Windows 10: Windows Border Missing!

Question

Windows 10: Windows Border Missing!

Anonymous

Hi,

I just got a new Windows 10 work laptop (Surface 4 Laptop) it's all up-to-date with the latest drivers and updates.

However, I realized that there are no borders on the active Windows Explorer window. It's flush with the background which happens to be white in this case.

Tried everything, incl. Adv system settings --> Enable show shadows under windows, etc., but didn't help.

I realize that I can always do personalize --> choose your accent color --> Title bars and windows, but I do NOT want to color my title bars -- I just need the windows shadows.

BTW, this issue doesn't occur on my home PC which happens to be Dell XPS, also on Win 10, latest drivers and updates -- same version of Windows as my work PC.

Any suggestions you may have will be tremendously helpful!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi Neo_1981,

Thank you for the response and update on this. I'm sorry to hear that the issue persist even after running the steps provided. I'm not sure what could be causing the issue where the shadow wont apply even after changing the settings then restarting. I think this would be best if handled by our live support for us to be able to do a remote session and check on the device. Please contact our live support for further assistance. You may contact them through the numbers listed in Global Customer Service phone numbers (microsoft.com) under For Business users. This works with Home users also, just select Surface then Home as a type of user in the IVR prompt. You may also reach them through this page: Contact Us - Microsoft Support following the steps below:

1: Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support and sign-in your personal Microsoft Account

2: To make sure you are using the correct locale of the page, click the Globe icon on the lower-left corner of the page then select the country you are in.

3: Click Get support

4: On the Describe your issue box, type in Contact support then click on Get Help

5: Click on Contact Support at the bottom

4: On the next page, select Surface then Technical support then choose your Surface model and click on Confirm

5: These options should appear depending on which is available on you country. It would also show the available time of support if in case you accessed the page out of the time of operations.

       You may select **Provide your phone number and a support agent will call you** option and you will be ask to select and confirm your phone number then click **Confirm**. You will then receive a phone call from support in a while. 

      Selecting **Chat with support agent in your web browser** will ask you to confirm the email address associated with your Microsoft Account then click **Confirm**.

Kind regards,

Marrion

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3 additional answers

Answer 1

Hi Neo_1981,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear that the display effects is not working as it should on your Surface Pro 4.

Enabling the Show shadows under windows in Visual Effects tab under Performance Options should make this effect below:

I'm not sure what could be causing the issue on your end why it does not apply when you enable this setting. Have you tried restarting the device after enabling the option?

Please try also running these steps below and see if this helps:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit

See: Fix common Surface problems using the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit (microsoft.com)

2: Check for Windows Update

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security and select Check for updates

Make sure all updates need are installed including Optional updates

3: Update drivers and firmware

Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About.

Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro

Then click the link next to Surface Pro 4 then click Download on the next page.

Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next.

After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart.

4: Run System File Checker Tool

See: Using System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com)

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

Hi Marrion,

Yes! that's the exact UX I am looking for --

Ran through all of your suggestions, the bug still persists.

Restarted PC a couple times (also unchecked the shadows option -- restarted -- check the shadows option -- restarted), but no change.
Surface diag tool didn't find anything wrong -- seems more geared towards hardware fixes
& 3. All windows update/ drivers are up-to-date
Ran through a full cycle of system file checker tool too

Any other suggestions? I am happy to let MSFT engineers look deeper into my system if that would help.

Answer 3

Thank you, Marrion!

I just spoke to someone in support and they solved this problem for me! Turns out it's related to some registry setting that had to be manually changed. My support agent was fantastic and he persisted trying through different channels and finally got it working. I am SO glad that I called (TBH, I didn't have much hopes, but I did it anyways since this was annoying me so much).

Thank you again.