Classic Shell: Forum

Ever find that the desktop is pretty useless once you have more than 3 applications running, since it's a pain to access without disorganizing your ALT+TAB list? Well I have a solution:

The "Desktop Integration" Start Menu style. The "Desktop" tab would display your desktop icons, the "Start List" tab would display the traditional list of pinned applications, and the "All Programs" tab would display the All Programs list, just like in the Windows 7 style. And yes, your Desktop wallpaper would be displayed as a backdrop for all three.

The behaviour of the tabs was inspired by Spore's paint mode. You can see what I mean here: VIDEO (Skip to 1:04)

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I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, only to shatter them. Best wishes, wherever you're all headed next.

1. from the customize start menu tab, right click and insert new item; click it and choose desktop.
Now you have your desktop in the start menu..
2. why do you need to see what icons are on your taskbar IN your start menu, when you can already see them.. on your taskbar...

1. It was the integration factor that I was going for .-.
2. I never said anything about taskbar icons. I just see a lot of people painfully flying back to their desktops every now and then, which disorganizes the ALT+TAB list ._.
(TBH I'm not even sure I'd use this. Now that I think of it, it was almost more of a "what if" than a "please make"... .__. )

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I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, only to shatter them. Best wishes, wherever you're all headed next.

The windows 7 style sadly doesn't allow much modification to the left column. The classic with 2 column style however is far more lenient ;P
but aside from having it on the left, and displaying the desktop background, i see no real difference between your proposed, and my solution.
Also if you press win+D it will bring the desktop up, and then when pressed again, restore everything exactly how it was. (or if you click the bottom right corner of your screen)

I still don't get why skin7s are so limited, they're so much more pleasant to use >.<
Yeah, your solution would provide the same functionality (minus the integration factor)...

And yes, I know about the "Show desktop" button. But I've yet to see it work on anyone's computer without messing up the ALT+TAB list (and taking literally 10 minutes to minimize every single Window)...

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I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, only to shatter them. Best wishes, wherever you're all headed next.

skin7 style is so limited, because its basically a completely seperate version of classic start menu.. it was made later, and has had less time to develop (also the same amount of effort was not necessarily put into developing its customizability)

The first part is true, but the second is not

The Windows 7 style is intentionally limited in the ways of customizability. This allows it to provide more polished features. For example if it allows you to put the search box anywhere, then it won't be integrated into the skin. Same for the All Programs button - it needs to be at the bottom to expand into the programs tree above it.

I couldn't quite get the desktop integration to work using your method. Maybe I followed the directions wrong?
What I did: Go to customize start menu tab, insert custom item, have it link to the desktop.
Picture here: http://i64.tinypic.com/24lu3vl.png

That looks pretty close to what I had in mind, however, I was referring to the windows 7 style, which I assumed you preferred based on your mockup
when you hover over the 'desktop' item a list of all your desktop files should show up correct?

I think some folder integrated like the Desktop into the main menu which provides direct 1-click access to icons (without any submenu) is a good idea. But it needs to be designed a way that it uses the screen estate horizontally, like the Windows 10 menu. It can be an extension of pinning.

There are other aspects of the Windows 10 menu that are appealing too - use of colors (although the colors Microsoft use are too gaudy), mixture of small and large sizes, grouping etc. But that "menu" has none of the advantages of the classic menu - chiefly no cascading menus and no decent search.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Yeah. I was thinking the icons would form a desktop-like grid, though that would kinda have to push the right column to...well...the right... .-.

_________________
I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, only to shatter them. Best wishes, wherever you're all headed next.

I think having multiple columns support would help that. Instead of the default one or two columns the start menu currently has.