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The beauty and terror of modding Windows

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Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#21

Post by fifticon »

operator-name wrote: post #9

I’ve been using WindHawk for a bit, and my favourite mods have been: - Slick Window Arrangement (better window snapping): https://windhawk.net/mods/slick-window-arrangement - Better file sizes in Explorer details: https://windhawk.net/mods/explorer-details-better-file-sizes

file sizes in explorer is my pet peeve, it should be a builtin. When I am coding and making small projects, I want to see the bytes. I hate that everything is shown as "1 or 2 k". and it is a hazzle to get access to and install of the mods that show bytes column. It should just be an extra column available by default 'Byte Size'.

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#24

Post by mschuster91 »

> Windhawk makes me think about the future of Windows, too. Microsoft is talking about a “Windows Baseline Security Mode” that PCs will be in by default, only letting properly signed software run and forcing apps to ask for your permission when they access your files, webcam, microphone, and other resources. According to Microsoft, this will only be a default — you can choose to opt out.

Yeah, just as I can "choose" to root my Android phone. I can do that, yes, but the result will be that Netflix, banking apps and most games refuse to even start.

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#25

Post by Hard_Space »

lproven wrote: post #16
baal80spam wrote: post #4

Never heard of Windhawk.

This was news to me, too. But I rarely use Windows. I used to like it but for me XP was so ugly and bloated I switched to Linux and OS X full-time. I've never looked back. I just play occasionally to keep my skills vaguely current. Sometimes I need to work with it. Windows 11 is awful . Bloated, full of ads and nags, forcibly keeps your stuff in the crappy MS cloud drive for which there's no Linux GUI client. You can…

I moved all my LAN machines to IoT LTSC 2021 a year ago. Though I don’t regret it, be aware that update delay limits are the same as other Windows OS versions; that useful things like WSL2 will need installing from the app store to get the systemd version, and you’ll need to install the Windows app store from an enthusiast repo on Github; that Windows major version number is a fair way behind, affecting max Docker dated releases and same for many other frameworks; etc. It’s not that I meet a new limit every day, but certainly every few weeks.

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#26

Post by skrebbel »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #20
torben-friis wrote: post #3

>If you dig through Windows enthusiast communities TIL those exist (genuinely). I’ve never met anyone who likes windows, just people who put up with it for work/gaming and people who doesn’t care about the whole thing enough to move from the default (which is totally understandable).

There are people like this, although very small minority. I've met one at university - he was probably the first person to have Windows 8 laptop with a touchscreen, showing off to everyone how cool is was (at that time). He was also really good at Microsoft Word, unironically - he made extensive use of custom styling and could format an assignment paper in like 30 seconds. He was super useful in group projects.

Wow it sounds like you're describing exactly me. All the way until the touchscreen laptop with Windows 8. Scary shit!

I used to laugh at the LaTeX masochists in college spending 15 minutes just to put a picture where they wanted the picture to be. They had to add like four 1-character modifiers to the "insert image" command, each of which meant "yes, really here", "no, don't move it to the next page" and "nono, really really here".

MS Word is properly great if you only use the custom style rules (basically CSS classes) at the paragraph level, and never directly apply styling (basically inline styles) except for super basic stuff like making a word italic. Has great referencing tools etc, fantastic formula editor and so on. And, well, you can use ultra modern human-machine interaction technology such as a mouse to choose where a picture goes and how big it is.

(They might've enshittified it since; the last paper I wrote was in 2010 and Word was pretty damn decent back then)

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#27

Post by RGamma »

fifticon wrote: post #21
operator-name wrote: post #9

I’ve been using WindHawk for a bit, and my favourite mods have been: - Slick Window Arrangement (better window snapping): https://windhawk.net/mods/slick-window-arrangement - Better file sizes in Explorer details: https://windhawk.net/mods/explorer-details-better-file-sizes

file sizes in explorer is my pet peeve, it should be a builtin. When I am coding and making small projects, I want to see the bytes. I hate that everything is shown as "1 or 2 k". and it is a hazzle to get access to and install of the mods that show bytes column. It should just be an extra column available by default 'Byte Size'.

Or automatic column width. Or even setting the same column widths for all folders (try it, it's tough without 3rd party tools). Or the UI hangs with network folders. Or the search that never finds anything. I could go on...

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#28

Post by timpera »

jeremycarter wrote: post #8
robmccoll wrote: post #5

If you want tweaks that are a little more first party, there's always PowerToys https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

There are genuinely some great power toys available.

Definitely! I couldn't live without the "Quick Accent" PowerToys to quickly add accents that don't exist on my keyboard, I use it hundreds of times a day.

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#29

Post by johanneskanybal »

torben-friis wrote: post #3

>If you dig through Windows enthusiast communities TIL those exist (genuinely). I’ve never met anyone who likes windows, just people who put up with it for work/gaming and people who doesn’t care about the whole thing enough to move from the default (which is totally understandable).

I mean not everyone cheers for the currently best soccer team either, it's partly about what you're invested in. If I had spent many years in Windows dev land I'm sure I would be arguing that side too.

Re: The beauty and terror of modding Windows

#30

Post by trympet »

skrebbel wrote: post #26
mystifyingpoi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people like this, although very small minority. I've met one at university - he was probably the first person to have Windows 8 laptop with a touchscreen, showing off to everyone how cool is was (at that time). He was also really good at Microsoft Word, unironically - he made extensive use of custom styling and could format an assignment paper in like 30 seconds. He was super useful in group projects.

Wow it sounds like you're describing exactly me. All the way until the touchscreen laptop with Windows 8. Scary shit! I used to laugh at the LaTeX masochists in college spending 15 minutes just to put a picture where they wanted the picture to be. They had to add like four 1-character modifiers to the "insert image" command, each of which meant "yes, really here", "no, don't move it to the next page" and "nono, reall…

Did you also have a windows 8 laptop with touch screen?
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