Windows 7: not very good so far

[akugami]

As others stated the new Taskbar is essentially the old Taskbar & Quicklaunch combined. It works. Now, don't get me wrong, I did enable the old Quicklaunch but I'm so used to it being there for apps I use every few days but don't want to pin to the Taskbar. Can I work without the Quicklaunch? Yeah, but to me it makes things neater. I have about 10 apps in my Quicklaunch and 4 apps that I have pinned for my daily used apps.

As for the OP's example of clutter in Win7...you got more windows open in Win7 than in your Vista example. Not to mention the fact that you can change Win7 to have a neater Taskbar than the one you're showing us. I know I sometimes have a ton of stuff open and it is much much much neater than what you've shown us. Go in and properly configure the Taskbar.

Rule of thumb, try not to keep more than 5 apps pinned to Win7's Taskbar. It'll be much neater and I highly doubt most people use more than 5 apps on a daily basis.

And for those that don't know, you can pin the Control Panel to the Taskbar. For power users, that's awesome. To do this, open up the Control Panel, then right click on the icon of the Control Panel in the Taskbar and pin it. Neato.

As for apps behaving erratically, the OS is not even officially released. It's in Release Candidate form but it's not actually finalized. Developers are still working on updating their apps specifically for Win7 but don't be surprised if it takes a little while to do so.

 

[4537256]

I have a slight hard time telling which icons are minimized and which are launch icons. cause they are right next to each other, i sometimes hit the launch one by mistake.
i know the minimized ones have a boxed effect around them, but can still be confusing if your busy doing stuff not paying attention.

I still prefer to use objectdocks as my taskbar and hide the windows one, certainly far more customizable anyway. I'm not too much into W7, i still do the exact same things, the exact same way that i do in Vista and they get accomplished equally as fast that i can notice. its gonna be tough to justify a high price or any price for that matter in this regard.

 

[Binky]

OP - it looks to me like you mucked up your own taskbar. Why do you need to see all those damned system icons anyway? Do you really need to see your antivirus all the time? How about power? Please tell me you're on a laptop...

I don't know about MSN Messenger, but digsby works just fine. It's one of the few system tray icons that I have set to always show. You can set the to always show, always hide, or show when they have something important to say. Seems fine to me.

 

[California Roll]

I just noticed that my networking icon looks like a monitor holding a pitchfork.

 

[WildW]

Time to throw my oar in on this one. I played with the Win7 RC for a while and found it difficult adapting to the new taskbar. . . I'm still divided on it.

I think you have to embrace it fully - trying to cling onto the old ways of doing things do not make it work well. I've tried setting the windows to never combine, but I don't like how open tasks sit in the middle of the bar when you do that. . . and I'm not going to start micromanaging it by dragging them about. Bringing back the quick-launch to sit side-by-side with the taskbar doesn't work well for me either.

Once you get used to the idea of the taskbar, and realise you can middle-click to open a new program instance, it isn't so very bad. I do find myself having fewer programs pinned to the taskbar than I'm used to having in the quick-launch on older versions of Windows. Having too many seems to become cluttered more quickly - I know you can change between big and small icons, but I don't like the small icons for some reason when a program is running. As a result it means I go digging in the Start Menu more often. People have suggested its quicker to type into the search box in the Start Menu. For a GRAPHICAL user interface this is an epic fail.

I STILL don't like how things combine and hide in their icons. The worst offender is Messenger. I tend to minimize people's chat windows, so when someone messages me and the taskbar icon starts flashing, it feels like I'm having to go digging in menus to find whos trying to talk to me. I tend to use multiple instances of web browsers, and again it feels more difficult to keep track of what's what.
It is slower and requires more thought and mouse-movement/clicks to go browsing in the taskbar's pop-up previews than just remembering it was the Firefox instance on the left. . . I guess my brain works in a positional way like that.

Might end up with the same problem I had with OSX. . .forgetting how much stuff is open and eating up ram. Not so much of an issue these days perhaps. Maybe there IS a big OCD component, but I can't help that.

Guess I'll get used to it eventually. . . but its going to be a struggle.

 

[PingSpike]

This is semi off topic...but does anyone else feel that windows has consistently made the network browser way crappier with each new version?

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Another problem I just noticed is that many programs don't seem to be able to integrate into the context menu. So far I'm having this problem with VLC, Media Player Classic, 7-Zip, and WinRAR
Vista's context menu allows 7-zip to integrate itself
Windows 7 does not.

Um...works just fine for me.

 

[blackangst1]

Well, OP, if you want you can put it back the way you want. Per a link I posted in another thread http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/arc...windows-7-secrets.aspx :

# I Want My Quick Launch Toolbar Back! You might have noticed that the old faithful Quick Launch toolbar is not only disabled by default in Windows 7, it?s actually missing from the list of toolbars. As is probably obvious, the concept of having a set of pinned shortcut icons is now integrated directly into the new taskbar. Based on early user interface testing, we think that the vast majority of users out there (i.e. not the kind of folk who read this blog, with the exception of my mother) will be quite happy with the new model, but if you?re after the retro behavior, you?ll be pleased to know that the old shortcuts are all still there. To re-enable it, do the following:

* Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
* In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
* Turn off the ?lock the taskbar? setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that ?Show text? and ?Show title? are disabled and the view is set to ?small icons?.
* Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

If it?s not obvious by the semi-tortuous steps above, it?s worth noting that this isn?t something we?re exactly desperate for folks to re-enable, but it?s there if you really need it for some reason. Incidentally, we?d love you to really try the new model first and give us feedback on why you felt the new taskbar didn?t suit your needs.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: lopri
But when it comes to AHCI, Windows 7 is a world better than Windows Vista. I get 'Safely Remove Hardware' listing for everything that's plugged into a SATA port, and it works like a charm. One thing I noticed is that it doesn't seem to work with TWO controllers at the same time. If you setup ICHxR or SB7x0 as AHCI, your JMicron/Marvel controllers aren't recognized as AHCI controller natively. You'll have to use the manufacturer provided drivers, or use those auxiliary ports as IDE. It does make sense, though.

It recognizes AHCI, but not two controllers at the same time? WTF???

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I don't know if MS is trying to piss me off or if it's by accident but they've once again made it extraordinarily difficult to do even the most basic things.

You know what the Quick Launch bar is, right? Well, it's gone. You need to dick around just to bring it back. manually add a hidden folder as a toolbar

The Taskbar IS the Quicklaunch. You pin programs and the button simply lights up when the program is active. Set it to small buttons and you can fit more. Kills two birds with one stone.

Remember how MSN Messenger is supposed to go to the system tray when you close it? In Windows 7 it doesn't do that until you run it in compatibility mode. What's stupid is that third party programs like Steam and Avira don't have this problem. Only Microsoft's own software has compatibility issues.

I personally prefer it this way. MSN Messenger is a program.

Network drives are completely broken. If I open up my network drive, half of the folders don't appear. I need to manually type the name of the folder I'm looking for. It doesn't do this with the same folders every time; it just randomly switches it up. Sometimes none of the folders show up, but then I type "Z:\video" in the navigation bar and it takes me there.

No issues here. Try fixing your network before you blame Windows 7

Windows 7 can't detect most of my hard drives in AHCI mode. In AHCI, it only sees the SATA drive in slot 1, but it can't see the other 4 SATA drives.

Also no issues here. All of my drives work fine in AHCI.

The way it handles GPU processes is completely broken. Running the F@H GPU client in XP or Vista works just fine and is completely transparent; you won't even notice it's running until you try to play a game. In Windows 7, the system grinds to a halt while GPU folding is going on. It takes forever to switch between windows, Media Player Classic will take 100% CPU on a single core, things take forever to minimize, etc. All of these problems immediately stop when folding is paused. It's like Windows 7 just arbitrarily decides that this one background task should get absolutely all GPU time whereas XP and Vista would allow GPU multitasking (folding, Aero, and media player all at the same time).


Hopefully this stuff will get patched soon.

I can't speak to any of this because I don't do folding, and especially don't do it with my GPU. But, W7's GPU handling is VERY different from Vista's, and one of the things that's going to get updated in the next version of the WDDM is GPU scheduling, so I think this is your only valid complaint with Windows 7.


My only issue with W7 is the boring and bland System icons: Volume, Power, Network and the Action Center. Minor quibble, but seriously Microsoft, would it have killed you to put some COLOR in those icons?!

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I don't know if MS is trying to piss me off or if it's by accident but they've once again made it extraordinarily difficult to do even the most basic things.

You know what the Quick Launch bar is, right? Well, it's gone. You need to dick around just to bring it back. manually add a hidden folder as a toolbar

Originally posted by: Raduque
The Taskbar IS the Quicklaunch. You pin programs and the button simply lights up when the program is active. Set it to small buttons and you can fit more. Kills two birds with one stone.

No, it isn't exactly Quicklaunch and that was my biggest growing pain when making the switch to W7. Yes I understand you can pin items to the taskbar to emulate a Quicklaunch style of quick access to applications but once you load an application, these icons no longer are shortcut icons

 

[Scotteq]

General suggestion: If you have a widescreen monitor, I have found the new taskbar is much more efficient when placed vertically - either on the left or right side of your screen. Small Icons, "combine when full", and I widen it some to better read the text. I happen have a dual monitor setup, so I keep it on the right side of my main monitor so it's in the "middle". I set my gadget/widget/whateverstupidnamewehavethisweek to the secondary monitor on the left: This forms a strip in the center of the viewing area for all the system stuff. After a while, I changed my computer at work (XP) to a similar arrangement.

Cons: It's a little bit awkward for a week or so, until you get used to the new placement. And a decade of the "Start" (or whatrever we're calling it for this version) button being in the lower left is hard to unlearn...

Pros: With a Widescreen monitor, this preserves vertical space and is generally less intrusive. So you have more vertical space for typing and reading documents and web pages. It's also much easier to read the text on your pinned/open items. And I like that the same program will always be in the same place, no matter the order you may open/close items in and no matter if it's even open at all.

Wants: A wise and all knowing guru to show me/us how to create a search box that can be pinned to the Taskbar.

 

[PhreePhly]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I don't know if MS is trying to piss me off or if it's by accident but they've once again made it extraordinarily difficult to do even the most basic things.

You know what the Quick Launch bar is, right? Well, it's gone. You need to dick around just to bring it back. manually add a hidden folder as a toolbar

Originally posted by: Raduque
The Taskbar IS the Quicklaunch. You pin programs and the button simply lights up when the program is active. Set it to small buttons and you can fit more. Kills two birds with one stone.

No, it isn't exactly Quicklaunch and that was my biggest growing pain when making the switch to W7. Yes I understand you can pin items to the taskbar to emulate a Quicklaunch style of quick access to applications but once you load an application, these icons no longer are shortcut icons

Sure they are. Just shift-click or middle click (with a three-button mouse) and a new app window opens. It's the best of both worlds.

PhreePhly