How to mute something permanently (as in after rebooting)

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 18, 2023

hdmi said:
Same here, with the exception of most recent apps because I have disabled that one in Open-Shell settings so only most recently opened items are listed in Start menu (in a separate submenu as well as in jumplists).

I don't understand why you don't want most recent apps.

hdmi said:
There's no need for SAB in that regard, as Open-Shell still works the same as ClassicShell, and these features were added to it way more than a decade ago

They're just two programs which do the same thing. I used classic shell years ago, then I think a newer windows was acceptable without it, then I needed it again, couldn't remember the name, and just looked up start menu replacements.

hdmi said:
people got their underpants up in a twist because Microsoft had replaced the up arrow button with breadcrumbs.)

Not sure what you're referring to.

hdmi said:
I'm the exact opposite, the text labels are too much of a distraction to me on the taskbar, whereas in menus and submenus I need them to be exactly the same as your Start menu and control panel submenu from your screenshot.

So you actually remember what all the little icons mean? I find reading a word faster than identifying an icon.

hdmi said:
The NirSoft utility that I linked to in my 1st reply should do the trick

I could do, but I mainly want it off, with occasional on. I'll just go into the control panel and switch it on if I need it.

hdmi · Mar 18, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
I don't understand why you don't want most recent apps.

My workflow doesn't depend on most recent apps. What apps I need to use is changed each time when my workflow changes so, I wrote my own scripts and a few simple programs to automate various things. E.g., to let the contents of a toolbar/submenu be changed dynamically on-the-fly, to make them behave more interactively─also including icon swaps to make icons act as status indicators. The Classic Explorer part of Open-Shell also lets me use a toolbar in File Explorer. When Microsoft got rid of customizable toolbars, it felt like some funny guy took a screwdriver and removed the handle from each drawer and all the cabinets. Those designers like Panos Panay have watched too many movies. Mad Max Fury Road, where they try to steal your steering wheel.

Lamberto Vitali said:
They're just two programs which do the same thing. I used classic shell years ago, then I think a newer windows was acceptable without it, then I needed it again, couldn't remember the name, and just looked up start menu replacements.

Essentially, SAB is just a copycat. For the most part, it's a watered-down, painted-over imitation. A typical paid version of a free program. For the most part. That's the only trick. Because, had they completely been the same, then no one could 'justify' shelling out $5 for SAB. But the main difference is just the marketing on social media websites, not wholly dissimilar to spreading pr0n on T(w)itter. There will always be those who disagree, which is PRECISELY why these types of marketing strategies remain so successful. It's because Steve Jobs' most genius discovery was that self-multiplication of internet noise doesn't cost you anything. I don't expect this groupthink will ever change. That's what makes it so genius, it's that you can rely on the fact it never changes. I know it upsets people each time when I talk like this, and that it usually causes them to ignore me. It just proves my point that people will defend the marketing strategy against those who dare criticize this same marketing strategy, and they will defend it completely for free so the seller doesn't have to. It makes life so much easier if you're a marketing strategist.

Now, I'm not suggesting that everyone who uses SAB falls in that category. A lot of people just assume that I am, and this plays a fundamental role in how the strategy works.

Lamberto Vitali said:
Not sure what you're referring to.

I was referring to the missing up arrow button in Windows Explorer (nowadays called File Explorer) during the early days of Win 7.

Lamberto Vitali said:
So you actually remember what all the little icons mean? I find reading a word faster than identifying an icon.

I don't always remember all of them of course, but still way more than close enough. When they're on my taskbar anyway. So much so, the thumbnail previews are much less distracting than a long train with bricks of text, as the true reasoning behind this is that the thumbnail previews show up only occasionally. Simple Window Switcher (SWS) is a feature of ExplorerPatcher that also helps (not just the Alt + Tab view is noticeably better than the default on Win 11, but also there's the added ability to use Alt + key above Tab), as does changing/remembering the order in which the icons appear on the taskbar (you can drag icons around to reorder them on the taskbar). The same also holds true about toolbars and the Notification area (system tray). The Win 11 taskbar has too much spacing between icons. It kills the 'helicopter view' effect that, at the blink of an eye, enables me to spontaneously see what is what. Put simply, the Windows 11 taskbar is the superlative of icon soup. Text labels next to each icon on a horizontal bar take up so much extra space, they're a huge clutter.

Lamberto Vitali said:
I could do, but I mainly want it off, with occasional on. I'll just go into the control panel and switch it on if I need it.

I thought you were looking for it to be turned off automatically after you reboot. That's why part of my suggestion was to put a command (to turn it off) in a task in Task Scheduler so the command runs after the reboot causes the mic to be automatically turned on.

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 19, 2023

hdmi said:
My workflow doesn't depend on most recent apps. What apps I need to use is changed each time when my workflow changes so, I wrote my own scripts and a few simple programs to automate various things. E.g., to let the contents of a toolbar/submenu be changed dynamically on-the-fly, to make them behave more interactively─also including icon swaps to make icons act as status indicators.

Ok, lets say you have two sets of apps you do for two different kinds of work. Both lots will exist in most recently used. It should actually be called most commonly used. I've set mine to 15.

hdmi said:
The Classic Explorer part of Open-Shell also lets me use a toolbar in File Explorer. When Microsoft got rid of customizable toolbars, it felt like some funny guy took a screwdriver and removed the handle from each drawer and all the cabinets. Those designers like Panos Panay have watched too many movies. Mad Max Fury Road, where they try to steal your steering wheel.

I've never found the point of a toolbar. In fact I turn everything off on the toolbar, I've just got the start button, running tasks, an arrow to show the tray icons, and the clock.

hdmi said:
Essentially, SAB is just a copycat. For the most part, it's a watered-down, painted-over imitation.

I've not found anything missing from it.

hdmi said:
A typical paid version of a free program.

It's free. It doesn't cut anything down if you don't pay.

hdmi said:
I was referring to the missing up arrow button in Windows Explorer (nowadays called File Explorer) during the early days of Win 7.

I still don't know what you're referring to, you'll have to find an example. I must of never used it.

hdmi said:
I don't always remember all of them of course, but still way more than close enough. When they're on my taskbar anyway. So much so, the thumbnail previews are much less distracting than a long train with bricks of text,

But the text is more descriptive, like telling you the name of the document open in the word processor. And you just admitted you don't always remember them all. Even if you do, it takes more brain power to decide what an icon refers to than reading it in English.

hdmi said:
as the true reasoning behind this is that the thumbnail previews show up only occasionally.

Not sure what you mean there, and I managed to disable those horrid things. Just because my mouse cursor happens to rest over one, or pass over one, an annoying little preview appears over the text I'm trying to read. With text, I don't need preview, there's enough information already.

hdmi said:
Simple Window Switcher (SWS) is a feature of ExplorerPatcher that also helps (not just the Alt + Tab view is noticeably better than the default on Win 11,

Alt-tab in Windows 11 is brilliant, it's the one thing I can find no fault with. Christ I can even see the game I'm playing, live.

hdmi said:
but also there's the added ability to use Alt + key above Tab),

Which does what?

hdmi said:
as does changing/remembering the order in which the icons appear on the taskbar (you can drag icons around to reorder them on the taskbar). The same also holds true about toolbars and the Notification area (system tray). The Win 11 taskbar has too much spacing between icons.

On that note, have you noticed they spaced out the files in windows explorer? Do they think people click inaccurately or something? I can now only see half the number of files in a list!

hdmi said:
I thought you were looking for it to be turned off automatically after you reboot. That's why part of my suggestion was to put a command (to turn it off) in a task in Task Scheduler so the command runs after the reboot causes the mic to be automatically turned on.

Good point, it sounded like what I needed, so I tried it (after I eventually found the download link right at the bottom of the page after skimming through the entire version history!) It's no good, unless I can configure it better. Mute mutes it completely. what I need to do is only turn off the "listen" function, so it stops going directly to the speakers, but continues to be able to record it using the security camera program.

hdmi · Mar 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
Ok, lets say you have two sets of apps you do for two different kinds of work. Both lots will exist in most recently used. It should actually be called most commonly used. I've set mine to 15.

Finding the app I need from that list takes longer on average, as the app keeps changing position in it.

Lamberto Vitali said:
I've never found the point of a toolbar. In fact I turn everything off on the toolbar, I've just got the start button, running tasks, an arrow to show the tray icons, and the clock.

I only use it for situations where opening a separate menu to find the icon I need is an unnecessary burden. If you have to repeat a single mouseclick 100 times, it means that it can save you 100 mouseclicks. Simple logic. It serves the same purpose as pinning shortcuts to taskbar, but it doesn't clutter up the 'running apps' view because it is separate so it doesn't interfere with that. (Even, if the contents of the toolbar keep constantly changing on-the-fly─as a result of it being scripted like I earlier said.)

Lamberto Vitali said:
I've not found anything missing from it.

It's free. It doesn't cut anything down if you don't pay.

The features that are missing from it are the exact same ones that most SAB users didn't actually even bother to look for. They just installed SAB and spent the rest of the day typing messages about how great it is, not realizing the fact that you can't easily find something if you don't look. Then when someone points out how factually true that sentence has been, usually what happens is that the whole world catches on fire next. Again, not trying to point any fingers here. But what has been seen can not be unseen, even though SAB is certainly not the only example of a program that is able to fit in that category. "Your trial has expired" window on startup is what happens with SAB if you don't pay within 100 days. Let's face it, ClassicShell was here first. The resemblance between the two is way more than just a wee bit striking. By now, if every person who posted that SAB is great and who didn't clearly explain what makes it worth $5 when Open-Shell can be used completely for free had paid me $5 per message, I would have earned enough money to buy a new computer also including custom loop water, complete with bubbles and disco lighting. Just sayin'...

Lamberto Vitali said:
I still don't know what you're referring to, you'll have to find an example. I must of never used it.

The up arrow button is used to navigate to the parent folder of the current opened folder in File Explorer. It has the same effect as clicking on the 2nd to last breadcrumb in the address bar of File Explorer, the only real difference being, that you don't have to go look for the 2nd to last breadcrumb─similar to how a horizontal bar with just icons (i.e., no 'bricks with text' shown between the horizontally aligned icons) also lets you avoid being forced to go look for the item you need. This is really nothing new. Productivity 101. The blatant observation that Microsoft persistently fails to recognize it is also nothing new, and Panos Panay has been no exception, which, as a matter of true fact, is also nothing new. lol

Lamberto Vitali said:
But the text is more descriptive, like telling you the name of the document open in the word processor. And you just admitted you don't always remember them all. Even if you do, it takes more brain power to decide what an icon refers to than reading it in English.

You are missing the fact that having to take a peek at the preview thumbnails just every once in a little while is taking a lot less effort than it takes to keep on reading through all that text like almost constantly the whole time. The pros of preview thumbnails far outweigh the cons, at least for me, but you'll never hear me say that every person should get used to experiencing the same. There is no standard answer to how much effort it will take for a given person to adapt to a certain UI change, procedure or workflow, or how much effort will essentially be wasted by trying to adapt. People who are more capable to easily adapt are not necessarily among those who will always perform better at everything. But Microsoft is a typical example of a company that, on so many levels, has been being way more than just a little bit myopic in that regard (and not only in that regard, for that matter...).

Lamberto Vitali said:
Not sure what you mean there, and I managed to disable those horrid things. Just because my mouse cursor happens to rest over one, or pass over one, an annoying little preview appears over the text I'm trying to read. With text, I don't need preview, there's enough information already.

See above.

Lamberto Vitali said:
Alt-tab in Windows 11 is brilliant, it's the one thing I can find no fault with. Christ I can even see the game I'm playing, live.

I find the layout too distracting so it causes fatigue, which is important to me because the average person (myself included) needs at minimum half an hour to become fully focussed with workflow again after having taken another break, and, more unnecessary fatigue translates to taking more frequent, longer breaks so more energy gets wasted for nothing.

Lamberto Vitali said:
Which does what?

With SWS the Alt + key above tab causes it to only display windows that belong to the app that is currently active.

Lamberto Vitali said:
On that note, have you noticed they spaced out the files in windows explorer? Do they think people click inaccurately or something? I can now only see half the number of files in a list!

Yes, the increased line spacing makes it more touchscreen friendly, but you can change it back to normal spacing by enabling Compact View. Only caveat, the nav pane still has some extra line spacing there, BUT... Classic Explorer of Open-Shell lets you fix that problem. lol

Lamberto Vitali said:
Good point, it sounded like what I needed, so I tried it (after I eventually found the download link right at the bottom of the page after skimming through the entire version history!) It's no good, unless I can configure it better. Mute mutes it completely. what I need to do is only turn off the "listen" function, so it stops going directly to the speakers, but continues to be able to record it using the security camera program.

In that case you could always decide to use the command utility just to let the mic be unmuted again after the "Listen to this device" checkbox has been unchecked. I.e., let it be muted as soon as possible via Task Scheduler automatically each time after a user logon occurs, then when you've cleared the checkbox, unmute it again next. The idea would be to, as soon as possible each time after you reboot, get rid of the sound of the mic coming through your speakers, and still be able to achieve what you want (a few moments after that). Should you wish to automate the steps required to clear the checkbox by running a task in Task Scheduler, then that's possible to do by simulating keystrokes with things like, e.g., AutoHotKey (AHK) or AutoIt/AutoItX. These days I prefer to just compile a windowless app (.exe file) by using the built-in C# compiler (csc.exe) of the .NET Framework that is already installed by default on Win 11, but I used to do it with the SendKeys method in VBScript─until one day I got fed up with the quirky behavior of SendKeys. The free PowerAutomate Desktop (PAD) from Microsoft could also be used for this purpose. But that one kept logging me out of it each time when it updated itself through the Microsoft Store (although it looks like maybe this issue has recently been solved by Microsoft), and the free edition doesn't easily let you run a Flow from within Task Scheduler (although you can work your way around that limitation).

Ghot · Mar 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
The mic is outside the house.

It's Startallback.

Pinning?! ARGH! Somebody actually uses that? It makes it look like a Mac! How do you tell what's running and what's a link? Start menu is for starting, taskbar is for running, desktop is for temporary shoving stuff.

Well, MS took away the cute little lines underneath the running app. For the life of me I can't figure out why.
They still have them on Win 10.
Aside from that... I just remember what I have running. I don't usually have more than 2-3 things running at once, anyway.

I wouldn't need to use the Taskbar, if MS hadn't added another page to the START Menu.

hdmi · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
Well, MS took away the cute little lines underneath the running app. For the life of me I can't figure out why.
They still have them on Win 10.
Aside from that... I just remember what I have running. I don't usually have more than 2-3 things running at once, anyway.

I wouldn't need to use the Taskbar, if MS hadn't added another page to the START Menu.

They replaced the cute little lines with salsiccia del capomastro.

Ghot · Mar 20, 2023

hdmi said:
They replaced the cute little lines with salsiccia del capomastro.

"Master builder sausage" ??!!?? LOL
It's 5 AM here, cut me some slack.

I also have my Taskbar set to small.

So, I'm not getting the reference.

This ??

hdmi · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
"Master builder sausage" ??!!?? LOL
It's 5 AM here, cut me some slack.

I also have my Taskbar set to small.

So, I'm not getting the reference.

This ??

Nice find! lol Entering "Sausage of the Master Chief" in Google translate also works. Halo reference, or a new alternative to "You've been Gearboxed".

Ghot · Mar 20, 2023

hdmi said:
Nice find! lol Entering "Sausage of the Master Chief" in Google translate also works. Halo reference, or a new alternative to "You've been Gearboxed".

Didn't ever Halo, don't get "gearboxed". Sorry, I guess I'm outside the loop.

hdmi · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
Didn't ever Halo, don't get "gearboxed". Sorry, I guess I'm outside the loop.

Halo PC in online multiplayer mode is still the best racing game ever made IMO. My Logitech MX518 scrubbed a hole through my desk.

Ghot · Mar 20, 2023

I live in a house built in 1908. In 5 hours a guy is coming to give an estimate for replacing a LOT of the windows.
That's pretty much what I'm thinking about.
Can't get to some windows, others don't open anymore, some have fans or A/C units and they're all 2nd or 3rd story.
I have to be ready for the windows guy when he gets here. LOL

All the windows are 114 yr. old wooden sash windows with universal aluminum storm windows on the outside.
He's gonna have to open, inspect and measure all the windows.

So my head is filled with logistical windows stuff.

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

hdmi said:
Finding the app I need from that list takes longer on average, as the app keeps changing position in it.

I can spot it instantly in a list of 15. Especially as I know when I'm about to open one how common it is. You surely don't have to look at each one? Some people do and I feel sorry for them (no actually I laugh at them), for example my neighbour was looking for an email from a company, in a list of 500 emails. She was slowly looking through the list, so I took her laptop from her and started pressing page down every second, looking at 30 at a time. She was astonished. I thought anyone could do that. I was just looking for one particular word in the page, I didn't have to read everything to check each word wasn't the one I wanted!

hdmi said:
I only use it for situations where opening a separate menu to find the icon I need is an unnecessary burden. If you have to repeat a single mouseclick 100 times, it means that it can save you 100 mouseclicks. Simple logic. It serves the same purpose as pinning shortcuts to taskbar, but it doesn't clutter up the 'running apps' view because it is separate so it doesn't interfere with that. (Even, if the contents of the toolbar keep constantly changing on-the-fly─as a result of it being scripted like I earlier said.)

The human brain can do two things at once, so it doesn't take you twice as long to do two clicks. You're also buffering what you're going to do inside the app once it's open.

hdmi said:
The features that are missing from it are the exact same ones that most SAB users didn't actually even bother to look for. They just installed SAB and spent the rest of the day typing messages about how great it is, not realizing the fact that you can't easily find something if you don't look. Then when someone points out how factually true that sentence has been, usually what happens is that the whole world catches on fire next. Again, not trying to point any fingers here. But what has been seen can not be unseen, even though SAB is certainly not the only example of a program that is able to fit in that category.

Name some features I may be missing out on.

hdmi said:
"Your trial has expired" window on startup is what happens with SAB if you don't pay within 100 days.

Er.... yes of course that happens

And it's not so annoying if I had to I mean when I have to close it. I don't restart my computer very often anyway.

hdmi said:
Let's face it, ClassicShell was here first.

Irrelevant. I got a program and it did what I needed.

hdmi said:
The up arrow button is used to navigate to the parent folder of the current opened folder in File Explorer. It has the same effect as clicking on the 2nd to last breadcrumb in the address bar of File Explorer, the only real difference being, that you don't have to go look for the 2nd to last breadcrumb─similar to how a horizontal bar with just icons (i.e., no 'bricks with text' shown between the horizontally aligned icons) also lets you avoid being forced to go look for the item you need. This is really nothing new. Productivity 101. The blatant observation that Microsoft persistently fails to recognize it is also nothing new, and Panos Panay has been no exception, which, as a matter of true fact, is also nothing new. lol

It seems I have one and don't use it, since I never noticed it come back. I remember using the up arrow in very early versions of windows, it's like typing cd.. in DOS. Nowadays I press the back button, the one like in a browser, because it's better. Back may not necessarily be up a level. It's where you were. Lets say I'm in a folder of stuff I've downloaded or transferred from my phone or someone else. I cut or copy some music files, go to my music folder and paste them. The back button takes me back to the files I've received, so I can select some photos and copy them.

hdmi said:
You are missing the fact that having to take a peek at the preview thumbnails just every once in a little while is taking a lot less effort than it takes to keep on reading through all that text like almost constantly the whole time.

Taking a peek means pausing with the mouse and waiting for it to appear, it takes too long. And if you're not sure which icon is which, you'd have to do it on more than one. But the most annoying thing as I've said is they're popping up all the time covering the text I'm trying to read in the current app.

Again, it doesn't take me more than a fraction of second to spot a word in a single line of text. and usually I subconsciously remember where on the taskbar it is. Something recently opened will be further to the right.

hdmi said:
The pros of preview thumbnails far outweigh the cons, at least for me, but you'll never hear me say that every person should get used to experiencing the same. There is no standard answer to how much effort it will take for a given person to adapt to a certain UI change, procedure or workflow, or how much effort will essentially be wasted by trying to adapt. People who are more capable to easily adapt are not necessarily among those who will always perform better at everything. But Microsoft is a typical example of a company that, on so many levels, has been being way more than just a little bit myopic in that regard (and not only in that regard, for that matter...).

I think we agree - everything should be absolutely customisable in every way. You have to wonder why they remove customisation. Does it make it easier to code? Does it make the system run faster? Does it make it easier to explain to someone else how to do something because their screen will look the same? No that doesn't work, since when you look up how to do something, chances are you find instructions written before the last update.

hdmi said:
I find the layout too distracting so it causes fatigue, which is important to me because the average person (myself included) needs at minimum half an hour to become fully focussed with workflow again after having taken another break, and, more unnecessary fatigue translates to taking more frequent, longer breaks so more energy gets wasted for nothing.

I don't do breaks unless I need food (which I just eat at the desk anyway), need to go to the toilet, or am called away to speak to someone. So fatigue doesn't come into it. It's just some nuts invented by unions so people can work less for the same pay.

How can you find the layout distracting anyway? It shows you an image of exactly what the app looks like. Just like the popups from the taskbar you like.

hdmi said:
With SWS the Alt + key above tab causes it to only display windows that belong to the app that is currently active.

That would never come up for me. The only apps I have several things open in are tabbed.

hdmi said:
Yes, the increased line spacing makes it more touchscreen friendly,

Apart from tablets and phones and kiosks, nobody uses a touchscreen on their desktop! This is a desktop OS!

I do find I click the wrong thing less often, but I'm having to scroll more often to find it. However I can now click inbetween the lines to paste a file into the folder. Before you had to scroll to the end or hope there was a blank space on the right!

hdmi said:
but you can change it back to normal spacing by enabling Compact View.

Ah! Thankyou! Now I don't need to buy a bigger monitor just to view a list of files. WTF were they thinking making the default that way round?

It seems people spend half their day hunting down how to put things back the way they were!

hdmi said:
Only caveat, the nav pane still has some extra line spacing there, BUT... Classic Explorer of Open-Shell lets you fix that problem. lol

In that case you could always decide to use the command utility just to let the mic be unmuted again after the "Listen to this device" checkbox has been unchecked. I.e., let it be muted as soon as possible via Task Scheduler automatically each time after a user logon occurs, then when you've cleared the checkbox, unmute it again next. The idea would be to, as soon as possible each time after you reboot, get rid of the sound of the mic coming through your speakers, and still be able to achieve what you want (a few moments after that). Should you wish to automate the steps required to clear the checkbox by running a task in Task Scheduler, then that's possible to do by simulating keystrokes with things like, e.g., AutoHotKey (AHK) or AutoIt/AutoItX. These days I prefer to just compile a windowless app (.exe file) by using the built-in C# compiler (csc.exe) of the .NET Framework that is already installed by default on Win 11, but I used to do it with the SendKeys method in VBScript─until one day I got fed up with the quirky behavior of SendKeys. The free PowerAutomate Desktop (PAD) from Microsoft could also be used for this purpose. But that one kept logging me out of it each time when it updated itself through the Microsoft Store (although it looks like maybe this issue has recently been solved by Microsoft), and the free edition doesn't easily let you run a Flow from within Task Scheduler (although you can work your way around that limitation).

Argh you've lost me. Look, there are two different settings going on here, and I can't see the distinction in the instructions you've given. Is the mic being recorded (I want that on all the time), and is the mic playing through to the speaker (I usually want that off, but want to be able to easily turn it on briefly.

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

hdmi said:
They replaced the cute little lines with salsiccia del capomastro.

Sausages? How do you equate anything on the taskbar to a sausage?

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
"Master builder sausage" ??!!?? LOL
It's 5 AM here, cut me some slack.

I also have my Taskbar set to small.

So, I'm not getting the reference.

This ??

What the hell is that? Is that some weird alternative to these?

Everbuild HH0119100290 Contractors LMA Silicone Sealant 295ml Brown 200

Everbuild 200BN Contractors LMA Silicone Sealant 295ml Brown 200

ffx.co.uk

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
Well, MS took away the cute little lines underneath the running app. For the life of me I can't figure out why.
They still have them on Win 10.
Aside from that... I just remember what I have running. I don't usually have more than 2-3 things running at once, anyway.

I wouldn't need to use the Taskbar, if MS hadn't added another page to the START Menu.

The lines are not enough. Macs have a similar thing, a little dot. Mac users tell me somehow they notice that tiny thing. I prefer the simple absence of the app if it's not running. Starting an app and running an app in the same space is ludicrous.

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

hdmi said:
Halo PC in online multiplayer mode is still the best racing game ever made IMO. My Logitech MX518 scrubbed a hole through my desk.

Wouldn't you be better with a steering wheel?

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

Ghot said:
I live in a house built in 1908. In 5 hours a guy is coming to give an estimate for replacing a LOT of the windows.
That's pretty much what I'm thinking about.
Can't get to some windows, others don't open anymore, some have fans or A/C units and they're all 2nd or 3rd story.
I have to be ready for the windows guy when he gets here. LOL

All the windows are 114 yr. old wooden sash windows with universal aluminum storm windows on the outside.
He's gonna have to open, inspect and measure all the windows.

So my head is filled with logistical windows stuff.

This house was built in 1979. I had the windows replaced (single glazing to double glazing so I couldn't hear traffic - I don't give an excrement about heating bills) in 2002. I was quoted 14 grand. I laughed at him and told him that was a third of the cost of the house. He did the scam trick of phoning his boss to get a 50% discount! I said "So you were prepared to overcharge me by 7 grand? That makes you a phucking cowboy now get out of my house!" He got very angry and said "You didn't want windows did you? You just wanted to waste my time!" I said "Yeah, I really enjoy chatting to salesmen.... no, I asked for a QUOTE, now leave!" I got a recommendation of a local joiner from a colleague and paid TWO grand.

Old houses reminds me, this house still has a fusebox, one of those good old things with no nuisance trips and no namby pamby health and softy crrap. My meter recently expired so they came to fit a new one. The electrician said "I'm noting down you need new wires from the meter to the consumer unit (I guess that's newspeak for fusebox, far less descriptive though) because they're only something guage". I said "You mean 60 amp? It's only a 60 amp fusebox. And there's a 60 amp master fuse just there." He was shocked I had fuses. He said I must get them replaced. I said "yeah right".

Lamberto Vitali · Mar 20, 2023

Not sure if it's always been like this, but has anyone noticed a lot of things reposition the mouse cursor for you? I don't like that. I know where the cursor is, now I have to find it. Pressing the windows key to open the start menu puts it at the bottom of the start menu. Why? Now I don't know which way to move the mouse to get to the thing I want to click. Even worse if you've turned off that monumentally stupid idea of having the menu in the middle. My menu is on the left but my cursor goes to the middle! Dialog boxes I think also move it to the dialog box. Sometimes an app moves the mouse cursor to itself instead of over another app (which is more pronounced if you have multiple monitors - not sure why anyone wouldn't have multiple monitors).