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Vista weirdness

johnmglen
Grafter
Posts: 273
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎09-08-2007

Vista weirdness

My Dad has a Vista computer, no problems to speak of except this bit of serious weirdness.  On switching it on the other day, it decided to take a  bit longer than normal to fully boot, then it went straight into his account without the need to log in!  His password is still set, was not un-set and nothing else was done that we can think of that provoked this.  I ran a virus/mal/spy sweep and did a restore, all is now well.  There were no viruses etc found btw.  Anyone got any ideas, I can't find an answer on the MS Support pages. 
10 REPLIES 10
Trapper_Dave
Grafter
Posts: 131
Registered: ‎17-06-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

Try placing repairing the install; that's the only thing that I can think of.
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

Dad is a word that means people of my age and having a senior moment has he not logged off but just put it to sleep?
Reboot and see if it come sup next time
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

I would put money on the computer was restoring from hibernate rather than a fresh boot or retuning from sleep.
Certainly when a passworded desktop Vista PC resumes from hibernation then a password is not asked for, you literally go back to your desktop as you left it.
When a desktop wakes up from sleep you are not asked for a password by default (on my machine anyway!) but this is a setting that can be turned on or off if desired in the advanced power settings. Lappy power settings probably have the password turned on as default.
paulby
Grafter
Posts: 1,619
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎26-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

If you use the standard "on/off" looking button on the Vista Start Menu it puts the PC into sleep mode rather than turning it off - this may explain the action on restart.  You can change the behaviour of the button - I changed it so that it actually shuts down the PC as detailed here.
Denzil
Grafter
Posts: 1,733
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

I wonder if Microsoft have considered the environmental impact of this? Most people probably don't realise their Vista machine is only sleeping and not shutting down, so how many millions of PCs are there still running and consuming unnecessary power?
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

The flashing power light is a pretty good clue that your PC isnt 'Off'.
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

That's right Peter.
If you look inside the PC case on most modern motherboards there is usualy an LED lit up on the board to show you it is still taking power from the PSU.
If you want your PC truly 'Off' you need to either use the power switch (if there is one) on the back of the PSU or unplug it.
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

Quote from: paulby
If you use the standard "on/off" looking button on the Vista Start Menu it puts the PC into sleep mode rather than turning it off - this may explain the action on restart.  You can change the behaviour of the button - I changed it so that it actually shuts down the PC as detailed here.

Hi Paulby
That changes the behaviour of the physical power button, not the on / off button on the start menu. Anyone know how to select what the software button does?

EDIT: Google is your friend found it here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvista/ht/vistasmpwrbtn.htm
paulby
Grafter
Posts: 1,619
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎26-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

God:
The link you provide gives a better explanation - I used the site I linked to and managed to change the power button on the start menu.  The link in Vista Tweaks leaves out a few steps!
Anyway, the default behaviour of the button isn't intuitive and changing it made things a bit more sensible (for me at least :))
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Vista weirdness

I agree... I think its absolutely pointless defaulting the off button to standby. On my machine that leaves case fans running. For me its 'Off' or 'hibernate'. Ended up changing the software off button to hibernate. That way its either one click or push for my best options.
Does anyone know of any adwantage that 'sleep' has other than a few seconds head start over hibernate?