Brief white flashes when opening new windows

Hi

I've just upgraded to 8.1 and I have seen this exact problem on a different laptop of similar specs (my specs should be in my profile).

I use a custom theme with dark colors. I like dark background and light text. The problem is that very often when I open a new explorer (like My Computer) or browser window (like Firefox), the whole background of the window/frame becomes white for a very brief period before showing the actual content of the window and assuming the dark background color that I assigned. This might not be a big deal for someone using the default white theme, but for me it is annoying, let alone hurtful for my eyes especially in the evening.


I tried looking for a fix but no luck.

Can someone please be so kind and help me with this?


Thanks in advance

Can anyone at least be so kind and suggest me the words I can use on Google to search for this issue?

Have you tried to update your graphics card driver?

I'm not sure what words to search for.

I have the latest graphic card drivers and everything else there is from Acer and Microsoft.

Is there no way to force that white color to be something darker? Perhaps by editing some values in Regedit?

By the way, you can see what I mean if you go to Personal Settings, Colors, change Window Background Color to black and apply settings. Then keep spamming Win+E

As you see, the background space within the window itself appears to be pure white sometimes. The same is happening to the entire browser window when I open it and also when opening new tabs. Sometimes it also happens when Alt+Tabbing

This is very painful for my eyes when I use dark custom theme

Please, anyone. There has to be a fix for this?!

Aleque said:

By the way, you can see what I mean if you go to Personal Settings, Colors, change Window Background Color to black and apply settings. Then keep spamming Win+E

As you see, the background space within the window itself appears to be pure white sometimes. The same is happening to the entire browser window when I open it and also when opening new tabs. Sometimes it also happens when Alt+Tabbing

This is very painful for my eyes when I use dark custom theme

Please, anyone. There has to be a fix for this?!

Click to expand...

I have tried what you suggested and do not see what you are seeing.

What other settings have you made other than what you suggested here?

Ok I think I "fixed" it. The white flashes seem to have stopped when I disabled all the interface animations of windows (right click My Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Performance > etc - the menu with lots and lots of checkboxes. My Windows is currently in Danish but I think that option that cause the problem is called "animate when minimize or maximize windows")

I always disable the "fancy" visual stuff because I like it simple, but looks I have no choise now but to use it rather than getting a flashbang in my eyes every time I use my laptop

It seems like a minor interface bug, which can be hard to notice since almost everyone out there uses the white interface, hence it's hard to notice. But try disabling all the animations and do the thing that I mentioned earlier, and you will see what I mean. I'm going to have to adapt to Windows 8 since I am so used to simplicity of XP and 7.

Does it happen when you are opening Tile Apps, or Desktop Apps?

XweAponX said:

Does it happen when you are opening Tile Apps, or Desktop Apps?

Click to expand...

I am not sure what you mean. I usually happens when I do almost anything like opening/tabbing to windows and browser

A Desktop App runs from the Desktop, a Tile App runs from the Start Screen. You can tell which is which if the Screen Slides over to the right or the left, to the right (Or if it does not switch over), it's a Tile app, to the left, it's a Desktop Program.

Do you run the system from the "Start Screen" or from the Desktop? Because sometimes it is normal for certain "Tile" apps to show a bright flash as they start, if you have Animations turned off. Tile Apps are supposed to "Twirl Around" as they start, if that animation is shut off, then it may just show a bright flash.

Desktop apps on the other hand, will show a "Splash Screen" which is a medium Sized Bitmap Picture showing the brand and program name. So I'm guessing that this ia happening when Tipe Apps start, because you have the twirling animation shut off somehow. You can turn that on or off by right clicking on "My/This Computer" and choosing "Properties" - Go into "Advanced Systems Settings" which is a link at the middle Left, and Choose "Settings" under "Performance"- You can turn Animations for certain areas on or off there.

The problem still persists. Even though I switched the animations back on (although, I would prefer having them off), sometimes the entire screen becomes entirely white for a second. This happens mostly when I open a new browser window (like Explorer) or a new program (like MS Word).

Does anyone know if there is a way to force this sudden white color to be darker (or entirely black) in Regedit? I tried looking for any "255 255 255" values in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Colors

and in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop Colors

...and I tried switching them to black "0 0 0", but no luck.

I am still using a High Contrast theme nr. 2 - the one with Cyan top and Green text (which I edited color-wise for my liking)


I never experienced this issue in previous Windows versions.

It happens to me as well, just noticed, whenever I open a web site a very brief white screen.

EDIT: Is that similar to my snip?

View attachment 33658
I guess we are having the same issue. Still waiting with excitement for a possible solution. You can customize nearly everything in Regedit - the question is just where in Regedit

EDIT: When I open Word 2010, the entire ribbon (toggle on/off with Ctrl+F1) is briefly white as well. So in stead of all the buttons and menus on the ribbon, there is one solid block of white that is covering the entire ribbon. Maybe it will make it easier to isolate the problem. It seems to me that only specific elements of a window frame have this problem. If I could only figure out how to fix it.

EDIT2: I tried searching for and changing every RGB value of "255 255 255" (white) in regedit, that I could find, by lowering the values to "100 100 100" (grey), but this have had no effect what so ever.

Anyone knows how to fix it?

Please. This problem is killing me. Anyone?