[AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase

Hi John

OK, I would miss the taskbar as well. 
But where did you put it away? Here it sits steadily at the bottom of the screen when I switch (one press on the Windows button) to desktop view.

And the (RT) apps I may have running can be reached at the left pane - or the usual way by clicking Alt(+Shift)+Tab.

/gustav

________________________________________
Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com <accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> på vegne af John W Colby <jwcolby at gmail.com>
Sendt: 26. februar 2014 20:19
Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Emne: Re: [AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase

Gustav,

I use the task bar heavily.  I have all of the programs that I normally open pinned to the task
bar.  I LITERALLY don't ever go to the desktop because it is behind open programs.  The only time I
go to the start menu is to open one of the rarely used programs, or to get at MyComputer or the
control panel etc.  The task bar can be hidden (on demand) but I keep it pinned open.

So let's say I open Chrome and do a search for CPUs.  I open several tabs on that with various CPUs
I am researching.  In the process I find an article about video cards.  I tear the tab off so that I
now have a new instance of chrome displaying that article.  My chrom icon on the task bar now has an
icon with stacked tiles for the two Chrome instances I have.  I can hover over the stack and a menu
pops up, where I can read English text telling me which is which.  I can click on the one I want to
go back to or I can click the X to close it.  This is critical when I have 3 or 4 or 7 instances of
Chrome open.

Additionally I can pin Excel (for example) AND a specific excel spreadsheet of my client's data map
to the task bar.  Now I can hover over the Excel icon and click that line of the popup menu and be
right in the data map spreadsheet.  You might have noticed in explorer, one right click option is
"pin to taskbar"  Well I do.  I have the data map pinned, my Access billing database, my Access
prison pass database.  Stull like that.  All neatly stacked in the task bar ready for hover / click
/ open.  You mention "arranging those ungodly huge icons in the desktop, why would I do that when I
can stack them in the taskbar, right down to a specific document if I so desire?

I will have 5 instances of Chrome, Thunderbird, 5 instances of remote desktop and the game of Empire
I am playing all open.  My task bar displays, with a raised icon, which of those programs are open,
and if "stacked" which of those programs have multiple instances.  I can look down and instantly see
"yep, Empire is open" and click the icon to be back in my game.

I also have my antivirus, threatfire, firewall, dropbox, BoxCryptor etc running.  Those are
services, but have a user interface which is displayed via an icon in the right hand side of the
task bar.  I can get at those running services via their icon instantly. One or at most two clicks.
I can't tell you how often I click the sound icon to mute the sound when a phone call comes in.

I will work ALL DAY LONG, sometimes all WEEK long and not open the start menu.

ALL of this functionality is controlled by the task bar which is GONE.  How do you accomplish this
stuff that I have described easily and quickly in Windows 8?  Why on God's green earth would MS have
removed the taskbar, the absolute center of my Windows universe?  Hubris and arrogance do not begin
to describe it.

As for the start menu, yes I use it very occasionally.  Any programs that I use that I do not pin to
the task bar I drag and drop out into the first level menu, accessed by opening the start menu.  I
just dragged and dropped the submenus  inside of the start menu so that the ones that actually get
used are all at the top of the list.  I can see the ones I use, right there at the top.  Windows key
and click, I am working with them.  AND... the menu neatly hides away behind the start button (and
windows key) when I am done working with it.

I do NOT need a bajillion huge tiles of every damned program that Windows contains (and all the ones
I load afterwards) that I have to stare at wondering where the one I want is, swiping right panel
after panel to see them.  I do NOT need to rearrange these huge icons into ones that make sense or
that I use.  There is not a SINGLE program that I use more than a couple of times a year that is not
either pinned to my task bar or pinned to the first level of the start menu.  How is a mongo desktop
full of crap better than that?  Hell at least the old desktop had little icons instead of these huge
things.  I am not blind.

The answer is that you like it and Arthur likes it, and so it is better (for you).  Cool, I
appreciate that and I could care less if you use things that way.  In the meantime I got shafted and
Microsoft is telling me to "suck it up 'cause it ain't coming back".  My carefully crafted way of
doing business that is about as efficient as one can get is gone.

I so wanted to stay with Windows 8.  All I hear is faster, smaller, less resources... all good
things.  But what I found was "well download this third party thing and that third party thing" just
to get back to what I already have.  And use this key combination and click this then click this
then click that... I assume that you have noticed that underneath the covers, pretty much everything
is the same.  Just getting them to open is an abomination.

And what the hell is up with the "leave everything open all the time" crap?  Have you ever looked at
Chrome (or any other browser) memory usage?  Now I understand that I can still just alt-F4 to close
it when I am done, but is the close / minimize button some huge burden?  And notice that Chrome WILL
NOT SIZE in Windows 8. So I can't open it to use part of the screen.  I don't know how they did it
but the same browser that sizes just fine in Windows 7 pretends to be an idiot in Windows 8.  Over a
week's time I could have a dozen or even two dozen programs open at the same time. Without my task
bar I am supposed to alt-tab through these?  Hell I don't want them there to begin with, I last used
that at Christmas.  Why does MS think it is best to just leave everything open forever?   SERIOUSLY
stupid thinking out of supposedly brilliant minds.

I am neither an old fart (well... yea I am) nor a pussy.  Windows 7 worked absolutely 100% perfectly
for me, I had it honed to a razor's edge.  Windows 8 is a disaster (for me).  Which makes me sad
because if they would give me back the exact same start menu and taskbar functionality... I would be
using Windows 8 right now, never having noticed that MS had screwed it up.  I would be getting all
of the benefits of the new and all of the benefits of the old.

John W. Colby

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

On 2/26/2014 11:16 AM, Gustav Brock wrote:
> Hi John
>
> I don't know. Maybe it's a question of attitude, though it seems that you have given Win8 an honest try.
>
> /gustav