Broke: XP visual effects (experts only)

L

Lee Harvey

Really annoying visual effects on 1 profile only:

In Display Properties, Appearance tab...
- "Color 2" selector is disabled in Advanced (so no caption fade effect
allowed)
- "Use transition effects for menus and tooltips" checkbox is disabled in
Effects
- "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts" checkbox is
disabled in Effects
- "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key"
checkbox is disabled in Effects

Also...
- The mouse cursor shadow cannot be enabled.
- Menu shadows cannot be enabled.
- Right-click context menus are not flat (but have 3D border, as if Ctl3D
enabled).
- Main program menus have gray background (not smoothly faded), yet
onmouseover produces ugly white background screen remnants.

Notes...
- Regardless of System Properties, Advanced, Performance, Settings, Visual
Effects, all these problems still persist.
- TweakUI was installed and enabled, but was restored to factory defaults,
disabled, then uninstalled.
- All other profiles on this machine act correctly and behave normally.
- I'm convinced there's a registry problem with this one profile, but don't
know how to correct it.

This is...
- Windows XP Home Edition (Upgrade) with SP1 and the Windows XP Plus! pack
installed.
- GeForce2 MX AGP 2x w/ 32MB RAM, 1280x1024, 32-bit color, DirectX 9.0
installed.

What's wrong with the visual effects of this one user profile?
 
L

Lee Harvey

Wow, quick response...thanks!

Sorry, the edit on line 214 didn't help.
But I was hopeful, since it targetted specific registry settings under HKCU.

More details:

- No, "Windows and Buttons" is not grayed-out .. none of those drop-downs are.
- The "shadow under mouse pointer" checkbox does not stay checked in
Performance/Settings.
- The "shadow under menus" checkbox does not stay checked in either
Performance/Settings or Appearance/Effects.
- The three checkboxes (see below) remain disabled (can't click) under
Appearance/Effects.
- This problem only persists for one Admin profile (of 4) on the machine.

If you can think of anything else, please let me know.
This issue has been driving me nuts for quite some time.

Thanks.

| Hi Lee,
|
| But does it stay checked under Performance/Settings and is Windows and
| Buttons also greyed out under Appearance?
|
| Run the edit on line 214
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| More info here under Classic vs. Windows XP Style
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
| --
| All the Best,
| Kelly
|
| MS-MVP Win98/XP
| [AE-Windows® XP]
|
| Troubleshooting Windows XP
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
 
L

Lee Harvey

Nope, bummer. Still the same problems persist.

Anything else to try?

BTW, your site is excellent!


| Hi Lee,
|
| Start with the settings listed in the edit on line 256
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| --
| All the Best,
| Kelly
|
| MS-MVP Win98/XP
| [AE-Windows® XP]
|
| Troubleshooting Windows XP
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
 
L

Lee Harvey

I FIXED IT!!!!

I can't believe it, after all these months! Using your tips, I narrowed my
focus down to the HKCU\Control Panel region of the registry. I simply
exported the hive of the broken profile and compared it against the same hive
of a working profile. What I found surprised me. Some strings, specifically
cursors, were specified as binary in the broken profile. Likewise, other
settings that should've been simple strings were either specified as
multi-strings or expandable strings. Finally, some settings were definitely
different, like UserPreferencesMask (whatever that is) and some Windows
Metrics settings.

Regardless, I truly can't believe this is fixed. Thanks to you and a program
called "Beyond Compare" that highlighted the file differences between the
broken profile hive and the working profile hive.

Thanks again for all your help.


| Sorry that didn't work for you. It does here. I can toggle the edit off
| then on. You would just have to find the correct combo for the manual
| settings and of course get to the basics of why it isn't working properly
| and the other profiles are.
|
| Good luck!
|
| > BTW, your site is excellent!
|
| Thank you, Lee.
|
| --
| All the Best,
| Kelly
|
| MS-MVP Win98/XP
| [AE-Windows® XP]
|
| Troubleshooting Windows XP
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
 
K

Kelly

Great news, Lee....glad to hear it. :blush:)

What I did find is that the UserPreferencesMask changed
"UserPreferencesMask"=hex:b0,00,07,80 as did MinAnimate:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
"MinAnimate"="1"

And FontSmoothing, depending on which settings you were reading in the
registry.

All of these settings are in the edit. As I stated earlier I could
reproduce it and it was all a matter of the right combo. What gets me
though, is that it should have worked for you independently.

Either way, I do so love a happy ending. :blush:) If you still have the exact
five keys/subkeys/values I would like to see them. If so, send via e-mail.
The value types should not have varied like that, binaries yes, but not the
strings. How interesting!

/xp_tweaks.htm

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm


Lee Harvey said:
I FIXED IT!!!!

I can't believe it, after all these months! Using your tips, I narrowed my
focus down to the HKCU\Control Panel region of the registry. I simply
exported the hive of the broken profile and compared it against the same hive
of a working profile. What I found surprised me. Some strings, specifically
cursors, were specified as binary in the broken profile. Likewise, other
settings that should've been simple strings were either specified as
multi-strings or expandable strings. Finally, some settings were definitely
different, like UserPreferencesMask (whatever that is) and some Windows
Metrics settings.

Regardless, I truly can't believe this is fixed. Thanks to you and a program
called "Beyond Compare" that highlighted the file differences between the
broken profile hive and the working profile hive.

Thanks again for all your help.


| Sorry that didn't work for you. It does here. I can toggle the edit off
| then on. You would just have to find the correct combo for the manual
| settings and of course get to the basics of why it isn't working properly
| and the other profiles are.
|
| Good luck!
|
| > BTW, your site is excellent!
|
| Thank you, Lee.
|
| --
| All the Best,
| Kelly
|
| MS-MVP Win98/XP
| [AE-Windows® XP]
|
| Troubleshooting Windows XP
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
|
| Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
| http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm
Click to expand...
 

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