XYplorer Beta Club

Windows 8.1 (Big Blue) is due out this fall and according to this article http://www.zdnet.com/windows-8-1-unveil ... &ttag=e539 there are many new improvements and additions. The "Start" menu is back for sure. [EDIT: Sorry I goofed, a Start button is back but not the old menu.] "File Explorer is getting a significant change" according to the hands on review done with Microsoft. If they were smart they'd buy out Don's XYpolorer for $20,000,000 and in addition, contract him to continue working on it.
Ken

Hi Ken,

klownboy wrote:The "Start" menu is back for sure.

Nope, the "old" start menu won't return. What indeed will come back is an explicit "start button/icon" to make the left-down hot corner visually explicit. It could be that the "Modern UI tile page" is additionally modified so that it becomes more obvious what it really is: the contemporary incarnation of the "old" start menu.


Cheers,
Filehero

Hi Filehero,

I hope all is well. I should have looked at the article closer...a new button but no menu actual menu. That's the way I tend to look at the Windows 8 change, the new Start screen is simply a replacement for the old start menu. I don't use the start menu all that much on my other Windows 7 machine. There are so many other better ways to access and run programs. It does appear that they are trying to make it not so obvious when one is switching between desktop and the Start screen (e.g., you can have the same desktop background on each along with new ways to configure the start screen). It does look like we'll be able to boot directly to the desktop with out some work around or hack. I suppose all these other companies like Stardock will be pushing out new updates for their replacement "Start menus".

In general I think 8 has been getting way too much bad rap. People just don't like change. I'm actually liking it. It runs fast, it boots fast and like any Windows version before it, you can do all kinds of tweaks to it. With "Fast boot" set "off", my I7-3770K with a Samsung 840 Pro SSD boots in less than 20 seconds. I bought an additional copy (when it was cheap), but I may wait until the update to install it on my other desktop.

Take care,
Ken

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klownboy wrote:In general I think 8 has been getting way too much bad rap. People just don't like change. I'm actually liking it. It runs fast, it boots fast and like any Windows version before it, you can do all kinds of tweaks to it. With "Fast boot" set "off", my I7-3770K with a Samsung 840 Pro SSD boots in less than 20 seconds. I bought an additional copy (when it was cheap), but I may wait until the update to install it on my other desktop.

grindax wrote:I completely agree with this. Many of the things people complain about to do with Windows 8 are complete non-issues. They simply haven't taken the time to learn just a few new keyboard and/or mouse shortcuts. Doing so would greatly increase their satisfaction with the new OS. And as for under the hood, it's the most solid version of Windows ever.

Yeah, all that whining is a funny thing. I'm still especially wondering about those calling themselves "IT pros" (for whatever that means). First of all, I'm really keen to know what the heck all those pros are doing throughout the day, that a tiled start screen/missing old start menu is capable of bringing their productivity all the way down to zero. Secondly, with some of those special guys I really have a hard time to believe they're even able to get up every morning without a nurse.

No doubt, MS has done a really bold move with all those UI changes. Some of them are really "weird" (hidden functionalities which are rather hard to get used to with a mouse-centric workflow). And the possibilities for personalization are way too restricted yet. But this "I don't want that tile crap" is childish utter nonsense. I like them.

Yes, it's the best Windows ever - and I have also bought two Win 8 Pro licenses.


Cheers,
Filehero

Filehero wrote: Yeah, all that whining is a funny thing. I'm still especially wondering about those calling themselves "IT pros" (for whatever that means). First of all, I'm really keen to know what the heck all those pros are doing throughout the day, that a tiled start screen/missing old start menu is capable of bringing their productivity all the way down to zero. Secondly, with some of those special guys I really have a hard time to believe they're even able to get up every morning without a nurse.

I fully agree. It makes me wonder if many of these people are really Mac users (my girlfriend included), most of which don't really want to know or care to know what's going on behind the scenes in the operating/file system and would have no use for programs like XYplorer. "Oh dear, I can't open my program through the Start Menu. What do I do now?" They should keep quiet, go home and play on their iPads.
Ken

klownboy wrote:It makes me wonder if many of these people are really Mac users (my girlfriend included), ....

Although, with OS X you can go quite deep if you like.

I'm really looking forward seeing the 2nd generation Surface Pro's based on Haswell (or even Broadwell) cpu's released. Thinking about having a fully-fledged Win 8 Pro tablet with a battery life and weight not far away from a current iPad is really exciting.


Cheers,
Filehero

klownboy wrote:It makes me wonder if many of these people are really Mac users (my girlfriend included), most of which don't really want to know or care to know what's going on behind the scenes in the operating/file system and would have no use for programs like XYplorer.

Huh? That seems much the opposite. The whole reason I went searching for programs like XYP is that I feel strongly that a program's UI should only change if I want it to. Change isn't always bad, but it isn't always good either, and I like being able to make that choice. Thus: a 3rd party program to bring back a start menu that looks and behaves like XP's, a 3rd party program to bring back a file manager that looks and behaves like XP's, etc. On the other hand, I went looking for a 3rd party program to bring back a search interface like XP's (well, like 2k's, but you could get the 2k interface in XP with a registry toggle), and ended up with one that looked totally different and is better. As I said, change isn't always bad. (Though I do think its interface is worse than the one I was using in XP, its power is so much better that I'm not complaining too much.)

I'd say that's at least half the market for tools like this one, people who want more control over the look and feel of their computer, specifically, the same look and feel they had before (I know the other half the market is for people who want all kinds of crazy bells and whistles that MS doesn't offer, which, bells and whistles are great, as long as they don't get in the way. XYP's got all kinds of crazy bells and whistles, but happily, they don't get in the way.)

I've only used Win8 for a few minutes, but it seemed to reflect my worst fears about the product - not just at the surface level (no start menu - I'd mod that back into Win8 exactly the same way I modded it into Win7, since I don't like the Win7 start menu anyway), but at the deeper level, where it seems to think you'd never want to stack a bunch of windows into the same monitor and exactly control their sizes and locations?!

But even disregarding larger things like that, you say we should just "learn just a few new keyboard and/or mouse shortcuts." Imagine you were a professional concert pianist, you'd been playing the piano for decades, and you no longer even needed to think about what you were playing. Now imagine someone said, "this piano makes such a better sound than all your old ones! We just rearranged all the keys and moved the pedals so you can hit them with your elbow!" That's what it's like when programs change keyboard shortcuts, to someone who's gotten used to the existing keyboard shortcuts they've been using for decades. Sure, I could learn new shortcuts, but... why should I?

My biggest issue with Windows 8 is the fullscreen interface of programs ran from the start screen or the new modern interface. I know there are programs out there now that will take care of that situation, like ModernMix from Stardock, but hey, if all apps are running full screen, is it really Windows or Window? It looks like Blue will help that issue also.

We all have choices though and we can choose not to update and stick with Windows 7 or even XP. I think Microsoft is trying to look ahead and stay on top of the industry with an operating system capable of being used in many formats. Well, it may pan out, and maybe it won't... Personally though, I like to learn new ways of doing things on the computer as operating systems evolve. I'm an old goat, but I'm not resistant to change...it's tech not a piano.

I too Filehero would love to get an Surface "Pro", and I was initially, but now I think it best to hold off until rev A so to speak. It's that or extremely light ultrabook like those from Asus or Levono like the Yoga 13 http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/yoga/yoga-models.html

My number one OS: Windows XP
Reason: OS should only be a "platform" for other softwares/utilities to run. "platform" means very simple UI + strong support for Developers + No hard-coded features which users cannot change

- An OS take several years for new release, thus can never be as flexible as 3rd parties software. Imagine XYPlorer release 1 patch every 2 years! I wish to remove most of Win8 built-in applications (available via download).
- Everyone has his own need and taste. Hard-coding features and force everyone use the same way is bad.
- Win8's Tile is much more simple than Win7, but it hide a lot of important info: How many applications are running? Which folder location I'm now? I'm searching internet or local drives? I have to switch back to Desktop Mode too often that making GUI too complex.
- In term of GUI, Win7 is optimized for mouse & keyboard user, but Win8 sacrifice it to make it finger-friendly. So, when I use Laptop, I prefer Win7 or XP

Well this time it looks like the start menu is actually coming back to Windows 8.1. Not on this next update due out to the general public on April 8, but on a subsequent update.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2138443/ ... nl_pcwbest
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exch ... 37068.html
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-bring ... TRE17cfd61
The update next week does have some welcome tweaks though. Here's some info on the update coming next week...http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425883,00.asp

Ah, very good. Ballmer is out, reason is in. Now let's hope they continue VB, the last good programming language they made.

i just installed Weight (pun fully intended), and it just doesn't want to give me full access. I can run the "Adminstrator" acc., but it doesn't allow running store apps. and a normal admin account is useless unless I run all programs with "Run as Admin". Even with UAC at the lowest setting. (for example, I can't create a new folder in programfiles if XY isn't started as admin, even though my current account IS an administrator )
Anybody else got full control with a non-"Administrator" admin account?

@SammaySarkar:
that's by design since Vista.

I know and always used the "Administrator" account on xp and 7, but it didn't have limitations. Until win8 came up: appstore restricted. Of course app store it didn't even exist before, but my idea of admin is somebody who has full access to the os, generally speaking.
The store is the big attraction of 8, I want to use it without giving up administrative freedom!