Launching "apps"

The question is how do you run programs in your PC (a Mac doesn't realy count as a PC, but if you use one you can answer the poll)

I began to use PCs when DOS ruled the desktop market. I never had any problems using it, nor did I find it hard to use. To be sure, after a while I learned the trick of typing "copy con programname.bat" and making a batch file for each often-used program. For some reason, though, some people were incapable of finding a directory and running a program.

These people either didn't use a computer or ran Windows on it. Seriously, most of what people did on Windows 1 through 3.11, as best as I can tell, was run programs from the file manager or desktop. I got to think that was all that Windows was good for: a crutch for people who found DOS "too hard" (at that it was easier to use than AppleDOS in twin floppy drives). I even briefly ran Windows 2 in my home PC.

It wasn't until the internet began to take off commercially and Netscape was released that I saw some benefit to Windows. I briefly used a laptop with Win3.11, then switched to Win95, which was much better.

Since then I run all programs, except Firefox, IE and File Explorer (if it's still called that) from the start menu.

I've never really used Win7, as I've explained in previous posts, but the idea of pinning programs to the taskbar to run them, then having to mouse over them to 1) see if they're open at all or just sitting there and 2) see what they're running, strikes me as ridculous and innefficient (assuming you can even amke out the tiny previews at all). As I've also said before, I can easily see what's running by a simple glance at the taskbar when labels are active.

Likewise, searching for programs strikes me as ridiculous and inefficient. I don't search for programs. I know ehre I put them and can find them easily in the start menu's "all programs" tab in alphabetical order. In fact I'm leaning a bit towards Classic Shell for Win8(.1) because it lets you deactivate the default search box.

Someitmes I will run programs with a shortcut stuck on the desktop. But that's very rare,. Usually I instruct the install file, if it allows, no to pin anything to the desktop. i do keep dome file folders there I find convenient (freelance work, trip estimates in progress, vacation photos and such), though I'd as soon keep them in the start menu if that could be done.

Windows 8(.1) is the exact opposite. In the desktop you're supposed to pin "apps" to the taskbar, rendering it useless for actual work in the process ("we had to destroy the village in oredr to save it!" comes to mind). Or you can litter the desktop with shortcuts.

You can also remember the arcane keyboard command (nice to have to rely on keyboard commands in the GRAPHICAL interface, isn't it?) to open search, or run up the upper left corner to cummon the "charms" and open search, then type all or part of the name of the "app," then pick it off a list, which will include whatever it finds on the internet because so many people don't know where their "apps" are, then finally you can run your "app."

Do you relaize that's not nearly as good as a batch file in DOS?

Lastly you can use the start screen, which MS is giving a very hard sell to the idea that it is an evolution of the start menu. I've explained the start menu is much more than an "apps launcher." But beyond that, you have a bunch of tiles scattered all voer the screen, either in whatever order Windows chooses, or in "groups" of limited size you can order yourself.

Now, maybe I'm just wrong, but that sounds exactly like the description of the old Win1-3 file manager, or the Win1-7 desktop. being eble to scroll it sideways isn't much of a difference as far as I'm concerned. The "live" tiles (as opposed, one thinks, to the dead icons) are different, but I can't help think we had gadgets or something way before 2012.

So those are the Windows 8(.1) choices: a return to the desktop, a return to the file manager, a return to DOS methods (only not as good), or disabling the taskbar.

Can we have the start menu back?

I mentioned that until the web began to take off and I saw Netscape I had no use for Windows. Nonetheless, by that time I'd been using the internet for a while. How? In DOS.

Here's how it worked. First you got a modem which hooked up to the phone line. these were really slow beasts, though i still recall the thrill of buying a 9,600 baud modem <sigh>. Next you obtianed a terminal program. Fortunately I had a friend who somehow was able to obtain such things (these were shareware for the most part). Next you used the program to dial a server. WHen you got through,a nd it could take multiple tries and busy signals, you entered an ID and password (borrowed from another friend) and could now use the internet.

At the time there was free access to a system called the Cleveland Free Net, hosted by Case Western Reserve University. You could get email, and access to a rather simple text menu-driven portal which included IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and other things. from my main access server I could also use the "Telnet" command to access other addresses. There was also an FTP (File transfer Protocol) for accessing files to download.

Mostly I used email and IRC. For email there were mailing lists, which were kind of like a message forum, only conducted through email (and naturally without sub-boards or any kind of organization).

This was very limited comapred even to the Web in 1995, but at the time (c.1993) it was a remarkable window into the world, all for the price of a local phone call.