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Or running Windows whilst using as little of the windows shell as possible.
I've been trying to minimise Windows for years, and I don't mean the
little application windows but the windows operating system shell.
I
want a lot of what the windows operating system offers but without all
the pain and all the junk that Microsots gives us. One of the biggest
pains for me has always been the Windows file explorer, explorer.exe.
It isn't the
file explorer functionality that I dislike, in fact I quite like it. It
is the total integration of explorer.exe into the operating system as part of
the
command shell. The Windows shell is a piece of software that provides the
interface to the operating system, ie. the taskbar, the desktop, file explorer
and the start menu.
So why don't I like the Windows shell? Two main reasons spring to mind.
The first is is personal preference and the second is technical.
When XP was shipped it came with a look and feel (luna) that I can only
describe it as "windows for teletubbies". As well as being a waste of resources
it somehow manages to be condescending in graphical form in a way that only
corporations can be. It has ended up imposing a corporately-neutral GUI on
all desktops throughout the world. Windows theme-ing is not its strong point
and the O/S does not allow easy transfer of functions to another method or skin.
The end result is that most windows XP desktops are the default luna theme
and most vista boxes use the aero skin. Boring, boring, boring. If you are going
to waste resources with a GUI then at least make it interesting.
The technical reason is the most pressing, there are faults built into
explorer.exe
that can make your system inaccessible. For example, when you
have a file on the desktop that is too big it can cause explorer to
consume 100% cpu. When you use explorer to open a CD or device that is
faulty or unwritten it can
lock up the whole GUI.
Killing explorer.exe can be a regular task and a
chore.
I have resorted to alternative file explorers like Freecommander or Explorer2
Neither are as good as the in-built windows file explorer with regard to
functionality but they have the significant benefit of not causing the
the whole o/s to lock up when it has a 'wobble'. These file managers can be
deleted easily enough when they go 'rogue' and there is no further impact.
When you kill explorer.exe you lose the desktop, taskbar, start menu and then
you are stuck.
So, what is my solution? Well, I have previously installed
RocketDock as a replacement taskbar along with a suite of customised
icons. This gives me the ability to initiate my processes without using
the windows taskbar.
I also have the yahoo widget engine which runs without needing explorer.exe,
giving me access to
a whole raft of operating system tools for showing the
date/time, cpu
temperature and usage &c &c.
I use the Microsoft coolswitch task switcher allowing me
to alt+tab between
processes with an image of each process. All these
apps give me functionality
over and above what windows explorer provides.
I had installed these tools to enhance the windows GUI, to provide a
customised
look and feel to the O/S but there was a unexpected and positive side effect.
Something happened while I was using my laptop, explorer.exe had another
wobble and
hung - again - and it using 100% cpu and was locking up the whole
GUI. I could do nothing. I typed a CTRL+ALT+DEL and up popped the task
manager and I killed it just before it overheated my
laptop.
Just before I restarted it I realised that with all these
tools running I might not
need explorer.exe anymore. I tried running all
my apps from RocketDock
and the whole shebang worked. The realisation
came, I don't need it, I can
run without explorer.exe executing, I do
not need the explorer shell. Many
people know this already but it is a
realisation that I had not quite been
willing to accept or try.
My desktop is now far more like the Mac desktop, clean and tidy and free
of windows clutter. It seems more reliable and it works, so I am going
to give it a go for a while. I will even kill explorer.exe the next time
the laptop starts and see how it goes then too. I may even do some
research on running an alternative shell...
Limitations, the desktop is gone but the wall paper is still there, the
side effect is that it leaves a clean desktop. The windows key does not
work, meaning you can't minimise to the desktop as easily. Ctrl/esc does
not fire up the menu bar. I am working on getting the system tray
working. That's all I have encountered at the moment and I aim to have
workarounds in place for most if not all.
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