losing Desktop image

[anthlover]

Other may disagree but Fast User Switching can be problematic for more then the Desktop.

[Doug Lassiter]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeltaMac Does that happen regardless of how you switch users? compare logout, and log back in? - to fast user switching? Do other accounts also switch back to that plain blue background? Recall that the plain blue screen is NOT a user default, it's simply one of the solid backgrounds.

OK, let's talk about two accounts -- "me" and "admin". Only the latter has admin privileges, but I think that has nothing to do with it.

With fast user switching enabled

login "me"
logout "me"
login "admin"
logout "admin"
login "me"
keeps my desktop background

login "me"
login "admin"
login "me"
doesn't keep my desktop background and then, by the way
login "admin"
loses the selected desktop backgroud for that admin account
(so other accounts can lose selected desktop backgrounds in this way)

With fast user switching disabled, such that you can only log into an account by logging out of the other account, the desktop backgrounds are all preserved.

So I think it's clear that if I want to preserve my desktop, I have to log out of my account before logging into another.

Quote: Originally Posted by DeltaMac Compare to the default that you get when creating a new account.

The default desktop background that I get with a new user account is the same one that was selected for the admin account. That's different than the flat blue screen.

Quote: Originally Posted by DeltaMac Finally, are you using multiple screens for each user (Spaces)?

I am not using Spaces.


Again, when I'm about to lose my desktop, my selected desktop flashes on the screen before being replaced by the flat blue one. So it's as if the system knows what my selected desktop is, but quickly decides not to use it.

Just to summarize, what I'm trying to do is use fast user switching to be able to quickly log into the admin account without logging out of my personal account. I don't want to lose what I'm doing in my personal account if I need to diddle something as administrator. When I'm done in the admin account, I don't want to stay logged into it, so I log out of it, and then reopen my account. But because I didn't log out of my account, when I reopen it, the desktop background is gone. If I want to save the desktop background in my account I have to log out of it.