Need HELP migrating to Win7

[Steve Fabian]

It seems Win7 user interface is intended only for those who spent time and money to be taught by Microsoft, esp. what XP features had been dropped. Here is a partial list of things I am struggling with:




1/ I had UNSET the option to allow tasks to be combined on the taskbar, nevertheless, whenever the cursor hovers over any of the 3 TCC-related items, all three show up.
2/ I want to set up a LAN connecting my Win7 Pro and my two WinXP computers. I had partially succeeded, and was able to transfer files between them using TCC, but this capability has disappeared! In fact, the Win7 networking page states that the Win7 machine can be in a "homegroup" only with other Win7 machines! Interestingly, one of my XP machines can still view (don't know about modifying) the files on the Win7 system. But the other machine is the one currently important... All three computers comunicate with the internet through the same WiFi router, or through a single COMCAST cable modem.
3/ I am logged in as administrator with elevated privileges.How do I start an elevated TCC (or other programs, for that matter) without the dialog about "do I want to permit..." There has been some information in the JPsoft forum, but I do not recall tthe answer.
4/ What do I need to do to share all files on the LAN? Win7 seems to protect me from being able to use MY PERSONAL COMPUTER the way I want to!
5/ What advantage do I get from running 64b TCC vs. 32b TCC? I do not currently use any 64b console programs (except TCC itself)?

 

[rconn]

1) Right-click on the taskbar, Taskbar tab, Taskbar buttons, "Never combine". But I don't recommend it unless you never run more than 5 or 6 apps.

3) You can disable UAC, but I strongly advise against it. You'll get used to it, and it will eventually save your butt (repeatedly).

5) Assuming you're running Win7 x64, then using the x64 TCC will allow you to actually see the files and the registry trees you think you're looking at. The 32-bit version will not see the x64 Windows directories and registry trees; it will remap everything to the SysWOW64 directories, so you'll not be able to run the x64 Windows utilities. The x64 TCC will also run 10-20% faster than the 32-bit TCC. So -- if you need to slow down your system and work with the wrong files, directories, and registry entries, use the 32-bit TCC. On the other hand -- there is no other hand. There is nothing to be gained and much to be lost using 32-bit TCC with Win7 x64.

 

[Charles Dye]

3/ I am logged in as administrator with elevated privileges.How do I start an elevated TCC (or other programs, for that matter) without the dialog about "do I want to permit..." There has been some information in the JPsoft forum, but I do not recall tthe answer.

Create a scheduled task to run the program elevated; then create a shortcut which uses SCHTASKS.EXE to run that task. You will have to supply credentials when you first create the task, but not to run it.

 

[TEA-Time]

1/ I don't think there's a way to keep Windows 7 from showing you the thumbnails for all related windows despite not having their icons combined. I like it because I can see which is which more easily.

2/ and 4/ are basically the same, no? I don't use that Homegroup junk. Right click a folder, go to Properties, click Advanced Sharing on the Sharing tab and share like you're used to on XP. If you'd like, you can turn off the Sharing Wizard on the View tab of Folder Options in Control Panel and then Advanced Sharing will be your only option when right clicking a folder and opening the Share with menu.

Also, \\computer\c$ (or any hard drive's letter (the $ makes it "hidden", and you can do that with anything manually shared too)) is shared automatically by the system and can be used as long as you're connecting using an account with administrator privileges. Windows has supported this all the way back to at least '95 and maybe earlier. I always make sure to have local administrator accounts with the same username and password on all machines so I don't have to mess with credentials.

3/ I'm a grownup and I have a real mother. I don't need a virtual mother, so I disable UAC (and real-time anti-virus and firewall, and my machine is really on the 'net with a routable IP address) and I haven't regretted it once, as in I don't need to do frequent infection cleanups or OS reinstalls either. ;) I also don't have to worry about files mysteriously disappearing, programs mysteriously not running, or connections mysteriously not being made. Everything works as expected with no funky workarounds.

5/ What Rex said. There are only disadvantages to running a 32-bit version of a program when a 64-bit version is available. For example; 32-bit shell extensions will install, but they don't work at all. It's like Windows doesn't even see them.

 

[Steve Fabian]

Thanks all the responses.

Re 1/: Tea-Time, thanks for the response showing again that MS considers my purchase its own to do with it whatever it wants, no matter what I want. Rex, I double checked and already had everything set as you suggested.

Re 2/: I want all files on all of my networked computers accessible from all computers. Unless they are OS or filesystem internal files, I want to be able to modify them from any, as well. But currently I cannot find out on my Win7 machine what other computers are connected to my own WiFi, even though one of my XP machines has the Win7's only disk volume mapped to a local drive letter, and is able to access its files. Unfortunately that system needs its workhorse drive fixed... Going through very folder to make it shared individually is not an option, many are automatically generated (through several of my TCC batch programs).

More later...

 

[Giles Evans]

Create a scheduled task to run the program elevated; then create a shortcut which uses SCHTASKS.EXE to run that task. You will have to supply credentials when you first create the task, but not to run it.

Another trick is to execute an environment variable, rather than an actual program file, within the task scheduler then set that environment variable to your desired executable before starting the task. That way you can use the same task to elevate any program without the UAC prompt. Or do as I did, and mimic the Linux sudo command in windows as a Take Command alias. By default I have that environment variable point to tcc.exe which is replaced by anything supplied to the sudo alias. A forewarning though... The environment variable must be set in the registry or Windows won't know of it when it tries to start the task.

 

[TEA-Time]

Re 2/: I want all files on all of my networked computers accessible from all computers. Unless they are OS or filesystem internal files, I want to be able to modify them from any, as well. But currently I cannot find out on my Win7 machine what other computers are connected to my own WiFi, even though one of my XP machines has the Win7's only disk volume mapped to a local drive letter, and is able to access its files. Unfortunately that system needs its workhorse drive fixed... Going through very folder to make it shared individually is not an option, many are automatically generated (through several of my TCC batch programs).

Does mapping a drive to \\computer\c$ not work? If not (maybe because they can't resolve the other computer's names to IPs), using their IPs like \\192.168.0.50\c$ should work. But.. sooner or later their IPs will likely change if they get them dynamically via DHCP and the dive mappings will break. To avoid that, you could assign static IPs outside the DHCP scope (to avoid duplicate IP address problems) to each computer.

 

[Charles Dye]

Does mapping a drive to \\computer\c$ not work? If not (maybe because they can't resolve the other computer's names to IPs), using their IPs like \\192.168.0.50\c$ should work. But.. sooner or later their IPs will likely change if they get them dynamically via DHCP and the dive mappings will break. To avoid that, you could assign static IPs outside the DHCP scope (to avoid duplicate IP address problems) to each computer.

... And then handle your own name resolution via LMHOSTS.

 

[Steve Fabian]

My old WinXP has the hard disk of the Win7 mapped as a local drive and has read and write access, using my WiFi router, BUT the Win7 system cannot see the WinXP system!

I even managed to run on the XP through the network the copy of tcc.exe residing of Win7 (it was already registered on the XP). I used the XP's IP address provided by %_IP (stored in file on the 7 and used by clipboard to avoid misspelling) in trying the Windows Explorer "map network drive" tool, but it could not find the XP system.

Win7 made simple things obscure. I had to turn off my firewall, and cannot turn it back on, at least not without using the default settings.

How can I force Firefox to be minimized to the taskbar, not the tray?

Switched to Thunderbird from Outlook Express, because Windows Live demanded I have a mailbox on a MS server. It, too, is made more obscure...

Appreciate any help!
--
Steve

 

[WavSlave]

(Apologies if this is too tangential for this thread.)

Always behind the times, I also started using W7 only a couple of months ago. In spite of how much better / faster / more secure it may be under the hood, I'm not a particularly big fan of it, primarily (but not exclusively) for cosmetic reasons that I won't bore you with. However, if you're like me and prefer the look, feel and operation of the taskbar and Start menu of older versions, I thought I'd mention a few things that rapidly became essential for me and my stick-in-the-mud mindset.

For the Start menu, Classic Shell was pretty much exactly what I wanted: A way to give me back the clean, simple Start menu which was available going all the way back to W95. Not only does it give you your choice of styles for the Start menu (XP, Vista and 7), it also restores some of the classic features of Windows Explorer. It's extremely configurable and has performed very well for me. I'd hate to be without it now.

http://www.classicshell.net/


For the taskbar, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker gave me back a lot of the behavior of the taskbar of old. In particular, it restored the ability to drag individual buttons to wherever I want them to be on the taskbar without W7's annoying (to me) behavior of dragging every similar button along for the ride. It gives great control over how grouping is (or isn't) handled, much more so than what Microsoft deemed was "all that I needed."

http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker


Finally, one annoyance with the taskbar that no program could solve for me was the constant and almost immediate pop-up of a "group list" whenever the mouse hovers over a taskbar button. This is a particularly silly feature (again, to me) when the pop-up list has only one item to display. Fortunately, I learned of a registry entry that can greatly curtail this behavior, although I could find no way to eliminate it altogether. In this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

...you can add this entry, which doesn't exist by default:

ExtendedUIHoverTime (REG_DWORD)

Enter a value and Windows will wait that many milliseconds before popping up the list during a mouse hover. I currently have mine set to 60000 (0xEA60), which makes Windows wait a full minute before popping up that intrusive list. A logoff or reboot may be required for the new value to be implemented.


I'm sure many love the new look, feel and behavior of the taskbar and Start menu but I still prefer what I've used and liked since 1995. Based on the large number of posts I read in my searches, I know I'm not the only one. The two programs (both of which are freeware, by the way) and one registry entry I've mentioned went a long way towards giving me back what Microsoft decided I didn't need / couldn't have anymore. Now if I could just find something that exactly emulated XP's old desktop-dockable toolbars (deskbands), I'd be really happy. Sadly, a truly satisfactory equivalent to that has proven elusive so far. I found one -- and only one -- program that came really, really close, but it was just too buggy and poorly written to keep in active use. I now have something that's kinda sorta similar and I suppose I've gotten used to it, but that doesn't mean I won't keep looking.

I hope some of my fellow dinosaurs here may appreciate some of these finds. To be sure, they're mostly small things, but sometimes small things can make a big difference.

 

[Steve Fabian]

Thanks! Installed the first two; trying to make a BTM for the third.

 

[Charles G]

Thanks! Installed the first two; trying to make a BTM for the third.

What I think would b nice is to have the BTM test for the reg value, if it exists then allow the user to edit it, if it does not exist then define a default value and have the user edit it, then assuming <enter> or similar was pressed - set the reg key to the user value. If escape was pressed for the editing above, then say reg value not set, exiting - or similar. Also please post the BTM when you have it finished -

 

[Steve Fabian]

That's basically what I am trying to do, using QUERYBOX, and using seconds in the user interface, not ms. But there is the nagging issue that "logoff or reboot may be required"...