Explorer enhancements
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Explorer enhancements
Seeing how the new explorer is on the roadmap for the next big release (btw what has happened to 0.3.15?), I've been testing some of the old tiny enhancements I used in XP... Some are working and some are not which may be due to some differences in the behaviour of the explorer or possible bugs. I also recon some of the features of these apps could be built-in features of the ROS explorer (even though they are not native Windows features).
All the testing was done with my usual method (apps are bundled to an iso of a live cd dev build running under MobaLiveCD / Qemu... build tested was 59031):
WORKING (somewhat):
#Winroll http://palma.com.au/winroll/:
Pretty much working. Can rollup windows and restore them to normal, minimize/maximize from taskbar tray. Can't set transparency
#Gridy http://sector-seven.net/software/gridy
Allow moving and resizing windows with hotkeys. Also has a save/restore window size and position which I cannot use due to the hotkey limitations of MobaLiveCD (when the "Win" key or WIndows 7 hotkeys are involved). I didn't use it much in the past but it was the closer I knew to Win+Arrow hotkey in Win7.
#RadTab http://radad.110mb.com/:
Only explorer windows grouper/tabber (creates a tab for each window... for any program not just explorer) that seemed to work (most I tried had MSVC dependencies, QTTabBar is C#, Clover http://ejie.me/ would automatically quit). The resulting tab however seem to have an "always on top" behaviour.
NOT WORKING:
#Taskix (1.4 and 2.1) http://taskix.robustit.com/:
Can activate the service but it's not working at all... It was suposed to group and allow changing the order of taskbar items (like one can nativelly in Win7).
#allSnap http://ivanheckman.com/allsnap/:
Nice little app that allowed to snap windows to other windows and to desktop borders... Didn't have a hotkey function like Win+Arrow hotkey in Win7 (alternative apps I tried had MSVC dependencies)
All the testing was done with my usual method (apps are bundled to an iso of a live cd dev build running under MobaLiveCD / Qemu... build tested was 59031):
WORKING (somewhat):
#Winroll http://palma.com.au/winroll/:
Pretty much working. Can rollup windows and restore them to normal, minimize/maximize from taskbar tray. Can't set transparency
#Gridy http://sector-seven.net/software/gridy
Allow moving and resizing windows with hotkeys. Also has a save/restore window size and position which I cannot use due to the hotkey limitations of MobaLiveCD (when the "Win" key or WIndows 7 hotkeys are involved). I didn't use it much in the past but it was the closer I knew to Win+Arrow hotkey in Win7.
#RadTab http://radad.110mb.com/:
Only explorer windows grouper/tabber (creates a tab for each window... for any program not just explorer) that seemed to work (most I tried had MSVC dependencies, QTTabBar is C#, Clover http://ejie.me/ would automatically quit). The resulting tab however seem to have an "always on top" behaviour.
NOT WORKING:
#Taskix (1.4 and 2.1) http://taskix.robustit.com/:
Can activate the service but it's not working at all... It was suposed to group and allow changing the order of taskbar items (like one can nativelly in Win7).
#allSnap http://ivanheckman.com/allsnap/:
Nice little app that allowed to snap windows to other windows and to desktop borders... Didn't have a hotkey function like Win+Arrow hotkey in Win7 (alternative apps I tried had MSVC dependencies)
Re: Explorer enhancements
Please fill a bug in jira.reactos.org for those non working apps so a dev could give them a look
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot!
- WorldBlender
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:34 am
Re: Explorer enhancements
The following five image links have green arrows that point to what could be implemented in ReactOS's built-in window manager:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
The features that I specifically am pointing out are: keeping a window on top/above other windows or bottom/below other windows, window shading or rolling a window up/down, making a window appear on all visible workspaces, sending a window to the system tray which will show that window as an icon in there, removing/undecorating a window border (leaving only a small border that can still be resizable and clickable on, and able to show that window border again), fullscreen option on the window menu (if the application has not disabled it), (not pointed out) workspace list to allow sending windows to other workspaces, and a built-in window selector that allows switching windows using a menu. Can one or more of these window manager features be implemented in both the window manager and Explorer?
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
The features that I specifically am pointing out are: keeping a window on top/above other windows or bottom/below other windows, window shading or rolling a window up/down, making a window appear on all visible workspaces, sending a window to the system tray which will show that window as an icon in there, removing/undecorating a window border (leaving only a small border that can still be resizable and clickable on, and able to show that window border again), fullscreen option on the window menu (if the application has not disabled it), (not pointed out) workspace list to allow sending windows to other workspaces, and a built-in window selector that allows switching windows using a menu. Can one or more of these window manager features be implemented in both the window manager and Explorer?
Re: Explorer enhancements
Raymond Chen has several blog posts about the impracticality/difficulty of a "always on top" window setting and the ensuing fight between applications that all want to be on top. And note that any setting you give a user the ability to change, an application can also pull off.
Systray applications need to use specific functions to register themselves as such. Unless the application registers itself properly, anything the shell does to dump it into the systray would be a hack.
Not sure what #5, #6, or #8 is supposed to mean.
Systray applications need to use specific functions to register themselves as such. Unless the application registers itself properly, anything the shell does to dump it into the systray would be a hack.
Not sure what #5, #6, or #8 is supposed to mean.
- WorldBlender
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:34 am
Re: Explorer enhancements
By #5, I mean that the window control buttons and window title for a particular application will not be shown when this action takes place.
By #6, I mean that when right-clicking on the window title or clicking on a window's application icon, an option in the menu that appears will also show 'fullscreen'.
By #8, I mean a seperate window will appear and give a list of windows, as in the second image link below, for the window manager. For Explorer, this will show up with the active window's icon, and when clicked, will also give a list of windows, as in the first image link below.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
By #6, I mean that when right-clicking on the window title or clicking on a window's application icon, an option in the menu that appears will also show 'fullscreen'.
By #8, I mean a seperate window will appear and give a list of windows, as in the second image link below, for the window manager. For Explorer, this will show up with the active window's icon, and when clicked, will also give a list of windows, as in the first image link below.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
-
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:34 pm
Re: Explorer enhancements
I like Raymond Chen's blog and the insights it gives (I've also read his book).Z98 wrote:Raymond Chen has several blog posts about the impracticality/difficulty of a "always on top" window setting and the ensuing fight between applications that all want to be on top.
Regards,
Sven
Free Pascal compiler developer
Re: Explorer enhancements
Fullscreen support needs to be supported by an application. The shell trying to override it would again be a hack. Not quite clear what value it has.
#8 is basically alt+tab with text instead of icons.
#8 is basically alt+tab with text instead of icons.
- WorldBlender
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:34 am
Re: Explorer enhancements
I do not mean to do any shell hacks. The fullscreen option will only be enabled if the application supports it, so if the application does not, that option will be disabled. And for #8, will the alt-tab appearance be configurable, as in the way it looks can be changed?
Re: Explorer enhancements
I might be just noob for thinking things might be this easy.. but couldn't this be solved by allowing only one window to be always on top. I mean something like a variable/regkey, lets say OnTop, that holds the name of the window chosen to be always on top. Anytime you choose an other window the value of OnTop changes to that window.. maybe it's too simple i dunnoRaymond Chen has several blog posts about the impracticality/difficulty of a "always on top" window setting and the ensuing fight between applications that all want to be on top.
Re: Explorer enhancements
And what happens when multiple applications all try to change this "ontop" regkey?
alt+tab configurability will depend on whomever works on the shell. If that person is not interested, we always welcome patches.
alt+tab configurability will depend on whomever works on the shell. If that person is not interested, we always welcome patches.
Re: Explorer enhancements
Does undecorating window and setting its size to screen resolution count as a hack?Z98 wrote:Fullscreen support needs to be supported by an application. The shell trying to override it would again be a hack.
- WorldBlender
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 12:34 am
Re: Explorer enhancements
If there are multilple applications that that want to be on top, they will stay above every other window that has not checked this option. Whenever they are stacked on top of each other, the window that gets focus will be the application on the topmost layer, while other windows that want to be on top will be below the focused window. See an example here (note that 'Calculator' is the topmost window):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwRl-up ... sp=sharing
Re: Explorer enhancements
No, it will just undecorate windows and fit undecorated window into entire screen area.Z98 wrote:Fullscreen support needs to be supported by an application. The shell trying to override it would again be a hack.
If multimonitor, it will just undecorate window on the screen to the maximal size leaving taskbar visible.
-uses Ubuntu+GNOME 3 GNU/Linux
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-likes Free (as in freedom) and Open Source Detergents
-favors open source of Windows 10 under GPL2
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