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Windows PowerToys returns...
http://forums.winstep.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11044
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Author:  DesertDwarf [ Fri May 10, 2019 12:11 am ]
Post subject:  Windows PowerToys returns...

It gives me a warm-fuzzy feeling to recall playing with Microsoft PowerToys back in Windows 95. I loved that program. After XP, they stopped developing it.

They have now revived it. While it's not as feature-rich as it could be, the fact that it's open source should mean it can be even better than the old one.

Here's an article on it:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3394340 ... ithub.html

Author:  vectornut [ Fri May 10, 2019 12:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

I still miss Norton Desktop for Windows (3.1/3.11).

Author:  nexter [ Mon May 13, 2019 4:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

Nostalgia for Win 3.x/Win9x related stuff, how sad... Oh well, diff'rent strokes and all that, I s'pose.

And now, MS bring us that long-awaited Linux kernel - no, not for Win 10 itself, but for better compatibility with Linux-based apps. Fair enough, I also have a few Win apps running nicely on the Linux side under Wine - Notepad++, Irfanview and Multi-Commander, a pretty decent DOpus style FM that's also finding its way onto my Win system now. (Never new about that one till I went looking for a decent FM for Linux.)

About the only thing I really miss under Linux is Winstep - well, and just three other apps that I have to use. Maybe in a few years' time one can finally dump Windows again?

Author:  DesertDwarf [ Mon May 13, 2019 3:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

nexter wrote:
Nostalgia for Win 3.x/Win9x related stuff, how sad...

Judgmentalism aside, why is it sad for someone to experience nostalgia for something that is more than 20 years old and made a so-so operating system a little better?

Is it sad because it doesn't meet up with your level of nostalgia? Is it because it is Windows or because it's not antiquated enough?

Author:  vectornut [ Tue May 14, 2019 2:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

Norton Desktop for Windows brought virtual desktops to Windows back in the 3.1 days. Provided an easy-to-use interface to switch between desktops. Displayed program groups basically like permanently expanded grid stacks. You could put those program groups on specific virtual desktops and they'd stay there. And unlike pretty much everything Norton these days, it didn't bog down the computer.

One of the reasons I really wish Jorge would add virtual desktops to the things WinStep does is that ability to permanently place things on a given desktop. I personally find it easier to switch back and forth between desktops than to switch back and forth between programs on a single desktop.

Author:  oOSGearOo [ Tue May 14, 2019 12:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

vectornut wrote:
One of the reasons I really wish Jorge would add virtual desktops to the things WinStep does is that ability to permanently place things on a given desktop. I personally find it easier to switch back and forth between desktops than to switch back and forth between programs on a single desktop.


Why don't you ask him in the what's next in main forum. I had a desire for gridStacks and asked and look what happened.

Author:  vectornut [ Wed May 15, 2019 3:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

oOSGearOo wrote:
vectornut wrote:
One of the reasons I really wish Jorge would add virtual desktops to the things WinStep does is that ability to permanently place things on a given desktop. I personally find it easier to switch back and forth between desktops than to switch back and forth between programs on a single desktop.


Why don't you ask him in the what's next in main forum. I had a desire for gridStacks and asked and look what happened.


LOL the first time I brought up the idea of Winstep and virtual desktops on this forum was in 2004. Jorge knows I want it. Someday he might see a reason to do it.

Author:  nexter [ Thu May 16, 2019 1:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

DesertDwarf wrote:
nexter wrote:
Nostalgia for Win 3.x/Win9x related stuff, how sad...

Judgmentalism aside, why is it sad for someone to experience nostalgia for something that is more than 20 years old and made a so-so operating system a little better?

Is it sad because it doesn't meet up with your level of nostalgia? Is it because it is Windows or because it's not antiquated enough?


Sorry Ric if it didn't come across as half tongue in cheek as it was meant to. :)

Nostalgia for Win 3.x, however, as such has to be a little sad IMO though. Simply because a) it wasn't even a real operating system, but really little more than a GUI sitting on top of DOS, and b) because it struck me as horrendously bad and ugly (just as bad as Mac OS in those days) and I never allowed it on a computer near me. ;) (I was sticking with Amigas and NeXT boxes, eventually adding a PC with Sun OS, O/S 2 Warp 3, and eventually Win NT 3.5x when that came along. (And then OS/2 Warp 4, and finally Win NT 4 - at last a usable OS from MS that didn't BSoD every five minutes like Nt 3.5x!) In between, I sometimes worked with SGIs and Irix, Sparcstations/Sun OS, as well as very occasionally Mac (in emulation - long story!), and I'd even given GNU/Linux a couple of early tries around 95/96 and 98 IIRC. So it's by no means that I'm anti-Windows - as can be seen, I've always been pretty much platform and OS agnostic - the right tool for the job sort of thing.

And now I'm back to running Linux again as well, several different distros in fact, alongside Windows, both on my laptop, two distros triple-booting with Win 10, and another two under Windows Hyper-V, not to mention one on a live USB stick, as well as another couple alongside Windows 7 on my old AMD X2 box, where I've also got FreeBSD. This is on account of my looking into moving away from Windows entirely longer term, not because it's Windows but on account of security and esp. privacy concerns. (And I'm amazed still at all the free - both as in freedom and as in of cost - high quality apps available now in the free/open source world. The only things missing would be a Winstep type Windowmanager/DE - preferably based on Wayland and Compiz, i.e., a 3D UI - and a real Photoshop alternative, and a real decent native file manager, and a couple of other things. But of course, there are things like MultiCommander that runs perfectly under Wine as well as a few other things inc. Notepad++. And of course the mother of all Hypervisors - Xen - is Linux-native.)

As for nostalgia, per se, I can be as nostalgic as anyone, and so I have a NeXTStep VM and several Amigas in emulation (still have to try to get WinUAE running under Wine/Linux!) and in fact still use DOpus 4.12 for some of my Windows file mangmt. tasks as well as a few other Amiga apps. Oh, and I've got an OS/2 Warp 4 VM that gets an occasional outing, mainly so I can access and convert all my old Lotus documents bit by bit.

So, nothing against nostalgia per se. :)

Author:  nexter [ Thu May 16, 2019 2:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Windows PowerToys returns...

vectornut wrote:
Norton Desktop for Windows brought virtual desktops to Windows back in the 3.1 days. Provided an easy-to-use interface to switch between desktops. Displayed program groups basically like permanently expanded grid stacks. You could put those program groups on specific virtual desktops and they'd stay there. And unlike pretty much everything Norton these days, it didn't bog down the computer.

One of the reasons I really wish Jorge would add virtual desktops to the things WinStep does is that ability to permanently place things on a given desktop. I personally find it easier to switch back and forth between desktops than to switch back and forth between programs on a single desktop.


Yeah, I saw Norton DT back in the day - and PC Tools which some folks seemed to prefer - and it did seem to make Windows a bit more usable, though still not enough for me.

As for Virtual Desktops - yeah, would be real neat to have something that's integrated with/part of Winstep. Something like the way they're done under most Linux DEs, biggish panels but with the option of having them stay on screen, or optionally displayed in a stack or drawer perhaps.

In a way the old Amiga was lightyears ahead in that - thanks to a custom blitter - many, even most, apps did or could open on their own screen, in a different resolution from everything else, and you could pull screens down to check what was happening elsewhere, and all kinds of neat tricks. But the price was, you had to live with the Amiga's native GFX, although they were far better than what DOS/Win PCs had to offer, and the last generation AGA gFX were bloody brilliant, unless you needed a 24-bit GFX card (which again were not available for PCs until some time later than Amiga). I really missed that feature when eventually I'd upgraded all my 'big box' Amigas (bar an A1200 wedge).

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