- May 1, 2023
- 3
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I have Windows 10, 64 bit, running on a Dell PC. It's a fairly new system as of 1/22.
Everything worked fine for a while, but perhaps around 6+ months ago I right-clicked on a file in a folder to get "properties." Instead of properties, the spinning icon appeared, all folders closed (guessing File Explorer failed) and other programs also closed.
It's all been a mess since then. There are several issues that started happening thereafter. They're all intermittent, but they eventually happen.
There are certain folders that are kept open (cascaded) on the screen most of the time. One of the problems is the virus scanner will pop a message up (haven't found a way to completely turn those off) or something else out of my control happens (like a pop up from Microsoft), and the folders that are cascaded to provide quick access end up pasted to the top of the screen, so they all overlap in the same place. The windows are also shortened. They have to be closed, opened and resized.
Other things will close or resize, too. I use Irfanview, and that also ends up stuck at the top of the screen and shortened to the same size as the folders. And since Irfanview has a useful option to save the program's on-screen settings, such as size and placement of the latest iteration, that "new" setting saves. So every time there's a problem, Irfanview has to be set up again.
It's also affecting sleep mode, similar to how it acts with a popup. Last time sleep mode was used on this computer, it completely shut down anything that was email; open emails, the email program itself, plus Irfanview, all previously open folders, the browser "downloads" window that had been open and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment. (The browser itself remained open.)
Another thing this problem does is it changes the font color, which is particularly troublesome, as it goes from easy-to-read black to a blue that's very difficult to read. This happens in any window, folder, any input field in a browser (this message is in blue for me, ever since the virus scanner popped up some unwanted message an hour or so ago), even in a WordPad or Word document, it's all blue.
I contacted Microsoft about this twice. The first time, the rep said it was a "known problem" and a newer version of Windows would resolve it. The second time (about 3 months later, when nothing had changed), the rep had no clue, said it wasn't a known problem and there was no fix for it.
I can only guess that perhaps installing some program has messed up Windows. I don't know for sure, but my suspicion is Waterfox, which works fine on another system, but on this one it doesn't work right, never has since first installation. And several times I've walked away and returned to find the computer chugging away, disk activity at 100%, and when Waterfox has been closed, disk activity immediately dropped back to normal levels.
Since no help will be forthcoming from Microsoft, I'd like to find a solution outside of their assistance. I'm not computer illiterate, but am not very technical, either, and wouldn't feel comfortable doing something like regedit.
I also don't want to have to go the route of reinstalling Windows 10. Microsoft has offered some kind of restore of Windows, however, the recovery partition would be Windows 11, which was what originally was installed on this computer. (It was downgraded by request by a store's tech department.) I don't want Windows 11. I also don't want to lose programs that I can't reinstall because they were "free for one day," so I'd have to buy them if anything changed. Reinstalling Windows completely would be extremely messy at this point.
Is there anything at all that can be done to resolve these issues, or is the computer literally stuck like this until sometime in the future? Thanks in advance.
Everything worked fine for a while, but perhaps around 6+ months ago I right-clicked on a file in a folder to get "properties." Instead of properties, the spinning icon appeared, all folders closed (guessing File Explorer failed) and other programs also closed.
It's all been a mess since then. There are several issues that started happening thereafter. They're all intermittent, but they eventually happen.
There are certain folders that are kept open (cascaded) on the screen most of the time. One of the problems is the virus scanner will pop a message up (haven't found a way to completely turn those off) or something else out of my control happens (like a pop up from Microsoft), and the folders that are cascaded to provide quick access end up pasted to the top of the screen, so they all overlap in the same place. The windows are also shortened. They have to be closed, opened and resized.
Other things will close or resize, too. I use Irfanview, and that also ends up stuck at the top of the screen and shortened to the same size as the folders. And since Irfanview has a useful option to save the program's on-screen settings, such as size and placement of the latest iteration, that "new" setting saves. So every time there's a problem, Irfanview has to be set up again.
It's also affecting sleep mode, similar to how it acts with a popup. Last time sleep mode was used on this computer, it completely shut down anything that was email; open emails, the email program itself, plus Irfanview, all previously open folders, the browser "downloads" window that had been open and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment. (The browser itself remained open.)
Another thing this problem does is it changes the font color, which is particularly troublesome, as it goes from easy-to-read black to a blue that's very difficult to read. This happens in any window, folder, any input field in a browser (this message is in blue for me, ever since the virus scanner popped up some unwanted message an hour or so ago), even in a WordPad or Word document, it's all blue.
I contacted Microsoft about this twice. The first time, the rep said it was a "known problem" and a newer version of Windows would resolve it. The second time (about 3 months later, when nothing had changed), the rep had no clue, said it wasn't a known problem and there was no fix for it.
I can only guess that perhaps installing some program has messed up Windows. I don't know for sure, but my suspicion is Waterfox, which works fine on another system, but on this one it doesn't work right, never has since first installation. And several times I've walked away and returned to find the computer chugging away, disk activity at 100%, and when Waterfox has been closed, disk activity immediately dropped back to normal levels.
Since no help will be forthcoming from Microsoft, I'd like to find a solution outside of their assistance. I'm not computer illiterate, but am not very technical, either, and wouldn't feel comfortable doing something like regedit.
I also don't want to have to go the route of reinstalling Windows 10. Microsoft has offered some kind of restore of Windows, however, the recovery partition would be Windows 11, which was what originally was installed on this computer. (It was downgraded by request by a store's tech department.) I don't want Windows 11. I also don't want to lose programs that I can't reinstall because they were "free for one day," so I'd have to buy them if anything changed. Reinstalling Windows completely would be extremely messy at this point.
Is there anything at all that can be done to resolve these issues, or is the computer literally stuck like this until sometime in the future? Thanks in advance.
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