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I figured out a true solution to this. Alt Tab friendly and no compatibility buttons needed. Finally I can go back to AIM and the web in between matches without having to close SC completely!
Solution 1*
+ Show Spoiler +Step 1 : Paste the following into a text file and save it as "StarcraftStarter.cmd" :
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
d:\Games\Starcraft\StarCraft.exe
pause
start explorer.exe
(replace the destination with your sc.exe of course)
Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need!
Credit to "Viper" of sc2gg for the idea.
* - Make sure you have windows set to show extensions for known file types or you will create a file like explorer kill.cmd.txt which is NOT going to help you. To do this, go here and follow the instructions
Solution 2*
+ Show Spoiler +Alternative for those that use Chaos Launcher or ICCUP Launcher :
Step 1 : Paste the following into a text file and save it as "Explorer Kill.cmd" :
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
pause
start explorer.exe
Step 2 : Start your starcraft launcher (chaos or icc launcher)
Step 3 : Run "Explorer Kill.cmd"
Step 4 : Start Starcraft via your sc launcher
Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need!
Credit to "Viper" of sc2gg for the idea. I expanded upon the idea so that it can be used with a launcher but the original explorer kill that starts sc in one command is his.
* - Make sure you have windows set to show extensions for known file types or you will create a file like explorer kill.cmd.txt which is NOT going to help you. To do this, go here and follow the instructions
Solution 3
+ Show Spoiler +Open your display properties to the window where you can select screen resolution. Leave this window open. Play SC as normal.
This only works for some users (no known reason why it works for some and not others).
edit take 2 - Consider this my major thank you for putting up with newb questions from myself in the strat forum! ^^
Edit 3 - Added other common solution for completeness sake. Improved the look via spoiler tabs.
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I don't have Windows 7 now, but I may be upgrading shortly.
Thanks for this 
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Yay! this is fucking awesome!
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Awesome.
Haven't tried it with SC yet, but tried it with another game I was having the same problems with, sadly the other game won't run using this, it just goes to black screen and crashes. =( Oh well, at least it supposedly works with SC!
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On September 13 2009 15:57 Mikilatov wrote:
Awesome.
Haven't tried it with SC yet, but tried it with another game I was having the same problems with, sadly the other game won't run using this, it just goes to black screen and crashes. =( Oh well, at least it supposedly works with SC!
works perfectly for me! and the fucked up colors was so annoying i'm really happy now^^
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All this fix does is kill windows explorer while setting in action a future option to turn it back on.
So if the problem in your other game wasnt caused by windows explore (which the SC color problem is caused by [and the Diablo 2 color problem if you guys care]) then this fix is N/A.
For windows 7 and SC though, this should be a 100% fix.
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Either all of this, OR...
Right click desktop -> Screen resolution -> leave the window open while you play.
Though I'll admit this is a somewhat "cleaner" solution.
edit: I just saw this:
Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need!
I changed my mind, it's not a clean solution at all! I hereby declare mine to be superior!
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On September 13 2009 19:28 kerr0r wrote:Either all of this, OR... Right click desktop -> Screen resolution -> leave the window open while you play. Though I'll admit this is a somewhat "cleaner" solution. edit: I just saw this: Show nested quote +Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need! I changed my mind, it's not a clean solution at all! I hereby declare mine to be superior!
Wait... what?
Leave what window open?
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On September 13 2009 19:59 disco wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2009 19:28 kerr0r wrote:Either all of this, OR... Right click desktop -> Screen resolution -> leave the window open while you play. Though I'll admit this is a somewhat "cleaner" solution. edit: I just saw this: Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need! I changed my mind, it's not a clean solution at all! I hereby declare mine to be superior! Wait... what? Leave what window open?
The screen resolution window. 
Don't ask me why it works, but it does.
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On September 13 2009 20:29 kerr0r wrote:Show nested quote +On September 13 2009 19:59 disco wrote:On September 13 2009 19:28 kerr0r wrote:Either all of this, OR... Right click desktop -> Screen resolution -> leave the window open while you play. Though I'll admit this is a somewhat "cleaner" solution. edit: I just saw this: Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need! I changed my mind, it's not a clean solution at all! I hereby declare mine to be superior! Wait... what? Leave what window open? The screen resolution window. Don't ask me why it works, but it does.
Meh, more or less. It still happens to me sometimes that the colors go on the fritz as if on LSD, only to turn back to normal later. Only in menus/lobby though, in-game is fine apart from very minor flaws.
Gotta try killing explorer and see if that works.
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leaving the resolution window open isn't a 100% fix, nothing is but killing explorer, which isn't a new idea.
You can also just launch bw with the iccup launcher, alt tab, kill explorer in the task manager and run it again when you are done playing
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United States4796 Posts
Awesome, thanks a lot. 
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On September 13 2009 19:28 kerr0r wrote:Either all of this, OR... Right click desktop -> Screen resolution -> leave the window open while you play. Though I'll admit this is a somewhat "cleaner" solution. edit: I just saw this: Show nested quote +Just make sure you open any programs you want to alt tab to FIRST as without the explorer its harder to open programs. I leave AIM and a web browser open and I have everything I need! I changed my mind, it's not a clean solution at all! I hereby declare mine to be superior!
Sadly your solution does not work for myself and a large number of people! The solution I outlined is quick and easy.
It is very equiv to the above post where you just kill explorer via task manager but this solution leaves it the option to restart explorer quickly and painlessly.
added the personalize resolution solution for completeness sake!
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You could probably modify that second solution to work with the ICCup launcher. If you set your launcher to run starcraft automatically, and the script file launches the launcher, waits a few seconds, then restarts explorer...
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thanks! I have the same problem but on vista with weird ghx settings. It fixed the dreaded color glitch caused by alt tabbing!
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Interesting. I have windows 7 and my colors never get messed up. I didn't even do anything to fix it.
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On September 14 2009 02:41 Louder wrote:
You could probably modify that second solution to work with the ICCup launcher. If you set your launcher to run starcraft automatically, and the script file launches the launcher, waits a few seconds, then restarts explorer...
I actually tried to get something like that going but I couldnt make it happen. I'm no pro at writting scripts and the like so if someone else can take a shot at doing just that I would add it as well.
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You don't need any scripts.
1) Launch SC with the iccup launcher, colors will be fucked
2) Alt tab
3) Ctrl alt delete, taskmanager, find explorer.exe in the processes, end it
4) Go over to the Applications tab and double click Starcraft, colors will be unfucked
5) Play game
6) Get cheesed, alt f4, task manager is either still running in the bottom left or just ctrl alt delete again and go to file, new task, type explorer
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Here's my version with ICCup Launcher:
start G:\Games\Starcraft\Iccupl~1\Launcher.exe
ping localhost /n 15
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
pause
start explorer.exe
start G:\Games\Starcraft\Iccupl~1\Launcher.exe
Runs ICCup Launcher, which starts Starcraft if you set it to automatic. Substitute with the appropriate directory, but make sure to use the old DOS notation with the ~ for directory names longer than 8 characters!
ping localhost /n 15
Meanwhile, wait 15 seconds for Starcraft to run. (ICCup Launcher needs explorer.exe to start!)
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
Kill explorer
pause
wait for any key (which you enter after playing)
start explorer.exe
restart explorer
The good thing about this is that it kills explorer automatically in the background after 15 seconds while you are already in-game. No need to alt-tab to run the script.
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On September 14 2009 04:48 floor exercise wrote:
You don't need any scripts.
1) Launch SC with the iccup launcher, colors will be fucked
2) Alt tab
3) Ctrl alt delete, taskmanager, find explorer.exe in the processes, end it
4) Go over to the Applications tab and double click Starcraft, colors will be unfucked
5) Play game
6) Get cheesed, alt f4, task manager is either still running in the bottom left or just ctrl alt delete again and go to file, new task, type explorer
thats what i've been doing as well, but i find that once you make the script, then it simplifies the steps; no more ctrl alt delete and tabbing out
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None of these solutions worked for me at all...
Also my biggest problem with Windows 7 and Starcraft seems to be random freezing, i can live with the weird menu colours but the freezing is annoying the fuck out of me...
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just fyi you can run my scrip[ts after you open the launcher but b4 u start sc.
I just open bwchart, AIM, a web browser and a launcher ; run script ; start sc.
And ya you don't need scripts but it makes it way simpler.
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On September 14 2009 06:59 MaD.pYrO wrote:
Also my biggest problem with Windows 7 and Starcraft seems to be random freezing, i can live with the weird menu colours but the freezing is annoying the fuck out of me...
same. i'm also having freezing issues, and none of these solutions work.
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On September 14 2009 06:59 MaD.pYrO wrote:
None of these solutions worked for me at all...
Also my biggest problem with Windows 7 and Starcraft seems to be random freezing, i can live with the weird menu colours but the freezing is annoying the fuck out of me...
I'll take a stab at helping you but I need more info.
Tell me your comp's specs, what drivers you are using, what version of windows 7, and OC info if you OC, ect ect.
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It is said that Starcraft has issues with multi-core CPUs. Try assigning Starcraft to one core in the task manager's processes tab.
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I doubt its a hardware or OS directly related issue, much much more likely to be driver related at some level.
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Best fix for all this and to fix windows 7 freezing i've used is as follows. I've been using this for ages and ages weeks on iccup and have played nearly 70 games this season day to day and its working without freezing anymore.
make a .bat file with this in it:
cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 C:\"Program Files\ICCup\Launcher"\"Launcher.exe"
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2
cd C:\Games\Starcraft\
rem cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 C:\Games\Starcraft\StarCraft.exe
rem Wait for the game to quit, press Enter to continue
pause
start explorer.exe
exit
The batch file should use windows compatibility mode for XP sp3 and 640x480 resolution the rest doesn't matter.
But!
In starcraft because everyone has multi core systems now but the tricky thing is windows 7 is a bit different in that under Speed - Enable CPU Throttling disable this not enable even though it sound like it should be helpful it does the opposite in windows 7.
Also under Video: Enable Color Cycling should be OFF (this means water doesn't change color and stuff nothing important)
And Disable Unit Portraits.
So, use a batchfile setting affinity to your 1st core for Iccup launcher which in turn makes starcraft only use the 1st core as you use the Launcher to launch starcraft not manually.
This disable CPU throttling as we set the affinity ourselves and it would only cause crashes.
Now turn off Color Cycling & Unit Portraits.
All this and in Windows 7 on a dual core Intel I stopped crashing completely. I used to crash all the time and tested all the combinations of things and all these seem to make it fine. You can tab in and out as much as you like, your resolution will switch fine to your normal desktop resolution i.e. I use 1900x1200. I even use dual monitors and put stuff on my second monitor like films or youtube or desktop gadgets and its fine.
Only unit portraits 'might' be alright to turn back on but I didn't test as I never cared about it anyways.
Anyways enjoy.
Note: The pings to yourself are just for a delay to allow explorer to completely close as an indication before you should launch starcraft. I tested the 98/Me compatibility but it causes a problem with connecting to Iccup and stuff iirc. That 98/Me would fix the colors by itself but do it in the above way for the most stable solution I've experienced.
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tyvm man, this helped me alot! thought I wil never be able to see the true colors of sc again! tyvm.
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none of this works for me 
bw keeps crashing - the longer my computer is on the higher possibility that bw will crash. sometimes when i launch the game it will "lag" - pointer movement is choppy and scroll as well. then i know crash is inevitable.
any ideas?
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I had an idea that Desktop was the cause of the distorted colors.
I run the ultimate copy of Windows 7. I having random lock-ups also seems when my scout dies and i move the screen quickly to look, or something gets canceled and i move to it quickly to see what's going on. Both of these completely freeze up my computer. I have to do a Cold Shutdown (hard shutdown with power button). So hopefully above fix will help fix my problem.
I see some people wondering what's causing this. It looks to be GUI of the Windows 7 Desktop for the distorted colors. This really isn't a driver issue more in the design of the desktop for windows 7 IMO.
Since explore.exe process that is being killed is what makes your desktop interactive for icons and etc.
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On October 12 2009 14:44 sh00zkosmosu wrote:none of this works for me bw keeps crashing - the longer my computer is on the higher possibility that bw will crash. sometimes when i launch the game it will "lag" - pointer movement is choppy and scroll as well. then i know crash is inevitable. any ideas?
What kind of processor and type of RAM you running?
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Different question!
When I run SC on my laptop (with Windows 7), it won't stretch the game full screen but stick to its original resolution and adds 'black bars' around it to fill up the rest of the screen. I'm pretty sure this must be a common issue and not only for win7 users.. Anyone can help me out with this?
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I like this one more:
@echo off
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe>nul
:loop
tasklist |find /i "starcraft.exe">nul
If errorlevel 1 goto nope
goto loop
:nope
start explorer.exe
It restores the explorer after u turn off sc. You have to run iccup launcher and sc first, then alt+tab, run this one and alt+tab again :}. I'm not the one who created it, I remember someone posting it on iccup forums, so dont give credit to me  . Anyway I'm using it and I like it so I decided to share :}.
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On October 17 2009 01:33 Smorrie wrote:
Different question!
When I run SC on my laptop (with Windows 7), it won't stretch the game full screen but stick to its original resolution and adds 'black bars' around it to fill up the rest of the screen. I'm pretty sure this must be a common issue and not only for win7 users.. Anyone can help me out with this?
I take it that it ran fine before with XP or Vista before the install? I know some laptops do this even on the other operating systems.
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-StrifeX-:
Windows 7.7600 x64
Geforce 9800 GT
AMD Athlon x64 Dual Core 3600+ 2.0 GHz
2 Gb DDR2 800 Mhz
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Smorrie the same problem, its so suck..
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Does that also fix in game lag? I do have insane lags since I use Windows 7. And no, I don't download neither does the opponent... its just "computer-lags".
My computer is not too bad either. 4GB DDR2-800Mhz, GForce 8800GTS, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2,6Ghz.
Maybe someone can help-.-
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On November 02 2009 07:20 G.s)NarutO wrote:
Does that also fix in game lag? I do have insane lags since I use Windows 7. And no, I don't download neither does the opponent... its just "computer-lags".
My computer is not too bad either. 4GB DDR2-800Mhz, GForce 8800GTS, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2,6Ghz.
Maybe someone can help-.-
i can tell you something is weird with starcraft in windows vista, i have no lag really but the menu switches take longer with like a 0.2 blackout between the switches. gotten used to it now but it was annoying as hell in the start.
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On November 02 2009 07:33 nttea wrote:Show nested quote +On November 02 2009 07:20 G.s)NarutO wrote:
Does that also fix in game lag? I do have insane lags since I use Windows 7. And no, I don't download neither does the opponent... its just "computer-lags".
My computer is not too bad either. 4GB DDR2-800Mhz, GForce 8800GTS, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2,6Ghz.
Maybe someone can help-.- i can tell you something is weird with starcraft in windows vista, i have no lag really but the menu switches take longer with like a 0.2 blackout between the switches. gotten used to it now but it was annoying as hell in the start.
It lags in game. Barely playable.
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Latest Nvidia drivers seem to make have fixed colours for me in windows 7. Using 8800 GTX
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On November 02 2009 08:11 Adeeler wrote:
Latest Nvidia drivers seem to make have fixed colours for me in windows 7. Using 8800 GTX
Colorbug is not the problem, its the ingame lag !...
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
On November 02 2009 08:02 G.s)NarutO wrote:Show nested quote +On November 02 2009 07:33 nttea wrote:On November 02 2009 07:20 G.s)NarutO wrote:
Does that also fix in game lag? I do have insane lags since I use Windows 7. And no, I don't download neither does the opponent... its just "computer-lags".
My computer is not too bad either. 4GB DDR2-800Mhz, GForce 8800GTS, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2,6Ghz.
Maybe someone can help-.- i can tell you something is weird with starcraft in windows vista, i have no lag really but the menu switches take longer with like a 0.2 blackout between the switches. gotten used to it now but it was annoying as hell in the start. It lags in game. Barely playable.
Fuck I just got this too =/
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I found that the behavior of my SC depended not on my OS but on the settings of my GPU. For example, factory-default Windows 7 puts starcraft at fixed-ratio which leaves black bars on both sides. That was entirely fixed, however, by tweaking with my GPU settings.
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To everyone with "in game lag", try the following and report back PLS im interested in maybe helping solve this.
Try :
1. Update CHIPSET drivers (thats the driver for part of you mobo, find it on your mobos website) [skip if you cant figure it out, but do try! You can use http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz/cpuz_152_setup.exe to find out your Mobo model/make].
2. Update Audio drivers.
3. Update Graphics drivers.
4. Turn off* CPU throttling (in game go to options then speed).
I had 2 friends have this fixed by upgrading audio drivers. The only thing else that might help is CPU affinity, if many still need lag fixed AFTER trying that I'll write a guide on how to do that.
edit - never ment to say turn that on, corrected to turn OFF
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If you set CPU Affinity to a single core you can set CPU Throttling OFF, helps against crashs. Killing Explorer 1st helps against colours.
Make sure to turn of unit animations & colourtile changing thingy too, then you become pretty much 100% stable.
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United States10774 Posts
gonna try to fix the in-game lag for windows 7
looks pretty complicated for a computer newb like myself though
is there a new simpler solution to this? so annoying
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United States10774 Posts
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Anyone able to get BW in fixed-aspect ratio (black bars on the sides) on a widescreen LCD using NVIDIA drivers?
Everytime I select "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio" and hit Apply, it reverts back to "Use my display's built-in scaling."
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On October 17 2009 01:33 Smorrie wrote:
Different question!
When I run SC on my laptop (with Windows 7), it won't stretch the game full screen but stick to its original resolution and adds 'black bars' around it to fill up the rest of the screen. I'm pretty sure this must be a common issue and not only for win7 users.. Anyone can help me out with this?
Finally found out how to 'fix' this (for ATI users). Apparently there's a bug in the ATI Catalyst Control Center which won't allow you to change the scaling options in Windows 7.. However if you switch your resolution to anything but the maximum res, it will actually work. Still sucks having to change your res just to play SC, but it's better than nothing :p
Now I'll be able to destroy everyone in 2010.
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On December 19 2009 09:00 comabreaded wrote:
Anyone able to get BW in fixed-aspect ratio (black bars on the sides) on a widescreen LCD using NVIDIA drivers?
Everytime I select "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio" and hit Apply, it reverts back to "Use my display's built-in scaling."
This means you MUST adjust a setting in your MONITORS options.
Find the options button on your monitor and look for ANYTHING related to aspect ratio and try various options.
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I have a problem with method two. While it does help with the colors, it kills my tool bar (task bar well the thing on the bottom), and i can't make it reappear until I log off and log back in. Can you help me wit this?
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wow this is excellent. I just tried option 3 and it worked perfectly. Like it says, just right click desktop and there should be an option for "screen resolution", above "gadgets" and "personalize", and you just leave that open and all the colors never glitch anymore. Usually my sc colors have been slightly messed up in the opening screen where you pick between single player, multiplayer, etc but this solution fixed even that.
edit: nevermind, sometimes this solution works and somethings it doesnt.. weird
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So instead of making a new thread, i might as well go ahead and bump this one.
I tried solution 2 and it worked beautifully. I think it may have also fixed the random freeze I sometimes get while playing Starcraft. Only problem is that when I do it, it eats up so much of my CPU and uses way more power than Starcraft should. Any ideas what might be causing this? and more importantly how to fix this? I have 6 gigs of ram and a Intel I7 920. I'll post my other specs if necessary but I doubt anything else is affecting it.
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On January 03 2010 19:14 MuffinDude wrote:
I have a problem with method two. While it does help with the colors, it kills my tool bar (task bar well the thing on the bottom), and i can't make it reappear until I log off and log back in. Can you help me wit this?
get to your task manager (control alt delete) -> new task -> enter "explorer"
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ok killing explorer works great, but
how do you start explorer again?
the "solution 1" in the first post won't restore it for me
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Ctrl+alt+delete - task manager - new task - type explorer.exe and hit enter
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On January 27 2010 06:15 crabapple wrote:
ok killing explorer works great, but
how do you start explorer again?
the "solution 1" in the first post won't restore it for me
I have opposite problem...when i run that cmd file it doesn't end explorer.exe...I have task manager open and run starcraftstarter.cmd..the explorer.exe is still running -_-;
also...does it supposed to start starcraft for me automatically?
edit:it seems like this program should automatically start starcraft for me...but it doesn't start BW..
I have bw installed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft\StarCraft.exe"
any help plz?
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EPT
