Pixelated text behind bubbles screen saver

I am running Vista home premium on a dell inspiron 530. I have three
user accounts running for each of my family and each of them is set to
have the bubbles screensaver.

In one of them though the text and lines become pixelated as the
bubbles pass over it , all is fine when not viewing through a bubble,
and when screensaver is not activated but i don't know how to fix it. As
it it not happening in the other 2 accounts I am baffled as to what
caused it. Also my account is the admin account and this is one of the
standard accounts.

Please can anyone advise me?



--
emanation

Are other users still logged on with some apps running using the "Quick
Switch" function?
Have the user close all running applications and logoff before leaving the
computer.
Change the back ground of at least the user in question.
Change the screen saver. The Bubbles screen saver looks best with solid
backgrounds.
Set the idle time very low for each user (2 minuets) check the box next to
"On resume display logon screen".
Have each user password protect their account.
To me,it sounds like you have some picture you are using for the Background.
If this picture is a copy of a copy of a copy of some picture and set to
"Fit to screen"?
As digital pictures are copied over and over they will lose details
/sharpness from copy to copy.
Make sure your copy of a picture for the back ground is from your original
for best results or the original it self.

H Brown
"emanation" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I am running Vista home premium on a dell inspiron 530. I have three
> user accounts running for each of my family and each of them is set to
> have the bubbles screensaver.
>
> In one of them though the text and lines become pixelated as the
> bubbles pass over it , all is fine when not viewing through a bubble,
> and when screensaver is not activated but i don't know how to fix it. As
> it it not happening in the other 2 accounts I am baffled as to what
> caused it. Also my account is the admin account and this is one of the
> standard accounts.
>
> Please can anyone advise me?
>
>
>
> --
> emanation

It was fine before with the same desktop picture, and it is the same no
matter how many are logged in. As it has previously functioned with the
same background and under the same circumstances I am reluctant to just
change background or screensaver as I would like to find a way to
address the problem that is causing the symptom. Thanks for your time
though.


--
emanation

The whole point of having different user accounts is that each account can
be set up differently, have different programs installed for them only and
have different modifications and user settings.

It is up to you to carefully compare what is running in each account to find
out how the odd account is different.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"emanation" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I am running Vista home premium on a dell inspiron 530. I have three
> user accounts running for each of my family and each of them is set to
> have the bubbles screensaver.
>
> In one of them though the text and lines become pixelated as the
> bubbles pass over it , all is fine when not viewing through a bubble,
> and when screensaver is not activated but i don't know how to fix it. As
> it it not happening in the other 2 accounts I am baffled as to what
> caused it. Also my account is the admin account and this is one of the
> standard accounts.
>
> Please can anyone advise me?
>
>
>
> --
> emanation

Richard Urban;1040359 Wrote:
> The whole point of having different user accounts is that each account
> can
> be set up differently, have different programs installed for them only
> and
> have different modifications and user settings.
>
> It is up to you to carefully compare what is running in each account to
> find
> out how the odd account is different.
>

I can appreciate this advice but this user doesn't have anything
installed that the others don't and hasn't downloaded anything either,
aside from this I wouldn't know how to explore further.

I was a mac user for years and I am new to windows, but in the mac we
could try stuff like chucking the finder preferences away and
restarting, but i don't know how to do any of those sort of things in
windows.

Is there anyone out there that has had this same problem?


--
emanation

"emanation" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I am running Vista home premium on a dell inspiron 530. I have three
> user accounts running for each of my family and each of them is set
> to
> have the bubbles screensaver.
>
> In one of them though the text and lines become pixelated as the
> bubbles pass over it , all is fine when not viewing through a
> bubble,
> and when screensaver is not activated but i don't know how to fix
> it. As
> it it not happening in the other 2 accounts I am baffled as to what
> caused it. Also my account is the admin account and this is one of
> the
> standard accounts.
>
> Please can anyone advise me?
>
> --
> emanation

Hi,

First, I don't understand why anyone would use Bubbles as a screen
saver. The whole point of a screen saver is, well, to save your
screen from burn-in when graphic elements are displayed for too long a
time. The Bubbles setting leaves the screen display intact (and
subject to burn-in) while floating bubbles are superimposed over it.
I use the Text scheme which is all black except for the rotating text.
(BTW, a cute but harmless practical joke is to change a user's screen
saver to Text with a funny or insulting message in the text. Or if
it's your kid's account, set it to 1 minute and put up "Is your
homework done?" or some other parental nagging message.)

Since you made no mention of requiring a log-on security password to
bring your machine out of this state, I can only imagine that you use
it because you like watching the pretty bubbles. Okay, fair enough,
but if that's the case, what's the problem if the background text is
momentarily pixilated by a passing bubble? The bubbles go away as
soon as you want to do anything that requires moving the mouse or
hitting a key.

Second, have you tried applying other transparent "moving object"
savers to the affected account? Is Bubbles the only one that does
that?

Third, there are settings in other sections for Vista's transparency
capabilities. Maybe in that account, someone changed one of the
transparency settings and it somehow is affecting the Bubbles display.
It's a long shot, but there are several places to check, starting with
Control Panel - Personalizations - Window Color and Appearance -
Enable transparency.

Having said that, let me repeat an observation I just made in an
earlier post:

Going back to before DOS, Vista is the quirkiest OS I've encountered.
Features and functions mysteriously disappear or stop functioning.
Configurations mysteriously revert to earlier settings or to settings
that you had never set. Pop-ups advise you that a device or service
mysteriously has become no longer available. Usually the problem is
minor or disappears on reboot; but sometimes a work-around like my
suggestion is as good as it gets. Just be happy if there is a
work-around because that's not always the case when Vista decides to
get quirky on you.

I use bubbles because it came with the system and therefore i assume it
should be safe and reliable for the purpose this system offers it for,
when I get distracted from something I am doing on the computer I like
the fact that the bubbles kick in to (supposedly) keep my screen active
as when I notice the half-written document on the screen through the
bubbles it reminds me to get back to it. If Microsoft have supplied a
screensaver that doesn't save the screen from burnout I think an
experienced person like yourself should inform them of this huge mistake
on their part?

I manage all accounts on the computer and no-one else can change,
install nor download anything without me allowing it. I decided to
create another user account and transferred all personal files to the
new one and deleted the old one as no-one seemed to know why this was
happening and it felt to me like some sort of instability or corruption
in that user.

The new user is fine with no pixelation when the bubbles are on screen
but now my admin account is displaying the same issue. the whole screen
becomes pixelated whilst the screen saver is active (not only when
bubbles pass over it as i first thought).

I did try a system restore to see if it was a result of any updates
that have been done recently but the system wouldn't restore due to an
unknown error..... 3 times!

Has anyone out there experienced this problem?


--
emanation

On Tue, 12 May 2009 10:15:57 -0500, emanation wrote:

> I use bubbles because it came with the system and therefore i assume it
> should be safe and reliable for the purpose this system offers it for,
> when I get distracted from something I am doing on the computer I like
> the fact that the bubbles kick in to (supposedly) keep my screen active
> as when I notice the half-written document on the screen through the
> bubbles it reminds me to get back to it. If Microsoft have supplied a
> screensaver that doesn't save the screen from burnout I think an
> experienced person like yourself should inform them of this huge mistake
> on their part?

Screensavers were called that when they ran on computers with CRT monitors,
which were subject to burn-in. The name has stuck, but the reason has not.
LCD monitors are nearly immune to the problem.

Also, if you look at the screen savers of yore, you will see that many of
them had fixed elements, like the sand at the bottom of the aquarium.

Also, if you look at your bubbles, you will see that each pixel of the
screen gets changed momentarily as various bubbles pass over it.

I use bubbles because its prettier than the others, but I do wish the
underlying screen was updated while it is running.

There is a hack available that sets registry flags for bubbles and changes
some settings that are not normally available to the user. See and read
Brink's article here:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/19...-settings.html

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom