Slow User Switching

Hi Dan,

I'm having the same issues as you and others are. It's extremely annoying.
It is not 'fast user switch' it is 'slow user switch'. This is what happens:

1) Press windows=key + L - You are taken to the 'account is locked' screen
instead of the user-selection screen which is ridiculous and non-useful. Why
doesn't it take you directly to the user-selection screen like XP did?
2) Click on 'Switch User'
3) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several seconds.
4) Click on the user that you want to log in as, enter the password.
5) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several seconds.
6) Finally the user is logged in.

I really hope, like you, that someone can find a resolution to this very
real issue.

I'm running 2GB of ram too and don't buy the notion that this is a
ram-related issue. The same exact behavior above occurs when no applications
are running. Both users being switched-from and switched-to have the same
monitor settings (resolution, refresh rate, and color depth).

"Dan Bourque" wrote:

> Please help. The exact same PC used to have Windows XP Pro, and FUS was very
> fast. Now that I've upgraded to Vista, FUS takes about 40 seconds just to
> get to the account selection page. Then another 10 seconds to switch to the
> already logged in account.
>
> I've looked at the Performance/Reliability logs, but nothing jumps out. How
> can I figure out what's taking so long? I've tried uninstalling all
> extraneous services, and disabled most hardware devices, but no luck.
>
> My machine is a Pentium 4, dual core, 3.2GHz with 1GB RAM, with a 4.3
> Windows Experience Index. I'm running Vista Home Premium, 32-bit.
>
> Please, please help.
> Cheers,
> -Dan.
>

I'm not sure what issues are involved with this, but i get very fast results
whether I use the Start/Switch User or WinKey+L, using a similar system as
the OP.

Start/Switch User is 11 seconds from start to logged on with another account
and WinKey+L is 14 seconds.

This is with WinMail, IE, Illustrator and several other programs open.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Jeff Billimek" <JeffBillimek@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:52279E82-2114-4CF1-9E85-BA049F48962B@microsoft.com...

> Hi Dan,
>
> I'm having the same issues as you and others are. It's extremely
> annoying.
> It is not 'fast user switch' it is 'slow user switch'. This is what
> happens:
>
> 1) Press windows=key + L - You are taken to the 'account is locked' screen
> instead of the user-selection screen which is ridiculous and non-useful.
> Why
> doesn't it take you directly to the user-selection screen like XP did?
> 2) Click on 'Switch User'
> 3) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several
> seconds.
> 4) Click on the user that you want to log in as, enter the password.
> 5) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several
> seconds.
> 6) Finally the user is logged in.
>
> I really hope, like you, that someone can find a resolution to this very
> real issue.
>
> I'm running 2GB of ram too and don't buy the notion that this is a
> ram-related issue. The same exact behavior above occurs when no
> applications
> are running. Both users being switched-from and switched-to have the same
> monitor settings (resolution, refresh rate, and color depth).
>
> "Dan Bourque" wrote:
>

I'm still trying to figure out what file runs when you click Switch User on
the Start menu. I don't have a file called tsdiscon.exe on my Vista Home
Premium system (though this file does exist on my XP system). Anyone have a
clue?

"Michael" wrote:

> I agree, the "account locked" screen is useless and annoying. It seems that
> the only solution to bypass it is the way mansart describes. The file you are
> looking for is "tsdiscon.exe" in c:\windows\system32 folder. Unfortunately,
> you can't assign winkey+L shortcut command for a copy of this file, but any
> ctrl+alt-shortcutkey.
>
> "mansart" wrote:
>

Hi Jeff,

I noticed the "monitor losing signal" part of this process as well. Maybe
this is the key to the issue? I run dual monitors, and I've noticed that it
also re-positions all my desktop gadgets from one monitor to the other after
re-starting, logging off/on or for user switching.

I think the problem seems to be Windows switching to a different video mode
for the login screen than it uses for the desktop. It's probably doing this
for some kind of 'safe mode' compatibility reason, but I'm hoping for a way
to allow it to go to the login screen without switching video modes. My gut
says this will fix the slow user switching problem as well.

Boyd

"Jeff Billimek" wrote:

> Hi Dan,
>
> I'm having the same issues as you and others are. It's extremely annoying.
> It is not 'fast user switch' it is 'slow user switch'. This is what happens:
>
> 1) Press windows=key + L - You are taken to the 'account is locked' screen
> instead of the user-selection screen which is ridiculous and non-useful. Why
> doesn't it take you directly to the user-selection screen like XP did?
> 2) Click on 'Switch User'
> 3) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several seconds.
> 4) Click on the user that you want to log in as, enter the password.
> 5) The monitor loses signal and then comes back - this takes several seconds.
> 6) Finally the user is logged in.
>
> I really hope, like you, that someone can find a resolution to this very
> real issue.
>
> I'm running 2GB of ram too and don't buy the notion that this is a
> ram-related issue. The same exact behavior above occurs when no applications
> are running. Both users being switched-from and switched-to have the same
> monitor settings (resolution, refresh rate, and color depth).
>
> "Dan Bourque" wrote:
>

My understanding is that when Microsoft implemented all of the 3D
DirectX9 support for Aero Glass that they moved the graphics driver
into user space (rather than kernel space - this doesn't mean the
graphics driver runs as the user, just that it runs with access to all
of the system calls that normal code has access to, rather than the
esoteric realm of kernel space, and that it can't stomp on arbitrary
memory locations because it's running with certain permissions, access,
etc.).

This was to improve the reliability of the GUI given that it was going
to be running all sorts of hyper-complicated DirectX 3D code for the
normal GUI.

They also implemented the ability to completely reset the graphics
driver on the fly without requiring a reboot. This was done so that if
the graphics driver has a bug and crashes, your whole computer doesn't
crash.

I suspect that when you do Fast User Switching that Vista is completely
resetting the graphics driver. This would help ensure better isolation
between the various user accounts by ensuring that one can't exploit
bugs in the graphics driver to leave malformed data structures that
could do things as another user or to read data left behind in the
graphics card memory by the other user. I wouldn't be surprised if it
completely zeros-out all of the RAM on the graphics card, for instance,
then reinitializes the graphics card as if the card were booting up,
then starts the graphics driver, sets up all the communications, etc.

This is all conjecture based on what I've heard and read about Vista.
I was hunting around on the web for someone to confirm my hypothesis
when I came across this thread.

--Toby Ovod-Everett


--
tovod-everett
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