Waccoon wrote:
How does folder navigation compare to older versions of Windows? Can you add classic or custom buttons?
Unfortunately you can't really do anything with the toolbars in the explorer shell. Which is a bit of a c***, I liked having things like folder options on the toolbar. You can add the normal file menus though (as I mentioned earlier) and they do appear the same as the menus in 2k and XP.
You still have the back, forward, address bar and search bar, but there's no "up" like before. But that's not really missing as they've improved the address bar.
The address bar now looks like:
> Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Windows >
The arrows are clickable and give you relative folders to what the arrow is for.
Example: if you click the arrow to the right of Computer you'll get a drop down menu with all your drives. If you click the one to the right of (C:) you'll get a list of all the folders on C:. To go up one level, just click on the name of the above folder, eg clicking Computer will take you to Computer. Funny how it's not My Computer anymore, I wonder why ;-)
It's actually a very handy improvement. You have more control over where you want to go, and it's a lot easier to go back to previous locations without having to hit back a few times or delete part of the path in the address bar.
Below the address bar you have another toolbar that changes depending what type of folder you're in. A normal folder (eg Windows) has Organize, Views, Share, Burn, Previous versions and Add to Index...
Organize > New Folder, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Select all, Layout, Folder Options (I wish I knew about this much earlier), Delete, Rename, Remove properties, Properties, Close
Views > Extra Large Icons (big thumbnails), Large Icons (medium thumbnails), Medium Icons (small thumbnails), Small Icons, Details, Tiles (small thumbnails with name, type and size).
You still have the info pane on the left, but you have a Folders button at the bottom that shows or hides the folders pane.
I find it awkward not having buttons like "Stop" and "Home" in the web browser (Safari on the Mac drives me crazy)
IE7 has Back, Forward, Address Bar, Refresh, Stop and a search bar in the main toolbar. Below that you have the normal IE6 menus (if you've enabled them).
Below them you have your tabs bar which has Favourites, Add to Favourites, open tabs, new tab, Home, RSS, Print, Page and Tools.
Home, RSS, Print, Page and Tools all have their own drop down arrows:
Home > (homepage), Change Homepage, Remove
RSS > gives a list of the feeds for the page you're on
Print > Print, Print Preview, Page Setup
Page > New Window, Cut, Copy, Paste, Save As, Send this page, edit, Zoom, Text Size, View Source, Security Report, Web Page Privacy Policy
Tools > Delete Browsing History, Diagnose Connection Problems, Blockup Popper, Phishing Filter, Manage Addons, Work Off line, Give Beta Feedback, Windows Update, Fullscreen, Toolbars, Internet Options
So, without having the menus avaliable, everything is still easily accessible.
One thing about the "classic menu"s (in both IE7 and the explorer shell), they appear below the main toolbar. But once you start using them you don't really notice the change.
Navigation and hotkey shortcuts are very important to me. The Mac is geared too much to people who don't do serious work, and Apple has intentionally cut out the "useless" buttons. I'm worried that Windows is going in the same direction.
I'm not sure about shortcuts, I haven't really tried many except the usual copy (Ctr C), paste (Ctr v), Task Manager (Ctr Shft Esc), Start Menu (Ctr Esc), normal menus (Alt), program switching (Alt Tab). What shortcuts do you use a lot and I'll check if they're still working.
