Let's get negative [2] - Windows 7 Minor annoyances

[neo101]

Another Win7 desktop fault is it won't let you put a final icon on the far right hand side @ 1920x1080 with the screen fixed on "Align icons to grid"

It will however let items like clock/calendar etc fix to the far right hand edge.

The other thing is the icons above the bottom taskbar are too high above it and should be lowered a line (again with desktop set at "Align icons to grid"

Screen res. text is set @ larger(150%) in my case too!

 

[Ziggi]

You can use an AppCompat database for it, or 3rd party applications (like WinLauncher). There's even an article here on sevenforums on how to make it a right-click menu option, for what it's worth. Google is your friend here, because there's many ways to skin this cat.

Hi,

As you may notice:

"The affinity changes you make to the current instance of an application or process are only temporary and not set permanently."

And this is the point! Actually, I would love to have an option to apply affinity / priority setting permanently to applications (shortcuts) in the same manner as it is right now with compatibility settings. Too often I recalled this issue only when the system had become unresponsive due to some application meddling with image processing or rendering.

 

[cluberti]

Did you miss the part about using an AppCompat database shim? That is permanent, as are some of the other tricks you can use. If you do it *manually*, then yes, it's temporary. There are lots of options for making it permanent, this is just one of them.

 

[ZaLiTH]

Another Win7 desktop fault is it won't let you put a final icon on the far right hand side @ 1920x1080 with the screen fixed on "Align icons to grid"

It will however let items like clock/calendar etc fix to the far right hand edge.

The other thing is the icons above the bottom taskbar are too high above it and should be lowered a line (again with desktop set at "Align icons to grid"

Screen res. text is set @ larger(150%) in my case too!

The invisible icon grid (that determines where icons will be) would be set according to your icon size. If you go changing your DPI settings (like you have to 150%) then the display size of the icons and text on your screen will change.

At the end of the day, you would need to 'fine tune' the layout in any OS where you change icon sizes if you still want them to line up in a nice neat grid.

Try scrolling the mouse wheel one or two clicks on your desktop while holding the control key (CTRL), that'll resize the icons in small steps. Maybe then you'll find a size that's still easy to see and allows better use of your desktop space.

 

[mborner]

Desktop slideshow should work even while computer is sleeping. Or, at the very least, upon wakeup, it should realize that the specified time has elapsed, and should therefor, rotate to the next image in the slideshow folder.

Mine does !! Must be in your settings...

Well, it depends. I have mine set to change every 24 hours. If I put my PC to sleep at 6:00pm and don't wake it up again until 6:10pm the next day, the desktop photo will not change. Basically, if the PC is asleep during the time when it's supposed to change, it won't change upon wakeup. How hard would it be for Microsoft to wright code that says "I'm awake now but, hmmm....something is wrong. It appears that the owner wants me to change his desktop image every 24 hours and since 24 hours has passed since I went to sleep, I'll go ahead and change it for him, now that I'm awake".

 

[Layback Bear]

I have a 40 in. screen at 200 %, 1920/1080. This is what works for me. Make the icon on you desktop the way you want them. Two more times right click desktop and select refresh. My desktop stays that way until I change it again.

 

[s0c9]

Desktop slideshow should work even while computer is sleeping. Or, at the very least, upon wakeup, it should realize that the specified time has elapsed, and should therefor, rotate to the next image in the slideshow folder.

Mine does !! Must be in your settings...

Well, it depends. I have mine set to change every 24 hours. If I put my PC to sleep at 6:00pm and don't wake it up again until 6:10pm the next day, the desktop photo will not change. Basically, if the PC is asleep during the time when it's supposed to change, it won't change upon wakeup. How hard would it be for Microsoft to wright code that says "I'm awake now but, hmmm....something is wrong. It appears that the owner wants me to change his desktop image every 24 hours and since 24 hours has passed since I went to sleep, I'll go ahead and change it for him, now that I'm awake".

TRUE, so TRUE. I had not tested that as I never put my computer to sleep!! However, in the overall scheme of things "needing work" on Win7, I would guess that MS would consider 99.99% of other "fixes" to be ahead of this one. IOW - it's a really MINOR annoyance IMHO.

 

[frozenwombat]

Try scrolling the mouse wheel one or two clicks on your desktop while holding the control key (CTRL), that'll resize the icons in small steps. Maybe then you'll find a size that's still easy to see and allows better use of your desktop space.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[neo101]

Another Win7 desktop fault is it won't let you put a final icon on the far right hand side @ 1920x1080 with the screen fixed on "Align icons to grid"

It will however let items like clock/calendar etc fix to the far right hand edge.

The other thing is the icons above the bottom taskbar are too high above it and should be lowered a line (again with desktop set at "Align icons to grid"

Screen res. text is set @ larger(150%) in my case too!

The invisible icon grid (that determines where icons will be) would be set according to your icon size. If you go changing your DPI settings (like you have to 150%) then the display size of the icons and text on your screen will change.

At the end of the day, you would need to 'fine tune' the layout in any OS where you change icon sizes if you still want them to line up in a nice neat grid.

Try scrolling the mouse wheel one or two clicks on your desktop while holding the control key (CTRL), that'll resize the icons in small steps. Maybe then you'll find a size that's still easy to see and allows better use of your desktop space.

Thanks for the ideas - but it doesn't work in my case!

Have 26" monitor @ 1920x1080 thru a receiver.

 

[madtownidiot]

Pretty sure the presence of a trusted platform module, whether active or not, prevents installing a full retail version of 7 home premium in used laptops that are otherwise well above the recommended system requirements.. will know for sure by the end of the week.

 

[logicearth]

Pretty sure the presence of a trusted platform module, whether active or not, prevents installing a full retail version of 7 home premium in used laptops that are otherwise well above the recommended system requirements.. will know for sure by the end of the week.

Not at all, Could install Windows 7 Starter on it too. Having a TPM would not prevent you from installing any OS you want. Sides a TPM is more then just a means for Bitlocker, it has other uses.

 

[madtownidiot]

In another thread I posted there are 3 laptops I recently acquired, all of which have TPMs, that win 7 HP couldn't complete the install because of "unable to configure required system device" errors, although I was able to successfully install 7 professional without a hitch. The only major difference between those three laptops and the 40-50 other successful computer setups I've done using HP is none of them had a TPM or AMT module

 

[cluberti]

Windows, by default, doesn't use the TPM module for anything. You have to configure it in Win7, enable and clear it in the BIOS, and then finish the install in Win7, and unless you're on a domain setting it up via GP, it's in no way automatic (it's not even 100% automatic through GP either, for what it's worth). Getting that error would indicate the system has other hardware causing an issue, but without the panther and CBS logs, it'd be really hard to say what failed.

It would not, however, be a result of a TPM chip.

 

[alphanumeric]

Not being able to turn "Media Streaming" OFF in "Advanced sharing settings" once its enabled. :mad2:

 

[SteveF48]

Expensive Junctions

I tried to synchronise the Documents library with my XP PC and wondered why it contained over 10,000 files, when the XP one only has 4,000.
The answer is that Windows 7 includes junctions to My Pictures, Music and Video. These are already backed up to another drive and I really don't need the hassle of multiple duplicates of every file. I nearly bought yet another external hard drive, because my data had increased so much.
I'm really annoyed that every new version of windows adds another set of imaginary folders that it creates against my wishes. I've worked hard since Windows 3 to organise my data in a way that helps me to work the way I want. Windows 7 adds yet more complexity, because I don't know what are real duplicates and just 'shortcuts'.
I wouldn't mind if there was an easy way to see which were symbolic folders and delete them without the risk of accidentally deleting valuable data.

 

[gregrocker]

There is a batch code to turn off Windows Media Sharing everywhere so it won't resurface. I have it in my folder at home and can provide it when I get back from surfing trip to Mexico. Or you can google it.

 

[alphanumeric]

I just stopped the "Media player network sharing service" and set it to disabled. I just don't get though, is that hard to put a disable option in there some where?

 

[madtownidiot]

or disable the windows media network sharing service via services.msc, or remove windows media player entirely via programs and features> turn windows features on or off. I don't really like the UI for WMP 12 anyway

 

[kisazeky]

I dislike how I can't keep folder views unique to each folder. For example I may want to have my Documents sorted by name, while I want to keep a folder that contains Firefox downloads folder sorted by date modified.

 

[madtownidiot]

I dislike how I can't keep folder views unique to each folder. For example I may want to have my Documents sorted by name, while I want to keep a folder that contains Firefox downloads folder sorted by date modified.

That is one windows feature a lot of people miss, but storing custom views for folders is a big part of the reason xp and vista slow to a crawl over time

Next gripe.. Windows 7 went retail almost a full year ago and Microsoft still refuses to admit that the wireless connectivity problems that span such a huge variety of hardware and software configurations could be anything but a problem with wndows 7 itself, let alone attempt to find a solution.