End of the Road for Windows 7

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Win XP onwards was/is pretty stable, things have come along way since the 90s

The guy with the Toshiba laptop, unless Toshiba engineered their own components and didnt use Intel/AMD and nvidia or ATI ect ect then i assure you there are Windows 7 drivers for it, mate of mine bought a brand new laptop with 8 installed last year, wanted 7, I annihilated every single bloody partition on the hard drive and put 7 on it, looked up the model number to get a list of what display adapter, network adapter ect it uses, DLed and loaded the drivers with a usb stick, its running great

Oh, I wish you were right about drivers. Toshiba has its own motherboards made, and the bios is made by a company called Insyde. I have version 1.30. This bios has the product ID and the product key hard coded into it and there are no stop screens to enter them. They install automatically from the bios when you install Windows. They are encrypted in the registry and there's no hope of changing them. So validation using a disk other than the Toshiba recovery is impossible, even when using a Win 8 Pro disk which is what the laptop shipped with.

That's not about drivers, it's just another unsolvable issue.

Assure me all you'd like, but Toshiba specs out and has made many of the things on its motherboard and has the mobos made. You are right that I did find drivers for most of the individual items but there isn't one available for the wifi nic or the video. Something else was missing too. There were only Win 8 drivers listed and I tried them and they didn't work with 7. Both versions are 64 bit if that matters.

What is understandable is that when new hardware is made for a captive manufacturer who is only going forward with 8, there's no need for a 7 driver. Using programs that list the hardware in a computer, much of it is branded Toshiba regardless of who made it.

In the end I wound up ordering a restore disk from Toshiba which came as a bootable USB stick. It is unique to my laptop based on model and serial #.

It's not quite how you describe it. You can extract the key and use it to install a suitable Windows 8 image. As to a unique image....no. If you would have asked nicely, I would have sent you the OEM image for free.

[Siamsky]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

Love it XP was a great system - Are you also living in at Cave? (joking)

Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it, Windows 8 is the finished product

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

Love it XP was a great system - Are you also living in at Cave? (joking)

Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it, Windows 8 is the finished product

Is there something wrong with you? You should have properly perused the thread before writing such nonsense.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet

[Siamsky]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

Love it XP was a great system - Are you also living in at Cave? (joking)

Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it, Windows 8 is the finished product

Is there something wrong with you? You should have properly perused the thread before writing such nonsense.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet

Relax and take a big breath

[Chicog]

Windows 7 is a fine OS and a vast improvement on XP, plus you can get security updates for it.

Windows 8.1 is a bit of an adjustment and not worth using unless you buy hardware with it preinstalled.

[DogNo1]

Microsoft is supposedly going to release an update to Windows 8.1 (8.2?) That will make the interface more friendly for non-touchscreen users. Actually, I've found that the various Windows key combinations, especially Win-X give me a lot of what I need to use. It's been a sharp learning curve for me but I'm actually pretty comfortable with Win 8.1 right now. Of course I also use a start bar add-on.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

So far we've had Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 with Update 1 in the 20 months it has been available. The last release will be Windows 8.1 with Update 2. Then to move on to Windows 9. Which again will have a different process for activation.

[Jdiddy]

Activation? Whats that?

Never had to activate any windows version

[JSixpack]

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer support Windows 7 after January 13, 2015. It will continue to issue security fixes only for another six months after that: until June 13, 2015. The source was an article in CNET. Windows 9 anyone?

Bleedin hell, i'm still trundling along with XP and was contemplating going to Win 7......oh well.....

Love it XP was a great system - Are you also living in at Cave? (joking)

Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it, Windows 8 is the finished product

Is there something wrong with you? You should have properly perused the thread before writing such nonsense.

Windows lifecycle fact sheet

Agreed. Looks we have a new troll on the block, sigh. BTW, we heard the same chortling and gurgling here when Vista came out.

Edited July 15, 2014 by JSixpack

[Chicog]

I don't think he was trolling, I just think he doesn't understand the difference between mainstream support and updates.

[Chicog]

Ho hum.

It appears that Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT ) effort to bring back the Start Menu in revived form are nearing fruition. A leaked shot of a Windows machine running Windows "Build 9788" surfaced late last week by a user with the screenname "DUF" in the forums section of the siteMy Digital Life.

While the build carries the title "Windows 8.1 Pro" (the currently available release), this does not appear to undermine the authenticity, according to sources. Neowin reports:

One item about the image that was throwing off users previously is that is says Win 8.1 Pro in the bottom corner. We have spoken to a source close to Microsoft who says that this image appears to be legitimate, and that these builds inside of Microsoft still use this branding, so this is not a big deal.

The decision to drop the Start Menu was one of the biggest sources of customer frustration with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. After much hemming and hawing, Microsoft finallyadmitted it goofed and announced at this year's BUILD conference that it would be bringing the iconic menu back.

http://www.dailytech.com/Windows+9s+Metro+Start+Menu+Nears+Images+Leak+of+Newest+Build/article36210.htm

[JSixpack]

Who just surfs the internet?

Oh, lots of people. We're talking almost exclusively about home users here on the forum.

How are you going to get your linux/android anything to work with Server?

You mean, accessing facebook, youtube, twitter, and Picasa require working w/ Server? OMG.

Do you realize how many corporate employees have bought themselves a cool notebook or tablet only to have to dump it and get one with a Microsoft OS so they could work from home?

Why--no, come to think of it. Give us the stats, man.

Go into a huge Google server farm. They run Unix on the thousands and thousands of servers for the internet there, but in the office and across the corporate WAN they run Microsoft for the granularity of Microsoft Server and AD.

Cool. But then there's

http://news.techeye.net/software/south-korea-gives-up-on-microsoft

http://www.linuxvoice.com/the-big-switch/

Not to denigrate Server and AD--for which there's a significant price to pay. Linux doesn't yet have anything as good, true. Nevertheless, lots of people do just surf the net.

[JSixpack]

I don't think he was trolling, I just think he doesn't understand the difference between mainstream support and updates.

That ignorance too. But sneering at XP users as cave-dwellers--XP was a great OS and still pretty good & useful--and blurting out this nonsense: "Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it" is mere trolling IMO.

[JetsetBkk]

I don't think he was trolling, I just think he doesn't understand the difference between mainstream support and updates.

That ignorance too. But sneering at XP users as cave-dwellers--XP was a great OS and still pretty good & useful--and blurting out this nonsense: "Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it" is mere trolling IMO.

I still use XP. I hate all the things they screwed up in 7 by rewriting Windows Explorer.

My view: Microsoft lost the plot after they released XP SP3. It's been one disaster after another ever since.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_8

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/windows-explorer-expands-folders-inappropriately/50a81b05-da98-4d55-821d-55ffbbd0e998

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/how-to-disable-full-row-select-in-windows-7/862a337e-1eb5-4152-bba0-c54b70c94374

[Chicog]

I don't think he was trolling, I just think he doesn't understand the difference between mainstream support and updates.

That ignorance too. But sneering at XP users as cave-dwellers--XP was a great OS and still pretty good & useful--and blurting out this nonsense: "Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it" is mere trolling IMO.

I still use XP. I hate all the things they screwed up in 7 by rewriting Windows Explorer.

My view: Microsoft lost the plot after they released XP SP3. It's been one disaster after another ever since.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_8

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/windows-explorer-expands-folders-inappropriately/50a81b05-da98-4d55-821d-55ffbbd0e998

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/how-to-disable-full-row-select-in-windows-7/862a337e-1eb5-4152-bba0-c54b70c94374

They really should have just removed Vista, but the rest is pretty irrelevant to me, apart from that godawful metro on a desktop.

The "features removed in Windows 7" list - there's not one of them I can ever recall noticing, let alone missing.

[JetsetBkk]

I don't think he was trolling, I just think he doesn't understand the difference between mainstream support and updates.

That ignorance too. But sneering at XP users as cave-dwellers--XP was a great OS and still pretty good & useful--and blurting out this nonsense: "Window 7 was a mistake they should of never released it" is mere trolling IMO.

I still use XP. I hate all the things they screwed up in 7 by rewriting Windows Explorer.

My view: Microsoft lost the plot after they released XP SP3. It's been one disaster after another ever since.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_8

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/windows-explorer-expands-folders-inappropriately/50a81b05-da98-4d55-821d-55ffbbd0e998

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/how-to-disable-full-row-select-in-windows-7/862a337e-1eb5-4152-bba0-c54b70c94374

They really should have just removed Vista, but the rest is pretty irrelevant to me, apart from that godawful metro on a desktop.

The "features removed in Windows 7" list - there's not one of them I can ever recall noticing, let alone missing.

Within minutes of using a friend's Win 7 I clicked on a folder in the left hand pane of Windows Explorer in order to expand it and view its sub-folders... and the folder dropped down to the bottom of the pane hiding all the sub-folders. I had to use the vertical scroll bar to bring them back into view.

I remember thinking to myself "W-T-F just happened?" Turns out it's a bug that has never been fixed since Vista. So you cannot navigate around your computer using the folder tree in the left hand pane using Microsoft's own Windows Explorer.

And then there's the toolbars on the left, top and right of the desktop in XP. They don't exist in Win 7 - you can't create them. On my XP machine they give me access to every folder, file, shortcut and macro on my machine - instant access, instant response, high productivity.

Why should I change the way I work because Microsoft is too lazy to implement them in Win 7? Most of these bugs and removed features can be overcome using ClassicShell from Sourceforge, but still not the main missing feature - the desktop toolbars.

I'll change to Win 7 only when some bright spark comes up with a third party add-on that does that job.

Win 7 gives me nothing else that I need, but takes away a lot.

[Chicog]

Why should I change the way I work because Microsoft is too lazy to implement them in Win 7? Most of these bugs and removed features can be overcome using ClassicShell from Sourceforge, but still not the main missing feature - the desktop toolbars.

I'll change to Win 7 only when some bright spark comes up with a third party add-on that does that job.

Win 7 gives me nothing else that I need, but takes away a lot.

I can't say that I ever use a two pane explorer, I just click down to the folder I want to look in, use the search box or a combination.

As for custom toolbars, maybe RocketDock might do something for you?

[JSixpack]

Within minutes of using a friend's Win 7 I clicked on a folder in the left hand pane of Windows Explorer in order to expand it and view its sub-folders... and the folder dropped down to the bottom of the pane hiding all the sub-folders. I had to use the vertical scroll bar to bring them back into view.

I remember thinking to myself "W-T-F just happened?" Turns out it's a bug that has never been fixed since Vista. So you cannot navigate around your computer using the folder tree in the left hand pane using Microsoft's own Windows Explorer.

And then there's the toolbars on the left, top and right of the desktop in XP. They don't exist in Win 7 - you can't create them. On my XP machine they give me access to every folder, file, shortcut and macro on my machine - instant access, instant response, high productivity.

Why should I change the way I work because Microsoft is too lazy to implement them in Win 7? Most of these bugs and removed features can be overcome using ClassicShell from Sourceforge, but still not the main missing feature - the desktop toolbars.

I'll change to Win 7 only when some bright spark comes up with a third party add-on that does that job.

Win 7 gives me nothing else that I need, but takes away a lot.

I never use Windows Explorer but rather Total Commander as my file manager. Works great on XP, works great on 7 & 8. It's portable so you can carry it around on a USB stick when working out in the wild. Gives you toolbars, favorites, folder history--and so much more. There are others: http://www.atfreeware.com/9-file-managers-with-two-panels-as-alternative-to-windows-explorer/

I agree about the taskbar & toolbar situation w/ Win 7, though most people don't care. That can be fixed w/ the small icons and no grouping options; 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (gets rid of the previews and the Start button among much else); a minimalist style such as Shiki Colors (my fav) or Placebo; Free Launch Bar; and Dexpot virtual desktop manager. If you need more there's Objectdock Plus, which gives you multiple toolbars and tabbed toolbars. Good product that I also used on XP. You see I never found XP's Windows Explorer or toobars enough either.

With the most annoying interface issues out of the way, Win 7 unquestionably is an improvement over XP, so I won't go back--and I'm no M'soft fanboy. But you can read about that elsewhere.

Edited July 16, 2014 by JSixpack

[JetsetBkk]

Why should I change the way I work because Microsoft is too lazy to implement them in Win 7? Most of these bugs and removed features can be overcome using ClassicShell from Sourceforge, but still not the main missing feature - the desktop toolbars.

I'll change to Win 7 only when some bright spark comes up with a third party add-on that does that job.

Win 7 gives me nothing else that I need, but takes away a lot.

I can't say that I ever use a two pane explorer, I just click down to the folder I want to look in, use the search box or a combination.

As for custom toolbars, maybe RocketDock might do something for you?

Yes, I've had a look at RocketDock and a few other "dock" type add-ons, eg. CoolBarz, Nexus Dock, Object Dock, StarDock, but they don't work the same way as XP's "deskbands" - that is what they were called. Win 7 doesn't have them.

I even made a video about a year ago to show people on other forums what I was talking about. I was amazed how few XP users even knew about "deskbands". (I even showed it to Woody Leonard - a "Windows For Dummies" author - at one of the Phuket Computer Clinic meetings and his reaction was: "Wow! How did you do that?" <doh!>)

So this is what I'm talking about:

Obviously I will have to change to Win 7 some time soon especially as most people I know, and help with their computer problems, are using it.

I just hope there is a docking tool available soon that comes close to XP's Deskbands.

At least I am not alone in missing this feature:

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/123335-Recreate-My-Computer-deskband-in-Windows-7

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/windows-xp-allowed-me-to-float-toolbars-on-the/c8baccb6-65e6-4d3e-b881-1416e5c63ccb

[JetsetBkk]

I never use Windows Explorer but rather Total Commander as my file manager. Works great on XP, works great on 7 & 8. It's portable so you can carry it around on a USB stick when working out in the wild. Gives you toolbars, favorites, folder history--and so much more. There are others: http://www.atfreeware.com/9-file-managers-with-two-panels-as-alternative-to-windows-explorer/

I agree about the taskbar & toolbar situation w/ Win 7, though most people don't care. That can be fixed w/ the small icons and no grouping options; 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (gets rid of the previews and the Start button among much else); a minimalist style such as Shiki Colors (my fav) or Placebo; Free Launch Bar; and Dexpot virtual desktop manager. If you need more there's Objectdock Plus, which gives you multiple toolbars and tabbed toolbars. Good product that I also used on XP. You see I never found XP's Windows Explorer or toobars enough either.

With the most annoying interface issues out of the way, Win 7 unquestionably is an improvement over XP, so I won't go back--and I'm no M'soft fanboy. But you can read about that elsewhere.

Thanks for the ideas about alternatives to XP's "Deskbands". It's time I had another look at Win 7 (on my Notebook, just for playing) as the last time was about a year ago.

I've looked at alternative explorers, but usually only used them for a few days... never quite got hooked on them. But I'll have a look at your suggestions. The last one I tried was Q-Dir - in fact there's still a working shortcut to it on my desktop .

[JSixpack]

I just hope there is a docking tool available soon that comes close to XP's Deskbands.

Well, there is and has been.

Yeah I know all about deskbands (not much to know) and have messed around w/ them. Yes, it would be nice if Win 7 had them but I don't miss them at all, 'cause there's better.

W/ Free Launch Bar (http://www.freelaunchbar.com/), the menus & submenus accessed by the click of an icon on a Win 7 quick launch bar offer the same functionality except you don't get the bump/autohide--something that can be annoying in itself when your cursor unintentionally bumps an edge.

Objectdock Plus will give you that as well, however, and is functionally superior to deskbands. I know, because I use it daily. I prefer the tabs system to access different toolbars (by hover) and flyout menus if needed.

Another program, free, Windows Powerpro

http://www.windowspowerpro.com/

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/powerpro.html

makes deskbands look sick, it can do so much and better. Really incredible collection of useful functionalities. You can put a custom toolbar on the titlebar of any particular window if you like. I've used it for many years; it's always running in the background on all my machines. Downside is a learning curve, but it's simple enough once you understand how it works. Aesthetically it can fit well w/ a minimalist style such as I use (http://winplayboy.deviantart.com/art/Shiki-Colors-for-Windows-Seven-286727353).

Edited July 16, 2014 by JSixpack

[JSixpack]

I never use Windows Explorer but rather Total Commander as my file manager. Works great on XP, works great on 7 & 8. It's portable so you can carry it around on a USB stick when working out in the wild. Gives you toolbars, favorites, folder history--and so much more. There are others: http://www.atfreeware.com/9-file-managers-with-two-panels-as-alternative-to-windows-explorer/

I agree about the taskbar & toolbar situation w/ Win 7, though most people don't care. That can be fixed w/ the small icons and no grouping options; 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (gets rid of the previews and the Start button among much else); a minimalist style such as Shiki Colors (my fav) or Placebo; Free Launch Bar; and Dexpot virtual desktop manager. If you need more there's Objectdock Plus, which gives you multiple toolbars and tabbed toolbars. Good product that I also used on XP. You see I never found XP's Windows Explorer or toobars enough either.

With the most annoying interface issues out of the way, Win 7 unquestionably is an improvement over XP, so I won't go back--and I'm no M'soft fanboy. But you can read about that elsewhere.

Thanks for the ideas about alternatives to XP's "Deskbands". It's time I had another look at Win 7 (on my Notebook, just for playing) as the last time was about a year ago.

I've looked at alternative explorers, but usually only used them for a few days... never quite got hooked on them. But I'll have a look at your suggestions. The last one I tried was Q-Dir - in fact there's still a working shortcut to it on my desktop .

I don't like Q-Dir, never have. Total Commander's fabulous and I can't imagine life w/o it. http://www.ghisler.com/

[JetsetBkk]

Thanks JSixpack - I'll be investigating the stuff you mentioned.

"makes deskbands look sick" - I hope so!

[JetsetBkk]

I just noticed my avatar has just changed. I uploaded it 18 days ago.

[JSixpack]

Thanks JSixpack - I'll be investigating the stuff you mentioned.

"makes deskbands look sick" - I hope so!

Absolutely, no question.

Whoops, I see the Majorgeeks download is out-of-date. Go here: http://powerpro.cresadu.com/.

Powerpro has a good (if not great) and well-integrated help system. There are also Yahoo discussion groups. I use it for scheduling, messages, better Windows clock (w/ day & date), quick calendar, toolbars as needed, auto left-click on controls after a pause, and keyboard shortcuts applied on a per-application basis. One reason I don't like side toolbars is that when I bump left or right in Pale Moon I've set Powerpro to send the next/previous tab keystrokes to Pale Moon. So I go rapidly from one tab to another via screen bumps. (Me, I'm a big mouse user.)

There's much, much more. In the past I've made a toolbar w/ "tabs" that bring up subbars, but something like Objectdock is just a lot easier to maintain, 'cause you have drag-and-drop and move/copy functionality on the bars themselves. W/ Powerpro you have to bring up the config screen first and locate the toolbar--but you can drag programs into there, and move/copy can be done w/ click of a button and selection. I'd say the bother is roughly comparable to that of configuring a Windows deskband.

You can customize your toolbars w/ options for color, font, gradient, transparency, background .bmp etc. The program doesn't use Windows styles.

So now Win 7 is going to become your OS of choice. Like your sig, BTW.

Edited July 17, 2014 by JSixpack

[Gumballl]

Microsoft can't make as much money if it doesn't make new versions, and make old versions obsolete. I could have lived a long time with 7 ult. and a few free 3rd party utilities.

We are stuck and going "forward." My new laptop won't run 7 because Toshiba never made 7 drivers for it. I won't tell my horror story about that again, but I'll just say that one should never wipe a disk so thoroughly that he deletes the "hidden" restore partition, LOL. If I want to do something that radical again I'll first run a dual boot to be sure it works.

Anyway, from now on we will eventually be forced into newer and newer version.

And the first Mac or Linux sissy who tells me to switch to a sissy OS can go jump in a lake, LOL.

If all you do on the computer, as many do, is surf the internet, Linux will serve you well.

When 7 came out Balmer declared Microsoft would never again allow such long intervals between OS versions. He stated MS was now on a 2 year new OS schedule.

Obviously revenue was far more important to MS than a stable OS or satisfied customers.

Who just surfs the internet? How are you going to get your linux/android anything to work with Server?

Do you realize how many corporate employees have bought themselves a cool notebook or tablet only to have to dump it and get one with a Microsoft OS so they could work from home?

Go into a huge Google server farm. They run Unix on the thousands and thousands of servers for the internet there, but in the office and across the corporate WAN they run Microsoft for the granularity of Microsoft Server and AD.

I love reading cr@p... NeverSure you indeed have a skill. Unfortunately you don't have a clue.

[JetsetBkk]

Thanks JSixpack - I'll be investigating the stuff you mentioned.

"makes deskbands look sick" - I hope so!

Absolutely, no question.

Whoops, I see the Majorgeeks download is out-of-date. Go here: http://powerpro.cresadu.com/.

Powerpro has a good (if not great) and well-integrated help system. There are also Yahoo discussion groups. I use it for scheduling, messages, better Windows clock (w/ day & date), quick calendar, toolbars as needed, auto left-click on controls after a pause, and keyboard shortcuts applied on a per-application basis. One reason I don't like side toolbars is that when I bump left or right in Pale Moon I've set Powerpro to send the next/previous tab keystrokes to Pale Moon. So I go rapidly from one tab to another via screen bumps. (Me, I'm a big mouse user.)

There's much, much more. In the past I've made a toolbar w/ "tabs" that bring up subbars, but something like Objectdock is just a lot easier to maintain, 'cause you have drag-and-drop and move/copy functionality on the bars themselves. W/ Powerpro you have to bring up the config screen first and locate the toolbar--but you can drag programs into there, and move/copy can be done w/ click of a button and selection. I'd say the bother is roughly comparable to that of configuring a Windows deskband.

You can customize your toolbars w/ options for color, font, gradient, transparency, background .bmp etc. The program doesn't use Windows styles.

So now Win 7 is going to become your OS of choice. Like your sig, BTW.

Thanks for the extra info. I'll be installing Win 7 on my Netbook and giving those utilities a try very soon. PowerPro does sound excellent.

[JSixpack]

Thanks JSixpack - I'll be investigating the stuff you mentioned.

"makes deskbands look sick" - I hope so!

Absolutely, no question.

Whoops, I see the Majorgeeks download is out-of-date. Go here: http://powerpro.cresadu.com/.

Powerpro has a good (if not great) and well-integrated help system. There are also Yahoo discussion groups. I use it for scheduling, messages, better Windows clock (w/ day & date), quick calendar, toolbars as needed, auto left-click on controls after a pause, and keyboard shortcuts applied on a per-application basis. One reason I don't like side toolbars is that when I bump left or right in Pale Moon I've set Powerpro to send the next/previous tab keystrokes to Pale Moon. So I go rapidly from one tab to another via screen bumps. (Me, I'm a big mouse user.)

There's much, much more. In the past I've made a toolbar w/ "tabs" that bring up subbars, but something like Objectdock is just a lot easier to maintain, 'cause you have drag-and-drop and move/copy functionality on the bars themselves. W/ Powerpro you have to bring up the config screen first and locate the toolbar--but you can drag programs into there, and move/copy can be done w/ click of a button and selection. I'd say the bother is roughly comparable to that of configuring a Windows deskband.

You can customize your toolbars w/ options for color, font, gradient, transparency, background .bmp etc. The program doesn't use Windows styles.

So now Win 7 is going to become your OS of choice. Like your sig, BTW.

Thanks for the extra info. I'll be installing Win 7 on my Netbook and giving those utilities a try very soon. PowerPro does sound excellent.

If you don't quickly get the hang of Powerpro, let me know and I'll send you a sample cfg file w/ side toolbars.

[JSixpack]

I just hope there is a docking tool available soon that comes close to XP's Deskbands.

Well, there is and has been.

Yeah I know all about deskbands (not much to know) and have messed around w/ them. Yes, it would be nice if Win 7 had them but I don't miss them at all, 'cause there's better.

W/ Free Launch Bar (http://www.freelaunchbar.com/), the menus & submenus accessed by the click of an icon on a Win 7 quick launch bar offer the same functionality except you don't get the bump/autohide--something that can be annoying in itself when your cursor unintentionally bumps an edge.

Objectdock Plus will give you that as well, however, and is functionally superior to deskbands. I know, because I use it daily. I prefer the tabs system to access different toolbars (by hover) and flyout menus if needed.

Another program, free, Windows Powerpro

http://www.windowspowerpro.com/

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/powerpro.html

makes deskbands look sick, it can do so much and better. Really incredible collection of useful functionalities. You can put a custom toolbar on the titlebar of any particular window if you like. I've used it for many years; it's always running in the background on all my machines. Downside is a learning curve, but it's simple enough once you understand how it works. Aesthetically it can fit well w/ a minimalist style such as I use (http://winplayboy.deviantart.com/art/Shiki-Colors-for-Windows-Seven-286727353).

If interested, here's my preferred Win 7 desktop, which any XP fan/minimalist (inclusive term for "minimal effort") should like (and everyone else hate, heh, heh); click to view image:

Left to right:

• no in-your-face Start button, but a space to click where the menu still is (7+ Taskbar Tweaker)
• quicklaunch bar + free launch bar w/
  • shortcuts to control foobar
  • shortcut to start/pause Radiosure internet radio player
  • show desktop
  • task manager
  • Cyberfox (switching to this lately)
  • dropdown menu w/ shutdown/suspend functions--but this could a big menu w/ submenus etc. (via free launch bar for better customization)
• currently running tasks: Total Commander, Thunderbird, Radiosure (AddictedToRadio.com Bar Rockin' Blues currently playing), Foobar
• 4 tabs from ObjectDock Plus to access 4 wide toolbars on top edge--just hover on the tab
• Systray
• no taskbar clock
• PowerPro clock just under taskbar (clock tends not to stay on top of taskbar unless fixed on the left--it's fine here), Left-click for calendar, middle for notepad, right for calc.

Small icons, labels hidden, no previewing or combining, no Aero. Needless to say, I'd do the same thing w/ Win 8 if I used it daily.

I was using the bblean desktop manager, but I kept running into an intractable issue on Win 7 64-bit. This'll do; it's fast.

Edited July 18, 2014 by JSixpack

[JetsetBkk]

Now running Win 7 Ultimate on my Notebook and updating Classic Shell, scanning with MSE and generally getting it up to date as this system image was made in April.

Oh, bugger. 46 "important updates" - 226 MB.

This'll take a while...