Windows is simply a better multitasking OS

[Qbah]

Windows key + PrtScrn saves your screen to the pictures folder

Mind.Blown.

I will have to check it out...

EDIT: Windows key + Alt + Print Screen - save active window to My Pictures perhaps? Not in front of a PC right now.

 

[TheStu]

Windows key + PrtScrn saves your screen to the pictures folder

Mind.Blown.

I will have to check it out...

EDIT: Windows key + Alt + Print Screen - save active window to My Pictures perhaps? Not in front of a PC right now.

These appear to not work in Windows XP, which is what I am still stuck with at work.

 

[Qbah]

These appear to not work in Windows XP, which is what I am still stuck with at work.

Tried on Windows 7 Pro - doesn't work either That would be awesome if it did...

 

[Ns1]

Windows key + PrtScrn saves your screen to the pictures folder

negatory ghost rider.

 

[TheStu]

negatory ghost rider.

Woo, Jester's dead!

 

[Dominato3r]

I forgot to mention it's a Windows 8 feature

http://www.windows8-password.com/how-to-take-screenshots-in-windows-8/

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Mind.Blown.

I will have to check it out...

EDIT: Windows key + Alt + Print Screen - save active window to My Pictures perhaps? Not in front of a PC right now.

Is there an OSX equivalent of this?

 

[Ns1]

Is there an OSX equivalent of this?

move it from your desktop to pictures? lol

 

[TheStu]

move it from your desktop to pictures? lol

In OS X, there is a way to launch the actual screen shot utility (look in the Utilities folder) and from there modify the preferences. You can change where it saves the file to.

 

[cheez]

Holly molly... you guys and girls still talking about the screen captures? LOL.

Well, it is important feature, very, very.

Is there an OSX equivalent of this?

LOL! That was a good one. I love it. I love it.

To answer to your question, there isn't one. Screen capture built in the OS X is superior. It's the fastest and most convenient thing I have ever dealt with in my life, seriously. I love this feature. Thinking about taking my MBP to work for work... Some third party screenprint software for Windows can't beat the OS X's. I have tried various different kinds and they all fall behind the OS X.

Don't know about Windows 8 though. Never tried it.

 

[kamikazekyle]

Bah, screw you all. At work I'm using dumb terminals on Unix boxes that are too old to even have bash in a default install. Multitasking? It's whatever creative input/file redirection I can come up with or how fast I can write stuff down with pen and paper from vi.

Anyway, more to the OP. I use Irix, Unix, OS X, and Windows daily. For the most part, with Windows 7 and OS 10.6, it's mostly a moot point in terms of window management as far as my workflow is concerned. To use Expose I need to either do a two handed shortcut combo or move my hand to use a gesture, or Cmd-Tab. On Windows I can natively get kinda-sorta Expose functionality by holding down Alt-tab and clicking whatever window/program I want to change to or button mash Alt-Tab. So, same amount of movement for me.

Launching programs is identical in both OS X and Windows for me. OSX: Cmd+spacebar, type in part of the program name, press enter. Windows: Windows key, type in part of the program name, press enter. I haven't looked in the start menu programs list in years on a non Windows XP box unless I forgot what I had installed. Ditto on OSX -- I have an alias to my Applications folder on the dock, but only open it when I forget the name of a program.

Hrm, now that I think of it, I could use the spotlight metadatafield on the application to set up tags. Instead of looking for a program by name, I could look for it by what it does. Well, in theroy. I'm not near my MBP right now.

Aero peek functions the same way as showing the desktop on OS X - Winkey+spacebar. Or Windows+D if I wanna actually minimize everything. Press again to restore. I think there's an equivalent in OS X, but not sure offhand.

Aerosnap is pretty handy, but can be replicated on OS X with third party programs. Just like Expose and spaces can be duplicated on Windows with third party programs. And Linux can use compiz and make your windows slide around a three dimensional cube so you wind up chasing them down to catch them with the mouse (it's curling but with windows).

Some things are a bit miffy in Windows, such as file exclusion locks preventing renaming. Quicklook is a nice feature in OSX that I don't utilize enough of. Though I can't say -- personally -- that I've really come across an instance where quicklook would save me time. But that's just me.

Anyway. Gist of it is that with Windows 7 or OSX 10.6 or many flavors of Linus you can have whatever type of window management or workflow experience you want. I haven't used 10.7, 10.8, or Windows 8 so I can't say for those.

Is there an OSX equivalent of this?

Set up an automator script to monitor your desktop for the file name format that OS X uses for the screenshots. Or if you're lazy, use it to look for PNG's on your desktop and move 'em.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Is there an OSX equivalent of this?

http://hintsforums.macworld.com/archive/index.php/t-43639.html

 

[Pia]

Aero peek functions the same way as showing the desktop on OS X - Winkey+spacebar. Or Windows+D if I wanna actually minimize everything. Press again to restore. I think there's an equivalent in OS X, but not sure offhand.

I have never found Aero Peek good for anything, whereas OS X's Show Desktop is great. I have it set on left bottom hot corner, so from anywhere I can start dragging some stuff, swing the mouse to the corner and drop the dragged thing on the desktop. Or vice versa: swing to corner, start dragging something that was sitting on the desktop, swing to corner, drop into an open SFTP window or an e-mail compose window. Dragging things doesn't usually work well in Windows, there's no hot corner to make this stuff convenient, and I have a vague impression that Win-D fucks up window focus and/or order at least occasionally - I have tried using Aero Peek like I use Show Desktop and it just doesn't work right.

Some things are a bit miffy in Windows, such as file exclusion locks preventing renaming. Quicklook is a nice feature in OSX that I don't utilize enough of. Though I can't say -- personally -- that I've really come across an instance where quicklook would save me time. But that's just me.

You probably knew this, but Quicklook is not an individual feature but a framework of view/preview functionality where different apps can add their own plugins for previewing their particular kind of data, and can use Quicklook to show previews of any QL-enabled data. For instance, if you have Omnigraffle, Quicklook can preview content of .graffle files because OG has added the appropriate plugin. When you scroll through results in a Spotlight search, the small automatic previews you see use Quicklook tech, and so on.

When I want to check a piece of data from inside a text file, I just search for it in Spotlight, take the cursor on top of the file, and the preview shows me the data. Then I can just close the search without even opening the file. If I get some mail attachments, I'll typically just view them with Quicklook without needing to save them somewhere first or open them in an app. Of course I also use it to identify/browse files while in the Forklift file manager (which I use instead of Finder).

 

[ControlD]

Of course I also use it to identify/browse files while in the Forklift file manager (which I use instead of Finder).

I will have to give Forklift a try. I cannot stand Finder in general and I have yet to find a decent replacement.

**Edit: It is only for 10.7+. Guess my search goes on. **

 

[sourceninja]

I still say the terminal is the best file management tool around.

 

[ControlD]

I still say the terminal is the best file management tool around.

I use the terminal quite a bit as well and I am fairly comfortable with it, having been a *nix user for a long time. The problem is that my wife decided she wanted a MBA as a replacement for her old Dell laptop. She doesn't even know the terminal exists and she would never learn it anyhow. Every time she tries to use Finder for basic file manipulation she asks "How is this more intuitive than a Windows computer?". I have no real answer for her. Finder sucks royally compared to Windows File Manager and/or any basic file manager I have used under Linux. Maybe it has improved with ML.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Or you can tell her to learn drag-and-drop.

 

[ControlD]

Or you can tell her to learn drag-and-drop.

Yeah, she knows this already and for sure it does work. It is rather clumsy when using the track pad in my opinion, especially when working with a non contiguous groups of files. It sucks when your finger slips and your files end up in some random directory. Just having simple cut and paste, or better yet right click context would make a world of difference. I am trying out Total Finder right now and it seems to address many of the issues I have with Finder right now.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Well, to cut and paste in OS X, do the usual Command + C, and then when pasting, do Command + Option + V instead.

Or:

1) Right click and choose "Copy" on the items you want to move.
2) Right click at the destination folder and hold down "Option". It should change "Paste" to "Move" instead.

Counter-intuitive compared to Windows, but it works.

 

[ControlD]

Well, to cut and paste in OS X, do the usual Command + C, and then when pasting, do Command + Option + V instead.

Or:

1) Right click and choose "Copy" on the items you want to move.
2) Right click at the destination folder and hold down "Option". It should change "Paste" to "Move" instead.

Counter-intuitive compared to Windows, but it works.

Thanks, will give that a shot!

 

[cheez]

^ runawayprisoner is the God in anandtech forum. He knows a lot about Apple.

I also found some amazing features with my 2012 MBP's builtin trackpad. You can use two fingers for scrolling the page or move in any direction. It has support for three-finger feature too. Amazing.... I don't need a mouse. Why have I been using it all this time?? LOL

 

[ControlD]

^ runawayprisoner is the God in anandtech forum. He knows a lot about Apple.

I also found some amazing features with my 2012 MBP's builtin trackpad. You can use two fingers for scrolling the page or move in any direction. It has support for three-finger feature too. Amazing.... I don't need a mouse. Why have I been using it all this time?? LOL

I actually greatly prefer using the trackpad over a mouse with my MBP which is a first for me and any laptop computer.

 

[TheStu]

I actually greatly prefer using the trackpad over a mouse with my MBP which is a first for me and any laptop computer.

I can't believe it took him that long to find out about that. Obviously he heavily researched his buying decision before getting his MacBook Pro. My OG MacBook had two finger scrolling, and that was basically the first thing that I tried when I played with it in the store. It is a sad state of affairs that when I got my MacBook in '06, it had smooth, flawless two-finger scrolling, a feat that Windows machines are still trying to match, 6 years later.

 

[ControlD]

I can't believe it took him that long to find out about that. Obviously he heavily researched his buying decision before getting his MacBook Pro. My OG MacBook had two finger scrolling, and that was basically the first thing that I tried when I played with it in the store. It is a sad state of affairs that when I got my MacBook in '06, it had smooth, flawless two-finger scrolling, a feat that Windows machines are still trying to match, 6 years later.

I agree with you. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard for somebody else to make a trackpad the works as well as the Mac ones, but using the one on my work PC (quad-core Dell i7) is a terrible experience. I can't say I have had much better luck with any of the other trackpads I have tried either. The only real downside to the Mac trackpad (for me) is that it really isn't much good for gaming because almost every game out there utilizes the right mouse button. Using a two fingered tap or bottom right corner tap is fine when doing most tasks, but for gaming it is less than ideal.

 

[runawayprisoner]

If you use a Windows laptop with Synaptics touchpad, you may want to give TwoFingerScroll (obvious name) a try. It has finger tracking so that instead of scrolling in steps, it scrolls in response to your finger movement.

That's the closest it can get to Mac smooth scroll on Windows, I think. But it works MUCH better than whatever else is available on Windows laptop.