Library sucks

[radsqd]

Library has been touted as the new great exclusive windows 7 feature, even ranking among the best #5 (albeit its #5)features by neowin itself. So basic premise of library is it collects folders in one place, so instead of several folders open, you can see it in one folder.

Now there is this other feature called saved searches which can do that + allows you to sort files by extensions.

Music saved search vs Music library

Allow you to put all content in one virtual folder (Both)

Can be viewed independently of the folder (Both)

Update as content changes within those folders (Both)

Can be pinned to jumplist ( Both)

Sort by file extensions .. mp3, wav etc ( Saved search only)

- so for "music library" search specific folders and in search bar type *mp3, *.flac, *.aac etc

So even from your download folder where you have videos, text files, etc etc ... now you just have a "folder" that contains only you music

This feature is also available in Windows vista.

[LiquidSolstice]

Or you can leave libraries on and not have to worry about making and saving searches. As far as music, you put all your music under the music library. it's not that hard of a concept. Besides, even within a library, you can sort by using *.mp3 and so on. The difference is, what if I have a Library called audiobooks and that stores only audio books but when I search I only want to search through music and not my 50 audiobooks? Yeah, your logic is fail on that one.

:huh:

[Xilo]

The libraries are stupid. They should work based off file types and not entire folders.

It's retarded adding a folder with music (that also has several other types of files) to the music library and having pictures and movies show up for example. Pretty counter-intuitive.

[LiquidSolstice]

The libraries are stupid. They should work based off file types and not entire folders.

It's retarded adding a folder with music to the music library and having pictures and movies show up for example. Pretty counter-intuitive.

Perhaps what's really retarded is keeping movie files and pictures in the same folder as your music to begin with? And no, they should work on folders, because filetypes don't carry any sort of tag information.

What if I have separate documents for work and for college? Why on earth would I want to be assaulted by ALL those filetypes when I filter *.docx?

The libraries aren't stupid, you just completely missed the point of them. Perhaps I'm the only one that knows you can create custom libraries and you're not limited to the ones you see to begin with?

[Xilo]

The libraries are specifically named with Pictures, Movies, Music, etc. One would assume adding a folder would show ONLY the file types associated with that named library. It could still keep the folder structure or whatever, just only show the specific file types.

Yes, you can create custom libraries but they are functionally all the same. Basically just symlinks to folders. All they do is reduce the hassle of creating a proper organizational structure or shortcut system yourself.

I would like to use the Libraries, but I have mixed organization. For instance, I have a 500gb drive dedicated to music. It's structure goes like this:

Sorted

-- Artist

---- Albums

------ Album

---- Singles

------ Single

---- Videos

---- Images

Unsorted

-- Files

If I were to add this folder to a Library, it would functionally exactly the same as clicking the drive in My Computer. Libraries really need a regex or search parameters for files that will show up.

With the way Libraries currently work, I would have a few options. Add the entire Sorted folder and it would be the same as just opening up the drive in My Computer. I could go in and add each Album or Single folder separately, but then I would have a million folders named "Albums" or "Singles" showing in a Library or add album/single individually. I could also just specifically add each *.mp3 manually. The last options are just a pain.

Or say I wanted a way to quickly look at the contents of "Unsorted" based on type. It would be nice to add it to the Image, Video, and Music Library and have only images show in Image, videos show in Video, and music show in Music.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Xilo

[LiquidSolstice]

The libraries are specifically named with Pictures, Movies, Music, etc. One would assume adding a folder would show ONLY the file types associated with that named library. It could still keep the folder structure or whatever, just only show the specific file types.

Yes, you can create custom libraries but they are functionally all the same. Basically just symlinks to folders. All they do is reduce the hassle of creating a proper organizational structure or shortcut system yourself.

I would like to use the Libraries, but I have mixed organization. For instance, I have a 500gb dedicated to music. It's structure goes like this:

Sorted

-- Artist

---- Albums

---- Singles

---- Videos

---- Images

Unsorted

-- Files

If I were to add this folder to a Library, it would functionally exactly the same as clicking the drive in My Computer. Libraries really need a regex or search parameters for files that will show up.

With the way Libraries currently work, I would have a few options. Add the entire Sorted folder and it would be the same as just opening up the drive in My Computer. I could go in and add each Album or Single folder separately, but then I would have a million folders named "Albums" or "Singles" showing in a Library. I could also just specifically add each *.mp3 manually. The last two options are a pain.

What I don't raelly understand is why it's dedicated to music when there are Videos and Images in it. If that's the case, you'd add Videos to the Videos library and Images to the Pictures library. This isn't rocket science. :huh:

As for the music, all you'd have to do is add Albums, and Singles to the Music Library. And if you have unsorted music files under the "sorted" directory, Shift+Click is your friend. You won't see "a million folders" you'd see just two; Albums and Singles. I don't' know where you got this "million folders" idea.

At any rate, you still miss the point of the Library, it's not meant for power users, it's meant for regular people to simply stay better organized, IE, rather than say "all my music is on this folder" you can simply say "all my music is in these folders and I only have to click one unified button to access it all".

Not getting your point yet.

[Xilo]

Because they are all dedicated to music.

Albums and Singles.

Videos which are concerts, music videos, live performances, etc.

Images which are photobooks or whatever of the artist/band.

Say I had 300 artists. That's 300 artists with the Artist->Albums, Singles, Videos, Images folder structure. Doing it manually is a pain. Because of how Libraries work, it wouldn't even benefit me to even use the Library feature because I would be doing all the adding manual anyways. And how they work, it would be the exact same as just clicking My Computer -> F:\ instead of Library -> ???

Maybe you are satisfied with the extremely limited functionality, but Libraries would be INCREDIBLY useful for EVERYONE if you could also use custom filters for them.

When I think of Library, I think of a collection of a certain type. A library of books. A library of games. A library of music. A game for instance wouldn't belong in a library of music. Why should this be otherwise? It's completely backwards from what you would think the functionality of Libraries are.

As it stands, they are simply a GUI for symlinks and anyone that is already organized will have no use for them.

PROTIP: Most people aren't organized. Most people have everything shoved into 1 folder. This is the average user. I've never seen an average user who was completely organized. Enabling filters would be even more useful because everyone would be able to make good use of Libraries.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

You supposed "protip" contradicts itself. If users are disorganised are they going to bother with filters?

I consider my mother a very standard user, and libraries work perfectly for her. I consider myself an advanced media user, and libraries work fine for me.

I think your folder structure is a bit wacky!

[Xilo]

You supposed "protip" contradicts itself. If users are disorganised are they going to bother with filters?

I consider my mother a very standard user, and libraries work perfectly for her. I consider myself an advanced media user, and libraries work fine for me.

I think your folder structure is a bit wacky!

No, it doesn't. Say someone is unorganized and everything is in one folder (a lot of people are and even me).

All they have to do is add that ONE base folder to a Documents, Music, Video, Images library. If they had filters, they would have a semblance of organization and be able to find stuff (quickly and at a glance). Documents would be in Documents, music would be in Music, movies would be in Video, and images would be in Images. They wouldn't have to be organized. Filters would just show the file types in each Library.

I'm a completionist. That folder structure helps me know exactly what I have and what I'm missing.

So, both of you are pretty much against any improvement to this feature. Are you both against improvement if something is adequate to your needs? I don't understand that logic.

Edited December 30, 2009 by Xilo

[ekw]

I like it because its quick and easy to navigate for things easily when using "save as..." feature in many programs.

XP/Vista days i would normally either save it on my desktop or toss it all in the documents folder to organize it later.

I also use it to group things together that is in different locations(local/remote). I don't have to manually open up each location in different windows just to view them all. I get them in a nice orderly fashioned list.

One example is the programs folder and the programs x86 folder on 64 bit systems. I use the library to group them together and it makes it really easy to navigate without remembering where you initially installed it.

Another example is for video; I keep my unorganized videos(recently downloaded) in a temp folder, and organized videos (renamed) in another folder. WMP/WMC now picks up the videos from various locations. I never knew how to do that in xp/vista. (this allows navigating through a video collection over xbox360 extremely easy!)

I never used the filters feature before, but it does sound pretty cool once i figure out how to set it up.

[Fish]

Libraries suck.

7 won't index my NAS drives, meaning I can't add their contents into the libraries.

But really, how hard is it to keep all your media organised? We should all have been doing it since XP anyway.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

But really, how hard is it to keep all your media organised? We should all have been doing it since XP anyway.

Totally true.

So, both of you are pretty much against any improvement to this feature.

Where did I say I was against improvement? I believe that creating new libraries should allow selections based upon meta-data such as file-location, type, date, etc. But it's just not going to be used by the majority of users.

[mad_onion]

Yeah, if you want to filter by types then use a saved search. If you want some folders combined then use libraries. They're different features that do different things.

[LiquidSolstice]

Because they are all dedicated to music.

Albums and Singles.

Videos which are concerts, music videos, live performances, etc.

Images which are photobooks or whatever of the artist/band.

Say I had 300 artists. That's 300 artists with the Artist->Albums, Singles, Videos, Images folder structure. Doing it manually is a pain. Because of how Libraries work, it wouldn't even benefit me to even use the Library feature because I would be doing all the adding manual anyways. And how they work, it would be the exact same as just clicking My Computer -> F:\ instead of Library -> ???

Maybe you are satisfied with the extremely limited functionality, but Libraries would be INCREDIBLY useful for EVERYONE if you could also use custom filters for them.

When I think of Library, I think of a collection of a certain type. A library of books. A library of games. A library of music. A game for instance wouldn't belong in a library of music. Why should this be otherwise? It's completely backwards from what you would think the functionality of Libraries are.

As it stands, they are simply a GUI for symlinks and anyone that is already organized will have no use for them.

PROTIP: Most people aren't organized. Most people have everything shoved into 1 folder. This is the average user. I've never seen an average user who was completely organized. Enabling filters would be even more useful because everyone would be able to make good use of Libraries.

PROTIP: Rather than attempt to call me a simpleton, keep in mind Windows 7 was built for the masses to make things easier, not for power users such as yourself. Also, I can turn that back around on you and say that it's pretty stupid to put pictures of your music artists in the Music folder, and that fault lies with you, not with Windows.

[Shannon]

I know a lot of people that just lump all their music in the one folder, but don't categorise accordingly. I've seen people with 5000 mp3s in the one location! Using libraries is a quick way to sort this mess into a Artist\Album structure by using the group feature in the Libraries. It basically provides the media library functionality of WMP (or other audio players) in Explorer itself. This can't be done with saved searches, as you can only group results on the one level. For example, those 5000 mp3s can be grouped by artist, but all 5000 are still visible at once. There's no virtual folder structure created.

Xilo makes a good point about being able to filter libraries by filetype though. For example, all the folder.jps I have stored in my music collection at E:\Music show up as 'Unspecified' artists in the music library.

[petrossa]

Doesn't solve anything really, but it's nifty:

freeware http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/

Win7 Library Tool

November 3rd, 2009

Windows 7 libraries are a really useful feature of Windows 7, however unfortunately they arrive in a slighly cut-down form out of the box. Microsoft decided against exposing some really useful capabilities to users, like adding network locations, pretty much the first thing I tried to do.

Luckily, you can add network locations (and any other un-indexed locations), but it must be done programatically. MS supply a command line utility slutil.exe, candidate for the worst named executable in history. Pretty sure it stands for shell_library_util. Anyway, I decided to write a tool to make it easy to add network locations, and added a few other features as well:

? Add network (UNC or mapped drive) and any other un-indexed folders to libraries.

? Backup library configuration, such that a saved set of libraries can be instantly restored at any point (like after a re-install of the OS or for transfer between multiple computers).

? Create a mirror of all libraries (using symbolic links) in [systemDrive]:\libraries. This means you can reference all your files using a much shorter path, and also provides another entry-point to your files in many places in the Operating System (e.g. file open/save dialogs).

? Change a library’s icon.

[Prince Charming]

If the Music library only indexed Music, it would entirely break most players that use album art in the same folder as the album.

...just putting that out there.

[Shannon]

If the Music library only indexed Music, it would entirely break most players that use album art in the same folder as the album.

...just putting that out there.

How so? If the library only acts as a link to the where the file is physically located, then the media player should still be able to look for a folder.jpg in the same directory as the track.

[devHead]

Library has been touted as the new great exclusive windows 7 feature, even ranking among the best #5 (albeit its #5)features by neowin itself. So basic premise of library is it collects folders in one place, so instead of several folders open, you can see it in one folder.

Well, for me, I have my hard drives and folders very well organized, but I still like using Libraries. For example, I created a new Library called Downloads because there are actually 3 different locations I place downloads depending on what they are and from where I download them. But the Downloads Library makes it convenient for me to go to one place and I can navigate to any of the 'locations' placed in that Library. The same goes for my Music. I have my Music folder, my wife has hers, and I keep music from Soundtracks in a separate folder outside of the main Music folder. So having those 3 locations in the Library also makes it convenient to hop to one place and get to all of it.

Anyhow, you may not find you need such things that such Libraries provide, and granted, I don't exactly need a Documents Library or a Pictures Library per se (except that I do use the Public Documents folder, and that's the quickest way to get to it). But do you really need to say that Library Sucks? How 'bout just, 'I don't find I need to use the Libraries in Windows 7' and leave it at that. When you say something sucks, it should be generally stated for universal things like, 'Losing your job Sucks' or, 'Getting in a car accident Sucks'. Those kind of things. But just some new feature in Windows? Sucks is a pretty strong word for something that is simply your opinion that may not be shared by the rest of the universe.

[arcane357]

how do you get the icon/folder off of the desktop?

[Singh400]

how do you get the icon/folder off of the desktop?

Errr, which icon/folder? Be specific!

[arcane357]

Errr, which icon/folder? Be specific!

the library icon.

[Kpssst]

the library icon.

If the icon's just on your desktop, can't you just delete it? If it's on the taskbar, you can unpin it.

[Singh400]

the library icon.

Just delete it ;)

[pcunite]

I am still leery of virtual views of my data so I just try to name files and folders something meaningful. Most people know to think that way intuitively. Power users are the ones who know to "tag" things with meta data, I suppose in another 10 years everyone will be more aware of this and start thinking in terms of tags, then perhaps databases for OS's might help things.