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Alternate Window Shells - any thoughts?


Fidcal

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I've been experimenting with alternatives to the tyrannical Explorer environment to try get away from the obnoxious taskbar and start menu in Windows. I've tested about three alternate shells.

 

Emerge was a bit buggy and strange things happened to task bars - but at least you could easily drag them where you want and it was fairly simple to use. Another one was a more glorified version of Explorer with start menu, taskbar etc but with exotic, distracting graphics. Might have been Geoshell or Blackbox or Talisman I see I downloaded (cripes - I downloaded more than I thought.)

 

Anyway, I'm currently pushing SharpEnviro which is a bit clunky to set up and I'm still trying to get used to it but it might be the best of a bad bunch. Essentially it does away with start menu except as a normal sub menu from elsewhere and you can set up different toolbars. These are limited to top or bottom of the screen but I'm inclined towards bottom of the screen anyway. But I don't see why they don't let you drag them anywhere.

 

All the shells let you reboot back to the normal Windows Explorer desktop and back whenever you want. All shells let normal Windows programs work including Windows Explorer (the file manager.)

 

However, fooling around with these shells I came up with my ideal concept which sadly, none of them fulfil. Think of this dream as a kind of user interface Lego construction kit:

  • The basic shell would be a black screen.
  • The only unremovable function is a right click menu.
  • That same menu pops up if you press the Windows key.
  • The only unremovable item on that menu is the desktop manager, let's call it Deskman
  • The Deskman utility lets you configure stuff but it also gives you access to essentials like the default file manager, eg, Windows Explorer, reboot, log off, control panel, switch back to the normal Explorer shell.
  • So, if you experiment and even if you delete everything you can in the environment, you will never be paralysed with a dead computer without any controls. Even if the desktop is covered by a non-working maximised program window you can still press the Windows key to get Deskman.
  • So, starting with the black screen - single menu - Deskman you can:
  • Add and delete items to/from the right click desktop menu including adding submenus. You can't, as said, remove Deskman. Items will be links to files, folders, or special Deskman functions such as 'new' which will let you create other stuff on the desktop such as toolbars or icons that link to other stuff like menus, files, whatever you want.
  • Create new menus accessible by either shift right click or Alt right click or Ctrl right click or from other menus or toolbars.
  • Create what I call 'panelbars' which are just rectangular panels you can resize to a large panel or down to a thin toolbar, color, add bevels, whatever, and add graphics, transparency if you want. Any panelbar can be inserted onto another panelbar to form a group if wished. Panelbars can be dragged anywhere, be disabled, enabled, hidden, auto-hide - and you can set the rules for auto-hide. There will be no 'smart' code changing things about behind your back. How you set it is how it stays.
  • Create 'modules': launchers, runners, system tray. So to create a taskbar you would create a panelbar then create a runners module and stick it on the panelbar - voila! you have a taskbar which displays icons for all running programs. For the system tray you would create a system tray module and stick it either on its own panelbar or put it on the same panelbar as the runners module. A 'launchers' module is just to group shortcuts to launch your favourite programs or documents or folders or anything - control panel, recycle bin, menu, anything. Once you create a launchers module (it's invisible but listed in Deskman) you can add shortcut icons then you can put it on a panelbar where it becomes visible (so long as the panelbar is enabled and not hidden!)
  • Add and manage wallpaper.

Deskman would still display programs in the selected Windows theme of Aero, Classic, Basic, whatever - it doesn't change that. (Be nice if it could. Dunno.)

 

The default Deskman download would not, of course, come as a black screen, single menu. No, the default theme would be configured much like Windows with default wallpaper, a panelbar configured as a thin bar along the bottom with a sys tray module on the right, a taskbar in the middle and a start icon on the left pointing to the Windows start menu. Remove what you don't like, add what you do.

 

Auto-hide would not work like the normal Windows one which often locks up or locks down (one reason is when there are notifications in the sys tray I believe.) It follows one simple rule. If the mouse is in position it pops up and if not it pops down. The only exception is in full screen games where the desktop is gone anyway. Full screen mode programs like Opera, Paintshop, etc then the screen edge popups can still work (but can be configured not to if you want) but panelbars in the middle of the screen that are covered by the full screen program won't.

 

Popup panelbars in the middle of the desktop would need you to set some graphic to indicate where they are. This might your own custom wallpaper where you click on a cupboard to open a panel of icons or maybe you can pin on a passive graphic to indicate the place.

 

Everything on the desktop can be hidden/revealed or accessed separately via the Deskman right click menu.

 

The whole package should then satisfy every taste from the uncluttered minimalist like myself to the most complex, graphic clutter that you wish. Construct your own desktop how you want it. It's not rocket science - it's common sense. SharpEnviro is the nearest I've found to this ideal - and it's free. :)

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Your vision sounds good to me. I used to constantly tweak my system & folders in the past, but not so much these days. But some nice tools would make it pleasant.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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I was using Norton Commander and its clones (Volkov Commander, DOS Navigator, FAR Manager, but not Total Commander) since 1990. When you're using these programs, everything is under total, lightning fast control. Most operations have their hot-keys, so there is almost no need in mouse :). Nowadays, Total Commander is shareware, FAR Manager is open source and free of charge. Although they may look outdated, they are very powerful and handy tools.

Edited by MoroseTroll
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Yes but they are file managers within the Windows environment. I'm talking about changing the environment itself.

 

The same applies though to file managers. If they were made up of modules so you could build the one you want with no restrictions that would be great. One of the most common things you want in any file manager is to see how much free space you have on any drive. Different systems I've used always show a file list with bytes free at the end. Windows Explorer used to have this on the status bar but it was not always there. It's disappeared completely now. In fact the status bar itself I think is hidden by default but you can get it back in one of the menus (though not the layout config where you'd expect it.) Instead, Windows Explorer now (in Win7) has a bloated details panel which wastes a lot of space mostly unless you are examining file details especially. they also did away with the favourites (formerly links) divider so they push down the rest of the tree. What I mean by Lego construction is the user should be able to define everything including whether to have a status bar and what to put on it.

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Yes but they are file managers within the Windows environment. I'm talking about changing the environment itself.
What do you mean? All Norton Commander clones have a classic design with a pair of windows (source & destination). When you're using these programs, you just don't need Windows Explorer at all. Ergo, you don't care about Windows environment. Or am I missing something?
The same applies though to file managers. If they were made up of modules so you could build the one you want with no restrictions that would be great.
All those programs are very customizable.
One of the most common things you want in any file manager is to see how much free space you have on any drive.
It's a pretty easy feature which can be enabled just by one checkbox within the settings of FAR & TC.
Different systems I've used always show a file list with bytes free at the end.
Do you mean so named cluster losses? Both FAR & TC can do this.
Instead, Windows Explorer now (in Win7) has a bloated details panel which wastes a lot of space mostly unless you are examining file details especially.
FAR & TC can show you as much information as you want. Also, there are 9 or 10 built-in presets you can choose to represent file lists.
What I mean by Lego construction is the user should be able to define everything including whether to have a status bar and what to put on it.

I've never played Lego, but I think I understand you :). I just want to suggest you download FAR (freeware) or Total Commander (shareware) and try them out. Who knows, maybe you'll like them.
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MoroseTroll: I should explain that the entire default Microsoft Windows shell (user interace) is called 'explorer' whereas Windows Explorer is a file manager used by 'explorer'. What this thread is about is the shell which provides a desktop, toolbars, menus, and clickable icons. For instance, In SharpE I currently do not have any start button or start menu or any taskbar at all - just the system tray. I can create toolbars with a taskbar and/or a launchbar if I want but I prefer to switch using Alt + Tab anyway and I have my own favourites launcher bar that I wrote years ago. I still use Windows Explorer for file management but other file managers such as Total will work in SharpE. Unless you mean that Total Commander removes the start menu and taskbar and desktop icons? Can Total Commander display and activate memory-resident programs (system tray icons) itself? Can it display notifications (those system bubble messages that tell us a hard drive has just been connected, etc.) If not, it's not a total shell but a file manager. I'm not demeaning it - it may be a brilliant file manager - but it's not what I'm discussing here. However, I have been looking at file managers and recently tried XYplorer so I might take a look at Total.

 

lost_soul: Does Classic still have the classic taskbar? I mean, it's like Windows 98 with a fixed start menu, taskbar, sys tray?

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