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Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: extra window functions
« on: June 29, 2005, 12:00 PM »
Nope and Nope. One monitor and I haven't changed resolutions since the boss got me a flat screen :)
I just found out that Powerpro's Gui control allows me to right-click drag from any piece of the window. So as long as I have one corner, I can move that bugger... (I fear I am becoming highly dependent on PowerPro, but that may be a good thing...)

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Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: extra window functions
« on: June 28, 2005, 03:43 PM »
Thanks for the link, although I must say Powerpro does the same (and about 2 million other things...) and since it is always running, that's what I use. I am excited to hear you've got something in the works, I think a lot of folks will find it useful. Out of curiosity, is this a long-running bug with Windows (author of Discover says it's peculiar to NT/95) or does it still occur with 'modern' Windows? I suppose it could happen by 'user error' (dragging something off-screen accidentally or when changing position of taskbar) and so still needs addressed now and then, but thought I'd ask. I know I ALWAYS have to use it when I run VirtuaWin and run the 'options'... the options window is the lower right-hand corner sticking out of the NW corner of my screen. (and I'm on NT4...)

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Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Small shell switcher for windowsXP
« on: June 28, 2005, 03:31 PM »
Thanks Malacandra, I was hoping someone would come up with something before I did, (not much time here)
However, I have written a quick-n-dirty-get-back-to-explorer utility for emergencies (like when you are testing a new shell or a beta update to your favorite and it doesn't go quite right) which I have written in AutoIt3 along with a compiled executable. I have no webspace ATM somebody wanna babysit it?

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Unfinished Requests / IDEA: extra window functions
« on: June 27, 2005, 12:43 PM »
You know when you right click the button of a running task or the little titlebar icon and you get a dropdown that says Restore, Move, Size, etc? I want to add functions to that menu, specifically Move to Center (for those annoying times when I get a window half-off the *$%@#&% screen, and 'Move' doesn't %&$#@ work, BTW) but perhaps add calls to those third-party programs that do roll-up or vertical/horizontal maximize and other fancy window tricks. I realize that there probably is a prog that does this but I've not been able to find it.

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I was just scooting around the web looking at different shell-related sites and there seems to be no one repository of knowledge with regard to replacement shells in general. If I had the time and web space, I'd give my take on it, but I don't, so I'll do my best here. See my post above (reply #6) and here is a tidbit from Desktopian's "What are Replacement Shells" page:
"Replacement Shells" are programs that are run in place of the normal Microsoft explorer shell to give your
desktop a completely different look & feel. In simplest terms, they replace the default Windows interface (Start
Button, Task Bar, icons on desktop) with an interface either borrowed from other operating systems (like Unix,
MacOS, or the Amiga) or something completely new and different.

Note, in almost every case, these applications are doing things that Microsoft never intended to happen on their
operating systems. In addition, many are in early beta (or even alpha) release. That means that some bugs and
minor incompatibilities are to be expected. But the good news is that many are in active development, which means
that bugs and incompatibilities are rapidly being addressed.
A (fairly) comprehensive list of alt shells past and present can be found at Shellfront's list page. Many of the links are broken but Google can help, and a link copied and pasted to the WayBack Machine can get you some shells that are long dead support-wise, but still work. Many developers of dead shells are now working in active shell projects, so hit the forums and take names.
 My best advice is; 1- Read all you can before divng in. Check out online documentation as well as the shells 'readme' files. The easiest shells to start with are bbLean,GeoShell (get the installer) and the Litestep Installer.
2- I recommend you get a 'back door' app to get back to explorer in case things go wrong. There are many alt-shell managers like shellon, Litespawn and Carapace can handle getting you out of a bad spot, but I have written a small script in AutoIt3 to do just that; get you back to explorer quickly. I'll post my script (and perhaps an exe? Mouser?) in another topic. Maybe someone can re-write it in C or C++ for efficiency.

Hope that helps, and to geektechnu: If you're good with litestep, check out xDesktop1.7. It's just about as easy to config as it gets, does at least 95% of what explorer's desk does and in the readme it tells how to use jdesk to interface with your actual desktop folder. Which is almost the remaining 5%. sweet. For wallpaper, I recommend bsetroot from the bb4win download site. It not only handles wallpapers, (bmp and jpg maybe others) but it'll do nice gradient washes so your "plain' paper is not so plain.

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