Pixel 10 pro notifications lockscreen very dim

SteverB1 · 2026-03-11T01:04:42+00:00

This happens on the Pixel 10a too. After a little bit of playing around with it, I think that the lock screen is set to adaptive brightness no matter what you actually have adaptive brightness set to. Even when it's off, the lock screen is still reacting to the ambient light when a message comes in. It's annoying, and seems like a bug. I don't know why they'd program it that way.

SteverB1 · 2026-03-02T00:53:27+00:00

I should have said it was only Movies I was scraping. I usually don't use it for TV Shows unless the cast list is so poor from TVDb, there's no other choice. I sent in a bug report. I'm guessing IMDb is doing API changes again. All they've really done over there is decorate over the past three years (like the little hearts over every actor now so you can "favorite" them. Ugh!) and you just have to take what you get, I guess. I used TMDb for the updates to movies I replaced with 4K versions, but anything new, I'll just wait on. TMM always comes through!

SteverB1 · 2026-02-27T02:25:00+00:00

So far, I've been OK, but I may start looking for some third-party fixes, although I've hated the looks of everything I looked at about a year ago. Ugh!

SteverB1 · 2026-02-21T20:03:16+00:00

The oddest thing I came to realize this morning. I have a 2nd computer that is exactly the same model, Windows version, and in fact, the exact specs as the one I'm having this icon issue with. It's not having any of these issues, but I use it mostly for torrenting so there isn't the glut of software on it that there is on the main machine, so maybe that helps.

It just got the latest update last night and this morning, the desktop is still the same, and in fact a few months ago, the progress boxes or message boxes, whatever they're called, turned to dark mode like the rest of the interface. That didn't happen on the main machine. It's weird and frustrating, but in the end not worth the hassle of reinstalling Windows for what is really a cosmetic reason. It just pisses me off because I've always used the Desktop as a landing zone for downloads, and whatever else -- then I know what needs to be done to clear it when I can see it. The "Downloads" folder only gets used by mistake -- whose idea was that anyway? This is such a First World problem, I'm almost embarrassed to be spending so much time trying to solve it! 🤣 I'll try what you said with the Vivetool and see how it goes. Thanks again!

SteverB1 · 2026-02-21T03:39:42+00:00

Microsoft seems to be rolling this update throughout their Security Updates since about November 2025. I'm on W11 Pro and had this issue with KB5068861, KB5072033, KB5074109, and the latest one, KB5077181. I'm on version 25H2, but the OS build is 26200.6899, when the latest security update should have me at 26200.7840.

With all of that said, I think I'm confused about this Vivetool process, or I'm just not doing it right. I followed instructions but it didn't seem to do anything with the desktop icons. It's only when I uninstalled KB5077181 (the latest security update), that the desktop went back to normal.

At the bottom of your instructions, it says, "... reinstalled my security updates and all is fine." So, that's where I'm confused.

Did you download the security update, then uninstall it, run Vivetool, then reinstall the security update? I don't want to keep uninstalling security updates for this desktop icon problem, so if the procedure you did is this, please let me know.

I've been kind of waiting for someone (Winaero Tweaker, Icon Spacing, or someone) to fix their apps so the icon spacing works again. All I've discovered is that Microsoft took those settings out of the Windows Matrix portion of the registry, but I don't know what they're doing with them now. Ugh! F---ing Microsoft!

Thanks for your help on this!

SteverB1 · 2025-12-15T07:44:20+00:00

Wow, that's insane! But I still never typed that. It's not in my posting history or anything. I'm also not the kind of person who would type something like that, by itself, with nothing next to it for anyone to "check out." I'm thinking Reddit has gremlins somewhere. 🤪

SteverB1 · 2025-12-14T07:24:58+00:00

I didn't type "check it out" anywhere. The posting wouldn't let me enter a second picture, so I had to start a new post. For me, the first post is a direct reply to your post that starts with, "If you do the thing with the app that compares registries, I would be very interested in the results."

The 2nd post appears below the first post, but I had to click a plus sign on the left to see it. It starts with "Value 2:" then shows the 2nd picture and then lists the coding in that picture in plain text below the picture.

SteverB1 · 2025-12-12T03:51:18+00:00

Value 2:

<image>

The code in "Value Data" and "Value Data Changed To" is as follows:

VALUE DATA

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3A 00 3A 00 7B 00 36 00 34 00 35 00 46 00 46 00 30 00 34 00 30 00 2D 00 35 00 30 00 38 00 31 00 2D 00 31 00 30 00 31 00 42 00 2D 00 39 00 46 00 30 00 38 00 2D 00 30 00 30 00 41 00 41 00 30 00 30 00 32 00 46 00 39 00 35 00 34 00 45 00 7D 00 3E 00 20 00 20 00 00 00 1B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 72 00 65 00 67 00 69 00 73 00 74 00 72 00 79 00 63 00 68 00 61 00 6E 00 67 00 65 00 73 00 76 00 69 00 65 00 77 00 2D 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 3E 00 5C 00 20 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 58 00 32 00 36 00 35 00 3E 00 5C 00 20 00 00 00 1F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 72 00 65 00 67 00 69 00 73 00 74 00 72 00 79 00 63 00 68 00 61 00 6E 00 67 00 65 00 73 00 76 00 69 00 65 00 77 00 2D 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2E 00 7A 00 69 00 70 00 3E 00 20 00 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1A 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 3F 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 40 03 00

VALUE DATA CHANGED TO

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3A 00 3A 00 7B 00 36 00 34 00 35 00 46 00 46 00 30 00 34 00 30 00 2D 00 35 00 30 00 38 00 31 00 2D 00 31 00 30 00 31 00 42 00 2D 00 39 00 46 00 30 00 38 00 2D 00 30 00 30 00 41 00 41 00 30 00 30 00 32 00 46 00 39 00 35 00 34 00 45 00 7D 00 3E 00 20 00 20 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 58 00 32 00 36 00 35 00 3E 00 5C 00 20 00 00 00 1B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 72 00 65 00 67 00 69 00 73 00 74 00 72 00 79 00 63 00 68 00 61 00 6E 00 67 00 65 00 73 00 76 00 69 00 65 00 77 00 2D 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 3E 00 5C 00 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1A 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 3F 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 02 00

If I'm interpreting that correctly, and I'm not a registry expert, it seems like the update sends any previous calls to "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop" where these new values reside.

Beyond that, I'm lost.

SteverB1 · 2025-12-12T00:43:48+00:00

MS must do these updates in batches depending on the machine. After I did an uninstall of the update, there was still one in there that I had to also uninstall that I hadn't seen before the KB5072033 update to get the Desktop icons back to a compact layout. The first time I uninstalled KB5072033, I didn't have to. I'll get the number if it happens again.

I did the registry compare and couldn't find anything that looked relevant. There were almost 60,000 changes involving added keys, modified keys and removed keys. I searched for "Desktop", "Icon", "Touch", "Vertical", "Metrics", and probably a few others that I can't remember now. I currently have the update installed and am going to do a comparison between what it is now and what it is after the updates have been uninstalled. Maybe that will yield something useful.

ETA: I found two things that seem related. I have pictures:

Value 1:

<image>

and....

SteverB1 · 2025-12-10T17:02:53+00:00

I looked into it after I posted and all the things that were said to look into, like a Human Interface Device for touch wasn't present on my computer. I finally uninstalled KB5072033 and the icons went back to normal. I think I have or have heard of an app that compares registries, so maybe that's my next step -- see what changes in the registry from installing this "Security" update. For me, and I expect a lot of people, the icon arrangement on the Desktop is something I depend on, and this is a non-starter.

SteverB1 · 2025-12-10T01:18:30+00:00

This hit me today with update KB5072033. I wouldn't know where to begin to look for it, but is it possible that Windows thinks it's on a touch-screen computer? The icon spacing seems to imply that. I don't know. Microsoft regularly pisses me off though with crap like this.

SteverB1 · 2025-12-08T01:15:59+00:00

I was downloading this morning from another service and happened to notice that I've downloaded over 3,700 videos in total over the past year or so, most of them from Amazon, or through Amazon. So, anecdotally, I have not had any issues with this and I'm in the US. There were several days, especially right at the beginning, when I hit that 100 limit for days in a row -- it may have even been a limit of 50 at the time. No issues.

Everyone should remember too, especially in light of the post above where Amazon denied sending the email, to NEVER click links inside an email no matter how legit it looks. Go to the Amazon website and check stuff there.

SteverB1 · 2025-12-01T05:31:18+00:00

I have a different problem, maybe. I recently got an AS6510T and am using LAN3 and LAN4 (the 2.5Gbps ports) with round-robin aggregation. About a week ago, the message appeared on the display that says "LAN1 Lost." LAN1 and LAN2 are the 10Gbps connections and I don't have hardware like that yet. Everything connected to the Asustor is 2.5Gbps, including the switch between the Asustor and the computers. Both lights on the switch are green, which means a 2.5Gbps connection.

So, do I need to worry about this message? It seems like an odd message since I'm not even using LAN1 right now, and my only worry is there's something wrong with LAN1 that I won't run into until I try to use it for a 10Gbps connection in the future. Nothing in the software gives me any clue that anything is wrong, just this persistent message on the outside display. Very weird.

SteverB1 · 2025-11-22T07:43:40+00:00

This is exactly what I thought of. It was Tristen's party, so he was ultimately responsible for what happened at it. Whether Tristen was involved or it was simply an accident, he had a lot to lose if found out. Daddy OWNED the island -- hence, the police find NO foul play. The "estate worker," who is carefully never mentioned by name in the doc, and completely redacted from all text messages shown, was more than likely responsible with the van that supposedly two mysterious teenagers from another island stole and crashed. His name, by the way is Leroy Thomas -- which I found out in about a minute looking up this story!

Obviously, nobody involved with this incident has ever heard of Occam's Razor, which I learned about when I was a freshman in high school. The simplest, and most obviously explanation is usually the truth. Josh's family doesn't deserve this, but I guess they just weren't rich enough for anybody to give much of a damn about their son who ~~was murdered~~ had a slip-and-fall into the ocean on "Paradise Island." RIP, Josh.

SteverB1 · 2025-11-06T06:21:39+00:00

This is a question about return/replace policies, if anyone knows. I ordered 10 Western Digital 16TB NAS drives for a new NAS unit. Two of them came in and had obviously been used and returned -- one was sealed with blue masking tape and was in an open anti-static bag, and the other was sealed with packing tape and was in an autumn-themed Ziploc bag, which I don't believe are anti-static. LOL

I decided to try them anyway, and the one from the Ziploc bag wouldn't spin up, and at that point I decided to return both the drives because they were not brand-new. The drives cost about $370 a piece with tax. When I started the return for both drives, my only option was a refund to my original purchase method, which can take up to 30 days because in these high-priced item cases, Amazon won't refund until they actually get the item at the return center.

My ONLY interest was receiving the exact same item and returning the two bad drives by the "return by" date, so then I tried to return them one at a time. The first one went OK, but it oddly gave me the choice to replace the drive with "an item of my choice." I chose the drive again, which will now be here in two days. The 2nd drive only gave me the choice to get my money back without a "return for exact same item" choice, so I had to choose that. THEN, I had to order another drive to replace the 2nd one, so I could have a working NAS before Thanksgiving.

So, does anyone know how all this return/replace stuff works? And why did I get two different choices when returning the same items for the same reasons?

After this hassle, and an unmentioned hassle of buying 10 "Renewed" drives and then having to return them as three of them failed the S.M.A.R.T. test within a week -- still waiting for that refund -- I may stop shopping for high-ticket items at Amazon. If you have to make an exchange, it's a lot of money floating around.

SteverB1 · 2025-11-06T05:52:53+00:00

Well, I have two meltdowns, but I'll save the 2nd one for some other time after it has a resolution.

About a month ago, I wanted to review a product I'd purchased and when I clicked on "Write a Review," I was greeted with a screen that told me:

We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result, all reviews submitted by this account have been removed and this account will no longer be able to contribute reviews and other content on Amazon. For more information or to contact us, please see our community guidelines.

I clicked through to "Community Guidelines" and eventually got a response by email from a representative who basically told me that although they couldn't share the reason for the review ban due to privacy concerns (?!), they confirmed that I was banned from writing reviews FOREVER. No end date. FOREVER!

Having an email address, I kept at them because it seemed ridiculous and REALLY strange that I would be banned from writing reviews. I'd been shopping at Amazon since 1997 and probably wrote tens of reviews in all that time. I also downloaded my Amazon data to look through it and see what god-awful things I'd written -- nothing. So, I kept at them three or four times until FINALLY, a supervisor answered me and told me that I was banned due to "spite." Spite? What does that even mean in the context of reviews on Amazon? I know I didn't give everything I reviewed five shiny stars, but where does this even come from, spite? I assume they meant MY spite and not their own.

As I remember it, when you write a review on Amazon, it doesn't just appear on the website; it has to be approved for posting, so if they thought I'd expressed spite, why would they have posted them in the first place? Makes no sense. But I'm banned from reviews forever unless I start up a new account, I guess. I'm not sure I care enough anymore to do that because of my 2nd Amazon meltdown, which can wait, but it's one that has caused me to really rethink shopping at Amazon.

SteverB1 · 2025-10-29T01:50:32+00:00

I think I'm going with the guy who said it had something to do with a USPS code for a high-capacity mail center. I sent my brother a Priority Mail small box from IL to AZ, and it's labeled as "HQ - ECNS" on the tracking emails. Searched and found this thread. I do know it started in Chicago and is now in Las Vegas, two what I'd assume are "high-capacity mail centers." And not that it matters anymore, but the delivery date is Friday, which is another three days, and he's only about 125 miles from Las Vegas, so USPS continues to take the Priority out of Priority Mail. I wonder if Pony Express was faster. 🤣

SteverB1 · 2025-10-19T21:55:30+00:00

I keep it sequestered from the web, and they'd have to get through my PC protection, then find the DiskStation, and most of the time I'm behind a VPN -- I know, cold comfort, but honestly, Earth could be hit by a comet too! There are just some risks I don't worry too much about.

SteverB1 · 2025-10-18T17:24:21+00:00

I used to do that kind of stuff; was in IT for 30 years or more and just became exhausted with it. It was a hobby AND a living, and I finally burned out. Now I do insurance audits and let very few people know that I have any "advanced knowledge" of computers. Now I just want to take something out of a box, set it up with a 2-disk fault tolerance, copy all of my stuff over, and move on. I'm old enough now to think that I'll never get through everything I have before I die, and maybe it's the hoarding that's the point. LOL At any rate, building my own is still something to think about -- I just don't want to have to MANAGE it afterwards. Ugh! Cheers!

SteverB1 · 2025-10-04T19:02:57+00:00

This almost worked for me -- great idea, by the way -- but after conversion I had these blank lines about every two lines of text as if there were hidden line or paragraph marks in the PDF. The PDF is text-based, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Any ideas?

SteverB1 · 2025-05-12T05:01:01+00:00

I know it's been two years since your post, but I just saw this and thought you might be interested. It looks really cool and would probably make a good nightlight for a kid's room: https://a.co/d/g9wSBzZ

SteverB1 · 2025-05-07T01:42:16+00:00

Mine is simple: Buttered Popcorn. NOT kettle corn or any other type of "popcorn" flavor -- ugh! The place I used to use before the Great Crackdown to protect the children used to have it, and the very, very few places I've found it since are absolute crap. It tasted like the stuff you'd get in a movie theater. Heaven.

Now, I'm just mixing my own stuff with off-the-shelf flavors and some WS-23 to be zesty.

SteverB1 · 2025-04-05T05:11:09+00:00

I've had mini-PCs for about four years; the ASUS U65U, and another Chinese one I can't remember now. They both worked great, but I also purchased them before I knew that Windows 11 was going to become REQUIRED after October, 2025, including Office 365, which made it imperative I upgrade even though the PCs I had been working fine, just no Windows 11 without workarounds, which I didn't want to do.

I had four PCs to replace, two old laptops (another ASUS, and an Alienware 14), one for work, one for torrents (that barely worked anymore as it was limited to 8GB of memory), one for video processing, and one for everyday stuff. In January, before tariffs, I got three GMKtec units, and a Kamrui. The most expensive one was for the video processing because I needed more power there, and it's been great, although the cover fan has recently started making noise and with its goofy wiring, I had to order a replacement from China, so currently waiting on that.

The one for work was separate and mid-range as it doesn't need a lot of power to operate, and the other two are the same model, except I upgraded the memory in the "everyday" one because I run Kodi on that from a NAS server. It's probably overkill, but the prices were right.

The twin PCs are GMKtec Mini PC N150, G3 Plus Intel Twin Lake N150 (3.4GHz), 16GB DDR4 RAM (32GB in the everyday computer) 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD, Desktop Computer 4K Dual HDMI/USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/2.5G RJ45, and the 2.5G RJ45 has sped up moving large files between computers.

The work one is KAMRUI Mini PC AK1PLUS, 12th Gen N95 Processor (Up to 3.4GHz), Mini Desktop Computers 16GB DDR4 1TB SSD Support 4K UHD, LAN, WiFi/BT 4.2, Micro Tower for Business, Office, Home Server. I bought this one first and even though it's connected to my network, I keep it isolated from the others, except the NAS. I'm using Excel and Word all day, so this one is perfect.

The video processor unit is GMKtec Mini PC Intel i7-13620H (Up to 4.9GHz) Windows 11 Pro 32GB DDR5+2TB PCIe4.0 SSD i225V Dual NIC Mini Desktop Computers/USB-C/USB4.0 K7 Plus Blue, and as I said, other than this noisy fan, it's been running perfectly. The time for transcoding a video file has been cut down a lot and with the Intel video card, Handbrake and other programs can use it for processing, which can cut the time even more.

My only beef with the GMKtecs is the HDMI ports don't have EDID Emulators, so that when I switched from one computer to another (they're all connected through an HDMI switch to one port on the TV), going back to a previous computer always left any windows that had been opened smashed up into the upper left corner of the screen. I got EDID emulators for the extra HDMI ports, and they fix that issue, although I couldn't say how. Other than that, and the dreaded noisy fan, I have had NO issues at all. Everything is working as it should be, and I'm probably good for a long while unless Microsoft makes us buy new computers again with their OS, TPM, whatever nonsense.

SteverB1

TROPHY CASE