Hi,
I don't wish to report the wrong app as I was using a couple of them but one altered the colour and shade/transparency of my taskbar and start menu.
In order to help, only,
I think it was the PNotes app.
Reason being that I was mucking around with it's appearance and now the same colour, transparency and also, I think, font, is now what my taskbar and start menu are displaying.
I did also use the help button on the PortableApps.com menu which opened for me using the Opera app (which set itself as default it seems, for the PortableApps.com platform?)
The internet when used without the PortableApps.com platform running, immediately after I ejected it, was a bit strange, too.
The page I was looking at (here at PortableApps.com (looking for info about using PuppyLinux with PortableApps.com platform) dissapeared when my dear wife minimised the page.
Also, I did play around with the Virtual Magnifying Glass app. I was trying to remember how it moved without the mouse and got stuck in dynamic mode in the bottom right hand of the screen, which resulted in me trying to click the right place to go back to the normal mode.
So...
not sure what happened.
I restarted the PC and the taskbar seems OK, but the font on the right hand side of my start menu is still diiferent from before (I think it is the same as the default font on the PNotes app) and I am not sure but I think it is the same light grey that I set the PNotes to.
If it helps, I am using (don't choke!) Vista Home Premium SP3 and use full paid for AVG on an Acer Aspire.
I haven't gone back to the PortableApps.com platform as I am wary of bugg-ering anything up on this PC (which is my dear wife's!!).
I shall venture back but may first try to find any clues on the PC.
Any tips or clues or feedback is most welcome.
Also this info may help with whoever develops these apps.
Thanks
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That's a bit peculiar, as I haven't heard of any of the apps here creating problems like that. Could you try to open PNotes again and change the font to Segoe UI? Segoe UI is the default font for the Start Menu.
Reset to default which is Segoe UI and also disabled Transparency, so it is as it was before I got to it.
Everything looks the same, as in no notable change.
I shall restart the PC and see if that does anything.
I have thought through all this and did an event check on systems (using the Vista program) and one thing I noticed is that if you unzip some files using the Windows unzipper installed on your PC, the event logs.
I should have used the PortableApp I have on my stick, perhaps? That way it would not have registered on my PC... I think?
The two that showed up as events were CCleaner (portable) and Defraggler (portable) both I have yet to try out and use on the PortableApps.com platform. They are on my USB Stick and that is where I unzipped them.
Another odd thing happened this morning when my wife booted up (the PC, not her feet!).
She says there was a message saying that the securtiy settings had been changed.
She reset them according to the recommendation.
I am not an expert or anywhere near one, so it is all a puzzle for me.
I shall now look at the graphic department.
Maybe I need to find some program or the like and go through everything on the PC and see what is OK and what is not?
Thanks for your help.
ps.. I am going to email you about other things,
Also, guess which app updated whan I plugged the USB Stick in?
AkelPad Portable.
(thought that might make you smile!)
Another bod in the pod
I have seen Windows 7 occasionally revert from an Aero theme to a non-Aero one, nothing to do with portable apps, it was just a matter of the PC running low on (graphical?) memory around that time. My guess is the same would happen on Vista (and it is probably more likely, Vista being the half-finished thing it is).
If my PC is running low on graphical, how do I know or find out and can I improve it?
Thank you for your help.
I am getting organised to use the PortableApps.com platform in the near future as I won't have access to this PC for a few months and might be able to continue doing things via my USB stick (a Transcend variety), which is why I am also attempting to work out how to utilise the Puppy Linux.. to boot any old PC I can get my hands on!
So, while sorting this PC out is important, I will not be able to do much, soon, on it. What I can't do in the next week, I shall have to try to get on to in a few months.
Thanks again.
Another bod in the pod
Your previous post about security settings changing identifies another (or different) potential cause. It may be something nasty has made its way onto your computer. I would be running a scan with an anti-virus (or two) and also something else like Malwarebytes AntiMalware just to be sure.
If it is a memory problem as I first thought you can monitor the system's ram with the Smart RAM tool in IOBit Toolbox Portable. This may shed some light on the problem if it is to do with running out of plain old RAM, but won't tell you too much unless you are monitoring it at the exact time that these changes happen.
As for graphics memory I have no idea how to monitor that individually, although others here may know of something which will help.
If you can determine which one the problem lies with, RAM is a pretty easy (and these days cheap) upgrade, for video memory it depends what you already have. If your PC doesn't have a video card and just relies on the processor's GPU (applicable to computers from the last few years only), buying a video card would do wonders. If you already have a video card it depends on the age of it and the memory it provides.