Darren New wrote:
> 
> Except you can turn that off at the window manager level, and it works
> almost 100% of the time.  With Vista, it works mainly when you didn't
> want it to work in the first place, somehow.

Ahh, I'll just need to find it. But running has more meaning if I know
there's a goal.

> It's ... already there. :-) There's even a parameter that says "if I
> haven't typed in this many seconds, let apps steal the focus."
> 
> You might want to download TweakUI from Microsoft and look at all the
> stuff it makes easy to configure.

I actually have used it (not sure if my work-laptop has it right now),
but never noticed such a choice. I'll need to check it up on thursday,
thanks.

-Aero

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Eero Ahonen wrote:
> I actually have used it (not sure if my work-laptop has it right now),
> but never noticed such a choice. I'll need to check it up on thursday,
> thanks.

Sure thing. It's labeled something pretty obvious in the left pane, saying 
something about "focus". Just numpad-* at the top of the left pane and 
scroll down until you see it. I don't know exactly what top-level heading 
it's under.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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And lo On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:49:59 -0000, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>  
did spake thusly:

Not necessarily Vista only, but I've just got annoyed with a laptop  
downloading some AV update conking out because it went to sleep. I thought  
the point was it only did that when it wasn't doing anything; I'd say  
downloading counted as 'something'. Doubly annoying as the laptop's been  
disconnected from the 'net for a month so it's a huge update; and it had  
to restart from scratch.

Oh and yes the other laptop's screensaver still won't kick in when  
connected to a Microsoft mouse despite the 'fix'.

The latest nice bit was installing a 02 3G mobile modem that required UAC  
to be turned off before it'd install, thus requiring two reboots  
bookending the installation.

My current favourite is the resolution of an error from Microsoft  
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950375/en-us/ 'Just ignore it' would have  
been a much shorter entry.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Phil Cook v2 wrote:
> And lo On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:49:59 -0000, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> 
> did spake thusly:
> 
> Not necessarily Vista only, but I've just got annoyed with a laptop 
> downloading some AV update conking out because it went to sleep. I 
> thought the point was it only did that when it wasn't doing anything; 
> I'd say downloading counted as 'something'.

Well, I think it's not supposed to sleep based on the timer, yes. It's 
usually some set of interrupts that restart the timer (as in, keyboard, 
mouse, disk, and network perhaps?)  Maybe if the download was being buffered 
in memory before being written out, and the network interrupt wasn't 
configured to keep your machine awake for some reason...?

I *do* know they reworked that whole part for Vista due to the complaints of 
programs and drivers needlessly turning off sleep capabilities.  People were 
tired of closing the lid on the laptop, only to open it a few hours later to 
see a dead battery and an "are you sure" dialog box. :-)

> The latest nice bit was installing a 02 3G mobile modem that required 
> UAC to be turned off before it'd install, thus requiring two reboots 
> bookending the installation.

Lots of broken stuff out there isn't the fault of Vista. You *could* have 
just logged in as the administrator in the first place, you know. :-)

> My current favourite is the resolution of an error from Microsoft 
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950375/en-us/ 'Just ignore it' would 
> have been a much shorter entry.

Except that lots of people use Windows in real industrial settings where 
they actually monitor such things, ya know. If you get a pager alert every 
time something fails, "just ignore it" isn't a good answer.

I was amused when I found this one. I don't think you get a clearer answer 
than this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824511


-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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Darren New wrote:
> 
> Make too much stuff configurable, and you wind up with Linux user
> friendliness.
> 

Exactly. That's one of the main reasons I haven't used Windows at home
for years.

-Aero

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Darren New wrote:
> (I'm mildly annoyed that neither KDE nor GNOME default to opening the menu
> when you hit the Windows key. It would seem that adding that functionality
> would make it friendlier to Windows users, given that I don't think the
> Windows key is used for anything at all in either of those desktops.)

Apparently KDE used to. But then the possible Win + something keyboard
shortcuts caused conflicts with the "Win key alone opens menu", so they
removed it.

No idea why. Windows manages to do both just fine.

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Darren New [mailto:dne### [at] sanrrcom]
> Except you can turn that off at the window manager level, and it works
> almost 100% of the time.  With Vista, it works mainly when you didn't
> want
> it to work in the first place, somehow.

Yeah, like apps launched from keyboard shortcuts.  They launch unfocused 
behind the current window, meaning I can't just start using them like I 
used to in XP :(

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

What's the difference between a drug dealer and a whore?
A whore can wash her crack and sell it again.

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Five: Blocking IO.

Why the he** should everything on my computer freeze up when a scratch is 
encountered on a CD?

...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

I'd like to live in Theory.  Everything works there.

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Chambers wrote:
> Yeah, like apps launched from keyboard shortcuts.

Yeah, or from (say) the calculator button. Or based on a timer, it seems.

Oh, and another flaming annoyance: they now make it difficult to say "I want 
to *view* the picture with the normal preview program, but I want to *edit* 
the picture with (say) photoshop". Apparently, putting this in some advanced 
setting so you don't have to dick with the registry was too difficult.

Now that I know how to run VMs, maybe I'll see if Windows 7 is any good 
before I buy it. :)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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Chambers wrote:
> Five: Blocking IO.
> 
> Why the he** should everything on my computer freeze up when a scratch is 
> encountered on a CD?

I think it's only explorer that locks up. Other programs keep running, as 
long as they're not accessing it.  Local disks always cause those sorts of 
lock-ups, because there's no good way to say "open it, but don't wait for it 
to open." It has been a problem in most OSes, including UNIX from at least 
V7 on (they used to distinguish "fast open" from "slow open" devices), and 
including locking up (under WIndows at least) while waiting for a disk to 
spin up from power save, too, for example. I thought Vista was a bit better 
at this, in that you can now specifically cancel out o something like that 
and get control back. You've canceled of course, but Vista lets programs 
abort I/O that they didn't used to be able to abort. (That was one of the 
explicit improvements. Maybe it only applies to network opens, tho?)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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