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Some Windows 7 questions


Tripredacus

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Well I've just got Windows 7 Pro installed here at work and I'm trying to get used to it. The explorer is kinda weird, but I like how the taskbar works. There are some functional differences and oddities maybe you guys know what can be done.

First, a question about the taskbar. I pinned the CMD to it, with the idea I can easily launch an elevated prompt from there. But if I right click, I get a menu that has CMD and then Unpin this program. So then I have to right-click on the CMD in that menu to run as Administrator. Is it possible to add Run As Administrator into that menu so I don't have to click twice?

Second, I use a dual display (extended) setup. If I lock the workstation (Windows + L) the lock message only shows up on the primary monitor, and the secondary monitor turns black. The second monitor does not go into power save either, as the light is still green. In other versions of Windows, if you have 2 screens and lock the workstation, the second monitor would stay active and you would see the wallpaper or whatever on there. Is there a setting that lets me do this? My computer has a Radeon X1800 and has the CCC installed.

And lastly, when I open some programs (like Fireworks MX 2004 demo) the Aero turns off. I am guessing that program does not support Aero, but is there a way to not use Aero on that app and keep it on everywhere else?

That's it for now.

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First, a question about the taskbar. I pinned the CMD to it, with the idea I can easily launch an elevated prompt from there. But if I right click, I get a menu that has CMD and then Unpin this program. So then I have to right-click on the CMD in that menu to run as Administrator. Is it possible to add Run As Administrator into that menu so I don't have to click twice?
No. In fact, if you create a shortcut to cmd and go to the properties, you'll see you cannot set options on it either as it's a "special" executable in Windows. Running as Administrator is not allowed to be done automatically on certain binaries, and cmd.exe is one of them.

cmdshortcut.png

You might want to consider doing this instead.

Second, I use a dual display (extended) setup. If I lock the workstation (Windows + L) the lock message only shows up on the primary monitor, and the secondary monitor turns black. The second monitor does not go into power save either, as the light is still green. In other versions of Windows, if you have 2 screens and lock the workstation, the second monitor would stay active and you would see the wallpaper or whatever on there. Is there a setting that lets me do this? My computer has a Radeon X1800 and has the CCC installed.
No, this is also by design, although the second monitor should go to sleep when the first does (after whatever you have set as the idle timeout in the power config), and if it doesn't that would be a driver problem.
And lastly, when I open some programs (like Fireworks MX 2004 demo) the Aero turns off. I am guessing that program does not support Aero, but is there a way to not use Aero on that app and keep it on everywhere else?
From your question, it sounds as if perhaps you skipped Vista. I say this because this was a problem there as well. If an application doesn't support DWM, Aero actually has to be turned off so that the app functions, and DWM is all on or all off, there's no breakdown per-app (currently). It's probably worth filing a design change request for Win8 if it's a big deal for you, but currently this is expected behavior for an app that doesn't support running under theming/DWM.
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Yeah Vista, lol. I've deployed it probably 1000 times but have only actually used it in Audit Mode. I forgot for a moment that some of these things may not have been new since I hadn't used Vista much.

I don't think the Aero behaviour is big enough to write up an email about it. So far I haven't had any issues with Windows 7, just curiosities about the behaviour. Thanks for the response!

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Out of curiousity, does anyone know what the command prompt executable at "\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-commandprompt_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_e701b864340d9016\" is for?

I'm using an Intel CPU and Windows 7 x64.

That cmd.exe allows you to Run as Administrator in the Compatibility tab.

I'm not suggesting to anyone to use it, and I don't need it, I'm just curious as to it's purpose and why changing settings is allowed on this one?

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It's a link to the default 64bit cmd.exe, and yes there is always the hack of using the link to generate the shortcut rather than the executable (it does seem to not check sxs links for "speciality" when you look at the properties, and that's probably a bug ;)).

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I don't know if this helps ( I hate when the only answer to a mouse action problem is to hold down keys), but holding ctrl+shift when you click a taskbar-pinned shortcut will open it with elevated privileges. You can use the same trick to open a new elevated instance of an already-open unpinned item in your taskbar. Saves you from all that menu clicking.

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Well, it looks like you can copy an .exe to a location outside system32 or syswow64 and run it elevated from there, so that would explain the checking not on the WinSxS folder. I'll file the bug, but it's probably "by design". Regardless of whether or not it's a good design, of course ;).

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If an application doesn't support DWM, Aero actually has to be turned off so that the app functions, and DWM is all on or all off, there's no breakdown per-app (currently).

thats odd, look at this screnie from Vista, but same was on Win7

(disregard the red arrow, i was showing something to my friend via this screenie)

in any case the MemTurbo program doesnt support DWM so was themed as classical window

while DWM worked on everything else

http://i49.tinypic.com/eith5c.png

Edited by vinifera
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This only applies to applications that try to lock the primary display in order to display their own display / windowed settings, and applications written (well) that don't require a display lock will work fine without conflicting with DWM. Applications like the old Macromedia Suite, older versions of the JRE, etc used to do this and as such would disable DWM. MemTurbo obviously does not require a display lock, and thus will work fine without affecting the system. Note that since DWM / Aero are using DirectX for acceleration, and if an app needs to lock DX into a single-use mode, or if an application requires using DX to acquire a display surface lock, DWM is disabled because of a few reasons (including there would be no way to guarantee off-screen compositing will match what's shown on screen with a "locked" app running).

Due to the way a screen lock or single-use mode in DirectX is done, and the fact that the Windows desktop *itself* is a Direct3D app, DirectX doesn't have the functionality to allow a full-screen lock and still guarantee both apps will display correctly, and likely never will as the new display model and design allows app vendors to use D3D and not require a lock like this to work properly in Vista or Win7. Basically, the applications that do this are either very old or poorly written, as this shouldn't really be required anymore.

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Out of curiousity, does anyone know what the command prompt executable at "\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-commandprompt_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_e701b864340d9016\" is for?

that's the original location of the command prompt. The file you see in C:\Windows\System32 is just a link (hardlink) from the original file inside the WinSxS folder.

Use the Tool Link Shell Extension (LSE) to see which files are hardlinks.

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This only applies to applications that try to lock the primary display in order to display their own display / windowed settings, and applications written (well) that don't require a display lock will work fine without conflicting with DWM.

You know, I didn't even think of that. I installed LeechFTP, which we can probably consider to be a non-well written app. It did not turn of the DWM like Fireworks did. LeechFTP, fyi, was haulted in development sometime during its localisation from German to English. Its a fully functioning app and I've been using it for years, but some dialog boxes/messages are in German.

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Again, this is only going to affect applications written to use DirectX functions - if an app has no DX drawing functions, it shouldn't do anything to DWM. Here are the Sun Java bugs on this behavior in the JRE, for anyone interested in seeing what kinds of things (however innocuous) can cause it.

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I pinned the CMD to it, with the idea I can easily launch an elevated prompt from there. But if I right click, I get a menu that has CMD and then Unpin this program. So then I have to right-click on the CMD in that menu to run as Administrator. Is it possible to add Run As Administrator

Open start menu -> All programs -> Accessories

Right mouse click to "command prompt" -> Properties

Button "Advanced" -> change to "Run as administrator"

Go to start menu -> All programs -> Accessories

Right mouse click to "command prompt" -> Pin to taskbar

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