Windows 10: Very specific questions about Windows 10 features.

Folks,

I have a number of questions about how much "sanity" has been restored in Windows 10. Since I can't seem to find anything about these while searching, I thought I would register and ask here. So, if you can help, I would appreciate it.

1. I have been generally horrified with Windows 8, and to a great extent, "All I want is my Windows XP back." So, here's the first question: I don't WANT the new-fangled "tiles" in the Start Menu. I don't even want the "second column" of stuff in the Windows 7 Start Menu. So, with Windows 10, can I just have a simple, one-column Start Menu which I can populate with the programs of MY choice, and then with a cascading second "Programs" menu? You know, like Windows XP?

2. The very "sharpest knife" for my needs is to launch actual FILES, and not necessarily PROGRAMS. I don't want to launch Excel and then open up a specific file every single time I launch Excel -- I want to launch that one file every single time I start Excel. This is something that the Windows 7 menu utterly destroyed, so has "sanity" restored, and can I actually specify a FILE in the Start Menu, or am I limited to launching only PROGRAMS?

3. Once upon a time, I actually had the POWER to specify what color I wanted to use for Active Window Title Bars, and Inactive Window Title Bars, the Menu background, and everything else I might want to DECIDE FOR MYSELF what color to use. Of course, Windows 8 threw that out with the bathwater. So, will Windows 10 bring back the "Windows Color and Appearance" dialog box (launched from the "Advanced appearance settings..." link in Windows 7), or will Microsoft decide what colors I must use?

4. I dumped Internet Explorer for Firefox after Microsoft decided that You Must Search From The URL Box -- I'm sorry, but I want to search from a separate Search box. So, will the new-fangled whatever-it's-called web browser bring back a separate search box?

Believe it or not, that's just a very simple list of very simple things I want back, which Microsoft in its infinite wisdom decided to take away from me. So, before I take the plunge into Windows 10, I would sure like to know if Microsoft has decided to make my life easier, instead of more difficult. Thanks for your help in advance!



:)

 

I have a windows 7 and my computer is about 4 or 5 years old....will windows 10 affect my computer?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

Windows 10 Frequently Asked Questions

Windows 10 Specifications

Windows 10 System Requirements Specifications | Microsoft

Windows 10 features

Explore Windows 10 New Updates & Features | See What Windows 10 is Like

Some information about Windows 10 to assist you in deciding on your best course of action.

 

Specific questions about WM6

I don't think you'll get much of what you want with a WM6 OS.

• Syncing to Windows Mail/Windows Contacts is not a WM5 versus WM6 issue..it is more of a Windows Mobile Device Center issue and you'd use the same version of WMDC that you are using now, so no change
  
• You are still limited to syncing to your primary Outlook data. Instead of keeping things separated into different contact lists, why don't you use categories to organize your data?
  
• There's no way to assign a ringtone to a category with the existing software, but I use a free third-party application (MortRing) that allows me to assign a ringtone to
  a category.
• No change there either, but you can install a PIM application that allows you much more functionality in regards to your management of appointments, contacts, tasks than the very limited applications that are on your device. There are quite a few applications
  out there that you could use, but
  Agenda Fusion and
  Pocket Informant are two very popular applications that you might want to check out (I use Agenda Fusion and am very happy with it)

There are tons of Addins that will allow you to add all kinds of stuff to your today screen. I use
PhoneAlarm
to manage my calls, profiles, sms, etc on my hw6925. Another application you might want to check out.

I have written about how I use software on my Pocket PCs in my
blog. Some articles you might be interested in are:

• My new hw6925
  
• An (almost) stylus-free experience
  
• Phone Alarm: A must have application for every Pocket PC/Phone combo

Installing the right software to a Pocket PC makes all the difference in the world.

 

No. None of the above.

XP is dead. It will not be coming back in any form. Either keep using XP (although I wouldn't suggest that as it hasn't been supported in 18 months), move to a different platform, or live with what Windows is evolving into.

Some of the things you want can be added with third party programs, like Start10 or Classic Shell. but others are more problematic.

One feature, which you seem to have overlooked are jump lists, which allow you to open documents from the taskbar or start menu by clicking the arrow next to the app and launching the app with that document. You can even pin documents so they are always there.

The separate search box is just weird... Why do you care so much that it be a separate box? Chrome, IE, Edge, etc.. all unify this as it's kind of pointless to have a separate box that just uses up more valuable space. I'm surprised FF hasn't removed it yet, but i'm sure they will eventually.

 

Mystere,

Thanks for the info. It's boils down to everything I expected. It's not so much about "Windows XP," it's about allowing ME to set up Windows the way it works best for ME, instead of Microsoft forcing everyone to work the way MICROSOFT decides you shall work. Maybe I should go buy a Macintosh.

What I'm trying to say is that I DON'T WANT TO DIG THROUGH A "JUMP LIST" to find the one file I want to launch every single time I start loading up my programs. I just want to launch that one file, with a simple menu choice. Plus, a whole lot of this has to do with the fact that, for the past few decades, computers have come with KEYBOARDS, which are actually quite handy! Which is something that Microsoft doesn't seem to care about, in the slightest.

A good for-instance is my old routine at work: I worked mainly in Excel, and I had a spreadsheet filled with specific calculations I would perform many times over the course of a day, and just dozens of other shortcuts like that. With Windows XP's simple menu, I could launch that file, with a Start Menu shortcut I labeled "1-Excel."

Then, I would launch my mainframe terminal program, which actually involved launching -- yes, again -- a FILE, which pulled up three terminal sessions with all of my settings specified. I labeled that one "2-Mainframe."

Then, I would launch a program that I used to connect to a government mainframe system, and guess what -- it used a FILE, which had all of the specific parameters that needed to be input each time to forward my credentials to the system. I labeled that one "3-Mainframe."

So, while Windows 7 users were spending fifteen minutes dinking around with their mice, I would come in and do this:

Start Menu button - 1
Start Menu button - 2
Start Menu button - 3

This is what once upon a time was called "productivity." But apparently, Windows is "evolving" into something the polar OPPOSITE of "productivity." And that's my beef. What's next? We get Microsoft Windows Crayons 10 and write on our computer screens?

At any rate, yes, I know, I have been using Classic Shell forever, starting with the nightmares introduced in Windows 7. Except at work, where "nonstandard" programs aren't allowed.

And again, wading through jump lists with a mouse is NOT the kind of anti-productivity I want, when I have a trusty keyboard right in front of me.

Finally, I guess this has never, ever happened to you before: You start typing in a term you want to SEARCH for, and Internet Explorer all of a sudden sends you off as if you were typing in a URL. No, I want to SEARCH for it, not GO to whatever might have that in their URL!! Yes, other web browsers have followed the same counter-productive move, but I mentioned Firefox, which gives me a separate search box. Finally, it wouldn't be such a big deal if indeed Microsoft would ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING with that "valuable" wasted space -- but they don't!! It's just a blank area of the screen!

In the end, could Microsoft consider "giving me a choice to work the way I have learned how to work over the past decade or more," instead of forcing me into a way of working that I find insanely counter-productive? No, there will be NO CHOICE FOR YOU. Except to use programs developed by other companies.

Again, thanks for the info. I can only presume that Windows 10 just moves forward towards anti-productivity where we wind up doing three whole things all day, using our fingers.

 

First, it's microsoft's OS. They really have no responsibility to allow the os to do anything other than what they want it to. They spend billions of dollars developing it, they have the final say in how it works. If you want final say in an OS, then you pay someone billions to develop your own.

This is like complaining that the 2016 Ford Explorer doesn't come with the same colors it came with in 1981, or that they no longer will sell you a car with a cassette player. Times change.

But, just like with the Ford Explorer, you're free to make third party customizations. If you spent a few minutes looking around, you could easily find tools that will allow you to do everything you want to do. Also, apparently you aren't aware of this, but you don't need to use a mouse at all. Everything works with just a keyboard.

The WinKey+1- 9 still works to launch things in the taskbar. It's ridiculously simple to create an icon that will launch whatever excel file you want, then add that icon to your taskbar for use with the Windows key shortcuts. Just create a shortcut to Excel, then add the filename you want to open to the command line of the shortcuts properties, then pin it to your taskbar and position it in the position you want to open with the shortcut combo.

As for the searching. If you type a ? first, it will always search what you type, and not navigate to it. so if you want to search for bears, you just type "? bears" and it always searches it. It works the same way in chrome by the way. Also, if you use the search shortcut key, ctrl+e it automatically puts the Question mark in the field for you.

If you actually try, you can find solutions to all of your problems... but a lot of people aren't really looking for solutions, they just want to keep complaining. I don't know which one you are, but if you're serious about having things your way, then there are ways to do almost all of them.

 

For your routine, couldn't you just create a batch file to launch all those things at login? So instead of typing windows1, 2, 3 you can just login and it all pops up.

To be honest in surprised you didn't just use a batch file and set it to Windows 1

 

I set up Win8.1 and Win10 exactly as I have done in the past with all the older Win versions. I put my programs on the desktop, and can also put files there that then open the appropriate program. I only use the rightclick menu that gives access to Windows utilities. Never use the start menu or start page.

So why can't you do the same?

Bob frost

 

Furthermore you cud either just hit windows key and begin typing your file name without having to press inside s search box the same as 7 start menu search box. You can open file Explorer and go to 10s quick access area to see your pinned programs and files, and see your most used files and folders right there, I know theres a keyboard shortcut to quickly launch file Explorer I just can't remember it.

 

Well, the only problem with that is the same problem -- the Start Menu won't run a FILE, not even a "batch" file.

 

Have you ever used a KEYBOARD? Have you ever used a laptop computer with a touchpad that you have to fight with to move the cursor around?

That's my "problem" to a very great extent -- Microsoft has wiped out a lot of functionality for keyboard users. I can launch things from the Start Menu before you can finish moving your hand to your mouse.

 

You provide "solutions" that add steps to repetitive situations. And you call this progress? For instance, the question mark key requires the use of a shift key -- why take away a dedicated search box wherein I don't HAVE to use a shift-key combination before every search I'll ever do? That is counter-productive. It doesn't make anything "easier" at all -- it makes life more difficult, instead.

As for complaining, all I did was ask if some very simple features that Windows 7 and Windows 8 removed from earlier versions of Windows might have been restored in Windows 10. And along with answers of "no," you guys have taken the extra step to say the removal of these features have "improved" Windows, and then you have beaten me down as being a miscreant. If you're going to whine about "complainers," you might look at how you conduct your own posting, because you're really just reaping what you sow.

 

What part of "if you use the search keyboard shortcut, it automatically adds the question mark for you" didn't you get?

If you're using a keyboard only, which you claim to be doing, you have to enter a keyboard shortcut in FF to get to the search box, that's ctrl+e, which is the same in Windows 10, and it automatically puts the ? in to your search. No shift key, no extra function, it works *EXACTLY* the same way with the *EXACT* same number of steps or key presses.

I didn't say anything about "improved". And I didn't say you only wanted to complain, I said I didn't know which one you were, but if you're serious about making it work the way you want, it can be done... but you seem unwilling to even try.

 

Then add it to your startup items. Or stick it on your desktop.