Windows 8 Dev build

Blazkowicz said:
I changed Mate's bottom panel layout some days ago for instance, and got a decent dual-row task list of it. I also decided the bottom left only had a desktop switcher and nothing else.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Taskbars.

I just noticed something freaking awesome in Windows 8. You can have display independent taskbars. Which means you can have...

- Classic taskbar with one taskbar on one display that contains all open windows.

- A taskbar on every display and all taskbars show all windows that are open.

- A taskbar on every display with the primary display taskbar containing all windows and other display taskbars only containing windows that are open on that display.

- A taskbar on every display and each taskbar only displays the windows that are open on that display. Makes it very easy to keep track of multiple windows as you always know exactly which display a window is on.

In addition to that all taskbars can be independently configured. So for example, if I wanted, I can have a taskbar on my Left monitor at the top edge that is 6 rows deep. Center (main monitor) taskbar on the bottom. While my taskbar on the right monitor is right hand side.

It also means that you should be able to launch an application from taskbar directly into the display you want it to open on by putting that application onto the taskbar on the display that you want.

Fantastic stuff.

The more I use Windows 8 the more I realize it's just so much better than Windows 7. Vista on the other hand still has some things I prefer, oddly enough. But not enough that I'd want to keep using Vista, which isn't something I could say for Windows 7. Since I had 1x Windows 7 machine and 2x Vista machines.

Regards,
SB
 
Silent_Buddha said:
...
Fantastic stuff.

The more I use Windows 8 the more I realize it's just so much better than Windows 7. Vista on the other hand still has some things I prefer, oddly enough. But not enough that I'd want to keep using Vista, which isn't something I could say for Windows 7. Since I had 1x Windows 7 machine and 2x Vista machines.

Regards,
SB
Click to expand...

one thing that has been annoying me a lot, is that I use the following setup in Vista that Microsoft has removed in Windows 7 and up:

In Vista, I've got my quicklaunch bar detached from the taskbar, and have it docked to the top of the screen, displaying large icons. Maybe a bit comparable to the 'dock' in Mac OSX (just graphically less fancy). In Windows 7 and up, I am no longer able to detach the quicklaunch bar from the taskbar.

I'm assuming MS did this to promote the taskbar as quicklaunch bar in Windows 7, by pinning applications. However, it doesn't work well when you pin a lot of applications (e.g. as many as I have in my Vista quicklaunch bar). Basically, this is a deterioration in usability, and now requires third-party software to achieve similar usability as in Vista.

Another thing that annoys me, is that with pinning to the taskbar in Windows 7 and up, you now need 3 clicks to access 'run as administrator' where it only required 2 clicks with the Quicklaunch bar in Windows Vista.
 
Interesting, I don't usually undock any of the toolbars so I never noticed that had changed.

What I miss the most from Vista was having column headers in Explorer even when not in Details view. That makes it so much easier to go through a large number of folders quickly if I need to sort by date created, date modified, then name, then type, etc. Being able to just one click to do each one of those is so nice. At least Win8 is slightly better than Win7 in that respect with the ribbon bar. But still not nearly as quick and convenient.

Regards,
SB
 
In Windows 7 I decided I didn't like the file manager so I used Cubic Explorer instead, free and very decent. Windows explorer used too much space, you try using it on 1024x768.. I would end up with a couple of full screened windows, and hardly able to drag'n'drop to a music player.

Nice read up on taskbars, I wonder if you can trick into showing you two task bars even on one display :LOL:
I guess I'd like a second display but it would have to be a really tiny one. I used to have a 12" CRT way back, charming but only 640x480. A small LCD would be fun.
 
Blazkowicz said:
In Windows 7 I decided I didn't like the file manager so I used Cubic Explorer instead, free and very decent. Windows explorer used too much space, you try using it on 1024x768.. I would end up with a couple of full screened windows, and hardly able to drag'n'drop to a music player.

Nice read up on taskbars, I wonder if you can trick into showing you two task bars even on one display :LOL:
I guess I'd like a second display but it would have to be a really tiny one. I used to have a 12" CRT way back, charming but only 640x480. A small LCD would be fun.
Click to expand...

Here's a 7" LCD monitor. :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824185013

800x480 even.

They even make an 8.9" one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824185014

1024x600. :)

You can also still find 14-16" LCDs. :)

If they made something like that with a touchscreen, I'd be tempted to get one and then turn the entire monitor into one big taskbar. :)

Regards,
SB
 
Blazkowicz said:
I looked at 14" and 15" and there were all touchscreens ;), well, both of them + variations on an overpriced, old 1024x768 iiyama.
The other one is that funny "Lenovo Thinkvision" which also eats very few power but is USB video only.
http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00138281.html
Click to expand...

Cute. I might have to go see if they have something like that but smaller. Like in the 8" to 10" range. Maybe as large as 12". USB video only would be fine as I'd only want to use it as a glorified touch taskbar, no windows or other things would need to be displayed on it.

Regards,
SB
 
Can't you use tablet for that? I believe there are some apps that can transform your phone/tablet into a secondary screen. There are lots of 10inch Chinese tablets with an IPS screen under 200. Add a bit more and you can have retina display, which I'm sure have higher resolution than your current monitor :)
 
Tablet would be overkill for what's basically a glorified touch taskbar (both in power and power consumption). :) As would be a retina display.

Regards,
SB
 
Running Store apps in a window is the main thing I hope to see with "Blue". I can understand that the tablets are limited to full screen apps but I don't think there's any reason to have the same restriction on the desktop.
 
So if I understand this properly, MS have removed all the UI font customisations from W7? I used specific fonts to make everything more readable (Tahoma forever!). And now I can't.

I am being a moron or have these options actually been hidden from users in Win 8?
 
Oh god I hate Cleartype.

If I can't change these bastard badly scaled fonts I'm going to clean my eyeballs with wire wool and go back to Windows 7.
 
fellix said:
Click to expand...

Ah, that is lovely! I just tried it, and really happy with it. Suggests that basically this is a feature that Microsoft just wasn't ready for. But they better get it in there by default. It's exactly what I want. Good chance that I'll part with 4.99$ if I'm still happy with it at the end of the month.
 
function said:
Oh god I hate Cleartype.

If I can't change these bastard badly scaled fonts I'm going to clean my eyeballs with wire wool and go back to Windows 7.
Click to expand...

You mean you like cleartype, and you hate that in Win8 it's gone. Since Cleartype doesn't work well when the screen is rotated, there is no sub-pixel positioning in Metro apps, and in desktop IE as well since it shares the same engine as Metro IE.

As well, modern desktop apps like Office 2013 don't use coloured sub-pixel, while they do use sub-pixel rendering for the text (I...think?), they're grayscale.

Basically, font rendering took a big step backwards in Win8 due to yet another compromise forced by running the OS on tablets.
 
Dave Glue said:
You mean you like cleartype, and you hate that in Win8 it's gone.
Click to expand...

No, I hate cleartype! It's not gone from the Windows 8 desktop!

I've turned it off - plain old scaling fonts are better as they don't have full technicolor edges - but unfortunately I can't get rid of the scaling fonts from most things.

Thankfully Firefox allows me to use none scaling fonts for most things (like B3D). It's so much more readable than IE on the desktop. On a high dpi screen scaling fonts would probably be okay, so Surface Pro would probably be fine, but on a 1920 x 1200 monitor then the hell with scaling fonts.
 
Using win 8 for the last week or so. The kernel seems good, reasonably quick and low memory footprint. Alttab & ctrlaltdel do lag sometimes though. One thing is that's bugged me if an apps taking 100 I should be able to kill it instantly (been a bit spoilt on the Mac cause it does react instantly but windows still lags) I installed paint.net and had to reboot machine wtf. I can't uninstall update windows modules. I've tried to disable it but it ignores my request. I've rebooted the win8 machine maybe 20 and about 15 of those I've gotta wait until it installs windows modules. Pita I turn the machine on and can't us it for 1/2 hour.
I went in with an open mind about the start program stage think ppl are exagerrating how bad it was. Boy was I wrong what the hell were ms thinking OK 95% of the time its cool I'm on the desktop but occasionally it boots me into that part. Even if my screen was a touchscreen I reckon it was would still suck. Sure ms want to push their 'vision' but this is just gonna piss most users off
 
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