Help ! My Windows positions are not being remembered

[plainman007]

I have a dual monitor based system. Running windows xp pro. With a Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS.

I had not experienced this problem but until recently. My windows keep changing positions erratically. Id like to understand one thing. Windows by default remembers where you closed a window last and reopens that window in the same position always ?? Is this done by the OS or the Graphics Card. I know my graphics card has some setting also within it for global memory on windows postions and individual settings per window. I tried it all but still windows go back to funny shapes and sizes. After ive set all windows to my preference. They will work proper until suddenly. 1 window will jump to a new monitor and size. Then clicking on other shortcuts i find that all windows follow that new position simply changing all my position settings.

Uh sorry for the long story. Can someone tell me whats the best way to maintain window positions. Should i disable the windows memory within Nvidia ? I have about 10 folders that i use mostly and being a Video Editor i need to work with them all at the same time. I need them spread out equally and at specific places for ease in working with the files within. Kindly let me know how i can do this. Thanks.

[traveler]

Test things by restoring a ghost image from a few months ago, prior to this problem occuring. Use the old image for a little while and see what happens.



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[plainman007]

A ghost what ?

[DaveLessnau]

Originally Posted by plainman007

I have a dual monitor based system. Running windows xp pro. With a Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS.

I had not experienced this problem but until recently. My windows keep changing positions erratically. Id like to understand one thing. Windows by default remembers where you closed a window last and reopens that window in the same position always ?? Is this done by the OS or the Graphics Card. I know my graphics card has some setting also within it for global memory on windows postions and individual settings per window. I tried it all but still windows go back to funny shapes and sizes. After ive set all windows to my preference. They will work proper until suddenly. 1 window will jump to a new monitor and size. Then clicking on other shortcuts i find that all windows follow that new position simply changing all my position settings.

Uh sorry for the long story. Can someone tell me whats the best way to maintain window positions. Should i disable the windows memory within Nvidia ? I have about 10 folders that i use mostly and being a Video Editor i need to work with them all at the same time. I need them spread out equally and at specific places for ease in working with the files within. Kindly let me know how i can do this. Thanks.

If you're using Vista, try the following link:

Windows Explorer Folder View settings - Vista Forums

[plainman007]

Im using XP and know nothing about Vista. I think ive mentioned that first off to avoid confusion.

[ctal]

Hi Plainman -- It could be a lot of things. Both XP and the NVidia driver software are involved, as well as the graphics card hardware and other hardware. Maybe try temporarily changing it to a one-monitor display; I think (just based on intuition) that if that works ok it would tend to point toward the NVidia stuff, and if it still shows the problem it would tend to point towards Windows. And/or try uninstalling the NVidia driver software, and seeing if Windows generic driver does ok with just one monitor. And/or simply uninstall and reinstall the NVidia driver software.

Regards,
-- Al

[DaveLessnau]

Originally Posted by plainman007

Im using XP and know nothing about Vista. I think ive mentioned that first off to avoid confusion.

OK. I see that reference to XP, now. I don't have XP on-hand, so I can't test this. But, how about:

Your view settings or customizations for a folder are lost or incorrect

[traveler]

Originally Posted by plainman007

A ghost what ?

Do you backup your hard drive data at all?

It sounds like you don't if you question what an image is.

If you did do a proper backup of your hard drive data by imaging your drive with Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image or any other proper backup software, then you could determine if your current Windows installation got all screwed up and corrupted somehow, usually by the screwball installation utilities for drivers and things. If you had a proper backup you could have just installed the older image backup of Windows from when your system was working the way you wanted it to. Then you could try again to install things.

Things like video and audio are so complex these days it's easy to get a system all corrupted when you make changes to them. So it's nice to have a known perfectly working copy to fall back on and try again.



__________________
Asus X48 Rampage Formula / Intel Q9450 2.66 @ 3.2 / 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC2 8500 / VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OverClocked Edition /
Western Digital Raptor X Hard Drive / Two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5001ABYS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives /
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 / Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker System /
Lian Li 343B cube case / PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Crossfire Edition

[plainman007]

Ctal > Yes im going to try decativating the nvidia windows memory and global settings to see how windows by itself handles the window positions. On my laptop windows remembers the position and size of a window when it was last closed and everytime you reopen that window it opens with the same characteristics.

Dave > Thanks for the link. Im just going to read it up and see what it says.

Traveller > I was just kidding. I understand what a ghost image is just from the word and context. But sincerely have to admit ive never done a ghost image of my entire system. Also i dont know how its done. But i do back up my data. My laptop and my Workstation. But i use and External Drive and just copy all my data in a proper folder structure so that i can restore them just in case. A system image backup i assume backs up even the os settings and file settings and the system wide settings ??? If it dos i would like to learn how to do a ghost image ?

[ctal]

Plainman -- See this thread for some good discussion of alternative imaging programs:

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/f49/lo...am-112229.html

An imaging program creates a set of files from which the entire contents of a hard drive, or a partition on the hard drive, can be quickly restored to its exact condition at the time the image was created (and if subsequent to that time you have done backups of data files, you can then overwrite the data files that were restored from the image with the latest data files).

I create a new image typically once a month, or after any major change to the system, and I do data backups daily. Periodic imaging is excellent protection against software problems such as you are probably experiencing now, that are hard to troubleshoot, and also will save you enormous amounts of time if your hard drive fails, because you won't have to reinstall all of the software from scratch.

I don't think any serious use of a computer should be done without regular imaging, although I would guess that about 95% of computer users have never heard of the concept.

Regards,
-- Al

[plainman007]

Ctal > So it backs up the complete system. Right from the os settings to all softwares installed etc ?? Any side effects ? Does the program have to be installed ? or it runs at the time of backing up as a stand alone exe ???

Al ,,,,Just incase i dont catch you before christmas,,,advance wishes to you and your family for a merry xmas & a happy new year !

[ctal]

Originally Posted by plainman007

Ctal > So it backs up the complete system. Right from the os settings to all softwares installed etc ?? Any side effects ? Does the program have to be installed ? or it runs at the time of backing up as a stand alone exe ???

Al ,,,,Just incase i dont catch you before christmas,,,advance wishes to you and your family for a merry xmas & a happy new year !

Yes, it backs up absolutely everything that is on the hard drive, or that is on an individual partition on the hard drive if you have more than one partition and choose to only image one of them.

The image files would be stored on a separate hard drive, or, as I do, on more than one separate hard drive, so that there is a backup of the backup.

Some of the programs will run within Windows and back up the Windows partition while running on that partition. I and many others, though, don't trust that approach. Although it will appear to create an image successfully, and that image will usually work properly when restored, it cannot be counted upon with 100% certainty. So it is best to run the imaging programs from either a bootable cd, or a bootable floppy, and most or all of the programs offer that capability.

But installing the program will, at least with many of them, allow you to retrieve an individual file or folder from a previously created image, which can be a useful capability. And with some of the programs you have to install into Windows in order to create the bootable cd or floppy.

There are no side-effects. There is only the risk that the program will not do its job, meaning that an image it creates, when restored to the original hard drive or a new hard drive, will not work. That risk differs from program to program, and is discussed in the thread I referenced.

All the best to you and yours, also, for the holidays and new year!

-- Al

[plainman007]

I tried all the settings in Nvidia and it was just one setting which was creating th problem. There are so many options within Nvidia and its not easy to understand the menu tree easily. When i set this window memory thing to default. All windows memory was returned to normal and im happy now. But i will still look into norton ghost or something like that. So what happens with norton ghost is that i run it as a bootable CD and then it copies out the entire system onto a ??? portable drive ?

[ctal]

Originally Posted by plainman007

I tried all the settings in Nvidia and it was just one setting which was creating th problem. There are so many options within Nvidia and its not easy to understand the menu tree easily. When i set this window memory thing to default. All windows memory was returned to normal and im happy now. But i will still look into norton ghost or something like that. So what happens with norton ghost is that i run it as a bootable CD and then it copies out the entire system onto a ??? portable drive ?

Glad you resolved the problem. The imaging process creates a file, or a small group of files, from which the entire hard drive contents can subsequently be restored. The image file(s) can be created on any storage medium, internal or external, that the imaging program can see and that has adequate capacity.

But please see my previous post and the other thread I linked to for discussion of the various available programs, and for comments about running the imaging program within Windows vs. from a bootable cd or floppy.

Happy holidays, and best for 2009!

-- Al

[plainman007]

Hi Ctal. I read both the links you gave me. Though im able to grasp the concept i think i dont know the practical steps. My understanding was that we make the back up program run as a bootable Cd and it copies out the entire system onto probably an attached USB storage. Sorta like reinstalling the OS ? We put in the OS cd and reboot. Here we reboot with the Norton Ghost disk. There seems to be a second option of installing this backup program onto our system just like any other software we'd install. And when the time comes to back up the system. Just plug in a USB drive and run the software choosing the output to the USB drive. Is my understanding correct or am i not getting it right ?

Seasons Greetings, And Wish You A Very Happy New Year To Come !