I don't think it's possible to improve on Windows 7 GUI

G

geraltofrivia

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
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I used to be a big Mac geek until last year when I was forced to use windows for a project. Now I've seroconverted. I don't see how the GUI could be improved in any way. I can do pretty much anything with WindowsKey -> type something. The only way they could improve it would be to skim the fat like IE, media features, gadgets, sidebar, "taskpane", etc..

desktop.jpg


Metro can kiss my ass.
 
Explorer in W7 is ugly, and I don't like the weird gradients on the window chrome. I always turn off the transparency (not Aero) but even then its not a flat color.
 
chinesepiratefood said:
Explorer in W7 is ugly, and I don't like the weird gradients on the window chrome. I always turn off the transparency (not Aero) but even then its not a flat color.
Click to expand...

You can turn off the weird gradients by lowering the value of
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER|Software\microsoft\Windows\DWM\ColorizationGlassReflectionIntensity




Also, Explorer isn't so bad if you turn off the taskpane:

2.png


I guess what I like about W7 is how tweakable it is. You can pretty make it however you want. I was a DOS user as a kid and like to start programs by typing their names, not clicking on icons. I also like to keep my workspace minimalist. Looking at previews of W8 it doesn't seem possible to do this.

There things about W7 that annoy me. Like how it has no respect for your disk space. There is no way a clean install should take up around 9GB. Even with w7lite it still takes up like 5 or 6GB.
 
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geraltofrivia said:
I used to be a big Mac geek until last year when I was forced to use windows for a project. Now I've seroconverted. I don't see how the GUI could be improved in any way. I can do pretty much anything with WindowsKey -> type something. The only way they could improve it would be to skim the fat like IE, media features, gadgets, sidebar, "taskpane", etc..

Metro can kiss my ass.
Click to expand...

Really? If you used Windows 8 and all you did was WindowsKey -> type something, YOU WOULD ACCOMPLISH THE EXACT SAME THING.

Secondly, I find it hard to believe that anything can't be improved; in any way no less. That's a very asinine attitude.
 
Windows 7 cannot remember the location and size of individual folders. "c:\photos\many" is the same size as "c:\photos\few." They even put a help article in Win7 explaining this. I always found that to be kind of stupid, and it's significantly altered my desktop experience (negatively).
 
SuperSubZero said:
Windows 7 cannot remember the location and size of individual folders. "c:\photos\many" is the same size as "c:\photos\few." They even put a help article in Win7 explaining this. I always found that to be kind of stupid, and it's significantly altered my desktop experience (negatively).
Click to expand...

Yeah actually this annoys me too. Have you tried shellfolderfix? That fixes it for me. Unfortunately it does have to be running for it to work, but it's a really lightweight program, installer optional.
 
Digital Savior said:
Really? If you used Windows 8 and all you did was WindowsKey -> type something, YOU WOULD ACCOMPLISH THE EXACT SAME THING.

Secondly, I find it hard to believe that anything can't be improved; in any way no less. That's a very asinine attitude.
Click to expand...

lol
 
geraltofrivia said:
You can turn off the weird gradients by lowering the value of
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER|Software\microsoft\Windows\DWM\ColorizationGlassReflectionIntensity




Also, Explorer isn't so bad if you turn off the taskpane:

2.png


I guess what I like about W7 is how tweakable it is. You can pretty make it however you want. I was a DOS user as a kid and like to start programs by typing their names, not clicking on icons. I also like to keep my workspace minimalist. Looking at previews of W8 it doesn't seem possible to do this.

There things about W7 that annoy me. Like how it has no respect for your disk space. There is no way a clean install should take up around 9GB. Even with w7lite it still takes up like 5 or 6GB.
Click to expand...

How did you remove that bar? I hate it.

As for customizability - W8 is just as customizable as W7 with regards to the desktop environment, at least in the current builds.
 
I love Win7. I'm not gonna say its perfect but I can't think of too many things I would like to see changed. I'll check out Win8 when it drops but I don't see me switching really.
 
chinesepiratefood said:
How did you remove that bar? I hate it.

As for customizability - W8 is just as customizable as W7 with regards to the desktop environment, at least in the current builds.
Click to expand...

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-make-folder-band-auto-hidden-in-windows-vista/

(says vista but works for W7 too)

I can just send you my shellstyles.dll if you're running 64bit. (not sure if the file is different for 32bit, you might know better than me). I recommend playing with Resource Hacker if you're into that type of thing. You can get rid of almost any GUI element that doesn't suit your fancy.
 
O.k., you want some complaints about the windows UI... here are a few that should have been stopped dead before a beta was even released.

1. The preview pane. This pice of trash causes all sorts of problems. The worst is, if you are using the preview pane, programs will think that the file is open in another program and thus will only open the file in read only mode. The preview pane also causes huge issues with opening files that are on a network share. Makes them take 5x as long or longer to open. This especially screws with Quickbooks and MS Office files as well as other software packages.

2. The way the documents folder is screwed up if you put it somewhere else.. such as right under C:\. then if you make a sub folder and switch the "my documents" folder to it, it still shows the top folder as the "my documents" folder. It will keep propgating down like this, and even if you change it back to where it was originally, it still shows that all those folders are the "My documents" folder.

I specifically asked MS about this and they said it was by design.... you have to be kidding me, it is a huge freaking mess and it "is by design".

W7 also still has the issue of not being able to correctly give the size of a folder if it gets past a certain size. 3rd party utilities are still required to look at folders as see their size accurately.

In spite of those issues I like the W7 UI. I hope they fix those issues in W8 though.
 
you can start by moving the bar to the bottom. Then click Use Small Icons.

But coming from a mac it doesn't matter what settings you have its going to be better.
 
cyclone3d said:
2. The way the documents folder is screwed up if you put it somewhere else.. such as right under C:\. then if you make a sub folder and switch the "my documents" folder to it, it still shows the top folder as the "my documents" folder. It will keep propgating down like this, and even if you change it back to where it was originally, it still shows that all those folders are the "My documents" folder.

I specifically asked MS about this and they said it was by design.... you have to be kidding me, it is a huge freaking mess and it "is by design".
Click to expand...
It's not really that it's by design, it's that the cost of the fix far exceeds the cost of the problem (I previously filed this bug and got into a discussion with the team about it). You can solve it yourself by editing the desktop.ini of the previous "My Documents" folder (either delete or find the line that sets that property). The reason the cost of the problem is so low is that how often do you move your user folders around? Once per install?

W7 also still has the issue of not being able to correctly give the size of a folder if it gets past a certain size. 3rd party utilities are still required to look at folders as see their size accurately.

In spite of those issues I like the W7 UI. I hope they fix those issues in W8 though.
Click to expand...
Take your pick:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/10/29/5750353.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2004/12/28/336219.aspx
 
cyclone3d said:
O.k., you want some complaints about the windows UI... here are a few that should have been stopped dead before a beta was even released.

1. The preview pane. This pice of trash causes all sorts of problems. The worst is, if you are using the preview pane, programs will think that the file is open in another program and thus will only open the file in read only mode. The preview pane also causes huge issues with opening files that are on a network share. Makes them take 5x as long or longer to open. This especially screws with Quickbooks and MS Office files as well as other software packages.

2. The way the documents folder is screwed up if you put it somewhere else.. such as right under C:\. then if you make a sub folder and switch the "my documents" folder to it, it still shows the top folder as the "my documents" folder. It will keep propgating down like this, and even if you change it back to where it was originally, it still shows that all those folders are the "My documents" folder.

I specifically asked MS about this and they said it was by design.... you have to be kidding me, it is a huge freaking mess and it "is by design".

W7 also still has the issue of not being able to correctly give the size of a folder if it gets past a certain size. 3rd party utilities are still required to look at folders as see their size accurately.

In spite of those issues I like the W7 UI. I hope they fix those issues in W8 though.
Click to expand...

I disabled the preview pane within an hour of installation. But yeah W7 is oddly picky with "special" folders. It doesn't like for you to organize your hard drive the way you like it. Also annoying is that you have to take control of system files before you can delete them (including stuff like regional wallpapers that are hidden from you anyway).

This is basically my gripe about W8. It seems with each windows iteration they want you to use your computer at a higher and higher level and restrict access to the low level stuff. That's exactly the opposite I want from an OS... to a certain extent. I'm not saying I want to go back to command line only... I just want freedom to disable things I don't like and organize things the way I want. Why can't they just let you disable metro completely? That one step would appease 85% of the haters right now.
 
Well I think it could be improved in a lot of ways. Windows seems to have a major problem with the concept of "choice". It seems they decided - hey, the majority like this setting, so that's what we'll have, screw those 10-15% that won't like it, no options for you! :rolleyes:

There is a lot of wasted space in the UI in general (mainly window borders), I'd really like the ability to turn off ClearType everywhere and change all the fonts without having to hack & slash through the registry... worked fine enough in XP. I prefer clean font shapes & outlines, can't stand CT.

And how on earth do you disable that folder band (Organize, System Properties, etc.)? Has to be the most useless, space-wasting toolbar I've seen in a long time, I don't think I ever clicked on it.

Other than that I guess I can deal with most things, though I'd still probably use Windows Classic theme if it wasn't so broken in 7. I don't care about bling on my desktop, I don't spend much time looking at it ;)
 
quantum112 said:
Well I think it could be improved in a lot of ways. Windows seems to have a major problem with the concept of "choice". It seems they decided - hey, the majority like this setting, so that's what we'll have, screw those 10-15% that won't like it, no options for you! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Uhh you clearly haven't used OSX then ;)
 
I think Ribbon + Win7 would be teh win.
As for OSX I found it annoying and not user friendly to me. Maybe cause I work with 4-6 windows in most sessions.
 
Digital Savior said:
Secondly, I find it hard to believe that anything can't be improved; in any way no less. That's a very asinine attitude.
Click to expand...

There is always room for improvement even if we can't see it. If everyone had that attitude technology and most likely our culture would be totally stagnant.
 
Wrench00 said:
As for OSX I found it annoying and not user friendly to me. Maybe cause I work with 4-6 windows in most sessions.
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That's where multiple desktops shine. Dealing with the complexities of a multi-window workflow in Windows is an absolute nightmare once you've learned to properly exploit multiple desktops.

What bothers me most about Explorer UI is that the window button cluster includes a button that (usually) performs an action entirely different to the other two. Minimize targets an application window; maximize targets an application window; close targets the application itself and, generally but not universally speaking, destroys the application process. It's not always clear what you're going to get when you click the close button either, as you may get the typical response (terminate the application), you may minimize the window, you may end up hiding the application to the taskbar or you may get some other entirely unexpected result. Someone in Redmond made a bad call on allowing applications to specify what happens when that button gets clicked.
 
quantum112 said:
And how on earth do you disable that folder band (Organize, System Properties, etc.)? Has to be the most useless, space-wasting toolbar I've seen in a long time, I don't think I ever clicked on it.

Other than that I guess I can deal with most things, though I'd still probably use Windows Classic theme if it wasn't so broken in 7. I don't care about bling on my desktop, I don't spend much time looking at it ;)
Click to expand...

I linked to a description of how to disable the folder band in a post above. I don't like how it looks either.
 
quantum112 said:
Well I think it could be improved in a lot of ways. Windows seems to have a major problem with the concept of "choice". It seems they decided - hey, the majority like this setting, so that's what we'll have, screw those 10-15% that won't like it, no options for you! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Choice exists through the ability to run third party applications that modify the default behavior. When the UI team makes its decisions, it works on polishing the 95%+ case. As I love to link to, offering a choice in a checkbox is the mating call of the loser.
 
Windows still has no good way to visualize all of your open windows at the same time. Flip 3D was a step in the right direction (though it is now dead as of Win8), but there's a desperate need for something like OS X's Exposé/Mission Control. Metro apps have this problem even worse, due to their inherently full-screen nature. Windows 7 could also have benefited from multitouch support, but it's there in Win 8 and it works ok. I really like Aero Snap, but I wish I could customize it and set my own grids to snap windows to.
 
Customizable Aero Snap would be great. It's fairly typical for me to use my desktop as temporary location for file storage, as it tends to be convenient for that purpose, but a pair of snapped windows buries the desktop completely. A little 'breathing room' on one or both sides would solve that.
 
You don't really lose out on anything with Windows 8 aside from the old start menu, and I think the new one is actually better after using it. The Windws 8 desktop is improved over Windows 7
And yes, you can still press the windows key and type to find things...

wonderfield said:
Customizable Aero Snap would be great. It's fairly typical for me to use my desktop as temporary location for file storage, as it tends to be convenient for that purpose, but a pair of snapped windows buries the desktop completely. A little 'breathing room' on one or both sides would solve that.
Click to expand...

1. snap two windows
2. drag (resize) 1 border to create 'breathing room'
 
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