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No Start Menu for You

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Re: No Start Menu for You

#231

Post by layer8 »

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 think search is hard generally.

The Windows 7 start menu search worked very well for the TFA use case. You can still get the equivalent with OpenShell. Microsoft f’ed it up from Windows 8 on.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#232

Post by tanseydavid »

dylan604 wrote: post #212
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…

The web stuff on Spolight is one of the first things I turn off on any new Mac. Siri is disabled, suggestions from the web are disabled, spotlight is only allowed to look at apps and files, etc. My mac works wonderfully after so that it returns results of what I expect when searched. Search is a lot less hard when you restrain it to searching only what you care about.

Does anyone know how to get a similar configuration with Win11? The setup described here is exactly what I want.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#233

Post by layer8 »

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-…

Yeah, the Office window handling is fucked up. But it’s because non-proficient users apparently got confused by each open document behaving like a separate app window.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#234

Post by suzzer99 »

rollcat wrote: post #180
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…

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use. Mac has a different window management paradigm. It suits some people, it frustr…

I use DisplayMaid which remembers the positions of all the apps I usually have open, one configuration for each combination of monitors I use (work, laptop only, home).

Re: No Start Menu for You

#235

Post by DanTheManPR »

input_sh wrote: post #61
yellow_lead wrote: post #36

There's many other problems with the start menu - specifically search 1) Anything not found opens in Edge™ and not your default browser (WTF?) 2) It loads lazily - so sometimes you hit enter and the highlighted item has already changed 3) Partial searches don't work very well. At this point, I'm wondering if there's a start menu replacement app

> At this point, I'm wondering if there's a start menu replacement app Not using Windows for like a decade now, but I always go for a third-party launcher on Linux/macOS. They're fast(er) and more importantly extensible. Instead of trying to index everything all the time, they function via triggers. If I start my query with "em", it searches emojis, if I start it with "=" it does calculations, if with "tr" it transla…

Launchers have replaced start menu search for me. They do more, they do it faster. It's frustrating that the start menu doesn't do basic stuff like open bookmarks from Edge, or do simple calculations. Having this functionality would actually enhance the functionality of Windows... but M$ doesn't seems more interested in putting ads in the start menu search.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#236

Post by anonymousiam »

It looks like Windows phones home every time you hit the start button, and when web search crashes, it arbitrarily waits for the crash dump to be reported to the mother ship before launching again.

The most useful information is at the bottom of the comments:

"I had some of the same issues – just with start menu being too slow. I disabled web search for start menu, and it works, is fast, only finds apps (and other local stuff; documents, folder, settings – but only when you navigate to that specified search target). Bottomline – turning off web search in start menu = speed

regedit/use at own discretion: HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer “DisableSearchBoxSuggestions”=dword:00000001"

Re: No Start Menu for You

#237

Post by lowbloodsugar »

oriolid wrote: post #178
josephg wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience has been the same. I had an old Intel Mac start occasionally crashing after taking it in for a screen replacement. I fired up memtest86 and sure enough saw errors. I took it back and Apple replaced the entire motherboard for me for free. Does anyone know if there’s a memtest86 equivalent for M1 macs? I’m not sure how I’d go about testing the ram on my machine now.

When this happened to me, I was told that the memory can't be replaced without replacing the entire motherboard. Which means that after warranty period has passed the machine is either very expensive to repair or unrepairable.

Which is why I pay for the monthly AppleCare.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#238

Post by lowbloodsugar »

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…

>Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist

“Window management is different and even though it is a completely different OS I didn’t bother to learn it.”

You might as well have said its command.exe is garbage and back slashes don’t work.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#239

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

rightbyte wrote: post #133
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I will gladly hate on the calculator redesign, but 13 seconds feels like there is some other underlying issue.

Re: No Start Menu for You

#240

Post by dylan604 »

tanseydavid wrote: post #232
dylan604 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web stuff on Spolight is one of the first things I turn off on any new Mac. Siri is disabled, suggestions from the web are disabled, spotlight is only allowed to look at apps and files, etc. My mac works wonderfully after so that it returns results of what I expect when searched. Search is a lot less hard when you restrain it to searching only what you care about.

Does anyone know how to get a similar configuration with Win11? The setup described here is exactly what I want.

--Hi, I'm a PC.

--And I'm a Mac.

The only winning move is not to play Win11

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