Vista HP - not saving any settings?

  • Thread starter Thread starter wysard
  • Start date Start date
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wysard

Hi, VHP OEM installed. I'm running my account as an Administrator.
More and more, settings are not being retained for things I set. At
first, it was just the Power options; I'd set it not to power down
anything, and eventually it would flip back. Then it was file
associations; I can set files to be opened by Notepad as the default,
which again, won't be retained. Now, I can set a folder to sort by
Recently Modified, go up a level and come back in, and the view's back
to normal.

This is killing me, mostly because I never know when it's going to
switch back. I thought it as when it restarts, but that's not the
case, especially with the folder view thing. Any ideas? TIA.
 
Hi, VHP OEM installed. I'm running my account as an Administrator.
More and more, settings are not being retained for things I set.
Click to expand...

That's always creepy...
first, it was just the Power options; I'd set it not to power down
anything, and eventually it would flip back. Then it was file
associations; I can set files to be opened by Notepad as the default,
which again, won't be retained. Now, I can set a folder to sort by
Recently Modified, go up a level and come back in, and the view's back
to normal.
Click to expand...
This is killing me, mostly because I never know when it's going to
switch back. I thought it as when it restarts, but that's not the
case, especially with the folder view thing. Any ideas? TIA.
Click to expand...

If it were just across system retarts, I'd suspect some shutdown
failure (e.g. a PSU that switches off before the HD flushes its own
RAM buffer to the platters) but it's not that, if it happens "live".

As it is, two things come to mind:

1) Permissions issues

You say it's an Admin account, but perhaps the tool you are using to
apply settings is either cancelled at UAC prompt, or is virtualized so
that the effect is not applied on a system-wide basis?

Any non-standard permissions applied?

2) Rollback by defenseive tools

You may be running 3rd-party tools that "defend" the system against
changes in some way, rolling them back in real time. Try with
MSConfig set to disable all 3rd-party services and startups; stay
offline while testing in this potentially undefended state.

Also; did you disable UAC or apply any other "deep" settings?



--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -
Click to expand...
Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!
 
You may be running 3rd-party tools that "defend" the system against
changes in some way, rolling them back in real time. Try with
MSConfig set to disable all 3rd-party services and startups; stay
offline while testing in this potentially undefended state.

Also; did you disable UAC or apply any other "deep" settings?
Click to expand...

Well done! It turned out to be OneCare that was preventing/auto-roll-
backing (nice word use) everything I did. It's gone, and things are
back as expected. Thanks!
 
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