Apps with inconsistent behaviour in the new task bar


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I like the new taskbar, but there are some apps that behave different than the rest for some reason and it bugs me.

1) Windows Live messenger: The fake window is not exactly the most elegant way to keep the thing as "open" (surrounded by a square) in the taskbar. I can't do a "close all windows" now without killing the whole thing altogether, and for some reason that little non-window appears in the Win+tab flip (but not in alt+tab)

2) Internet Explorer: I like the fact that you can see tab thumbnails AS IF they were on their own windows, but they're NOT. A way to differentiate between windows would be nice. Seriously.

3) Microsoft Excel: you can have different documents open and they will show in the task bar, but you can't have two windows of excel at any time. So you can't, let's say, have to windows of excel to compare. And there's no "close all". If you do "right click" you only get a "close window" and you have to close every document of excel manually. BIG fail there. Although I guess you still can use the close button on the excel window.

4) Jumplists: why do they work on IE 32-bit and not on IE 64-bit? Same goes for any office 2010 product.

Extra: I would like to be able to drag documents/files to an icon in the taskbar, and have that application open the document. Instead, I get the document pinned to the jumplist of that application. The only alternative I have is to drag the document to an icon in the desktop, OR to some place inside the window. While the taskbar has never allowed it in previous versions of windows, now that the taskbar holds just ICONS, it would make more sense if it did.

I wish they kept it simple. The one that bugs me the most is excel, but at least that one has behaved like that for years and years. IMO they should have a built-in way to have an icon in the taskbar without it requiring a (fake) window, so that you can "close all" windows, but leave the app open (ideal for IM apps and the likes). And grouping the thumbnails by window would also be nice (in the case of IE, although I dont use it, but any other browser could benefit from it).

Edited by Julius Caro
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IE jump lists: because Internet associations are registered under IE32, not IE64. If you changed your associations to IE64 (made it the default browser), then it should work (disclaimer: haven't actually tried this; this is just a speculative diagnosis based on what I know of the developer specs and documentation for jump lists).

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Extra: I would like to be able to drag documents/files to an icon in the taskbar, and have that application open the document.

Hold shift while it's over the app. icon. I agree with the inconsistency in the applications though. I hope it doesn't become too crazy when third-party apps become available!

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Hold shift while it's over the app. icon. I agree with the inconsistency in the applications though. I hope it doesn't become too crazy when third-party apps become available!

Thanks! You're right! But it doesnt work with all apps. If I try dragging a .DOCX to the DOC icon, it wont show "open with", only the pin thing. Weird. I try hovering over all apps and skype and word were the only ones that didnt show "open".

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Yeah, we need a mechanism for applications that can be multi-instance as well as each instance has more than one window/tab to differentiate the various instances. May be multi-row thumbnails. But don't swear at me when the thumbnail lists fill up the entire screen. :-P

How does Mac OS X dock deal with this sort of apps?

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Yeah, we need a mechanism for applications that can be multi-instance as well as each instance has more than one window/tab to differentiate the various instances. May be multi-row thumbnails. But don't swear at me when the thumbnail lists fill up the entire screen. :-P

How does Mac OS X dock deal with this sort of apps?

On the left hand side you have docked apps, and they have a little dot whenever the process is open. If you click on them, it will take you to an open window of the app, or create a new window if none are present (the app can be open with no windows). If you want to minimize windows, they will appear on the right hand side of the dock, but they dont group or anything. I think they announced yesterday that they will group ala windows 7 (with thumbnails and all). But with expose you dont really *need* this. You can have a messy desktop with many windows, and use expos? to avoid getting lost.

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I like the new taskbar, but there are some apps that behave different than the rest for some reason and it bugs me.

1) Windows Live messenger: The fake window is not exactly the most elegant way to keep the thing as "open" (surrounded by a square) in the taskbar. I can't do a "close all windows" now without killing the whole thing altogether, and for some reason that little non-window appears in the Win+tab flip (but not in alt+tab)

They could fix that by adding in a new custom task labelled "Close all conversation windows." But that would confuse regular users as to the difference between that option and the general task beneath it, "Close all windows."

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They could fix that by adding in a new custom task labelled "Close all conversation windows." But that would confuse regular users as to the difference between that option and the general task beneath it, "Close all windows."

Sure, but there's still a fake window there that has no business existing! And if they put that button 'far' enough it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, I believe most people are used to the thing being in the system tray, so what causes more confusion is that there is NO way to close all convos without killing the app.

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Add Powerpoint 2007 to that list, if you have 2(or more) instances running you will have one extra preview of a window that isn't showing anything(looks like a dead DWM thumb), but if you click on it the window that was focused last time will open.

And I totaly agree on the WLM thing...it's horrible now. Close all conversations sounds like a good solution, and then just always keep the contact list either open or minimized.

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I would just make the Close button to close and exit the app, and the minimize button to minimize the app, and use that behavior for apps that needs to be runing, like Windows Live Mail or Messenger.

That is 100% consistent.

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Sure, but there's still a fake window there that has no business existing! And if they put that button 'far' enough it wouldn't be a problem. In fact, I believe most people are used to the thing being in the system tray, so what causes more confusion is that there is NO way to close all convos without killing the app.

I reckon that the Messenger team didn't implement something correctly. Take note that Sticky Notes draws its own custom preview, yet doesn't show a fake offscreen window.

Saying that, other applications who use offscreen notifiers like the one released on this forum, Gmail Notifier Plus, also do the same trick as well. There's something sneaky Sticky Notes does that Microsoft hasn't shared with developers yet.

I agree with you though, I'd like to easily close all convo windows without killing the applications. I could use Vista compatibility mode to revert it to the tray icon, but the overlay icons are growing on me.

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