My step-daughter has a habit of logging in and walking away from the computer. It ultimately times out and I’m left with the login page. Her account says “2 programs” running.
I log in, do my thing, and now want to log off. I choose “log off”, not “switch users”, because I don’t want to be logged on.
When I do, after my saving my settings, I get a black screen which seems to stay a while before the login page reappears.
This doesn’t seem right to me. Shouldn’t the login page reappear immediately after I’m logged off?
The behaviour you describe sounds normal to me. Depending on how much memory, what programs are left running, processor speed, etc., it can take awhile for that screen to come up. I’ve had it happen to me a couple of times, but mostly not. You could probably make things smoother with more memory/faster processor, but as long as you aren’t losing data or user settings I’d say it’s fine.
I don’t have this problem but I’ll tell you how user switching works on XP so you have something to compare it to:
-If you walk away w/o logging off and your screen saver settings say “On resume show Welcome screen” then once you return from the screen save you’ll be at the login screen again.
If you switch users or the above happens, you’ll still be logged in and the login screen will show how many programs you have running. Your programs will still be running, too. When you switch users you’ll be sent to the login screen.
If you log out all of your programs are closed and you get sent to the login screen. Your user name will not have any “programs running” next to it.
Seems kind of weird to me the way your machine is behaving considering its speed and RAM. Hopefully someone else can come help.
Also, how long is “a while” when you talk about this black screen? Minutes or seconds?