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#1
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
I lost my entire HDD due to Microsoft Update bricking my AMD system, where
only God knows why and only God knows how to recover the data. After buying a new HDD and installing Windows 10 on it, I'm trying really hard to not tweak the system (except for the barest of minimum tweaks that are necessary for efficiency). I suspect all my tweaks are things Microsoft Update hated, so I'm trying /not/ to tweak the new setup but Lord knows, I need a KISS cascading menu because that stupid Cortana thing just sucks for too many reasons to elucidate here. Without resorting to Classic Shell or Winaero, what's the easiest way to create a very simple working cascading menu of the style that we're all used to, which, in words is something like: Start menu archiver [list of archival program shortcuts, e.g., 7-zip] browser [list of browser program shortcuts, e.g., Opera] cleaner [list of cleaner program shortcuts, e.g., Ccleaner] database [list of database program shortcuts,. e.g., Google Earth] editor pic [list of picture editor shortcuts, e.g., Pinta] editor pdf [list of PS/PDF editor shortcuts, e.g., Foxit] editor txt [list of text editor shortcuts, e.g., GVim] editor vid [list of video editor shortcuts, e.g., Shotcut] finance [list of finance program shortcuts, e.g., TurboTax] game [list of game program shortcuts, e.g., Steam] etc. Must I resort to the Classic Shell or WinAero? Or does Windows 10, by now, so many years after the release, finally have a way to implement a basic KISS cascading shortcut like that which worked just fine in Windows XP? |
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#2
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
ultred ragnusen wrote:
I lost my entire HDD due to Microsoft Update bricking my AMD system, where only God knows why and only God knows how to recover the data. So, you're saying that Microsoft Update magically destroyed your hard drive? I'd be interested in knowing exactly what happened. [snip] Must I resort to the Classic Shell or WinAero? To my knowledge, yes. -- Can you hear the silence? Can you see the dark? Can you fix the broken? Can you feel my heart? |
#3
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
wrote:
I lost my entire HDD due to Microsoft Update bricking my AMD system, where only God knows why and only God knows how to recover the data. So, you're saying that Microsoft Update magically destroyed your hard drive? I'd be interested in knowing exactly what happened. You have no idea if you even ask that question, of the hell that the Microsoft Update put me through, and which I'm still living. Nonetheless, despite your naivety (you're only naive because you haven't been burned yet - I'm not saying you're naive overall - just on the fact that MS update hates customized sysems, apparently) to explain to you the horror that I went through and am going through would be the topic of an entirely different and very long thread. Must I resort to the Classic Shell or WinAero? To my knowledge, yes. That's what I was afraid of. Let's hope we are both wrong. BTW, I already have organized a folder hierarchy for the menus, which is simply named folders with named links (aka shortcuts) inside of them. menu editor {pic,txt,pdf} [associated shortcuts] So all I need is a mechanism to turn that into a cascaded menu that can be /added/ to the existing Win 10 interface (which I'll call the Cortana GUI for lack of knowledge of the official name for it). To be clear, I no longer wish to /replace/ the Cortana GUI, but just to augment it with a single addition of a cascaded menu, in a way that won't brick my system with every Microsoft Update (which I've been dealing with for a year now). |
#4
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
wrote:
I lost my entire HDD due to Microsoft Update bricking my AMD system, where only God knows why and only God knows how to recover the data. Too bad. You may be able to recover data from it if you install it in ana external case. Good luck. Here is a picture of my attempt at mounting the HDD using a 3.5" IDE connector in the classic PATA/SATA/IDE adapter to the USB port of the now working computer. http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/...sb_adapter.jpg Mounting that HDD is not the topic of this thread, as whatever MS Update did to brick my system, makes it such that an external system doesn't "see" anything but a drive that needs to be formatted. I must state that MS Update has failed so many times on my Win 10 system that I "ass-u-me" that the reason is that Microsoft hates customizations, where I admit I customized with WinAero and the Classic Shell, which I admit is probably my sin against the Gods at Redmond. Nonetheless, this thread is only about how to get what MANY people want, which is a simple cascaded menu, but without having to offend the Gods at Redmond. Since Microsoft is certainly aware that many people want a cascaded menu, this thread is only to ask if we can get that WITHOUT having to resort to using the Classic Shell method of customization. |
#5
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
wrote:
Works for me. That Orwellian approach would work for you since it's designed for the hoi polloi who have absolutely no idea how a computer interface should work, so they let Redmond decide what menus to present. The top 6 programs are displayed in front of me I'm sure that Redmond-defined almost meaningless display of the prior half dozen programs works just fine for both you and for the unwashed masses, but it doesn't work for someone who simply wishes for a statically defined cascaded menu of their choice. I'm OK if the answer to the basic question asked is that there is no known way to obtain the classic statically user-defined cascaded menu from Microsoft. I'm just asking if there is any way yet, after all these years of user complaints, to get user-defined cascaded menus to work in Windows 10 (latest version) without having to resort to the 3rd-party Classic Shell customizations. |
#6
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10(without MS Update bricking the system)?
ultred ragnusen wrote:
Mounting that HDD is not the topic of this thread, as whatever MS Update did to brick my system, makes it such that an external system doesn't "see" anything but a drive that needs to be formatted. I had a partition report RAW after a failed CHKDSK run. But I didn't panic, and the partition is now fully repaired. The partition was Windows 10 Insider, one of the upgrades within the last week. The damage was to the Volume Bitmap, and something called Extended Attributes. But the condition was not fatal and it was recoverable. I've used neither DISM nor SFC to post-process the volume, leaving that until the next upgrade install comes in some time in the next two weeks (if it doesn't complain, then the damage cannot be that bad). To fix it, I used commands like this, being careful not to rely on the OS itself for these commands (just in case the Win10 NTFS stack has a problem). From the volume I was booted from, the C: partitions were M: and N: . chkdsk /offlinescanandfix M: chkdsk /F M: And that stopped the chkdsk program from claiming it couldn't fix the problem, and would I like to schedule it for a reboot (which wouldn't fix it). Those two were enough. Running the /F command twice in a row achieved nothing. But a one-two punch worked for some reason. It's the first time I'd ever heard of "offlinescanandfix" being on CHKDSK. Normally the flags have shorter names. If you're in a rush, I can see giving up on something and just reinstalling. If you have the time, you never know what you can fix. I thought for sure at the time, I was screwed and I'd never fix it. Paul |
#7
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
The 6 most used applications are the ones you will be most likely to use, so it's only fitting they are shown first. Typing the name of any others takes seconds. It's a dumb default that assumes the next program you want to use is one of the six previous ones, when I have scores upon scores of programs installed, and where I know exactly where to find them in a cascaded menu since the cascaded menu matches in the install hierarchy which matches the software archive hierarchy. For example: Archive = C:\archive\editor\pic\{irfanview,photoscape,imbatc h,fastone,pinta,etc.} Install = C:\install\editor\pic\{irfanview,photoscape,imbatc h,fastone,pinta,etc.} Menu = menu editor pic {irfanview,photoscape,imbatch,fastone,pinta,etc.} Of course you can always go back to the dark ages and use desktop icons like a Mac user. That is a bad idea. The right idea is a cascaded menu as shown above, which mirrors the archive and installation hierarchy, and which is exactly the same on all systems in use. |
#8
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 21:00:50 -0800, ultred ragnusen wrote:
The right idea is a cascaded menu as shown above, which mirrors the archive and installation hierarchy, and which is exactly the same on all systems in use. There are some bright boys/girls at Microsoft who have given this a lot more thought than you have. The decision to move to a search-based system was not taken lightly. Some might not like it but they are in a minority. |
#9
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
ultred ragnusen wrote:
I lost my entire HDD due to Microsoft Update bricking my AMD system, where only God knows why and only God knows how to recover the data. After buying a new HDD and installing Windows 10 on it, I'm trying really hard to not tweak the system (except for the barest of minimum tweaks that are necessary for efficiency). I suspect all my tweaks are things Microsoft Update hated, so I'm trying /not/ to tweak the new setup but Lord knows, I need a KISS cascading menu because that stupid Cortana thing just sucks for too many reasons to elucidate here. That concern is one reason why I try to work with Microsoft operating system programs. From the earliest versions of Windows, I loved to mess with the operating system. After being smacked down so many times for doing so, nowadays I try to cope. If you are concerned about data, the first thing you do is make a backup copy of the drive. Then you try fixing it. |
#10
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
mechanic wrote:
The right idea is a cascaded menu as shown above, which mirrors the archive and installation hierarchy, and which is exactly the same on all systems in use. There are some bright boys/girls at Microsoft who have given this a lot more thought than you have. The decision to move to a search-based system was not taken lightly. Some might not like it but they are in a minority. I don't disagree with you that /most/ of the changes between various Windows versions appears to be to cater to the hoi polloi who can't find a file that they just downloaded seconds before. Given that, I understand that Microsoft caters to the proletariat by supplying a search-based way to find their stuff, but, being a reasonable person, I can't even figure out what ALGORITHM Microsoft uses. For example, every time I open the "File Explorer" I see a /different/ set of folders, where I haven't been able to figure out what on earth Microsoft uses to decide what goes in the unpinned "Quick Access" section versus what goes in the "Recent Folders" section, and where the last thing I ever want to see is the entire wasted section called "Recent Files". Why? Or, for example, I install a program, where I /know/ where I want the program to go, but when I hit the installer's "Browse" button, it's always a crap shoot as to where the starting point in the file-system browser will be (most default to an arbitrary program-file hierarchy but others default to C: while others default to the top level where you have to click just to get to C: itself). Why? As an even worse example, I installed Pinta, which, by default, takes multiple clicks to open a file in, but then I installed Paint.NET, which takes far fewer clicks. What on earth is the rationale for that difference? Look at how many steps it takes to open Pinta using the OpenWith defaults: Step 1 & Step 2: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard01.jpg Step 3: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard02.jpg Step 4: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard03.jpg Step 5: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard06.jpg Step 6 & Step 7: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard07.jpg Step 8: While it takes 8 steps, by default, to use the OpenWith menu with Pinta, why does it only take 2 steps, by default, with Paint.NET? Step 1 & Step 2: http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard0a.jpg What is the default algorithm that puts Paint.net conveniently in the OpenWith menu but not Pinta? http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard0b.jpg It can't be that Windows doesn't have enough space in the menu for two editing programs because they pop up this idiotic "Featured in Windows 10" advertising blurb in the same menu. http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard0c.jpg And yet, when you click enough wasteful selections, you find both Pinta and Paint.net next to each other after all... http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/Clipboard0e.jpg Given these are all defaults, what on earth is the logic in such tremendous almost incomprehensible inconsistency in almost every way the user interfaces with the operating system? |
#11
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
John Doe wrote:
That concern is one reason why I try to work with Microsoft operating system programs. From the earliest versions of Windows, I loved to mess with the operating system. After being smacked down so many times for doing so, nowadays I try to cope. I, like you, used to try to "fight" Microsoft pollution by "cleaning up" the mess that happened in each of the menus and folders that are known to the world (e.g., the start menu and the program files hierarchies, and the user data hierarchies such as "My Documents"). The almost incomprehensible litter and inconsistency is sort of like what you'd see on a busy NYC street as the hoi polloi walk by your stoop, littering as they see fit and acting as they feel, all of which is extremely inconsistent and meaningless, in the end, as you can't make any decent sense of it all. So what I did was CUSTOMIZE the system to use folders outside the Microsoft well-known ones and to make my own menus, and to change the default temp and "my pictures" to what I wanted them to be, etc., But something in my myriad customizations is what Microsoft utterly hates. They f*ked up the Microsoft Update for at least two years, where the good news is that nothing installed (which was fine by me) as they all failed to install, but they didn't brick the system. Finally, with this latest update, they bricked the system. Lesson learned. If you are concerned about data, the first thing you do is make a backup copy of the drive. Then you try fixing it. The safest way I know to make a backup is dd but that doesn't work on Windows and the entire drive refuses to be mounted in an SATA/PATA/IDE adapter to USB, so how am I supposed to back up the hard drive when the commands don't exist to do that backup and when the drive won't be mounted? |
#12
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 05:00:50 -0000, ultred ragnusen wrote: James Wilkinson Sword wrote: [snip] Of course you can always go back to the dark ages and use desktop icons like a Mac user. That is a bad idea. The right idea is a cascaded menu as shown above, which mirrors the archive and installation hierarchy, and which is exactly the same on all systems in use. You sound like a linux user. No, he doesn't. Nothing he said has anything to do with using Linux. It sounds more like he's saying "My way is the only right way, and everyone else is WRONG!" -- The threshold for disproving something is higher than the threshold for saying it, which is a recipe for the accumulation of bull****. -- Dr. Bill Softky [Caltech] |
#13
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
Auric__ wrote:
No, he doesn't. Nothing he said has anything to do with using Linux. It sounds more like he's saying "My way is the only right way, and everyone else is WRONG!" Actually, I'm an old hand at UNIX where I have used more UNIX-like operating systems than most people, although probably not any more than anyone here who predates all of them. And you're also wrong that the basics are "out of style", since there's nothing wrong with knowing where your data goes, even if you don't. |
#14
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
It's the way he wants to know how all the folders are arranged that makes me think of him as a linux user. I've used as many operating systems as anyone here, including all the early and late variants of UNIX and Linux. But it's not only UNIX old hands that maintain a clean hierarchy. There are only two choices: a. Organization b. Anarchy Pick one. |
#15
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Simplest way to get WinXP-style sliding cascading menu on Win10 (without MS Update bricking the system)?
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
You don't often need to know where your program is installed, anyway it should be under program files. If you don't know where it is, a simple right click of the icon in the start menu will tell you. There's a reason well written programs provide an option to put them where you want them put. And, you /do/ need to know where the program is installed since an "Open With" requires knowing it down to the very executable. In addition, by never installing into Program Files, you will only see the badly written programs go there, which helps you identify the poorly designed programs. Lastly, by maintaining the same hierarchy for menus as for saving your installers as for installing your programs, you maintain control over your system in that every has a place, and everything stays in its place. The only other option is anarchy where you can't find anything without giving up and running a hail-mary search. |
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