window content not changing until mouse out

Question

I have two separate PCs with XP SP3.
On one, in Windows Explorer, the scrollbars appear/disappear and resize as I am resizing the window itself.
On the other one, everything is static until after I let go of the mouse click.

The same thing happens in IE (both version 7). On one, the elements resize and rearrange dynamically. On the other, nothing happens until I let go.

I'm figuring it's a Windows setting somewhere???

Answer 1

I'm not sure I'm understanding you 100% but my understanding is that you want to display the contents of windows while dragging.

If so...

This setting is found here:

Right click an empty area of your desktop. Select Appearance Select the Effects button Place a checkmark in the "Show window contents while dragging" checkbox to enable this setting. Remove the checkmark to disable it.

Answer 2

You want System Properties > Advanced

then in the "Performance" Settings > Visual Effects

check the setting of the following items in the list:

"Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing"
"Show window contents while dragging"

It could be that the machines have graphics cards with different capabilities and if you've got the "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" option selected it will turn off features like this if it thinks the graphics card can't cope.