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Start Is Back - 2.1 release


Tihiy

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Please make All program Windows XP Style program shortcuts appear after all folders (currently all shortcuts appear before folders)

Where this idea came to life and why it's useful?
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Please make All program Windows XP Style program shortcuts appear after all folders (currently all shortcuts appear before folders)

Where this idea came to life and why it's useful?

According to https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=xp+"start+menu"+"all+programs" it is standard for All Programs section in XP Start Menu to have directories sorted before links.

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Well, I think it's just like when using the explorer to browse a folder in which there are some sub-folders and a lot of files, some people prefer to see the folders on the top and the files at the bottom.

Btw, I wonder if anyone here has this same problem as I do. Dragging a folder to change its order on All Programs sometimes results in something weird. It will duplicate itself instead of moving to the new position. The new folder is always empty. And if it happens to be the clone of folder Start Apps, it can't be deleted. Signing out/in will make everything normal again. I have encountered this twice.

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Thanks for the great updates. Noticed a minor issue, sometimes when signing out of the guest account and logging back in to main admin account, the Start Screen will open up instead of the Desktop.

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I forgot to ask this in my previous post. I installed the newest version, so I don't have the Angry Bird as the Start button. Is there any chance to get it somewhere?

--------------------------------

Edit: Sorry, it's a Start Button, not an orb! Don't know why I called it an orb!!!

Edited by Aloha
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Berlen,

Right they are! I've just downloaded two of them, the Red Bird and the Big Brother. I prefer the latter, though. Have to apply it now!

Thanks for posting the links.

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I had enable the dynamic wallpaper.

But after I install Start Is Back, everytime my computer is boot up, the wallpaper will change to a "Pure Color" wallpaper itself.

I don't think it's StartIsBack fault. Dynamic themes seems buggy in Windows 8 by themselves.
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Vibbow...

It looks to me as though you may simply have a blank or corrupted picture included in that "slideshow" - we at least need to eliminate that possibility.

Try the following - open the "personalise" window and click on "desktop background". Check that there are no blank images showing and ticked in the window and if there are, un-tick those (then exit and save). If all the images have correct thumbnails, click the "clear all" button at the top of the window then go through each image in turn - as you click it, the desktop wallpaper should change immediately. If you get a blank desktop, make a note of which image it was but continue until you have check every image in that folder - just in case there's more than one. If you find images that "don't work" you can exclude them from the slideshow.

As to why certain images may cause the problem - it depends. It could be that they are corrupted or it could be a broken codec. If the images you are using are standard ones from the Windows installation, you may be able to "repair" them using SFC /scannow. If they are your own or downloaded images, it could be that the folder location is causing a problem - so make sure they are in an "approved" location such as your "My Pictures" folder.

If you are using any codec packs, it's also possible that there's a problem there so you may want to trying removing the codecs and seeing if the problem exists without them - if so, shop around for a better codec pack.

If none of the above works, post back.

I should add that I have tried to reproduce the problem and can't so it doesn't appear to be universal - hence suggesting that you eliminate anything that could be specific to your pc.

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Hi

I'm pretty sure all the image are not broken.

Now if I choose boot to "Metro Screen", then switch back to Desktop, the wallpaper is okay.

If I choose direct boot to desktop, the wallpaper will broken.

And it is not directly broken. When I boot to dekstop, it will show the wallpaper at very begining, then change to the "Pure Color" very quickly.

The "Pure Color" is the same color as the wallpaper.

It's just a fresh windows 8, with only a few softwares.

I don't think there is any other software may case this problem.

Thanks.

Vibbow...

It looks to me as though you may simply have a blank or corrupted picture included in that "slideshow" - we at least need to eliminate that possibility.

Try the following - open the "personalise" window and click on "desktop background". Check that there are no blank images showing and ticked in the window and if there are, un-tick those (then exit and save). If all the images have correct thumbnails, click the "clear all" button at the top of the window then go through each image in turn - as you click it, the desktop wallpaper should change immediately. If you get a blank desktop, make a note of which image it was but continue until you have check every image in that folder - just in case there's more than one. If you find images that "don't work" you can exclude them from the slideshow.

As to why certain images may cause the problem - it depends. It could be that they are corrupted or it could be a broken codec. If the images you are using are standard ones from the Windows installation, you may be able to "repair" them using SFC /scannow. If they are your own or downloaded images, it could be that the folder location is causing a problem - so make sure they are in an "approved" location such as your "My Pictures" folder.

If you are using any codec packs, it's also possible that there's a problem there so you may want to trying removing the codecs and seeing if the problem exists without them - if so, shop around for a better codec pack.

If none of the above works, post back.

I should add that I have tried to reproduce the problem and can't so it doesn't appear to be universal - hence suggesting that you eliminate anything that could be specific to your pc.

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"pretty sure they are not broken" is no substitute for actually checking them.

From your video, it's clear that a wallpaper is loaded - it then fades out which indicates that it is simply changing to a different picture rather than being unable to load and display on boot-up. Put together, that suggests that your desktop is loading correctly and the problem comes from displaying the second image - which appears to be changing very quickly after you log-in.

If you google for "blank wallpaper" or similar, you'll find that this is a problem going back years - to at least XP. One suggested "cure" (and there are lot sof possible cures) is to disable "shuffle" but that's most like simply down to preventing a problem image from being loaded immediately after boot-up (if it's the tenth image and there's a 30 minute delay, you'd have to use the pc continuously for 5 hours before you'd see the problem).

Basically though, no-one else is reporting the same problem as you and I've tried to recreate it and can't - which means it's pretty-much impossible for Tihiy to try to find a possible cause in his program until you have at least tried to eliminate likely causes specific to your pc.

Please check the pictures as I suggested - maybe try to create a different slideshow using images from a different folder or download a new theme from Microsoft's site - most importantly, check if this problem occurs with the built-in themes and pictures and any that you have created or downloaded. If the problem is happening with every slide show regardless of what theme, storage location and image format you are using, we can try to work out if there's any way that running SiB could possibly be involved. Also. can you tell us some useful information - such as the delay you have between slides, whether or not you are running any tweaks or hacks (such as gui themes, transparency apps etc) and any other start-up programs and apps you have running - just in case there's something hogging your cpu/gpu at start-up - if that's the case, it could be that stopping any one start-up item would release a few clock cycles rather than it specifically being down to SiB.

If you can definitely eliminate every BUT SiB, then we'll need to know details such as the version and your specific settings to be able to start to work out where the problem could be.

Edited by pengipete
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1. If I disable Start is Back for current account, the wallpaper will back to normal.

so it must be something wrong with my settings or SiB.

2. If i DISABLE the shuffle of change wallpaper. everytime when I boot into windows, the wallpaper will ALWAYS change to the first image (After the "Pure color" and I click "next background")

3. I'm still sure all the images are okay. Because all of them can be correctly previews. Also I download them from Microsoft's server manually. So if any of them were wrong, I will not be the first one meet this problem.

I'll try more staff like change the path of wallpaper of use different images after I got home.

But give some system information here first:

System: Windows 8 Pro (S-Chinese edition, UEFI Boot, Secure boot ON, TPM / BitLocker ON, Fingerprint Login)

Login with Microsoft Account.

Antivirus: Norton Internet Security 2013

SiB version: The Newest one (in 2013-03-22)

Wallpaper source:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/themes -> RSS dynamic themes -> Terra Dynamic

Anything more you want, just let me know.

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I reckons that's the problem - you are using an RSS theme which gets the images feed to it through your internet connection. It's not SiB that'sgoty a bug - it's that your network connection isn't fully working by the time the desktop loads. What's most likely happening is that Norton is taking a while to inititalise and whilst that may be being slowed down a fraction by SiB starting-up, it's not specifically SiB - you'd get exactly the same problem no matter what application was running at start-up with the same priority.

You may be able to cure the problem by tweaking Norton's settings - check for any option to begin initialising BEFORE the desktop is loaded cos even a fraction of a second earlier start may be all you need. Failing that, you need to check exactly what is running at start-up - even on a basically vanilla installation of Windows with no applications installed, it's likely that you'll have a load of unnecessary stuff running relating to sound and graphics cards (often really pointless stuff that just make help file load half a second faster).

One other thing that you haven't mentioned - is your pc - especially the cpu and ram - up to spec? If your cpu is slow or you have very little ram, you're going to struggle to run live wallpapers and have more than the most basic start-up applications without this problem. The same applies if your broadband is slow - it takes time to download a hi-res image.

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Sorry,

I just said the wallpaper source is from Microsoft, but I already download all of them to my local hard disk (Not cache folder, I mean I really save them).

Also I'm pretty sure it's not my laptop's performence problem.

My Computer Detail:

Intel i7-3740QM, 4 * 4G 1600, 120G Samsung PM830 mSATA SSD, Nvidia Quadro k2000m

Also I don't think it's the problem of Norton, otherwise I'll not be the first one get this problem.

Edited by vibbow
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