Microsoft unveils file-move changes in Windows 8 Microsoft has been throwing out crumbs on forthcoming features for Windows 8, but dodged serving up the main course. Windows 8 will clean up the system for downloading files to your PC and changing file names, Microsoft has said on its newly launched Building Windows 8 blog. The successor to Windows 7 will combine file …
Space remaining is simple enough to see. In Win7 Explorer, click "computer" and it shows the drives in the system with a bar showing used vs free space. Click on any of the drives and it shows "Space free:" in the status bar. Not as simple as always showing X free diskspace in the status bar all the time, but usually you should have an idea of how much disk space you have left....
What I hope they improve is the file renaming, so if you have, for instance a bunch of photos named "DCIM_0001", "DCIM_0002", etc, you could select all of them and rename them to end up being "Birthday2010_0001", "Birthday2010_0002" (retaining the original numberings/letterings in the part of the filename you didn't change), rather than renaming them all to your new name + _00X. It's even worse when you already have them all named, but wanted to add a short prefix to all 100 of them....
"What I hope they improve is the file renaming"...
Tasks easily carried out with the 'Group Rename' function of PowerDesk, which is everything Windows Explorer could have been if Microsoft had any imagination. Perhaps they should buy a copy and rip it off, if they're looking for reasons why people should pay yet again for another unnecessary version of Windows.
So will this finally fix the problem where you start copying a whole bunch of files and then halfway through it encounters something it cannot copy for some vague reason and just stops copying the rest of the files? I hate that you then have to manually ascertain what has and hasn't been copied over and then manually select the remaining files to copy.
Sure I could use some file sync/transfer program, but shouldn't the OS be clever enough to deal with basic copying of files from A to B?
...I'll switch to an operating system which is ground-up unfamiliar, and supports 0 of the applications I use for my company.
I suppose the next response is, "Don't use those programs', to which I reply, 'Find me several excellent driving simulators that run on *nix and can also be use by people running windows'. Oops, you can't, since they don't exist.
Presumably, after that, the response is something along the lines of, "Don't be in that business, luser", but it's tough to predict.
The irony is that I probably would have persevered in my several linux-ish excursions had the linux-ish fans not had such a massive proportion of arrogant, know-it-all, antisocial blowhards in their ranks.
You want to know why linux isn't more popular? People saying stuff like, "I've been doing that with xt-deadnewt for 10 years!" and "mine's the one with BSD install DVDs in the pocket". Hint: if you want to convert Windows users, an insult should not be the first thing they hear.
...ask for clear, precise step by step/click by click instructions on how to make techinical changes or tasks in linux.
Never happen. Way beyond their comprehension.
All they can say is "Duhhhhh, just recompile your kernel in KDE 4.5 and then install the tar.gz and enter the lines sg-ts-45dhfjd@@ into it..blah blah blah............."
Yeah..okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
I'm guessing that was addressed to me.
This is the 21st century, what normal end-user would dois find the program they want in the package manager or app store.
Select "Install"
Authorise themselves (to prove they have rights to install)
Click a few buttons (if that)
Err....job done. No need to grub around websites, reboot, worry about versions or updates.
There is also a reason that some information for doing things in GNU/Linux is given as CLI - it's cut n' paste, often universal and quicker to type out. The problem is not GNU/Linux using the CLI, it's Windows not using it (even OS X has a proper CLI FFS). Have to explain what buttons to click also goes out of date as soon as the UI changes. You do know that in GNU/Linux people can run many, many different window managers, decorators and desktops don't you?
"The successor to Windows 7 will combine file download dialogue boxes into a single box, you'll be able to stop and pause downloads, and rather than trying to estimate how long a download has left to run, the new operating system will instead feature a graph that shows the data transfer speed, transfer rate trend, and how much data is left to transfer."
So... what Firefox predominantly already does?
Or if we're talking about general file transfers on the local machine, what OSX has been doing for years?
Distinctly unimpressed.
True enough but OS X Lion got its own share of underwhelming features - resize windows from any corner? Apple's Finder is still a piece of junk. PathFinder is one of the first progs I install on a new Mac. Likewise file dialogue boxes in OS X are rubbish - why can't we rename / delete / move a file when saving a new copy of something? Apple have a lot of catching up to do there.
On this topic, when will programs like installers get more intelligent progress displays? An installer has to take several steps such as:
1) check that the disk has space for your app
2) check that it can write into the target directory
3) copy a bunch of files
4) add stuff to the registry (or config files in *nix)
5) add shorcuts / menu items
Too many apps treat each of those steps as equal amounts of work so that your progress bar shoots to 40% in a couple of seconds, then sits there for 5 minutes while the files are copied, and completes the last .40% in a few more seconds. You may as well not have a progress bar at all.
"On this topic, when will programs like installers get more intelligent progress displays? "
Around the early nineties. I noticed a trend then with installers for Windows 3.1 apps. A lot of them were showing two progress bars: one for the current task (which was clearly described above said progress bar) and one for the overall install. Then InstallShield came along, everyone stuffed function for ease of development and a flashy interface, and the intelligent progress display disappeared.
Apart from the "duh" sounds everyone is making, surely the singularly most popular operation in Windows Explorer is launching applications? Most people I know don't use Windows Explorer to manage files. They either don't (and so everything goes into the location the application suggests, such as "My Documents" or "Downloads") or use something to manage it for them (like iTunes, a photo album or ebook organizer).
How a file copy can go from 6eons remaining to 5 seconds in less time than it takes Usain Bolt to run 100m has always been a source of amusement.
Will their new graph get rid of the uncertainty?
How much screen real estate will it take up. With these ever shrinking Verticals(aka those silly widescreen displays), these are the sorts of things we need to know.
At least they have taken half a step forward.
Paris for no other reason than there was a piccy of her in a Blue wig in the Metro today.
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