My least favorite thing about Windows Vista

[A Black Falcon]

I forgot to talk about the rest of the sidebar... below the worthless "personal links" folders are two groups of somewhat more useful things, first Search, Computer, Network, and Connect To (the first two of those are of course useful, though I use a shortcut-bar link for Computer usually, not the Start Menu link), then Control Panel, Default Programs, Help, and Run (the first and last of those are useful; Default Programs is more the kind of thing you run once and then don't need again). It's not all as worthless as the top part, and most of that sidebar stuff is just stuff that was relocated from where they used to be on the Start Menu below the Programs folder. I actually like this system better, overall -- as I said, the compact collapsing-tree Programs folder is a vast improvement over the old system, and the row of full-size icons for programs that you have used recently that greets you when you open the Start Menu is really, really nice.

I also use the hotlinks bar, as I said. I've got it to the right of the start menu and keep a few things I use a lot there -- Personalize (for changing screen resolution), Computer, Mozilla, and Winamp, to have four of my most-used programs. Some of my other most-used programs are in that Start Menu recently-used list most of the time...

I do agree about the "active desktop" thing, though. I keep my desktop as clear as possible -- the only things there are Computer, Mozilla, the Recycle Bin, and the Sidebar. Yes, I kept the Sidebar. The three Sidebar gadgets I've got there are the Picture Viewer (set to slideshow through my anime wallpapers folder), clock (analog clock, though, so it doesn't really help me tell the time, but I like the look I guess), and the system resource monitor to show how much CPU and RAM power are being used, which is nice to know sometimes. I definitely don't like lots of icons on my desktop, though, and don't allow any beyond those three. The less on the desktop the better...

Oh yes, if you haven't seen Vista, the Start Menu is in two parts, a left side part with the program links (redesigned in a nice way -- the first page has full-size icons (10 max), first a few you can set to be permanant and then below that the rest as 'things you've used recently'. 'All Programs' is at the bottom, right above the Start Menu icon on the bar; press it and it goes to the full programs folder view, which now stays within that window in collapsing folders, which is much nicer than the old spreads-all-over-the-screen style.)

Oh, I also like how the running-programs icons in the left side get hidden when there are too many of them... I seem to recall ME never doing that so when you had a bunch of things running it took up a lot of taskbar space...

Program Files... it's not all that bad. When you ignore it, that is. :D I mean, I use it as a place to put all the programs which I don't care where they go -- random non-game stuff I'm installing and stuff. That is, it's for stuff I won't need to use except via program-files links and stuff and don't care about organizing more clearly. :) Everything else gets installed or put onto the hard drive in one of my partitions... I of course attempt to keep everything organized and clear (this kind of thing goes here, this kind of thing goes here, etc) but usually fail miserably, at least to me (too many things overlap... how should I categorize this... etc... :)).

That is, as I implied with saying 'I don't use the Documents/Pictures/Games Explorer/Personal Folder system', I use my own system and totally ignore theirs. Mine's a lot better anyway. It makes so much more sense... :D


... am I really that odd for paying attention to where things are on my harddrive and basing my computer organization system on, primarily, where things are on the harddrive folder system? Because that's what I do... Okay, someone looking at my harddrives and trying to figure out my organization would probably get confused. Attempts to make things better organized and clearer sometimes just make things worse. Oh well...

(for instance, when getting the new computer I made an abortive effort to put full-version games into X:\Games\ folders. I only kept with it on drive C, so now full-version games on drive C are in C:\Games, while on D and E they're installed into the root directory like I did on my old computer... and I've got a bunch of large folders full of game installs from my old computer I copied over and meant to deal with sometime, but since that'd require checking each one to see if it works or needs to be reinstalled, I haven't bothered and I just have "To Reinstall Then Paste These Files Into" folders on drives C, D, and E... :D For some reason I just care about this stuff.)