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A REALLY USEFUL Win 8.1 Desktop


NoelC

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Ah, I see - thanks.  Nice find.  That's something one can do through Old New Explorer as well.

 

I'll have to experiment with this as it doesn't require 3rd party software.  Not that ONE is bad, but having to run less software to accomplish a goal is often better.

 

PM me if you'd like a free copy of my book.  Though you seem to be accomplished at desktop tweaking, who knows, I might have found something you've not seen yet.  :sneaky:

 

-Noel

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These are the programs I use on my Win 8.1 Desktop.

 

1. StartIsBack+ - Obvious reasons.

 

2. Stardock Fences - Group icons into reduced opacity "fences" plus it removes the shortcut arrow and suffix.

 

3. Old New Explorer - Get the look of the Windows 7 explorer back.

 

4. Aero Glass for Win 8.1 - Obvious reasons.

 

5. Win+X Menu Editor - Removed the user command prompt and chopped the suffix of admin command prompt.

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Heh, that pretty much defines a "clean desktop" look.  Not the direction I go, but certainly an accomplishment.  Well done.

 

If it's at all interesting to anyone, here's my whole desktop layout.  Note that the Taskbar normally auto-hides at the top.

 

ReallyUsefulDesktopInUse.jpg

 

-Noel

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I'll throw this on the table :w00t: without comments (and without having *any* idea if it works (or can work) on Windows 8/8.1 :ph34r: ).

 

It is something for which there is NO "middle way" people can only choose between "hating it" or "loving it":

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winqconsole/

 

One needs to try it for a few days, I became "addicted" to it :yes: in no more than three days, but of course a lot of people may find it useless :(.

 

As a matter of fact, since it is going (alas) to become unsupported, if anyone among the programmers would contact the Authors and take the matters in his/her hands it would be a great thing.

 

jaclaz

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What does that do?  Is it just a graphic to show in the back of your CMD window instead of the black background?

 

I'm not being critical, and I haven't reached a "love" or "hate" level because I simply don't know what it does yet, but (in the spirit of this thread)...  How would it increase the usefulness of the desktop?

 

-Noel

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Well, the idea of "no comments" is "try and see" .... :whistle:

Seriously, it is (on my desktop) an increase in its usefulness, as it provides a quick way (and a nice one IMHO since i am among the "lovers") to run a couple command line utilities.

 

Anyone that has ever played, even for a few minutes Quake would know what it does, and the rest can just try it.

 

For the lazy ones :ph34r:, there is a quick video here:

 

jaclaz

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Thanks for the video.  I now see that it's another way to manage a CMD prompt.  Cute.

 

I prefer to keep my Taskbar at the top, so a "pop down" application could be a conflict of interest.  Also I often run more than one CMD window at once.

 

Probably not something I want, but I'm sure others will find it interesting.

 

Quake...  Wow, that takes me back a few decades.

 

-Noel

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Yep, and it is far from (yet) perfect, but, as an example, it is useful when you simply *need* to run a quick command (let's say a "ping" or an "IPCONFIG /all") as it opens in a "predictable" place on the screen and has this transparency that is less "impacting" visually than other solutions, of course it's use somewhat *implies* that you keep your taskbar at the bottom.

jaclaz

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I'll throw this on the table :w00t: without comments (and without having *any* idea if it works (or can work) on Windows 8/8.1 :ph34r: ).

 

It is something for which there is NO "middle way" people can only choose between "hating it" or "loving it":

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winqconsole/

 

One needs to try it for a few days, I became "addicted" to it :yes: in no more than three days, but of course a lot of people may find it useless :(.

 

As a matter of fact, since it is going (alas) to become unsupported, if anyone among the programmers would contact the Authors and take the matters in his/her hands it would be a great thing.

 

jaclaz

 

Jaclaz, 

 

After I installed this and did a reboot my Chrome browser would just hang, I did a task kill and removed it, now everything is working back to normal.

 

~DP

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Jaclaz, 

 

After I installed this and did a reboot my Chrome browser would just hang, I did a task kill and removed it, now everything is working back to normal.

 

~DP

Well, then the whatever version you tried doesn't work on your OS (whatever it is, I presume Win 8.1 64 bit) or conflicts with your Chrome Browser (whatever version it is) :(.

It is also possible that it is not compatible with any of the new updates of Windows 8.1, there is a bug still open for 8.1 but it is of a completely different nature:

http://sourceforge.net/p/winqconsole/bugs/10/

 

Not so casually I posted originally:

 

 

I'll throw this on the table :w00t: without comments (and without having *any* idea if it works (or can work) on Windows 8/8.1 :ph34r: ).

jaclaz

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