New member ... New (to me) computer with Win 7 Pro

[Rich73Kelly]

First, I want to say hello to the active members here and how excited I was to stumble across this site! I was a member of the original Computer Help Club back in their MSN days. I followed them through the years ... Now on Yuku with like, 3 or 4 active members who haven't posted for a couple months.
Now to my issue ... I purchased THIS machine, after running an XP machine for like, 14 years, from a private seller who buys them by the pallet from the local school systems. I don't know how he cleans them but, when I turned it on, it was like turning on a new computer ... all it had was the default programs, which I have no clue if it was a complete list. It took a whole lot of patience over a few days for all the updates to install, which I only installed the critical ones, etc. and left all the optional ones for a later time. It is much faster than that ole bogged down XP machine became.
I don't have a lot of complaints but, it does have its quirks like, when I open some programs, they open in a small window, no matter how many times I resize them. AND the screensaver seems to be overly sensitive ... it never stays on. I have posted on the Microsoft forums and a member there suggested to do a "Clean Boot", disabling programs one by one to find the culprit ... I still have this huge learning curve as to what potential this version of windows has over XP ...
I guess what I am asking here is this ...How can I find out if everything that is suppose to be installed has installed?
I had Malwarebytes (Free) and CCleaner (Free) on the old machine but, have not installed either on this  one. I no longer do all the random surfing I did with the old one. I am using the Windows firewall and AVG (Free) for protection at this time. If I need other protection, someone please enlighten me.
If I need to separate these issues in separate topics, I can do that as well.

[Rich73Kelly]

Well, THAT didn't work so well ... I thought I would at least get a "Welcome" from some regulars ... :-(

[patio]

Welcome Aboard...it sometimes gets quiet around the Holidays.

What specific issues/questions you having with Win7 ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

I don't have a lot of complaints but, it does have its quirks like, when I open some programs, they open in a small window, no matter how many times I resize them. AND the screensaver seems to be overly sensitive ... it never stays on.

First issue is a bit vague. (Which programs?)- generally speaking though it would be up to the application to save/restore window positions if you sized it last time it was launched, though.

Screensavers stay running until they detect keyboard or mouse input, so it would be detecting one of those. (Of course if the monitor is set to power down after a certain period of time then the screensaver won't be visible)

[Rich73Kelly]

"First issue is a bit vague. (Which programs?)" ... The MAIN one I've noticed I haven't had issues with before is WinAmp... I have the CDG plug-in  to view Karaoke files ... anytime, I view them, the graphics screen comes on at 1x ... I can change it to 3x or, full screen and, still, the next time I open WinAmp and play a file, the graphics window is back at 1x. If this is a setting within WinAmp, which I agree it should be ... I haven't found it.
Screensavers stay running until they detect keyboard or mouse input, so it would be detecting one of those. (Of course if the monitor is set to power down after a certain period of time then the screensaver won't be visible)
[/quote]Screensavers stay running until they detect keyboard or mouse input, so it would be detecting one of those.  I can't get the dang quote thing to work properly ... lol ... Anyway,This is not the case here ...The screensaver is set at 5 minutes, the monitor at ten. I can be sitting here, the screensaver will come on and the monitor will turn off ... within a few seconds, the monitor just comes back on, without touching either the mouse or keyboard. I can be gone for a couple of hours and when I come back, the monitor is on ... Unless the mouse (Verbatim Model 98196) is just that sensitive to surrounding movement, which there isn't really a lot of.

[BC_Programmer]

That is an issue in the Winamp Plugin.

,This is not the case here

Well, I was literally explaining how screensavers are designed. However- screensavers have nothing to do with the monitor turning off (or back on).

You can see what devices you have that can interrupt any sleep state (which includes the display powering down) with this command in command prompt:

Code: [Select]

powercfg -devicequery wake_armed

If you are using a wireless adapter, keyboard, or mouse, that could cause it. For the latter two, it could be due to low battery most likely. They could also be defective.

[patio]

And the issue with WinAmp is an app setting...it's not Win7 being the culprit.

[Rich73Kelly]

Thanks for your replies and suggestions here ... Happy New Year to both of you.
BC_Programmer, ... using the command you provided, the results are as follows, ...
HID Keyboard Device
Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
HID-compliant mouse (007)
I manually copied those as I couldn't do a copy/paste in the command prompt window ...
Also, I understand, the screensaver has nothing to do with the monitor turning off (or back on) ... I was simply stating how I had them set. The keyboard and mouse are both USB wired. I would love to be using a wireless keyboard and mouse but, I don't care for the way they eat up batteries.
So now, according to the results of the powercfg code, ... Does this mean something within my network connection, ie, router activity, might be waking the screensaver?
As far as the WinAmp issue I'll have to dig through the settings and see what I might be able to find there ...
Another thing related to "quirks" I noticed since originally posting, ...If I open, say my, mp3 folder, no, wait ... oh, this must be a setting within the program as well ... I didn't notice THAT till now ... I am using TugZip 3.5 for my unzipping utility. When I open it, there are four columns ... They are ... "Name", "Size", "Item Type" and "Date Modified" ... I hope I can explain this so it can be understood here .... the "Name" column has, say, all the CD titles listed in my zipped CD folder ... only part of the titles are visible so, if I hover the mouse pointer between the Name and Size columns at the top, the double arrow with a vertical line between them appears to move the Size column over to read the full titles in the Name column. Good, now it should stay there (at my preference),when I close the window but, it doesn't ... next time I open TugZip to unzip and listen to a CD, it is back where it was. I have to slide the column over again to read the titles. I can't find a preference setting to correct it.