Why Windows 7 Took Forever To Load If You Had a Solid Background (pcworld.com)
(Wednesday April 30, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the more-you-know dept.)
- Reference: 0177228181
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/30/2242219/why-windows-7-took-forever-to-load-if-you-had-a-solid-background
- Source link: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2768862/windows-7-took-forever-to-load-if-you-had-a-solid-background-now-we-know-why.html
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld:
> Windows 7 came onto the market in 2009 and put Microsoft back on the road to success after Windows Vista's annoying failures. But Windows 7 was not without its faults, as this curious story proves. Some users apparently encountered a vexing problem at the time: if they set a single-color image as the background, their Windows 7 PC [1]always took 30 seconds to start the operating system and switch from the welcome screen to the desktop.
>
> In a recent [2]blog post , Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen explains the exact reason for this. According to him, a simple programming error meant that users had to wait longer for the system to boot. After logging in, Windows 7 first set up the desktop piece by piece, i.e. the taskbar, the desktop window, icons for applications, and even the background image. The system waited patiently for all components to finish loading and received feedback from each individual component. Or, it switched from the welcome screen to the desktop after 30 seconds if it didn't receive any feedback.
>
> The problem here: The code for the message that the background image is ready was located within the background image bitmap code, which means that the message never appeared if you did not have a real background image bitmap. And a single color is not such a bitmap. The result: the logon system waited in vain for the message that the background has finished loading, so Windows 7 never started until the 30 second fallback activated and sent users to the desktop. The problem could also occur if users had activated the "Hide desktop icons" group policy. This was due to the fact that such policies were only added after the main code had been written and called by an If statement. However, Windows 7 was also unable to recognize this at first and therefore took longer to load.
[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2768862/windows-7-took-forever-to-load-if-you-had-a-solid-background-now-we-know-why.html
[2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250428-00/?p=111121
> Windows 7 came onto the market in 2009 and put Microsoft back on the road to success after Windows Vista's annoying failures. But Windows 7 was not without its faults, as this curious story proves. Some users apparently encountered a vexing problem at the time: if they set a single-color image as the background, their Windows 7 PC [1]always took 30 seconds to start the operating system and switch from the welcome screen to the desktop.
>
> In a recent [2]blog post , Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen explains the exact reason for this. According to him, a simple programming error meant that users had to wait longer for the system to boot. After logging in, Windows 7 first set up the desktop piece by piece, i.e. the taskbar, the desktop window, icons for applications, and even the background image. The system waited patiently for all components to finish loading and received feedback from each individual component. Or, it switched from the welcome screen to the desktop after 30 seconds if it didn't receive any feedback.
>
> The problem here: The code for the message that the background image is ready was located within the background image bitmap code, which means that the message never appeared if you did not have a real background image bitmap. And a single color is not such a bitmap. The result: the logon system waited in vain for the message that the background has finished loading, so Windows 7 never started until the 30 second fallback activated and sent users to the desktop. The problem could also occur if users had activated the "Hide desktop icons" group policy. This was due to the fact that such policies were only added after the main code had been written and called by an If statement. However, Windows 7 was also unable to recognize this at first and therefore took longer to load.
[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2768862/windows-7-took-forever-to-load-if-you-had-a-solid-background-now-we-know-why.html
[2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250428-00/?p=111121
Wouldn't matter today (Score:2)
by Waffle Iron ( 339739 )
Even if you can see the desktop in less than 30 seconds, Windows is useless for several minutes after startup because it launches a nearly infinite number of I/O-bound processes as soon it starts. This is undoubtedly because each and every development group at Microsoft thinks that their special software goodness simply must run before any other group's software. Best to go get a cup of coffee while you wait for it to stop thrashing.
Interesting (Score:1)
I don't put a background specifically to cause the desktop to load faster. I noticed one of the earlier Windows (3.1 or 95) loaded faster without a background, though I do it more now because an empty desktop feels more calm and minimal than one with a crazy background