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No Start Menu for You

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Re: No Start Menu for You

#131

Post by distcs »

eviks wrote: post #129

> 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 someth…

> That's the mistake right there, use a proper app launcher (like https://keypirinha.com/) to avoid the freeze and many other issues

Sorry, no! I am not going to install a whole new application only to launch programs - the most fundamental operation that an OS should be able to do on its own. If the OS cannot launch programs using the Win key, it needs to be analyzed and fixed. The OP article does half of that very well!

Re: No Start Menu for You

#132

Post by eviks »

spapas82 wrote: post #107
xeonax wrote: post #104

I disabled windows search indexing. I just use voidtools Everything. It just works. You get access to any file on your system in milliseconds instead of 30+seconds of windows search.

This. First thing I do on a new windows installation is to install everything. I never use the start menu, windows search or whatever anymore. When I need to run a program that isn't on my desktop or on my quick run taskbar I press ctrl+alt+s and then a few characters of the name. Pick the result I want with the arrow keys and press enter. Done.

with an app launcher you wouldn't need to touch the arrow keys as the apps would get a) sorted by frecency and b) have a more convenient shortcut

Re: No Start Menu for You

#133

Post by rightbyte »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #60
rightbyte wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Win10 at work and the Calc app lags for like 10s when opening before I can type in it. I firmly remember it started to do that after some reboot update ...

The new calc app has always been a travesty. Taking at least a full second or more to load, with an obnoxiously large interface. The original calculator opened instantly and had a completely functional ui. I get angry every time I need to launch calculator on a machine I have not configured with SpeedCrunch. Almost better to use Excel.

I open the full bloody GNU Octave instead. I just timed it.

Calculator: 13s Octave GUI: 5s

The worst thing is that the calculator pretends to be running after like 2s but is unresponsive.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#134

Post by lloeki »

tuankiet65 wrote: post #120
brianwillis wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. It sort of does, but it's not as obvious as it should be. Mouse over the green zoom button in the top-left corner of a window, hold the option key on your keyboard, and then "move window left" and "move window right" options appear.

I think just hovering the cursor above the zoom button for a few seconds will also trigger the left/right tiling options.

It's also in the Window menu, so you can add a keyboard shortcut to it.

See https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-...

Re: No Start Menu for You

#135

Post by wishfish »

lelanthran wrote: post #113
Thlom wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. Also noticed yesterday that you can tile windows left right by long-pressing on the maximize button.

> Huh. I maximize most of my programs. They maximize in a separate desktop and I switch between them with three finger swipe. That's full-screen, not maximised[1]. It's also something I hate - I make an app full-screen and suddenly it's on a different desktop, so my awareness of what apps are on which desktop is completely gone - I can no longer to ctrl-alt-right twice to get from my golang desktop to my browser desk…

I've been using a Mac full time for a little over a year. I'd agree fully with you on the full screen going to a separate desktop. Extremely annoying.

However, you can switch desktops with control + right/left arrow. No need for the trackpad.

Because I'm easily distracted, I frequently have all major applications maximized. That's how I always used Windows. Fortunately, I can have the same on the Mac. Maximized with the dock showing below and all apps on the same desktop. Full screen is a rarity for me.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#136

Post by feet »

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…

>Otherwise it searches the web.

If you search for a program, it takes just that tiny second to update results such that if you type one letter too much, your top result goes from program to web search

This sounds nearly identical to the search function I've used in the windows start menu. It's terrible

Re: No Start Menu for You

#137

Post by grishka »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #117
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…

> Its job is to open, view, edit, and save local files That might have been the case 20 years ago (and even then Office had functionality to self-update). Now, with OneDrive, cloud storage, Exchange, SharePoint, etc, people expect that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc should work seamlessly with multiple users simultaneously editing documents. Even IDEs and code editors have ‘network access’ now—VS Code can download and…

> Now, with OneDrive, cloud storage, Exchange, SharePoint, etc, people expect that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc should work seamlessly with multiple users simultaneously editing documents.

How many people do actually use these features in these programs? I myself have always seen them as nothing but bloat, a symptom of the IT industry utterly lacking a notion of a project being finished and not needing any further work. Maybe these features should come as plugins that you can optionally install. At least that's how I'd do it.

Usually, when someone wants to collaboratively edit a document or a spreadsheet, they use Google Docs. It being web-first also helps.

> Even IDEs and code editors have ‘network access’ now

And as an Android developer, I despise how Android Studio, or the Gradle Android plugin, or both of them, can just shamelessly download 100-something megabytes of some crap without asking, expecting that you have a network connection capable of that, sometimes not even showing the fact that they're accessing the network in the UI, and refusing to operate if that download fails. Eclipse didn't do that. Though it was terrible in many other ways.

> People have come to expect some form of self-updating mechanism now even for the smallest programs

Honestly, I expect smallest programs to be complete and not need any updating.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#138

Post by climb_stealth »

bingo-bongo wrote: post #54
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…

Take a look at Alfred: https://www.alfredapp.com/ I’ve been using it since v1, it’s extremely configurable, very very snappy and doesn’t suffer from the common AI-problems, that seems to be forced into searches everywhere these days. (EDIT: it’s a Spotlight replacement)

Alfred is great. Just have to disable the feature to search on the web. Otherwise it will have the same issue where a typo results in a new browser tab with a web search instead of doing nothing.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#139

Post by unkulunkulu »

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 purchased an app to maximize my windows on mac. It also moves them between monitors. It’s called Magnet. Highly recommend :)

Re: No Start Menu for You

#140

Post by infinitezest »

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…

For window management and tiling, I think Rectangle is better than most of the alternatives I've used. And its OSS https://rectangleapp.com/
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