azz0r_wugg Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Anyone else finding WLM is annoying to use with the new taskbar? I use it for work and I find I'm spending to much time hovering over it and then clicking on the window. It would be good if hovering over the msn icon atleast showed all the open conversations. Or perhaps a way to "pin" the open windows visible. I can't be alone in this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 (edited) No. I absolutely love how it's integrated into the taskbar in Windows 7, rather than hidden away in the notification area. I love having the icon dynamicaly update with what my status is set to and I love having the display picture of each signed in account in the thumbnail. Just a little something a lot of people don't seem to understand - You can close the contact list window down using the red 'x', as we all used to and still have Messenger shown in the taskbar. This way you only have to click once to get the Messenger window open, rather than hovering and going through the open windows (display picture and contact list window). This is actually how the Messenger team meant for it to operate, but as Brandon Live said, they are aware there are problems with this implementation and it does need improving. Unless of course you have chat windows open, then you will have to hover to select the window, but didn't you have to do that anyway in Windows XP and Windows Vista (with grouping on)? :) What I've described above doesn't remove the supposed 'problem' of having it in the taskbar, rather than the notification area, but then it isn't supposed to ;) It supposed to get around having two windows in the thumbnail and it does so very well. To get it to behave in the notification area, as it did in Windows Vista, use it in Windows Vista compatibulity mode (you can change this in the properties, by right clicking on the icon in the start menu). Hope that helps :) By the way, I created a poll recently about this issue. You can see there that you are far from alone in your opinions ;) Edited May 23, 2009 by Calum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan437 Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 also to add to calum said you doan even have to "hover" so to speak if want to bring up the main window that is, you can middle click on the msn window and it will bring up the main window even if multiple windows are open Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darksoft Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I agree with the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Live Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 It would be good if hovering over the msn icon atleast showed all the open conversations. Err... it does that already? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RvXtm Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I wish yahoo would develop a new windows 7 taskbar-aware messenger. The Y!9 is kind of "sad" as it its. Big shame they dropped the "Yahoo Messenger For Vista" project. I guess they were not capable of doing something new and nice. I don't know why ,but in Romania, no one uses MSN . They're all on yahoo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azz0r_wugg Posted May 23, 2009 Author Share Posted May 23, 2009 Err... it does that already? I mean above all other windows, not in tiny little preview boxes I cant read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 I mean above all other windows, not in tiny little preview boxes I cant read. I'm confused as to what you mean? If you hover over the actual conversation windows, the thumbnails, they will be shown 'to scale' using Aero Peek, just like any other window. You can also set all conversation windows to stay on top of other windows, in the 'Tools' menu of a conversation window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulCabby Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I mean above all other windows, not in tiny little preview boxes I cant read. But it does already o.o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loso Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 if you dont like WLM and windows 7's taskbar u can always run it in Vista Compatibility mode where it would show up in the system tray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azz0r_wugg Posted May 23, 2009 Author Share Posted May 23, 2009 Two pictures. In both I'd be hovering over the wlm icon. So as it is, when I hover over it, I get a bunch of window previews. What I would like is for every conversation to be up front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulCabby Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 For me, when i over over a conversation window. Aero peek comes into play and just displays only that conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 Two pictures. In both I'd be hovering over the wlm icon.So as it is, when I hover over it, I get a bunch of window previews. What I would like is for every conversation to be up front. Okay, I see what you mean now - hovering over the thumbnail of the display picture brings up all conversations of that signed in Live ID, but hovering over each conversation thumbnail still brings up that one conversation? That would be nice, yes, but currently, I'd just hover over each conversation for the time being. The functionality you suggested doesn't provide that much use, right? It'd just be a nice touch to have? Also, your taskbar seems far from full with pinned programs. Is there a reason why you don't like having Messenger in the taskbar? Is it because you use a lot of programs at the same time and your taskbar overflows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azz0r_wugg Posted May 23, 2009 Author Share Posted May 23, 2009 Okay, I see what you mean now - hovering over the thumbnail of the display picture brings up all conversations of that signed in Live ID, but hovering over each conversation thumbnail still brings up that one conversation? That would be nice, yes, but currently, I'd just hover over each conversation for the time being. The functionality you suggested doesn't provide that much use, right? It'd just be a nice touch to have?Also, your taskbar seems far from full with pinned programs. Is there a reason why you don't like having Messenger in the taskbar? Is it because you use a lot of programs at the same time and your taskbar overflows? Practically the way it works now is useless. I have 9 - 15 people pinging me on WLM letting me know what needs to be done. At the same time I'll be coding. I'll be browsing. I'll be doing alot of things. So for me, its highly unpractical to hover for a half second over msn, then look for the person i need to deal with, then mouse alll the way over if there on the far right, and then click it. Compared to the regular taskbar where I'd be them all flashing on the taskbar. In this respect, Windows 7 super taskbar is making my life more difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I use Messenger plus to group my chats, which makes your mentioned issue non-existant. Overall I don't think the taskbar incorporation is a bad thing, but I do think that WLM v9 sucks balls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 Practically the way it works now is useless.I have 9 - 15 people pinging me on WLM letting me know what needs to be done. At the same time I'll be coding. I'll be browsing. I'll be doing alot of things. So for me, its highly unpractical to hover for a half second over msn, then look for the person i need to deal with, then mouse alll the way over if there on the far right, and then click it. Compared to the regular taskbar where I'd be them all flashing on the taskbar. In this respect, Windows 7 super taskbar is making my life more difficult. I still do not understand why you are only mentioning Windows 7 and only since the Windows Live Messenger icon has been in the taskbar. What you describe is how Windows Live Messenger has always worked with Windows, since Windows XP. In Windows XP and Windows Vista the conversations are grouped, by default, if you have that many conversations open. In Windows 7 they are grouped, by default, all the time. In all three versions of Windows you have to hover over the group and select the conversation. We say "hover", but let's face it, you don't have to hover, you can just click. In all 3 versions of Windows you can tell which conversation is which by the text label once you have clicked on the group. Windows 7 actually makes distinguishing between the conversations easier than previous versions of Windows because of aero peek - you can hover over each conversation to see which is which before clicking on them. If you wish for Windows Live Messenger to not behave like this, you can turn grouping off in all 3 versions of Windows. Having said all that, I am still confused as to what your problem is? Also, I am still confused as to why you state that only Windows 7 has this "problem"? but I do think that WLM v9 sucks balls. Ahh, that's the first time I've heard that someone hates it :o Any reason? I think it's a major improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I am not keen on the UI changes made, especially to the main window. I am also far from keen on the fact that they decided for no reason at all to switch the avatar boxes from the right to the left side of the window. I preferred it the other way around. The most annoying part though is the stupid colour indications for a contact's status. I prefer when it was text labelled. The fact that you can't even get the status to appear in the tooltip when you hover over the contact just adds insult to injury IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ehat Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 (edited) It seems that others don't seem to be completely understanding the concern here. I had this same frustration with the new taskbar in Windows 7. (Which I still use and like a lot--including the taskbar.) The issue here is not how messenger is in the taskbar rather than the system tray, but that the item one clicks to switch to a chat window that has been in the background when a new message comes in is no longer a "look for the highlighted taskbar button and click it" affair. It's now a "float over the msn icon for a few seconds waiting for the thumbnail previews of messenger windows to appear and then find which one of those is the one where the message came in, move the mouse over there and click it" affair. I agree that the several second wait for thumbnail previews to find the window you need is frustrating while multitasking. I don't use MSN, but had this same issue with Google Talk and switching between multiple browser windows, etc. Microsoft provided an option here--you can set the taskbar in it's properties dialog to never group items, but then you use what I think is some nice functionality. For myself, I've modified the registry making the thumbnail previews pop up much faster. Here are the instructions on how to do that: Yeah, type regedit in your start menu. Open it up, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then to Control Panel, then to where it says Mouse, then go to MouseHoverTime to the right, it will have a value of 400. double click on MouseHoverTime, drop the 400 to whatever you want, enter 200, 100 20, etc. Click ok, close Regedit, Restart the computer and it will pop up faster. I set mine to like 30.src: Airbot @ http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-mai...ear-faster.html Setting it to be immediate causes problems because, although the thumbnails appear immediately, they will disappear when the mouse moves over the gap between the taskbar icon and the thumbnail window. I've got my setting on 50. It would be nice, like suggested--not just for messenger but for all programs--if windows 7 would bring to front all of a program's open windows and turn all other program's windows to glass when you're floating over that program's taskbar button. Then only highlight one window when you hover over a window's thumbnail. Kinda like how with OS X there is the hotkey to preview and choose from all open windows and another hot key to preview and choose from all open windows of the current application. Edited May 23, 2009 by tim_ehat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 23, 2009 It seems that others don't seem to be completely understanding the concern here. I had this same frustration with the new taskbar in Windows 7. (Which I still use and like a lot--including the taskbar.) The issue here is not how messenger is in the taskbar rather than the system tray, but that the item one clicks to switch to a chat window that has been in the background when a new message comes in is no longer a "look for the highlighted taskbar button and click it" affair. It's now a "float over the msn icon for a few seconds waiting for the thumbnail previews of messenger windows to appear and then find which one of those is the one where the message came in, move the mouse over there and click it" affair. But you don't have to hover. You can still click the grouped icon exactly like you were able to in Windows XP and Windows Vista. In fact, I don't think you could even hover to bring up the grouped items in Windows XP and you certainly couldn't hover and then click the thumbnails in Windows Vista. Windows 7 provides extra functionality in this area as well as keeping some older functionality there. Here, you have the option of clicking and bringing up the thumbnails straight away or hovering for just over 1 second and waiting for them to appear. Therefore, no functionality is lost right? You are able to click like you always were :) Also, it isn't a few seconds that you have to wait in order for the thumbnails to appear, it's literally just over 1 second :) I just timed it myself. Hope that helps anyway - no need to hover and wait, you can just click :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ehat Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 You can click on 'em! I guess I never tried that for some reason (I mean they're so clickable I should have known! :) ). I still kinda like to only have to click once, so the hover timeout trick makes me pretty happy. I suppose the default 400ms (.4 sec) is too long for me, ha ha. Impatient, aren't I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinky333 Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 The most annoying part though is the stupid colour indications for a contact's status. I prefer when it was text labelled. The fact that you can't even get the status to appear in the tooltip when you hover over the contact just adds insult to injury IMO You mean this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted May 24, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 24, 2009 I am not keen on the UI changes made, especially to the main window. I am also far from keen on the fact that they decided for no reason at all to switch the avatar boxes from the right to the left side of the window. I preferred it the other way around.The most annoying part though is the stupid colour indications for a contact's status. I prefer when it was text labelled. The fact that you can't even get the status to appear in the tooltip when you hover over the contact just adds insult to injury IMO All valid points. It's a shame to hear as I really love all of those changes. I think the interface changes they've carried out have made the whole of the interface cleaner. I also think it makes sense, from a UI perspecitve to have the display pictures first - at the left side. But hey, each to their own :) I'm one for jazzy effects, which is why I love the display picture frame changing colour with the status and the effect that happens as it is changing :p Also, as slinky333 has pointed out, you are able to turn status labels on in the contact list. I hope that helps a little bit, if you are still on WLM 2009. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macalicious Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 I'm sure once Microsoft has release Windows 7 that there will be a new version of WLM that will be Windows 7 optimised to take advantage of the new features. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azz0r_wugg Posted May 25, 2009 Author Share Posted May 25, 2009 Calum you just ain't grasping it mate... Its making my life more difficult. Grouping didnt happen unless the taskbar was full up in XP or Vista, so it was a non issue to me. The only option I have is to set to never combine which pretty much ruins the best bits of windows 7 for me, because for everything else, I love the super taskbar. However Messenger just does not work right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callummr Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Calum you just ain't grasping it mate...Its making my life more difficult. Grouping didnt happen unless the taskbar was full up in XP or Vista, so it was a non issue to me. The only option I have is to set to never combine which pretty much ruins the best bits of windows 7 for me, because for everything else, I love the super taskbar. However Messenger just does not work right. As far as I can see, you are stating that you don't like something, are perfectly aware of the fix, but will not use it because it would be too much of a compromise in the other direction. So you've answered yourself really. What do you want people to tell you? You know the problem, you know the fix but it just doesn't fit what you need. It's one or the other, and I can't honestly see any other way around it (apart from combine when full - right inbetween, but too variable imo...). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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