Change the theme to windows basic? FUUUUU

uncle_rufus

uncle_rufus

uncle_rufus

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We've all been there... you fire up your favourite game and start blitzing round the track or running through a level or whatever, then all of a sudden:

Say hello to Mr. Desktop! It's Windows helpfully minimizing your game to popup a message asking if it should switch the theme to the basic one to save on resources :mad:

You can click "change the theme to windows basic and don't ask me again" and you're set for that session but sure enough next time you play it'll do it again... Or you can setup the game's executable so that it automatically switches to the basic theme when you launch it...

But is there not a setting to say "don't pester me about changing the theme, ever"? I could and will Google this, but I wanted to vent my frustration here too - is it just me?

100% of the time the game is running flawlessly anyway (i7 4770k, 16Gb RAM, 970 GTX, Crucial M4) so I don't really understand what Windows thinks it is playing at
 
That's weird you've got better specs than me but I don't get that message :confused:.

Don't suppose your pc is set to power saver mode?

Is this win 7?
 
Yeah it is Windows 7... I'm not sure why the power saving would be the cause but I can certainly take a look

It's annoying as hell... especially if you're in a game that can't be paused - for example you've started an online race in Grid 2... by the time you respond to the stupid prompt and maximised the game again your car is smashed into the side of the track!! At least in single player games a lot of them are designed to pause when they lose focus, but it's still jarring and annoying when it happens
 
Only reason I thought it might be power saving was that it would turn off non essentials when doing intensive tasks. Full screen gaming the desktop theme is pretty power ineffecient at that point. I could be completely wrong though :(.

Or this thread seems to mention the performance settings being at fault;
Fix:
Run menu > sysdm.cpl > Advanced Tab > performance > select adjust for best performance > make sure you do not allow Windows to choose for you because your computer does not know whats best --- Make sure Enable Aero Peek is checked
---- OR ---
Right click my computer > properties > Advanced System settings > performance > select adjust for best performance > make sure you do not allow Windows to choose for you because your computer does not know whats best --- Make sure Enable Aero Peek is checked
Click to expand...

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...n/7f4917ff-135d-40e4-866b-ac760642763f?page=3

Fingers crossed.
 
Disable any scheduled tasks involving winsat - it will periodically run of its own accord and sometimes does some benchmarking which if it happens to coincide with a game, etc. can result in the windows basic thing happening (it shouldn't happen but it does).
 
I was playing Grid 2 on the free weekend prompting me to write this... but I've had it happen in various games... off the top of my head... Just Cause II... Tomb Raider... Bioshock Infinite... anything really

I'll post back if any of the above suggestions work
 
I too have had that in the past with Windows 7 and it was most annoying to say the least.!
Since moving over to 8.1 have yet to see it. Not sure if it was a setting or an hobnomolly with W7 and certain situations etc but I'm glad that it seems to have stopped.
 
It's definitely related to whatever game it is being full-screen as I've notice it doesn't seem to do it when playing in windowed mode (on a game that does do it normally when playing full-screen)

I'm not too keen on upgrading to 8.1... not because I care that much about all the stuff people go on about the changes etc. but more just that I don't really want to pay for another copy of Windows :p
 
Just to add.... I could never get to the bottom of it when I had that issue and continued to use W7 but I do remember that when I bought three copies of Windows 8 for £15 each, at the time of release, it was one of the only redeeming qualities I found when using it over 7.

I am not sure of much about the Windows 10 preview but if you have a spare drive, and inclination, you might want to try that out and see how it goes...?
 
so you could also turn aero off when in full screen app
(there's a tick box for it in windows 7)

i believe its in the right click task bar properties area.
 
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