Welcome to the Lounge

12-Jul-21 5:48

I run Windows in Bootcamp on Macs, and have for years. Because of this (I assume) I get more than my fair share of niggles while running Windows. I don't see it as a technical issue, more a political one, given that Windows runs on anything, anywhere, as long as it's Intel.

The niggle that gets me the most, though, is a weird one: Windows keeps forgetting my desktop background colour. What makes this even weirder is my background is the default blue. However, when Explorer locks up after resuming from sleep, or I have an external monitor plugged in via USB-C and the display goes to sleep, or a cloud passes in front of the sun (I dunno - it's a bit of a precious petal, this Windows) then after restarting Explorer I get a black screen.

Not the default blue.

Not the colour I may have changed to.

But black.

And it's constant. And it's happened for years.

I know that Windows is actually remarkably resilient given the demands on it, especially that of backwards compatibility, but having something as dumb as not being able to store and restore the background colour of the desktop rocks my faith in strange ways.

cheers
Chris Maunder

RickZeeland12-Jul-21 6:17

RickZeeland

12-Jul-21 6:17

Maybe you can try turning hibernation and creation of hiberfile.sys off, at the cost of a slower startup of Windows.
See: What Is hiberfil.sys and How Do I Delete It?[^]

Slacker00712-Jul-21 6:32

Slacker007

12-Jul-21 6:32

have you looked at the OS event logs? might be something there.

Jörgen Andersson12-Jul-21 8:02

Jörgen Andersson

12-Jul-21 8:02

But not after a restart I guess?

Try to restart Explorer.exe when it happens, if that fixes the problem, we can narrow down the problem a bit.
And make sure you launch folder windows in separate process.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

Chris Maunder12-Jul-21 10:43

12-Jul-21 10:43

Restarting Explorer is what often triggers the Black Screen Of Despair.

I just can't help thinking there's something like this in Explorer:

C++

void main()
{
   LoadUpLibrariesNStuff();
   GetUserPreferences();
   SetDesktopBackgroundFromThePreferencesWeLiterallyJustLoadedUp();
   // StartClippy();
   RandomlyRearrangeDesktopIcons();
   ...
}

cheers
Chris Maunder

Jörgen Andersson13-Jul-21 2:32

Jörgen Andersson

13-Jul-21 2:32

Well, that implies something is not right with your explorer installation.

The first thing I would check though, as a continuation of Garys suggestion, is whether you have disabled Windows Telemetry? Either by group policy or by disabling some files.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

Chris Maunder13-Jul-21 8:54

13-Jul-21 8:54

This is a vanilla Windows install and it's happened on every single Bootcamp installation I've done. For years.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Maximilien12-Jul-21 8:06

Maximilien

12-Jul-21 8:06

There are other colors than black ? (asking for friend). Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

dandy7212-Jul-21 10:22

dandy72

12-Jul-21 10:22

I was going to suggest setting the background color to black. So even if the problem keeps happening...nobody would notice.

Gerry Schmitz12-Jul-21 8:45

Gerry Schmitz

12-Jul-21 8:45

Adding / removing monitors might be confusing the thing. If I don't have all my monitors on, I'll sometimes "lose" a window that was on a monitor that is not on at resume.

It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food

Gary R. Wheeler12-Jul-21 10:58

Gary R. Wheeler

12-Jul-21 10:58

The black background is what you get when your product key doesn't validate (aka "This copy of Windows isn't genuine"). It's possible Bootcamp isn't allowing the required communication during the wake-from-sleep process.

Software Zen: delete this;

Chris Maunder12-Jul-21 11:03

12-Jul-21 11:03

Hmm - interesting.

There's no "This is a totally dodgy version of Windows" warning when this happens though, and I've seen (sorry, a friend has seen) plenty of invalid installs of Windows.

cheers
Chris Maunder

theoldfool12-Jul-21 11:02

theoldfool

12-Jul-21 11:02

Stand on your left leg, close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and go lalalalala for one minute. The screen will still be black but you will have de-stressed. Works for me. Smile | :)

>64
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.

Chris Maunder12-Jul-21 11:05

12-Jul-21 11:05

Interesting, but I tried simply applying Beer | [beer]

and that seemed to fix things.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Super Lloyd12-Jul-21 13:29

Super Lloyd

12-Jul-21 13:29

Funny thing is, when I logged into my new VM, at my new work, for the first 3 or 4 days, the background keep toggling between default window background or company background on and off every login!
But now it is stabled....

Not that it helps, but it's funnily similar...

A new .NET Serializer
All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar
Taking over the world since 1371!

Thought of the Day

OriginalGriff12-Jul-21 4:52

OriginalGriff

12-Jul-21 4:52

It's difficult to say what my wife does – she sells sea shells on the sea shore.

"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
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jeron112-Jul-21 5:05

jeron1

12-Jul-21 5:05

Mine chucks wood like a woodchuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
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W∴ Balboos, GHB12-Jul-21 5:16

W∴ Balboos, GHB

12-Jul-21 5:16

Like most wives, she appears to be quite contrary.

Ravings en masse^
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

Daniel Pfeffer12-Jul-21 9:34

Daniel Pfeffer

12-Jul-21 9:34

Is her name Mary? $Shucks | :-\$

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.

DRHuff12-Jul-21 12:35

DRHuff

12-Jul-21 12:35

No! The contrariness happens once we marry them. The rhyme is just a warning we all ignored.

If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.

Mike Hankey12-Jul-21 5:36

Mike Hankey

12-Jul-21 5:36

From her she shed no doubt?

The less you need, the more you have.

Why is there a "Highway to Hell" and only a "Stairway to Heaven"? A prediction of the expected traffic load?

JaxCoder.com

Daniel Pfeffer12-Jul-21 9:33

Daniel Pfeffer

12-Jul-21 9:33

My friend Betty bought a bit of butter;
“But,” she said, “this butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter.
But a bit o’ better butter
Will but make my batter better.”
Then she bought a bit o’ butter
Better than the bitter butter,
Made her bitter batter better.
So ’twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit o’ better butter

(Original by Carolyn Wells, 1899)

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.