Switch user and moving windows

[Mark]

Hi
I have Windows 7 64-bit Home on a laptop with a 1600x900 screen.
When I switch from my administrator account to the limited Family account and then back
again some of the windows on the desktop have moved!
So far they appear to be 32-bit programs and they move to the left about 110 pixels.
Weird...

Any ideas where I should look? Googling doesn't come up with anything except people with
moving icons.

thanks

 

[Ed Cryer]

Hi
I have Windows 7 64-bit Home on a laptop with a 1600x900 screen.
When I switch from my administrator account to the limited Family
account and then back again some of the windows on the desktop have moved!
So far they appear to be 32-bit programs and they move to the left about
110 pixels.
Weird...

Any ideas where I should look? Googling doesn't come up with anything
except people with moving icons.

thanks

Do the two accounts have different video settings? I switch from one
account with a larger DPI setting to one with a lower one, and resizing
often occurs.

I also have two boxes linked through a KVM switch, and similar sorts of
things happen when moving from one to the other. I've even seen the
Recycle Bin move from top right to top left.

Ed

 

[Mark]

Thanks Ed, the DPI and resolution settings was the first place I went to.
It's a new laptop and I'm still setting it up and this was the first time I'd used the new
Family account and switched back to my admin account. Odd that it's just 32-bit programs.
I'm up-to-date on graphics driver etc.
I've to install Win7 SP1 maybe that will sort it. In all my years of computing I've never
seen this before. Icons moving yes, but not windows. They don't resize, just move
sideways. Very odd.


Mark

 

[Ed Cryer]

Thanks Ed, the DPI and resolution settings was the first place I went to.
It's a new laptop and I'm still setting it up and this was the first
time I'd used the new Family account and switched back to my admin
account. Odd that it's just 32-bit programs.
I'm up-to-date on graphics driver etc.
I've to install Win7 SP1 maybe that will sort it. In all my years of
computing I've never seen this before. Icons moving yes, but not
windows. They don't resize, just move sideways. Very odd.


Mark

I'd be pretty surprised if just installing SP1 will cure that. Still,
you never know for sure until you've tried it.

It certainly sounds like a display settings thing, as if the 32-bit
programs are using a different font size.

BTW, when you say they "move sideways" do you get screen wrap, or a
blank area on one side?

Ed

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks Ed, the DPI and resolution settings was the first place I went to.
It's a new laptop and I'm still setting it up and this was the first time I'd
used the new Family account and switched back to my admin account. Odd that
it's just 32-bit programs.
I'm up-to-date on graphics driver etc.
I've to install Win7 SP1 maybe that will sort it. In all my years of
computing I've never seen this before. Icons moving yes, but not windows.
They don't resize, just move sideways. Very odd.

Perhaps you are positioning the windows in the wrong places and the
operating system is trying to teach you the right places.

No, I am not serious. That's just the surrealistic side of my sense of
humor.

 

[Mark]

I'm not sure SP1 will do it either, but I have to install it anyway...
Font sizes are the same as far as I can see
There are a couple of windows I normally have open, Notepad++ and FileCommander, both
32-bit. Their right window edges are flush with the right edge of the screen.
When I switch to the other account and back again, they have moved to the left about 110
pixels so that there is a gap between them and the right screen edge. They haven't resized
- that I could partly understand.
64-bit Explorer windows stay where they are.

Not a great problem, just annoying.

Mark

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I'm not sure SP1 will do it either, but I have to install it anyway...
Font sizes are the same as far as I can see
There are a couple of windows I normally have open, Notepad++ and
FileCommander, both 32-bit. Their right window edges are flush with the right
edge of the screen.
When I switch to the other account and back again, they have moved to the
left about 110 pixels so that there is a gap between them and the right
screen edge. They haven't resized - that I could partly understand.
64-bit Explorer windows stay where they are.

Not a great problem, just annoying.

Mark

I just tried it, since I had a Notepad++ window open.

The first time I switched it moved right about a centimeter (I didn't
count or estimate pixels).

I went through a second cycle without either moving the window myself,
or logging out of the new user. This time the window stayed in place.

I have no idea what this means

 

[Mark]

It moved RIGHT? Not left?
Even odder.
I have another program Second Copy (also 32-bit) which won't stay at the screen right edge
at all even if I don't switch user. It normally lives in the 'notification area' but if I
open it it's moved to the left. Drag it back to the right, close and open again and it's
moved back to the left again.

So I'm not so sure now if it's the switch to another user that principally causes it,
maybe a desktop redraw...

Definitely a 32-bit program problem though (so far).

Mark

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It moved RIGHT? Not left?
Even odder.

Yes. I didn't mention this in my prior post: I tried it a couple of
times for precisely that reason.

 

[Char Jackson]

Yes. I didn't mention this in my prior post: I tried it a couple of
times for precisely that reason.

Question for both of you: Regardless of direction, once it moves, does
it stay in the new position, or does it continue to move farther and
farther every time you switch users?

My guess is that it moves a bit and then remains in its new position,
but I don't know the exact reason for it.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:44:28 -0800, Gene E. Bloch

Question for both of you: Regardless of direction, once it moves, does
it stay in the new position, or does it continue to move farther and
farther every time you switch users?

My guess is that it moves a bit and then remains in its new position,
but I don't know the exact reason for it.

Actually, I mentioned that. It only seems to move once.

From my first post in this thread:
"I went through a second cycle without either moving the window myself,
or logging out of the new user. This time the window stayed in place."

I meant I didn't manually move the window before the second cycle,
i.e., I let Windows have its way with me.

 

[Mark]

Char
Yes they move once and stay put.
I've tested some more 32-bit programs and they all do it, some move to the left a little
more than others but none of them want to stay on the right screen edge.


Mark

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Char
Yes they move once and stay put.
I've tested some more 32-bit programs and they all do it, some move to the
left a little more than others but none of them want to stay on the right
screen edge.

Mark

I see from the above that you had pinned your screens to the right
edge, which I hadn't realized before.

When I did my test, I had a window on the *left* and *not* at the very
edge. So maybe that's why my window moved less than yours and in the
opposite direction.

One mystery solved! Or not...

 

[Char Jackson]

Actually, I mentioned that. It only seems to move once.

From my first post in this thread:
"I went through a second cycle without either moving the window myself,
or logging out of the new user. This time the window stayed in place."

I meant I didn't manually move the window before the second cycle,
i.e., I let Windows have its way with me.

Thanks, that's what I get for skipping the first part of the thread.

 

[Mark]

I just quickly tested a couple of programs on the left screen edge and they didn't move.
So it's right edge for me, left for you.
By the way SP1 didn't solve it as we expected.
Crazy.


Mark

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:41:49 -0800, Gene E. Bloch

Thanks, that's what I get for skipping the first part of the thread.

Note that I redescribed what I wrote. ISTM that even if you had read
it, it might not have been clear

 

[dweebken]

Hi
I have Windows 7 64-bit Home on a laptop with a 1600x900 screen.
When I switch from my administrator account to the limited Family
account and then back again some of the windows on the desktop have moved!
So far they appear to be 32-bit programs and they move to the left about
110 pixels.
Weird...

Any ideas where I should look? Googling doesn't come up with anything
except people with moving icons.

thanks

This Youtube video shows what's going on when you're not looking at the
desktop

HTH

 

[Ed Cryer]

This Youtube video shows what's going on when you're not looking at the
desktop

HTH

Marvellous!
I particularly liked OE with the boxing gloves.

Ed

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

This Youtube video shows what's going on when you're not looking at the
desktop

HTH

This doesn't happen to me. I use Fences[1], and the various fences in
which I put my icons have shields which are very effective against the
icon weapons.

Of course, I do have to be careful to put only mutually friendly forces
inside a given fence.

[1] http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

BTW, the YouTube clip was fun!

 

[Mark]

SOLVED - partly...
I installed WinSize2 to move my windows back into position for me.
It has the ability to store and restore desktop icons as well. When I switched back from
the other account it thought my desktop was 1440x900 instead of 1600x900 and asked me if I
wanted to save the icons layout.

And that must be it - for some reason I can't work out yet, some programs see the desktop
as being smaller than it is and move their windows.

According to Windows 7 and the graphics driver the screen IS 1600x900 and it is that size
all the time (I can't even set it to 1440x900). The screen is not 1440x900 and it doesn't
refresh and resize when I switch accounts.

So where might I look for this wrong screen resolution value that some programs see?
There's nothing in the registry.

Mark