WIN key and poor functionality of Vista

[Kristian]

Dear Microsoft and users of Vista

I've used Vista Home Premium for a couple of months now, and I have to admit
that I expected more from Microsoft when it comes to functionality and
adaptability of the system. In XP Pro I could tweak the computer wonderfully
to fit my needs, but I have the impression that Vista is trying to be too
smart and it does not let you adapt the system to my needs.

One very good feature of XP was that I could define my own keyboard
shortcuts however I wanted. Now, Vista has introduced the Start Search bar to
solve most problems, but I’ve talked to Microsoft support many times about
the possibility of moving this search field and make it optional. Searching
is very good, but it prevents the possibility of using proper keyboard
shortcuts. When I was going turn off or restart XP, I could just press the
WIN key + U or R-U or something else. In Vista I am forced to use the mouse
or tabs to move around. I could of course choose the Classic Start menu, but
the new version of the menu in XP (I believe it came in SP2) has much better
functionality than this old menu offered in Vista. This should not be hard to
implement as a part of a Vista SP or a separate upgrade or program. I would
still like to keep the search field in Vista easily accessible, but if would
be sufficient to type for instants WIN + S or something. But the primary
function of the WIN key would be to start a program or command, not to go
automatically to the search field.

Furthermore, one life saver in XP has been the Copernik Winkey program,
http://www.copernic.com/en/support/faq-winkey.html. With this program I can
program the WIN key to do almost anything I want; start a program, URL or a
folder, and although it works more or less in Vista, it doesn’t work very
well. Whenever I want to define a new command, I have to reinstall the
program. This little program is has actually been a very important reason for
not switching to Macintosh, but this program doesn’t work very well in Vista.
I would very much appreciate if Microsoft could make a little program to
tweak the WIN key how I want.

I don’t know if I should say this in an official Microsoft site, but if I am
not able to adapt Vista more to my needs, I am seriously tempted to format my
hard drive and install a pirate version of XP. This would give me a much more
stabile system without blue screens, hiccups, crashing programs and system
reboots. However, I’ll wait for SP1 hoping that the stability will improve,
but functionality is also very important for me. What Microsoft did with the
WIN key in Vista, was a serious step backwards.


----------------
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[dzomlija]

Kristian;585740 Wrote:
> Furthermore, one life saver in XP has been the Copernik Winkey program,
> 'Copernic - Frequently Asked Questions - Copernic WinKey'
> (http://www.copernic.com/en/support/faq-winkey.html). With this program
> I can program the WIN key to do almost anything I want; start a program,
> URL or a folder, and although it works more or less in Vista, it
> doesn’t work very well. Whenever I want to define a new command, I
> have to reinstall the program. This little program is has actually been
> a very important reason for not switching to Macintosh, but this program
> doesn’t work very well in Vista.
> I would very much appreciate if Microsoft could make a little program
> to tweak the WIN key how I want.

I was going to suggest you look for an updated Winkey, but this comes
directly from the Copernic website:


Code:
--------------------
As of July 14, 2005, Copernic will discontinue the distribution of WinKey.
--------------------


Looks like you're out of luck on that one...

Kristian;585740 Wrote:
> I don’t know if I should say this in an official Microsoft site, but
> if I am not able to adapt Vista more to my needs, I am seriously tempted
> to format my hard drive and install a pirate version of XP. This would
> give me a much more stabile system without blue screens, hiccups,
> crashing programs and system reboots. However, I’ll wait for SP1
> hoping that the stability will improve, but functionality is also very
> important for me. What Microsoft did with the WIN key in Vista, was a
> serious step backwards.
>

That is your prerogative to do so if you wish, but I hardly think the
reasons you have provided are sufficient reason to warrant going back to
XP. Especially with regards to Copernic WinKey. That's a third-party
utiluty that has been discontinued, and Microsoft can hardly be held
accountable to that!

And besides, most utilities that "modify" the system on such a
low-level will usually not work all to well across OS versions, if at
all.


--
dzomlija

_____________________
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[Brink]

Kristian;585740 Wrote:
> Dear Microsoft and users of Vista
>
> I've used Vista Home Premium for a couple of months now, and I have to
> admit
> that I expected more from Microsoft when it comes to functionality and
> adaptability of the system. In XP Pro I could tweak the computer
> wonderfully
> to fit my needs, but I have the impression that Vista is trying to be
> too
> smart and it does not let you adapt the system to my needs.
>
> One very good feature of XP was that I could define my own keyboard
> shortcuts however I wanted. Now, Vista has introduced the Start Search
> bar to
> solve most problems, but I’ve talked to Microsoft support
> many times about
> the possibility of moving this search field and make it optional.
> Searching
> is very good, but it prevents the possibility of using proper keyboard
> shortcuts. When I was going turn off or restart XP, I could just press
> the
> WIN key + U or R-U or something else. In Vista I am forced to use the
> mouse
> or tabs to move around. I could of course choose the Classic Start
> menu, but
> the new version of the menu in XP (I believe it came in SP2) has much
> better
> functionality than this old menu offered in Vista. This should not be
> hard to
> implement as a part of a Vista SP or a separate upgrade or program. I
> would
> still like to keep the search field in Vista easily accessible, but if
> would
> be sufficient to type for instants WIN + S or something. But the
> primary
> function of the WIN key would be to start a program or command, not to
> go
> automatically to the search field.
>
> Furthermore, one life saver in XP has been the Copernik Winkey program,
> 'Copernic - Frequently Asked Questions - Copernic WinKey'
> (http://www.copernic.com/en/support/faq-winkey.html). With this program
> I can
> program the WIN key to do almost anything I want; start a program, URL
> or a
> folder, and although it works more or less in Vista, it
> doesn’t work very
> well. Whenever I want to define a new command, I have to reinstall the
> program. This little program is has actually been a very important
> reason for
> not switching to Macintosh, but this program doesn’t work
> very well in Vista.
> I would very much appreciate if Microsoft could make a little program
> to
> tweak the WIN key how I want.
>
> I don’t know if I should say this in an official
> Microsoft site, but if I am
> not able to adapt Vista more to my needs, I am seriously tempted to
> format my
> hard drive and install a pirate version of XP. This would give me a
> much more
> stabile system without blue screens, hiccups, crashing programs and
> system
> reboots. However, I’ll wait for SP1 hoping that the
> stability will improve,
> but functionality is also very important for me. What Microsoft did
> with the
> WIN key in Vista, was a serious step backwards.
>
>
> ----------------
> This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
> suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
> "I
> Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
> this
> link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
> then
> click "I Agree" in the message pane.
>
> 'Windows Vista Community: Discussion Groups'
> (http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...157&dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)

Hi Kristian,

This is not the same thing, but it may work for what you want it to do.
You can create a keyboard shortcut key for any shortcut in Vista. If you
want to have a keyboard shortcut for a command, say shutdown, create a
shortcut with the command, then assign the shortcut a keyboard shortcut
key. This will show you how with this example.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/74063-keyboard-shortcut.html


Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts in Vista:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/60394-keyboard-shortcuts.html

I hope this helps,
Shawn


--
Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
'*Vista Forums*'
(http://www.vistax64.com/index.php?referrerid=2980)
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Kristian]

"Brink" wrote:
> Hi Kristian,
>
> This is not the same thing, but it may work for what you want it to do.
> You can create a keyboard shortcut key for any shortcut in Vista. If you
> want to have a keyboard shortcut for a command, say shutdown, create a
> shortcut with the command, then assign the shortcut a keyboard shortcut
> key. This will show you how with this example.
>
> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/74063-keyboard-shortcut.html
>
>
> Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts in Vista:
>
> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/60394-keyboard-shortcuts.html
>
> I hope this helps,
> Shawn

Thank you for this, Brink. These shortcuts can be adapted, but I will
continue to use my old version of Winkey, even if it is a bit harder to adapt
and write new commands.

Thank you for suggesting that I can make shortcuts for commands like turn
off, restart, log off etc, but could you please help me to locate this
commands in Vista. I guess these commands are located somewhere in
C:\Windows, but I am not able to find them.

Still, if someone from Microsoft is reading this, I would ask if it is
possible to move the Start Search field to a different location and still
keep the other functionality in the menu. Are you guys in Microsoft
considering that?

 

[Brink]

Kristian;586630 Wrote:
> "Brink" wrote:> > >
> > > Hi Kristian,
> > >
> > > This is not the same thing, but it may work for what you want it to
> > do.
> > > You can create a keyboard shortcut key for any shortcut in Vista. If
> > you
> > > want to have a keyboard shortcut for a command, say shutdown, create
> > a
> > > shortcut with the command, then assign the shortcut a keyboard
> > shortcut
> > > key. This will show you how with this example.
> > >
> > > http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/74063-keyboard-shortcut.html
> > >
> > >
> > > Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts in Vista:
> > >
> > > http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/60394-keyboard-shortcuts.html
> > >
> > > I hope this helps,
> > > Shawn > >
>
> Thank you for this, Brink. These shortcuts can be adapted, but I will
> continue to use my old version of Winkey, even if it is a bit harder
> to adapt
> and write new commands.
>
> Thank you for suggesting that I can make shortcuts for commands like
> turn
> off, restart, log off etc, but could you please help me to locate
> this
> commands in Vista. I guess these commands are located somewhere in
> C:\Windows, but I am not able to find them.
>
> Still, if someone from Microsoft is reading this, I would ask if it
> is
> possible to move the Start Search field to a different location and
> still
> keep the other functionality in the menu. Are you guys in Microsoft
> considering that?

Kristian,

I'll go one step further for you. Look at the "related links" in this
tutorial and it will have these shortcuts there premade and ready for
download. All you will have to do then is to just assign a keyboard
shortcut key to them.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/80322-shutdown-vista-keyboard.html

Shawn


--
Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
'*Vista Forums*'
(http://www.vistax64.com/index.php?referrerid=2980)
*Please post feedback to help others.*

 

[Kristian]

Thank you very much, Shawn. Very much appreciated.

"Brink" wrote:

>
> Kristian;586630 Wrote:
> > "Brink" wrote:> > >
> > > > Hi Kristian,
> > > >
> > > > This is not the same thing, but it may work for what you want it to
> > > do.
> > > > You can create a keyboard shortcut key for any shortcut in Vista. If
> > > you
> > > > want to have a keyboard shortcut for a command, say shutdown, create
> > > a
> > > > shortcut with the command, then assign the shortcut a keyboard
> > > shortcut
> > > > key. This will show you how with this example.
> > > >
> > > > http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/74063-keyboard-shortcut.html
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts in Vista:
> > > >
> > > > http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/60394-keyboard-shortcuts.html
> > > >
> > > > I hope this helps,
> > > > Shawn > >
> >
> > Thank you for this, Brink. These shortcuts can be adapted, but I will
> > continue to use my old version of Winkey, even if it is a bit harder
> > to adapt
> > and write new commands.
> >
> > Thank you for suggesting that I can make shortcuts for commands like
> > turn
> > off, restart, log off etc, but could you please help me to locate
> > this
> > commands in Vista. I guess these commands are located somewhere in
> > C:\Windows, but I am not able to find them.
> >
> > Still, if someone from Microsoft is reading this, I would ask if it
> > is
> > possible to move the Start Search field to a different location and
> > still
> > keep the other functionality in the menu. Are you guys in Microsoft
> > considering that?
>
> Kristian,
>
> I'll go one step further for you. Look at the "related links" in this
> tutorial and it will have these shortcuts there premade and ready for
> download. All you will have to do then is to just assign a keyboard
> shortcut key to them.
>
> http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/80322-shutdown-vista-keyboard.html
>
> Shawn
>
>
> --
> Brink
>
> *There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask them.*
> '*Vista Forums*'
> (http://www.vistax64.com/index.php?referrerid=2980)
> *Please post feedback to help others.*
>