Is it possible to remove the fade effect between login?

I'm basically asking this question:

When I press Win+L, the “Locked” screen (with the password prompt) appears immediately. That’s nice, but not terribly important: I’m probably leaving the computer anyway.

But after I type the password (to unlock the workstation), the desktop doesn’t appear immediately: instead, the “Locked” screen slowly fades out, the desktop slowly fades in, wasting my time, and all keys (e.g. Win+R) pressed during this interval are completely swallowed, forcing me to wait unnecessarily. This is extremely annoying because when I unlock the workstation, I generally want to use my computer.

How do I disable this fade out/fade in effect and have the desktop appear immediately, in the same way that the “Locked” screen appears immediately?

I'm asking again because the aforementioned question didn't have any useful answers, but an answer was accepted anyway. I would like to know if any new findings have been made since that question was asked two years ago.

For me, though, I have my login background the same as my desktop. When it fades out, it removes the coolness that I get.

Jon

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 8 089

3Actually the other answer says it isn't possible... – imtheman – 2012-07-20T00:26:15.487

possible duplicate of How do I disable the fade out/fade in effect when unlocking a Windows 7 workstation?

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-07-20T00:28:43.427

Welcome, please don't ask the same question again. Check out the FAQ, specifically bounties, for options on how get newer/better answers. :)

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-07-20T00:30:42.473

@PeterMaxwell I didn't know if there was a new way of doing it from a windows update or something. – Jon – 2012-07-20T01:56:04.223

@techie007 Oi, once again: What should you do when your exact question has already been asked, but badly?, except that time, that OP gave up. So this time, I made the other question a duplicate of this one. It is possible to remove the fade effect because it does not function on my VirtualBox installation of Windows 7 Ultimate. I just don't know how.

– Deltik – 2012-07-20T02:27:35.840

Unfortunately studiohack has closed the older question as a duplicate of this instead of the other way around. We have to vote to reopen that one, and then chipperyman can post a comment and (eventually?) offer a bounty to get better answers to it. – Synetech – 2012-07-20T04:24:14.837

@Synetech: Sounds like a good plan to me, except chipperyman573 is a new user at the moment and may not get the necessary 75 rep points soon enough to be able to draw people's attention to the older question. And a mere comment might not be sufficient for that (drawing the attention). – Andriy M – 2012-07-20T06:07:35.940

neither does he have the rep to comment on other questions. I'll leave this open for now, if an answer comes, I'll merge the 2 questions. if not, I'll have JourneyMan Geek put a bounty on this. Journeymangeek's Monthly Bounty Hunt: July/August // @Synetech

– Sathyajith Bhat – 2012-07-20T12:30:04.723

2chipperyman is new... not get 75 rep, not rep to comment; that does not make it okay to open a duplicate. Like techie said, that's what bounties are for, and if a user does not have enough rep for a bounty, then that's what Meta is for: to address issues like this. Closing an older question as a duplicate of a newer one just seems messed up. – Synetech – 2012-07-20T13:36:35.473

disable task manager services before you lock the computer in the process tree it may help you to get the desktop soon – BlueBerry - Vignesh4303 – 2012-07-29T08:08:59.320

@vignesh that doesn't help whatsoever. – Jon – 2012-07-30T06:22:07.340

The answer now is the same than 2 years ago: it is not possible to change this effect. I have disabled all Aero effects, but the login effects remain active. – logoff – 2012-07-30T08:02:26.793

Could the fade in effect actually be Windows covering for doing something? i.e., might it not be able to load instantly? When I unlock my screen, the fade in process takes about a second - is it longer on your computer? – ChimneyImp – 2012-08-01T00:16:39.747

@ChimneyImp That's what I was thinking, it may have taken half a second to load, so they were like, "Why not make that loading look nice?". – Jon – 2012-08-01T01:22:50.980

@ChimneyImp, it takes about one second on mine as well (though it may be a little longer if the system was idle for a long time and so has to swap lots of memory back in). I really don’t see what the big deal is. Nobody complains about the desktop fading in on boot (or out on shutdown) because it only takes a second and only happens once in a while. For most people in most scenarios, unlocking a system also happens only once in a while, so two to three seconds per day is not a lot to nit-pick about. – Synetech – 2012-08-02T22:44:54.297

Answers

(Posting this as an answer so later visitors can see it better.)

Based on the comments above, it seems there's no way to remove the fade in on screen unlock. It seems that the fade-out/ fade in animation is actually covering for Windows doing something when it unlocks the screen (much like the black flash you get if you hit control-alt-delete between the normal desktop and the lock menu). If there was no animation, the lockscreen would probably not take any less time to enter or exit, it would instead appear to hang for anywhere from half a second to a couple of seconds (depending on your computer) on a black screen. That is, the animation itself isn't the source of the delay, it's an attempt by Windows to mask the delay.

ChimneyImp

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 1 149

Thank you, that's what I figured, I made your answer accepted because it was said best from you. – Jon – 2012-08-04T21:42:34.717

I suppose the final answer is 'Its not designed to do that'. I am very meh about that – Journeyman Geek – 2012-08-05T11:35:47.247

That's too bad, because it creates a very uncomfortable flashing on my system I have a 2560x1440 screen, and my desktop background is dark, so for a second or so after typing the password in the logon screen, there is a nasty flicker :/ – None – 2012-09-18T04:09:50.923

To avoid screen flicker when unnecessary animations turned off, I went to: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization and chose "Windows 7 basic".

Danny

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 21

Seems a bit extreme to me – Lee Taylor – 2012-12-02T18:00:02.507

That could cause you to lose every other effect. – Jon – 2012-12-08T03:36:38.937

I found the fade effect is not present on virtual machine and machine with very low-end graphic card, but I don't know how to fool the OS on a machine with modern graphic card.

Sam

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 950

Change two settings:

Go to > Control Panel > "Performance Information and tools"
Click on "Adjust visual effects"
De-select the items with "fade"
Go to > Control Panel > "Appearance and Personalization"> Ease of Access Center then> "Make it easier to focus on tasks" page
Check "Turn off all unnecessary animations" option, Found under the “Adjust time limits and flashing visuals”

Restart: Should work...

Fergus

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 1 541

That does disable some effects, but not this one. – Jon – 2012-07-31T00:34:36.727

Ok.. too bad. If this didn't work, IMHO, I am not sure it is possible – Fergus – 2012-07-31T03:10:40.777

I was looking for this too, and sadly, this isn't possible as of yet. it's a major disappointment, but there is no system option or registry value that controls this. it would likely need a modification of system files, which nobody has done yet.

parashep

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 464

2I can only confirm this. I captured a Process Monitor log while locking and unlocking the workstation, I inspected all reads of LogonUI.exe (the process that handles the log on). There is nothing indicating that LogonUI would read any external parameter that controls this behavior. Unless I missed something, of course... – Der Hochstapler – 2012-08-04T17:02:44.383

-3

You can change your logon screen and there's plenty of other tweaks for Windows 7 in this websites home page:

http://tweaks.com/windows/39167/change-the-logon-screen-with-logonstudio/

Frank R.

Posted 2012-07-19T23:44:23.633

Reputation: 431

And have you used it to actually make Windows behave as the OP wants? – Ben Richards – 2012-08-03T22:24:33.137

I have seen others successfully modify String Tables and other resources in 32/64bit Windows executables and dll files. It allows you to view and modify them as decompiled resource scripts, so all the OP has to do is locate the settings file which controls fading and disable it. – Frank R. – 2012-08-04T01:18:12.093

I have seen such a thing as well. I've done it before (with Visual Studio). I've also programmed. While you can see string tables, it doesn't guarantee that you'll see anything that controls the fade-in and fade-out behavior. There's a lot more to those files than what you see in the resources. – Ben Richards – 2012-08-04T01:54:35.857

I don't think this will help... basically what you're saying is that there's a file somewhere that will edit some file, but you aren't telling how to use the program or what file to edit. – Jon – 2012-08-04T02:04:43.360

The executable that controls fade and other display settings is in C:\Windows\System32\SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe You might also want to take a look at login.exe and USER32.exe in the same folder. If you want to learn how to use reshack, I suggest you download it and read the docs. – Frank R. – 2012-08-04T03:37:05.150