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No Start Menu for You

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Re: No Start Menu for You

#121

Post by Eisenstein »

roel_v wrote: post #111
grishka wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a while since I used Windows with any kind of seriousness (and the last version I did was 7), so I wasn't aware that this kind of thing is offloaded to separate, shared processes like that. > Not to mention, there isn't a whole lot of software left that doesn't need at least some networking for its 'primary' functionality. Case in point, Microsoft Office has no good reason to be aware of the existence of th…

"Case in point, Microsoft Office has no good reason to be aware of the existence of the internet." shrug I think the same, but it's a fact that new versions of Word heavily integrate with Sharepoint and Teams. I don't use that functionality (at least not a lot), but for some businesses it's the primary use case, and it's how Word can manage to stay relevant even when competing with Google Docs. The concept of 'files'…

> It's actually timely for me, as I just started using Glasswire with a clean ruleset. As I'm typing this, freakin' explorer.exe asked for network access to an outside IP address. It's hard to disallow explorer.exe network access as I won't be able to access SMB shares without it, but I have no idea why it would go outside my network.

I don't know glasswire, but on Commodo firewall you can set a rule to allow access to your local network by default (or any range of IPs) and ask about external access, which would be a way to solve your problem with explorer.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#122

Post by kaptainscarlet »

zwaps wrote: post #34

I think search is hard generally. I switched to an M1 Mac pro recently, and it has its own set of challenges. For instance, there is no start menu but a search bar called Spotlight. You do your quick math in there (where you'd call calc.exe in Windows). However, it only accepts your query as math... sometimes. Like 50% of the times. Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny s…

I just realised that Gnome 3.3 has the feature equivalent to Spotlight. At least for Math expressions. Pretty cool.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#123

Post by roel_v »

Eisenstein wrote: post #121
roel_v wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Case in point, Microsoft Office has no good reason to be aware of the existence of the internet." shrug I think the same, but it's a fact that new versions of Word heavily integrate with Sharepoint and Teams. I don't use that functionality (at least not a lot), but for some businesses it's the primary use case, and it's how Word can manage to stay relevant even when competing with Google Docs. The concept of 'files'…

> It's actually timely for me, as I just started using Glasswire with a clean ruleset. As I'm typing this, freakin' explorer.exe asked for network access to an outside IP address. It's hard to disallow explorer.exe network access as I won't be able to access SMB shares without it, but I have no idea why it would go outside my network. I don't know glasswire, but on Commodo firewall you can set a rule to allow access…

Yeah I should probably look into it more. Can Comodo's firewall be used standalone, i.e. without its antivirus? What I needed from Glasswire was click-to-allow on each network access, I couldn't find that in any product I tried a few years ago before I decided on Glasswire.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#124

Post by kaptainscarlet »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #63
martin_ky wrote: post #6

It seems to be a pattern with (not just) Microsoft products to hang the UI while waiting for some remote API, usually talking to the home base. Happens a lot to me with Office desktop apps - they freeze sometimes for a good second or so while starting and more surprisingly also when closing. One time it bothered me so much, that I recorded an ETW and unsurprisingly the time during the hang was spent waiting for some…

I guess it's because in web context, it's easier to do web calls async than sync. While it's perfectly possible to do async web calls in something like C++, or at least move stuff to a different thread, people just somehow don't. Maybe out of lazyness since the first Google result was sync, or because lifecycle management is harder if raw pointers are involved, or whatever else.

I'm guilty of this. Back when I was writing Java apps using Swing, I'd perform heavy blocking IO operations in button event handlers synchronously. Looking back, I realise how much haram I was committing.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#125

Post by fodi »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #80
zwaps wrote: post #34

I think search is hard generally. I switched to an M1 Mac pro recently, and it has its own set of challenges. For instance, there is no start menu but a search bar called Spotlight. You do your quick math in there (where you'd call calc.exe in Windows). However, it only accepts your query as math... sometimes. Like 50% of the times. Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny s…

I've found Windows window management to be pretty poor. They removed always on top (except in OneNote, and it's in power toys). Open a second Word document and all your docs get maximised. Undock and re-dock your MS machine from it's MS dock and the MS OS suddenly has no clue where to put your windows. Dock to a different dock (hot-desking; same brand and size of monitor) and the entire display options need to be re-…

I've been using DeskPins for "always on top" since I've known about its existence.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#126

Post by nikau »

boloust wrote: post #67

The worst thing about the Windows Start Menu search is that it changes the top result without any user input, and it feels like it happens almost every time I use Windows. I'll type the first few characters of a program installed on the machine, and the top result is the program I want. But just as I hit Enter, the top result switches out to a web search, so instead of the program I wanted to start, I'm staring at a…

There is a registry key that turns off web search in win10, it makes it much nicer.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#127

Post by danuker »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #13

And if it's randomascii hitting these issues and still not able to resolve them, holy hell, you're not going to get a bigger power user big analysis than this, MS, step to it!

They just fired 5% of their workforce. The times got tougher (maybe due to interest rates). I wouldn't hold my breath.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#128

Post by type0 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #80
zwaps wrote: post #34

I think search is hard generally. I switched to an M1 Mac pro recently, and it has its own set of challenges. For instance, there is no start menu but a search bar called Spotlight. You do your quick math in there (where you'd call calc.exe in Windows). However, it only accepts your query as math... sometimes. Like 50% of the times. Otherwise it searches the web. If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny s…

I've found Windows window management to be pretty poor. They removed always on top (except in OneNote, and it's in power toys). Open a second Word document and all your docs get maximised. Undock and re-dock your MS machine from it's MS dock and the MS OS suddenly has no clue where to put your windows. Dock to a different dock (hot-desking; same brand and size of monitor) and the entire display options need to be re-…

They have Powertoys https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzon... and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/always-o...

not sure how good it is since I haven't used it myself

edit: you have to install it yourself

Re: No Start Menu for You

#129

Post by eviks »

> I tend to launch most programs on my Windows 10 laptop by typing the key, then a few letters of the program name, and then hitting enter.

That's the mistake right there, use a proper app launcher (like https://keypirinha.com/) to avoid the freeze and many other issues (like having to move your focus off screen center) with this neglected core OS functionality. While you're at it, you could also rebind it to something more ergonomic like CapsLock tap (but not hold)

Re: No Start Menu for You

#130

Post by tryfinally »

fodi wrote: post #125
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found Windows window management to be pretty poor. They removed always on top (except in OneNote, and it's in power toys). Open a second Word document and all your docs get maximised. Undock and re-dock your MS machine from it's MS dock and the MS OS suddenly has no clue where to put your windows. Dock to a different dock (hot-desking; same brand and size of monitor) and the entire display options need to be re-…

I've been using DeskPins for "always on top" since I've known about its existence.

I use this AutoHotkey oneliner. WIN+Space pins/unpins the current window.

    #SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A
(Save to set-always-on-top.ahk, and create a shortcut to the script in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Optionally add #NoTrayIcon at the top of the script to get rid of the tray icon.)
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