"Official" post your RTM screenshots here!

[crawfish]

What's up with people sticking to thos long thing on the taskbar? Windows 7 has been out for over 3 years (Counting from Beta) and you still use that old cluttery rubbish? D:

Um... Seeing the text makes it easier to tell which windows I want to open. It's faster and easier.

I hate that useless "Always combine, hide labels" default setting.
When you can see the name, you can click directly on the program you want to use.

The text is usually truncated at the end, making it ugly all the time and completely useless much of the time, and it only gets worse as you open more windows. I always considered the variable size taskbar slabs one of Microsoft's horrible design blunders. Massive pinning plus "Always combine, hide labels" makes the Windows 7 taskbar truly great, and it is the only thing in the history of Windows that has allowed me to discard 3rd party program launchers, which I've used since the NT4 days. Using the slabs means you can't do as much pinning, or if you're one of those silly people who continue to use Quick Launch in Windows 7, you can't stuff as many icons there, because you have to leave sufficient room on the taskbar to accommodate as many slabs as you are going to use, and it's never enough. And when you have only a small number of windows open, all that taskbar space is unoccupied and goes to waste, which is doubly bad because you're permanently sacrificing screen real estate to the taskbar. It's just bad design, and it always was.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

Oh thanks for the screenshot. And you're trying a hack to get the gadgets working? What's that black square on the upper right? Is that a gadget that's not working well though? And I guess that the "Test.reg" file on your Desktop has something to do with the hack.

^5 bro, GOOD catch!! <g>

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Here it is. I'm also trying to make gadgets work.

What's up with people sticking to thos long thing on the taskbar? Windows 7 has been out for over 3 years (Counting from Beta) and you still use that old cluttery rubbish? D:

EDIT: Quoting images apperantly doesn't work >.>

I enabled the Quick Launch tool bar plus the task bar button names in Win7 on my machine at work, because I ALWAYS have various WinExplorer windows open with various folders showing from various project files, plus multiple emails open at once, plus Outlook and usually Firefox, all on the right side screen (Autodesk Revit 3D architecture design program on left screen, or occasionally Photoshop). I *HAVE* to be able to see the program/folder names for everything that's open. And I also need to open another instance of Explorer every time I click the Explorer icon (which pinning doesn't let you do). I can't stand the whole "Pin" thing with no labels on the buttons. That's pretty much the only thing about Win7 I hate. I'm just glad they allowed a way to activate Quick Launch.

The text is usually truncated at the end, making it ugly all the time and completely useless much of the time, and it only gets worse as you open more windows. I always considered the variable size taskbar slabs one of Microsoft's horrible design blunders. Massive pinning plus "Always combine, hide labels" makes the Windows 7 taskbar truly great, and it is the only thing in the history of Windows that has allowed me to discard 3rd party program launchers, which I've used since the NT4 days. Using the slabs means you can't do as much pinning, or if you're one of those silly people who continue to use Quick Launch in Windows 7, you can't stuff as many icons there, because you have to leave sufficient room on the taskbar to accommodate as many slabs as you are going to use, and it's never enough. And when you have only a small number of windows open, all that taskbar space is unoccupied and goes to waste, which is doubly bad because you're permanently sacrificing screen real estate to the taskbar. It's just bad design, and it always was.

Speak for yourself. Having the QL + slab buttons is by far the most functional setup for me. My QL has my most used apps (architecture design program, Firefox, Outlook, buttons for our file server and FTP server, and Winamp), plus a few more that are hidden in the arrow that points right. Then I have the rest of the taskbar for the slabs, which I HAVE to be able to see the titles of. Truncated or not, who cares, at least I know right away what is where and don't have to hover over something to see a preview that you can't really see anyway. Try having 6 emails open at once, plus a browser on top of that. Need to go back to one certain email? Hmmm now which preview is the right email to reply to? Stupid.

Plus having the task bar on a 1920 wide display means I can have about 12-15 different windows open before it starts collapsing and combining a few.

 

[yadpr]

Here's mine

 

[crawfish]

Speak for yourself. Having the QL + slab buttons is by far the most functional setup for me. My QL has my most used apps (architecture design program, Firefox, Outlook, buttons for our file server and FTP server, and Winamp), plus a few more that are hidden in the arrow that points right.

Speaking for myself, I would leave Quick Launch disabled and pin those programs to the taskbar, giving me one icon for both launching and window selection, with jumplists, progress indicators, etc, that is always in the same place irrespective of the order in which I open and close programs. And I would never have a chevron on my taskbar under any circumstances.

Then I have the rest of the taskbar for the slabs, which I HAVE to be able to see the titles of. Truncated or not, who cares, at least I know right away what is where and don't have to hover over something to see a preview that you can't really see anyway. Try having 6 emails open at once, plus a browser on top of that. Need to go back to one certain email? Hmmm now which preview is the right email to reply to? Stupid.

Plus having the task bar on a 1920 wide display means I can have about 12-15 different windows open before it starts collapsing and combining a few.

Certainly, if your frequently used program follows the multiple top-level window model, switching between the preview thumbnails is harder than selecting the slabs. Fortunately, that's a relatively rare situation for me, as most programs I use have tabs for multiple documents, and it's rare to run multiple instances. The last time I really cared about your scenario is when I ran multiple copies of Forte Agent before it supported multiple servers within a single instance of the program, and that was over 10 years ago. If I needed to do that now, I'd try the trick that lets me pin two different icons for Chrome to my taskbar, one for my finance profile and the other for the main profile. But that works only when "the program is the window". Your programs have multiple top-level windows, which of course are transient, so you can't pin them. For Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel, I avoid the problem by turning off "Show all windows in taskbar", and I add the window switcher button to the Quick Access toolbar, so it's always available irrespective of the ribbon, so I don't mess with thumbnail previews when using them. For Outlook, I get by with the preview pane 99% of the time. So I've got the oddball programs covered well enough for my purposes, freeing me to take full advantage of the Windows 7 taskbar greatness. Windows 7 Explorer is really the only one that ends up with multiple windows, and there's no helping it.

 

[PatrickGSR94]

good enough for you I guess. We have other users in the office with normal program buttons pinned and no QL tool bar, and I can't stand it.

Another problem is that I can't have different pinned buttons for two different Windows Explorer locations, such as our file server and our FTP server. With the QL bar I have two separate buttons for each. One click and I'm there. With Explorer pinned it takes at least 2 or 3 clicks to get where I need to go. And as many times as I open Windows Explorer every day, that's a LOT of clicks saved.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I don't follow your logic, ...

I hate that useless "Always combine, hide labels" default setting.
When you can see the name, you can click directly on the program you want to use.

The text is usually truncated at the end, making it ugly all the time and completely useless much of the time, and it only gets worse as you open more windows. I always considered the variable size taskbar slabs one of Microsoft's horrible design blunders. Massive pinning plus "Always combine, hide labels" makes the Windows 7 taskbar truly great, and it is the only thing in the history of Windows that has allowed me to discard 3rd party program launchers, which I've used since the NT4 days. Using the slabs means you can't do as much pinning, or if you're one of those silly people who continue to use Quick Launch in Windows 7, you can't stuff as many icons there, because you have to leave sufficient room on the taskbar to accommodate as many slabs as you are going to use, and it's never enough. And when you have only a small number of windows open, all that taskbar space is unoccupied and goes to waste, which is doubly bad because you're permanently sacrificing screen real estate to the taskbar. It's just bad design, and it always was.

I don't follow your logic, seeing no information is better than seeing some information?

​

I generally have multiple programs/windows open.
I have installed "VirtuaWin + KvasdoPager", so that I can have multiple desktops available for them.

In the picture above I have:

• 1st virtual desktop: Firefox + multiple tabs
• 2nd virtual desktop: 6 PowerPoint windows open
• 3rd virtual desktop: Gimp
• 4th virtual desktop: Winamp

When I was studying Networking I'd usually have:

• 1st virtual desktop: Firefox + multiple tabs
• 2nd virtual desktop: VMware Workstation
• 3rd virtual desktop: Multiple PDFs and/or Word documents
• 4th virtual desktop: Winamp

I've noticed a (IMO) disturbing trend emerging in operating systems and programs; Users shouldn't be allowed to know anything.

Users don't need to know:

• File extensions (Windows default)
• What programs are running (Metro, Unity, Windows default)
• What controls are available (Chrome, Firefox, IE default)

Another problem is that I can't have different pinned buttons for two different Windows Explorer locations, such as our file server and our FTP server. With the QL bar I have two separate buttons for each. One click and I'm there. With Explorer pinned it takes at least 2 or 3 clicks to get where I need to go. And as many times as I open Windows Explorer every day, that's a LOT of clicks saved.

You could try Jump Lists.

Click picture for animation.
​

​

 

[PatrickGSR94]

You could try Jump Lists.

Click picture for animation.
​

​

I've done that on a few machines in the office that I have set up - add our various file server locations and FTP to the pinned Explorer icon. But it still takes one or two additional mouse clicks to get where you need to go, whereas on my machine with QL I click once to get to the file server, or once to get to the FTP server.

Seriously I probably open one or both of those 200 times in a work day. Saving 400+ clicks in a work day can be quite substantial.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Fair enough

Seriously I probably open one or both of those 200 times in a work day. Saving 400+ clicks in a work day can be quite substantial.

Fair enough.

That's another disturbing trend I've noticed (over the past few years).

"We've improved your productivity, by increasing the number of mouse clicks required to perform any given task."

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

lehnerus2000 said:

Fair enough.

That's another disturbing trend I've noticed (over the past few years).

What's that? People going to work? LoL

 

[steffanch]

good enough for you I guess. We have other users in the office with normal program buttons pinned and no QL tool bar, and I can't stand it.

Another problem is that I can't have different pinned buttons for two different Windows Explorer locations, such as our file server and our FTP server. With the QL bar I have two separate buttons for each. One click and I'm there. With Explorer pinned it takes at least 2 or 3 clicks to get where I need to go. And as many times as I open Windows Explorer every day, that's a LOT of clicks saved.

Hi
maybe this will resolve your problem:

you need to create a .txt file on the desktop and name it whatever you want
change the file extension from .txt in .exe
drag the file on the taskbar to pin the shortcut
go to windows explorer, navigate to the folder that you want to be linked on the taskbar and copy the path (from the address bar)
then shift+rightclick on the shortcut (from the taskbar) and choose Properties
paste the path from the clipboard in Target field and also in Start in field; then press OK
optional you can choose a custom icon for the shortcut from Properties
the only disadvantage is that the new explorer window will generate a new instance in the taskbar and when there are open multiple shortcuts the taskbar will be filled soon

Taskbar - Pin or Unpin a Folder - Windows 7 Forums​

to avoid that you can activate Quick Launch toolbar ( rightclick on a taskbar free space --> select Toolbars | New Toolbar... --> in the new window that appears, in the folder box, fill in with: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, and press Select folder button ) and then you can create these shortcuts in Quick Launch toolbar in the same way

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5069-quick-launch-add-taskbar-windows-8-a.html
​

and to be on topic:
I only saw the RTM version on the computer of a friend who works at Microsoft and is SO FLAT!
I think MS wants to create a smooth transition for our eyes when switching between metro and desktop (in favour of the metro of course). IMO this is not an UI adapted for daily work with a keyboard and a mouse... not for me. It seems MS wants through every graphic detail to grab our hands on the screen but for now I really can't see the way to administrate an SQL database with my fingers :shock:

Cheers!

 

[Max Peck]

Seems like a lot of work to get Win8 to look like Win7. Why not just stick with Win7?

-Max

 

[PatrickGSR94]

to avoid that you can activate Quick Launch toolbar ( rightclick on a taskbar free space --> select Toolbars | New Toolbar... --> in the new window that appears, in the folder box, fill in with: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, and press Select folder button ) and then you can create these shortcuts in Quick Launch toolbar in the same way

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5069-quick-launch-add-taskbar-windows-8-a.html
​

Yeah I already have QL activated on my Win7 machine at work, for those reasons I listed above.