Comments

1. David E Shupp

   
   Posted on: August 31, 2007 at 5:03AM  

   How about a gadget that will kill off the evil Twin?  I'm talking about duplicate programs that lurk in the recesses of our laberynth of programs.  The ones that a impatient use downloads twice for whatever reason. OR, more likely 2 users of the same PC thought would be an asset to their overall operation. ETC.  It would be nice to hit one button to "Eliminate Dupes"! Just a thought, Dave Shupp.
2. jjester

   
   Posted on: September 01, 2007 at 12:37PM  

   I don't use the gadgets at all as I have other ways of doing everything I've seen available, but David E Shupp's just given me a great idea for a gadget: a Task Manager.  I've found it very frustrating in Vista that I can't access the task manager directly with ctrl+alt+del, but instead have to go through the logon/logoff screen first (It's my own computer, I only have one user, which I require to be an admin).  I use the task manager extensively as I test a lot of software in development (and it breaks!), so a quick access to it would be great.  
3. betamod

   
   Posted on: September 03, 2007 at 12:35AM  

   Hey jjester,

   There is a resource monitor widget called "multi Meter" but it is a huge system hog and I can only imagine that a widget that does the job of Task Manager would be even more of a hog.

   My perception is that widgets unduely impact performance in comparison to benafits they provide to my overall user experience and work efficiency. I am not sure if this is the fault of the authors of the widgets or of sidebar.

   However, speaking of Vista's Task Manager, am I the only one who's noticed that the CPU column  under the processing tab does not reflect the CPU usage monitor under the Performance tab? I have had situations where the Performance monitor shows 100% CPU usage but I can find no process, or group of processes in the list  with a corresponding CPU usage. It does not add up. I never had this problem in XP.

   And while we are at it, I would like to be able to look up information about the process within the monitor or at least be able to click on the process and open up a web page about it. Why must I type name into a search engine to find out what it is?

   Then again, why is Task Manager so essential to windows -- why must I constantly monitor windows to make sure that it works? I think an operating system aught to be able to keep from crashing or grinding to a halt on its own. Is this an unreasonable expectation?
4. rab38505

   
   Posted on: September 27, 2007 at 4:52AM  

   Personally, I prefer the Vista sidebar over OS X's widgets. I like it to just be there. If I wanted a key combination to display something, that would be easy enough to do anyway via shortcut keys. I prefer to be able to just glance over and see the status of the various things that my gadgets monitor without having to occassionally press some shortcut that temporarily places stuff all over my desktop. I don't really miss the ~130 pixels as I use 1680x1050 resolution on both of my computers.

   The reason you don't see the CPU usage adding up to 100% is probably that you don't have view processes from all users turned on. There is a button below the process list to do this, but it requires elevation.

   As for why task manager is so essential, it's the same reason that top and ps are so essential to UNIX environments such as OS X. It's rarely anything related to the OS. It's usually other programs that may have gotten stuck in a loop or some such bug. As jjester said, developers use task manager (or ps as the case may be) to help determine the efficiency of their programs as well as to kill rouge processes when there's a bug in the program.

   The reasons that task manager does not have links to view web pages about the processes probably include the following:

   1) Many of the processes on an average computer were not from programs written by MS and, therefore, they wouldn't have information on them.

   2) Most users don't need to know and don't care what lsass or other such kernel processes are.

   3) Should a user really need to know, google's only a click or two away.

   Also, the sidebar gadgets do not appear to use a large amount of system resources. I have a 3+ year old laptop and the sidebar only uses 1-2% of the CPU and ~50MB RAM, most of which is probably the background images and state data for the individual gadgets and has nothing to do with MS code. I do use the multi-meter gadget and it does not seem to be using hardly any of my CPU. Perhaps some of the gadgets that you are using have poor coding, though, which could contribute to resource hogging. I suppose how much resources the sidebar uses depends almost entirely on what gadgets you install.

   As for auto-hide of the taskbar, I'm fairly certain that the 1-pixel line exists for the purpose of showing the user where the taskbar is, considering it can be placed on any side of any monitor. While the primary user of a system would hopefully remember where they placed the taskbar, another user might have trouble finding it if it were auto-hidden on a side or at the top of the screen. I wouldn't think that the 1 pixel would be that much of a loss.

   As for animations, I guess it's a matter of user preference. I would rather a window immediately or almost immediately do what I tell it to, such as minimizing. I don't really want a 2-second animation just to show that it is being minimized. I also find OS X's dock bar to be poorly designed as I cannot choose which window of a specific application to give focus to without holding down a modifier key and clicking twice. I highly prefer 1 click with no modifier keys.

   Brytown,

      Vista gadgets are small webpages. As such, any web development IDE (particularly Visual Studio) should be capable of designing a gadget. However, the usefulness of gadgets generally lies in the programming behind them, not so much the graphic layout that could be developed in such an editor. They should all be able to place links, etc., though. However, to make a very useful gadget you pretty much have to know JavaScript, so learning JavaScript, HTML, and CSS would probably be the best place to start when learning to make gadgets. Once you have those down, making a gadget is very easy.
5. betamod

   
   Posted on: October 04, 2007 at 12:41AM  

   rab38505,

   I guess it is a matter of personal aesthetics which widget/gadget system you prefer, though not being able to toggle widgets visible and invisible feels like an impediment to me, especially as I do not have abundant screen real estate, especially as I am making graphics and visual clutter distracts me.

   I have view processes from all users turned on but I am still seeing a discrepancy. Maybe I am the only one.

   I know a lot of Mac users, mostly artists, and it always annoys me that that many of them will not install software themselves. Aside from whetever auto updates they get, literally, many of these folks are running the same software they were running when their computers were first set up for them . . . like I can't even get them to install skype! Like what the F__k???

   But that's the thing, annoying as that may seem, they can get away with it on a Mac. And absolutely none of them have to constantly scan a resource usage monitor to make sure that their system do not grind to a halt.

   Non OSX Unix and Linux users are not a good example because most of them are IT professionals and/or computer scientists. They love that kind of thing. For everyone else it is a pain in the ass.

   True, many users don't run Task manager, but many users also live with systems that are hobbled by viruses and spyware . . . and/or anti-virus software that is almost as much of a resource hog. In short, they don't know how screwed up their computers are and/or they are in no position to fix the problem anyway.

   Take for instance my Mom, Dad, brother and sister in law, all of whom are running Windows XP. That's four PCs in total, each of which I or my other brother must service for them at least 3 times per year, per machine. We installed XP and we fix any problems that arise, and they do arise, again and again. And yes, rarely is it the OS, per se, but the fact is that I must make the cost/benefit analysis when next one of these family members asks or advice on upgrading, as my brother did the other day.

   What do you think I should tell them, honestly? Should he buy a another PC or a Mac?

   This is the reality on the ground. These users are not dumb, they just have other priorities in their lives than to constantly tinker with and tweak their systems.

   In regard to looking up the identity of processes, well, in ergonomic terms having to Google a process means, minimally, clicking to open my browser, typing in the name of the process, clicking on the link, scrolling down, etc. That is annoying, especially since we are talking about an OS which requires constant supervision to make sure it runs properly. I mean, design is about making technology work efficiently for people, not making people work efficiently for technology. The mere fact that there are websites devoted to cataloging the myriad windows processes is indication enough that there is a significant need to identify them so it boggles my mind why Microsoft does not enabled me to left click on the process and look up its identity. I can't imagine that I am the only one who finds the present implementation of task manager to be an ongoing annoyance.

   In fact, to whom it may concern, here is a suggestion for a new version of Task Manager:

   Build a wiki for cataloging processes. Implement a right click option to open a browser window with the corresponding wiki page. Create a user forum where people who are experiencing similar problems with hoggy processes can discuss the matter and where the developers responsible can check to learn that their software is giving people grief. It is in everyone's mutual best interest to have such a resource.

   regarding sidebar gadgets and their use of system resources, there are a few that do indeed use a lot of resources. They should not, but they do. However, even more gadgets are simply not very well , feature wise and esthetically speaking, and/or seem buggy. I mean, so far I have not seen any "must-have it, can't live without it" type gadgets.

   Re auto-hiding the task bar, again, this is an aesthetic preference, but I am a minimalist and i would prefer not to see it at all wen it is hidden, if possible. But that is not possible. As for non primary users not being able to find it, even when the one pixel bar is visible, users who don't know that the task bar can be hidden tend not to know how to find it anyway, so there is little gained by having it always visible. it seems like a half measure to me. But I could be wrong.

   There are annoying aspects to OSX too, don't get me wrong, but I think that generally, Apple provides a more elegant, more ergonomically designed, feature rich, bug free user experience for the average user as well as the graphics oriented power user. In fact, I am starting to see my friends in LA who work for small post production/CG houses switching to Macs, both as their personal computers and in some instances, in the workplace. This reminds me of a similar turnover in the CG industry when I started to see Unix boxes give way to PC clones. Heck, the latest game from id is being developed on a Mac Pro. This is not just because Macs look pretty, though that helps.

   In regard to making gadgets, can someone make a gadget by snipping out a live section of web page, like is possible on a Mac? Because my Mom can probably do that, but there is no way in hell she will ever be able to learn JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, ever.

   Another note to whom it may concern at Microsoft: Why not have a competition and/or commission designers to build you some really cool, kick ass widgets?

   While you are at it, why not commission some designer skins and desktop backgrounds for Vista?

   I am sure you can afford it.

   Oh, and one more thing, why can't widgets be cross platform, running in some kind of stripped down standards complaint web browser instance? Would that really be more processing intensive than the present implementation? Microsoft would have everything to benefit and nothing to loose  were it to be possible to develop widgets with nothing but Ajax or other web standards.

   - betamod
6. lali

   
   Posted on: October 17, 2007 at 2:04PM  

   Hi, I’m using Windows Vista –Business on my desktop. One of the clock as seen in the screenshot in the article above. The shade implemented on the clock makes the minute hand look smaller and hence confusing.
7. PCWizKid

   
   Posted on: October 26, 2007 at 9:28PM  

   Unfortunatly if you don thave a widescreen LCD monitor the sidebar really is a clutter.  I have researched some tools to improve your experience in Windows Vista with my TOP 10 free recommended downloads.  Nick, the requirements gathering for Vista's SideBar does not seem that have been influenced by much user feedback, if we look at OS X and how they have handled the dock and their "widgets", it is truly a major gap with what Vista has offered as a substitute.  With what we have now in Vista all is left is to get around and tweak , some install ObjectDock, others get Amnesty Generator (see below).  For this reason I have put together the list of free apps below.

   cheers

   PCWizKid

   visit my blog for details @ http://pcwizkid.blogspot.com/2007/10/top-10-vista-free-downloads-to-tweak.html

   1. MZ Vista Force is a system tweaker. Use it to accelerate performance, juice your browsing speed, clean up your hard disk, clear out bandwidth-wasting startup programs, and even fine-tune Windows Media Player and Explorer. Many of the settings here are exceedingly fine-grained. Want to change the speed at which the Start menu search displays? With Mz Vista Force, you can.

   2. Vista Boot Logo Generator allows you to change it easily your boot screen with one that you created yourself or with a graphic that you find online. You'll have to create or find the image in two sizes: 1024 by 768 pixels, and 800 by 600 pixels. Both must be in .bmp format, at 24-bit color depth. Once you have them this utility replaces your boot screen with them.

   3. EasyBCD is a bootloader modification tool for Windows Vista with many advanced options for beginners and power users alike. It gives the user full control over everything that happens during Vista startup and can boot into Ubuntu (Linux), OS X, BSD, etc!

   4. TweakUAC One annoyance I mention in a previous post of mine that Windows Vista has is it's User Account Control (UAC), which nags at you to enter a password or click OK every time you make certain changes or perform certain common actions. You can turn UAC off in Vista if you'd like, but that leaves your system vulnerable. So you might prefer to turn it on at times and off at other times. TweakUAC lets you quickly and easily switch UAC on and off.

   5. Amnesty Generator lets you convert almost any online widget or gadget to a Vista-compatible gadget that you can then run on the Sidebar.

   6. vLite lets you remove Vista components that are hard to get rid off. It also lets you tweak Vista in various ways, such as turning Aero on even if your hardware says it can't be run. Once you've switched off components and tweaked the operating system to your heart's content, vLite helps you create a Vista installation DVD containing your new stripped-down operating system.

   7. Windows Clippings is for capturing screen shots in Vista, unlike the built in vista Snippet Tool , Windows Clippings can save to an array of formats, and it includes a particularly important feature for capturing Vista screens the ability to capture window shadows. To use it, press the Print Screen key, click the window you want to capture, and then double-click. You can instruct the program to prompt you each time to tell it where you want to save a file, or you can designate a specific folder to receive all screen shots. For basic screen captures, the free version works fine.

   8. Feed Plus. If you use IE 7 and the RSS blog reader built into it, you will like this enhancement from Microsoft. It enables you to read all of your feeds from a single location, instead of having to read one feed at a time. This is especially useful for people like me who subscribe to dozens of feeds. Rather than wasting precious moments clicking from feed to feed, you'll find them all in a single location.

   9. Vista Battery Saver. If you use a laptop with Vista, then you may want to saves battery life on your Windows Vista PC. It automatically deactivates Windows Aero and the Windows Sidebar when your laptop runs on battery power, which the author claims will extend battery life. You can also have the program automatically turn off Aero or the Sidebar when your batter level drops below a limit that you set.

   10. CCleaner is one of my favorites which I review here. It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner! CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space.