windows are easier to recognize at a glance.
View 4 Repliesdone this many times on many systems. . SSD on many systems. never an issue w7. how to set 2nd hdd boot inactive, given HP BIOS EFI is brick dumb. (intractable)
I am aware that GPT EFI is setup to block booting from "unauthorized media" but secureboot, turns that off.
GPT doomed. But SSD runs perfect by itself. Ok windows, 8 and 8.1 64bit, Brand new laptop, hp 17.3 e-0067cl (for wifey)
I did's:update Windows 8 , 100 updates, took 16hrs. (crashes it,endlessly) good now ( i did 10 upates, 10 times for 100) magic of MS.
update to 8.1 ok.
backup to external hdd , using Paragon Windows 8.1 backup (hp make recovery disk to 32gb sandisk extreme flash, fails, and HP forum all others too.....a bad
rebecca.exe.)
Kick to curb the DVD drive install a new caddy and new SSD. (in same , it works) mirror old hdd to new ssd, using farstone, (the best and free) moved, ssd to hdd, main location. hdd out of system. Boots and runs fast as lighting,now I put in the HDD to the caddy, yes, i know that only one disk can be active. but how do you flip that bit, not plugged in, sure.'?now the dumb, BIOS EFI in the HP can not select boot sequence at all, it has just this boot manager, that is not accessible..at all.it runs a while then wants to boot to hdd, i can't stop it nor fix bios, but (esc+f9) force boots work to SSD. as expected.So i try partition-wizard, it shows HDD as active and can not set to inactive, (it's not fully gpt aware? but works great all other modes)i hide all those partitions and the boot up ignores hidden flag....
i run from elevated CMD.exe, MS- DISKPART and select (old windows (my label) vol 2. i command Inactive to old windows part. vol2 it errors out, saying,can only be used no MBR disk.i read up on that and it meant, GPTs don't have active flags (bits) ok, im game...odd how windows 8 DISKPART is not up to the task for GPT, or I dont know Diskpart anymore....?
I want to keep the HDD in the system. for the D:recovery partition, that HP needs. and will not fit on SSD.
BIOS set to NON secure boot, for all this. testing.did not try SATA legacy mode, (it gives warnings in BIOS not to use that) i moved this hdd to non efi bios system desktop, with win 8.0 and same deal. I wonder what my win7 Desktop would do?, wreck the GPT , structures? i'll not do that.
My guess is there is new procedure to render the GPT EFI , inactive, but is not documented?, (tons of format it from scratch, i tried, my Windows 8 startup repair STICK (PE) same Diskpart error. How to control this GPT disk, (drive 2) is there a DISPART2(gpt)?
I'm having to use a dark high contrast theme because when I look at normally it makes my eyes want to burn and I don't mean that sarcastically I mean that seriously my eyes start feeling like their burning when I'm staring at a screen that is so bright. So I've used the Microsoft high contrast black theme to make using my computer easier on my eyes however I'm experiencing a problem when I need to go and print something.
I'm printing out documents that are displayed in Internet Explorer and the problem is that the printed document comes out very faded almost as if the contrast is greatly reduced.And on the contrary, if I use the Microsoft high contrast white theme than the documents that I print from Internet Explorer come out printed very well with the same printer settings and all.
Is there anyway I can correct this short of having to use the high contrast white theme which just makes my eyes burn even more?
I have the high contrast option turned on for only one reason. The differences in colors of the active vs non-active window that is highlighted in the taskbar was too subtle for me and I often clicked on non-active windows.
Sadly this however resulted in IE / Firefox and Office (Excel & Word so far) be almost unusable. Excel has basically no colors at all no matter what is selected for either text or backgrounds. Office documents are either black or white, no colors come through at all. IE and Firefox are almost unusable.
Only Chrome ignores the high contrast option and uses its own styleset.
Upgraded from Windows 8 (Windows 8 Pro x86 -> Windows 8.1 Enterprise x86) and I see web pages (all) like the attached screenshots.
This occur in Firefox and IE, in G. Chrome this DOESN'T occur.
I run this copy of Windows 8 Professional in a virtual machine and every time I leave that VM for just a couple of minutes the OS starts using up an enormous amount of HDD that significantly slows down my host machine. It turns out that Windows 8 begins what they call "Scheduled scan" when there's no user input:
[URL]
and as soon I switch back to the VM with Windows 8 the HDD "hogging" stops. Obviously this is very annoying!
In light of this, I'd like to ask how to stop this background scanning?
PS. I tried going to the Action Center and schedule maintenance for 3AM or something remote but that doesn't seem to have any effect.
To see if I could get control over the Windows 8.1 folder, I came to try the Windows 8 Forum Tutorial published by Brink on 03 March 2012 on "How to Disable Auto Arrange in File Explorer in Windows 8.1." When I did, the Windows 8.1 desktop background was replaced by a blank dark green background. Nothing I have been able to do has enabled me to recover the Windows desktop background. I now have no Task bar, no Charm bar, nothing.
I still have my browser open, and a folder open. If I closed them, I would not be able to access anything. I accessed the Control Panel through the folder, but it would not reload the background, and told me to change the background settings. The Control Panel has the option, "Change desktop background," but that's what wouldn't reload. I've done a System Restore, but it did not return the desktop background. Finally, I tried the other Brink program to "Enable Auto Arrange" to reverse the Disable and restore Windows back to what it was before I tried the Disable program. That effort didn't work either.
How can I recover the Windows 8.1 desktop background?
I can change the background and accent colour, but not the pattern
In Windows 8, one cannot change it until Windows is activated. So is that the problem here with Windows Blue? I so, then is there any way to activate it? Any success using a KMS server?
P.S. Windows Blue is nice
I have an issue with Windows 8. Whenever I have used past Windows operating systems, left clicking on a window in the background only brought that window to the front. However, with Windows 8, when I click on a background window to bring it to the front, the window that I am trying to bring front responds to the click on the page. How do I make it so that when I click anywhere on a background window, it ONLY brings it front and does not respond to the click?
View 7 Replies View RelatedSystem Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro, 64 bit
Processor: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5700 @ 3.00GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 3036 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) G45/G43 Express Chipset (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)
Hard Drives: C: Total - 465180 MB, Free - 401811 MB;
Motherboard: Dell Inc., 018D1Y
Antivirus: Windows Defender, Disabled
I discovered that IE (user) - probably 10 as I'm sure I have that - is running in the background and preventing my computer from going to sleep.
The new Windows 8.1 option "Show my desktop background on Start" is not available on my system. Actually, it was until I had to change my motherboard (and had a lot a crashes). Now that my PC is running normally again, that option is greyed and therefore unavailable. All the other options on the tab are functional.
I tried with other backgrounds to no avail. I don't know where to start digging.
How to change the Start Page background. About a month ago, I pasted a picture on my Photos background (Commander Riker is standing there with a horrified look, explaining "It all started with Windows 8!" But the picture is blurry.
View 5 Replies View RelatedAlright so I have a PC with a licensed Windows 8.1 Pro, been logging in with Microsoft account for about 3-4 months now and I absolutely love it. I purchased a laptop 5 days ago, and decided to format the whole thing and do a fresh install (the way I like it ).
Of course I signed it with Microsoft account and everything was just lovely. My Metro apps came back, my theme synced etc.
The only problem I have is that my desktop background refuses to sync. I remember having "Synced theme" on my new laptop under My themes (Desktop right click -> Personalize) but I deleted that and now how to get it back
TL;DR Signed in with MS account on my PC and laptop and desktop background doesn't sync. I deleted "Synced theme" and how to restore it.
I want to hide an exe file in a picture that when the person open the pic , it shows him the picture but in the background the exe file runs and does its work. Is it possible?
View 8 Replies View RelatedA friend of mine wants to use the cycling backgrounds in windows 8 with 2 monitors but it behaves like this:
monitor1:background1;monitor2:background2 change of backgrounds monitor1:background3;monitor2:background4
He wants both monitors to show the same background.
Windows 8. I can't find anything except how to change colors via the 'personalization' screen for desktop background etc. You used to be able to change the color of the actual program window background's color but I can't figure it out. Is this not possible anymore?
View 7 Replies View Relatedis it possible to insert an image on the background of a drive for example C drive in Windows 8?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI occasionally play on my laprop in my front room with my family however when I'm on skype to my friends they can hear my TV and Family louder than I can! Is there any software that can lower the levels of background noise or how to make it so it's quieter for them?
View 2 Replies View RelatedWhen using a screensaver that is suppose to have a transparent background (be able to see what is on the desktop) it defaults to the background color chosen for the start screen theme.
An easy example is the bubbles screensaver that comes preloaded, the weird thing is when selected and you preview it, it previews with a transparent background you are able to see what is on your desktop, but when you let it run its time and it pops up on its own it replaces the background with the color theme you chose for your start screen.
How to change it to remain transparent? I've tried changing the background color of the start screen to transparent with Decor8 but the screensaver background still is not transparent.
Attached are the images of how it should look and how it actually looks.
Attached Thumbnails
Having bought my Acer PC in Spain (where I live) it came with the Spanish version - I've changed the user side to English but the background (?) language is still Spanish - how to change it? Could be difficult in the event of a crash or similar as my knowledge of Spanish is fairly limited.
View 1 Replies View RelatedIs it possible to change the background color as well as the scrollbar color with win 8.1? I went to personalize to change the border color, Also can the taskbar color be changed?
View 2 Replies View RelatedI actually had no luck with anything I found on the Internet but this error is from removing the Conduit search malware. In any case, there were no registry entries whatsoever....because this was indeed in the Task Manager, but running as an argument in the RunDll32.exe task. Remove the argument and you're clean and clear.What do I do to get rid of this error?
View 8 Replies View RelatedIf my desktop background image is a slideshow from my picture folders, is there a way to open the folder holding the particular picture from the desktop? I ask because sometimes a picture will pop up, and I'm not sure what folder it came from. It seems like in older windows versions you could right click on the desktop and select "open folder" or something and be taken to the folder holding the picture. Is that still possible?
View 1 Replies View RelatedWent to change settings in PC settings and have suddenly lost all colour and lo definition text. Only way I can see is to hover mouse over the text to highlight it. Also I seem to have lost the animations in my Accuweather app. Pic is shown below
View 7 Replies View Relatedis there a way to have programs running when I lock my Surface Pro, and if so how would I do it?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI don't know what I did, but all the background images on all websites (including this one) are gone...if I right click on the web page, the selection "View Background image" is greyed out, disabled. How to reset the background images on websites so they appear again..
I just got a new computer with Windows 8, I use Firefox. If I open these websites with IE, the background images are there. So what did I do to my Firefox settings?
I have spent over 4 hours searching through the control panel, tools, Firefox itself, and I can't find a solution.
I installed an update this morning (the little action center flag in the bottom corner of the desktop told me to), after which my start screen displays nothing except the background, whenever I search for anything it says "This app can't be searched". Nothing relating to the start screen can open, so I pressed 'Windows + r' to get myself to desktop. I can open IE in desktop but can't view in start. System Restore failed and no matter how many times I try it will not work. When I look through Control Panel at the recently installed updates I can't find the one I installed this morning. next step is to do a system refresh - but there's a catch.
I can swipe in to bring up the charms bar (that's what it's called, right?), and I then click on settings. At the bottom i select "Change PC Settings", but along with every other part of Modern UI, nothing happens. As far as I know, from this menu that I cannot open is the only possible way to do a system refresh/reset, thus I am stuck with an inoperable operating system.
I have an HP 2000 Notebook that I recently did a reinstall of Windows 8 from my recovery drive due to what seemed like huge amounts of background activity and the systems constant failure at keeping track of my folders and files. So off I went for round two. First to make it to the top of my "what is annoying me the most about this OS" list was the fact that I had to wait four hours for windows to retrieve 115 updates then another near four hours for windows to Configure 115 updates which was not too surprising but THEN, windows gets to update number 114 and decides that it's just too much trouble to configure updates built for itself by the very people who created IT and FAILS the entire process!
The message I get is that because it failed, It is now going to revert the system back to it's original state before the updates which took another couple of hours! So an entire day of being without the use of my laptop and all for nothing!
Now, the most recent issue is the fact that there are so darn many windows background processes going at any given time that it is affecting performance. I actually noticed in task manager a windows host app holding over 10 child processes that were consuming over 300MB of memory! My question is, how many of these background memory hogs do I really need?
For the last couple of years I have used a security program (recommended by Bank of America), called Trusteer, by Rapport (or vice versa). Supposedly, its intent is to protect one's computer when visiting web sites (such as that of a bank for online banking purposes). One can also use the software to protect log-ins at other sites of one's choosing.
Recently, I have been blocked by Trusteer from downloading financial information from a reputable site that I have used for years. It is telling me that the IP address is not recognized, and that it is "substituting a known good address for that site." I can access the site, but I cannot download information. If I go to one of my guest operating systems (I use VMware) that does not use Trusteer, I have no problems.
On a Vista platform, I am able to go to START/All Programs/Trusteer where I can execute a file to stop/start/or uninstall the program. In Window 8, I go through Windows Explorer to Program Files (x86) /Trusteer to get to these files. But, when I click on the Stop Program file, the display tells me that it is an ICO file (obviously not an .exe file?), and asks me how I want to open the file. The software appears under Programs and Features in the Control Panel, but at this stage I do not yet want to delete the software - only cease it from running. How does one execute an ICO file?
I noticed that when I log on to my user profile Maps and Store app load in the background and use too much memory and cpu for my liking. Is there a way to keep that from happening without loosing the apps completely?
I also noticed that there used to be many projects/threads that tried to get rid of as much metro as possible. Where have they all gone? Nobody actually uses these crappy apps, right? I'd love an option to use (boot option or different user profile) Windows 8.1 without all the metro crap to have as much power left for games as possible. I noticed that when I rename twinui.dll that saves quite some memory but explorer shell won't load.
There is just one user on my laptop. To maintain security I'd like to keep a password on login. However, as there is only every going to be one user, I'd like windows to load that account in the background while waiting for me to sign in. That way I could turn on the laptop, go make a coffee and when I come back type in the password and start working. At the moment after having signed in there is a good 5 minutes of background progs loading (security software, backup checker, etc etc) before I can get it to do anything useful, like open Chrome.
Obviously speeding up boot time is a bit of a separate issue, but it wouldn't be a problem for me if I could get it to boot directly to my set up, whilst retaining a password to unlock.