The Myth Of Refreshing The Desktop

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Metalspree

Metalspree

Galvanizer
"Do you refresh your desktop?". Ask this to any Windows user and 99% of them will reply with a "yes". Of course, there are various needs for refreshing the desktop but the majority of people who does it doesn't even know why he is doing it. Refreshing the desktop is perhaps the biggest computer myth among all Windows users.
Every single person I have met does this or at least used to do it. It's not known who first discovered this remarkably useless trick and what he achieved from it, but it just spread. Most new users learn this trick from other new users without caring to know what it does. Some do it devotedly just because others do it, while some others have various weird explanations for it. A few of them assumes that it refreshes the RAM, while some others believe that doing it will somehow keep their PCs running smooth and easy. I have seen some users obsessed with refreshing the desktop, doing it every 30 seconds or so. They have even learnt the keyboard shortcut - F5 (just to mention, these are the people who never use keyboard shortcuts). They would press the key and wouldn't release it for a long time, sending the desktop into a frenzy of refreshes.

What does a desktop refresh actually do? Refreshing the desktop simply redraws the icons on the desktop. That's it! It doesn't refreshes the RAM. It doesn't clean your PC. It doesn't refreshes your computer the way it does to you when you wake up from a nap. Refreshing the desktop has absolutely no effect on the working or performance of the computer. So why is the tool there? As I said, refresh is used to re-display or redraw the icons on the desktop. Sometimes when you bring some changes to the desktop icons, the change doesn't get reflected instantly. In such cases, refreshing the desktop becomes necessary to bring the change to effect. Say, you have the desktop icons set to arrange themselves alphabetically on your desktop. When you add a new item to the desktop, this item wouldn't get arranged alphabetically, instead it would appear at the bottom of icon list on the desktop, irrespective of it's name. Now if you refresh the desktop, all the icons would be once more arranged alphabetically and the newly added item would go to it's appropriate position. This is what refresh is for. It is to re-display the desktop. Refresh has the same function when done in explorer. Also Refresh is basically the command used to refresh/reload the video buffer(VGA memory). Sometimes the changes made in the VGA memory are not reflected to the screen properly...Refresh just corrects the prob...

So, if you are in the habit of refreshing the desktop, stop it. You are just wasting your time and effort. And the next time you see a person doing it, don't forget to explain to him the futility of this action.
 
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lol.. ive never refreshed windows after i came to know about its functions some years back when i was learning computers :P
 
but many people still think it frees up their RAM :P , i have personally seens lot of them doin it ,so thought i will just put a note here
 
This counts at the #1 most irritating thing to do with a PC. :|

SO many Indians do it for no frikkin-reason with almost mind-numbing regularity. For some reason, the DESKTOP is considering to be the COMPUTER. Like previously the brand-name on your Monitor was supposed to be your "Computer".

Frik frik frik. Irritated.
Payne
 
First post, esp the last para sounds like a chain mail :bleh:

Same feelings as expressed above :|
 
thnx for sharing the information , i have this habit of refreshing with my old computer with just 512 mb ram to free some ram :P but with my new comp i don't even bother to restart it ,forget refreshing :lol:
 
I disagree, I remember 128MB, 256Mb RAM days, after gaming, desktop (PC) takes ages to response, 1 refresh improved it miles, all system process transferred to page file, and main system memory (RAM) allocated to game. It helps !!!

yea its myth now coz we have better resources now, 2GB RAM is normal.
 
SidhuPunjab said:
I disagree, I remember 128MB, 256Mb RAM days, after gaming, desktop (PC) takes ages to response, 1 refresh improved it miles, all system process transferred to page file, and main system memory (RAM) allocated to game. It helps !!!

yea its myth now coz we have better resources now, 2GB RAM is normal.
Click to expand...
Yes i agree , systems with low rams do get effected by refresh (personal experience :P)
 
i never use to refresh and knew its useless. but there were times when i did on my old machine. i dont think it freed up the ram or anything, but the reason i sometimes did it was to see if the pc was busy doing something. like after i quit from a game, the pc would require a few seconds to entirely close the application. if the pc is busy, the icons will get refreshed slowly otherwise its fast. so i get an idea when to start another application instead of burdening it with another process.

in todays pc, its completely useless.
 
meh, i used to refresh it a lot @ work - it gives the impression that you are busy - especially if you do it with an agitated look on your face :P
 
If you're running low amounts of video memory, a refresh helps with desktop graphic corruption. That's the only instance where it needs to be used, AFAIK. I can't understand why guys who come to fix an internet connection refresh the desktop though. I face this issue only with my 3008 display, on smaller displays I've never had to use it. Also the issue is directly related to the card used. Integrated boards seem to exhibit corruption much more frequently than add-in cards (the 690G needs to be sometimes restarted for the display to become normal, whereas I've ever used the refresh option only once in 6 months of owning a 9600GT).
 
soggy316 said:
meh, i used to refresh it a lot @ work - it gives the impression that you are busy - especially if you do it with an agitated look on your face :P
Click to expand...

:ohyeah: ,u seem to be a busy dude at work
 
I refresh quite a bit. It's the one compulsive tick all PC users share :P.
And yes, I have always known it does nothing beyond redrawing the icons.
 
Hey. I thought desktop refresh was the same as

Code: 
RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll`,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters

I use this to refresh any changes to my desktop.

Correct me if I am wrong but this always works whenever I change my wallpaper via the registry and have to update the changes in explorer :S
 
Invision18.gif


why would anyone change their wallie through the registry?
 
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