Solutions in Search of Problems, Or Atavism Today

During the time the site was down this morning, I happened to visit the ZDNet site, and came upon the piece by Jason Perlow, concerning his ‘must have’ utility for Windows 7.

That must have was a free addition called Fences. It is made by Stardock software, and is currently in a 0.99ϐ revision. Usually, the software from Stardock is very useful, and I have a licensed copy of Window Blinds, which I use on one of my machines ( with a fast video card). I find their contributions to be useful, fairly priced, and generally free of problems.

Unfortunately, that streak of usefulness has ended with Fences. Not only is it a throwback to the days of Windows 3.1 and the Program Manager, it is unnecessarily bloated for the purpose of accomplishing what it purports to do. It takes the screen (hopefully a big one, because otherwise, its usefulness is diminished greatly) and allows a division, where windows within cannot overdraw. It is, in fact, an electronic fence, in the very same way that Program Groups were in Win 3.1.

I suppose there are those who, like Mr. Perlow, like this behavior. I’m not one of them. I like the drill down, hierarchical menu system of Windows 95, and, to me, it was the very best  difference to Windows 95 (I really wasn’t all that bothered by 8.3 filenames, the way many are).

But I also question the idea that, since Fences is clearly, to anyone awake, a step backwards, and it is closely mimicked by some of the behavior of the new taskbar in Windows 7, why this backward behavior of much of the Windows 7 interface is not so noted.

No matter.

Another thing that might be noted  is the fact that the program, as it installs, offers to make a backup of your current desktop layout, including the menu system. If you install the beta, take it. Stupidly, I did not, relying on the previous behavior of Stardock products, and the reliability of their builds. Oops!

I ended up spending about 3 hours rebuilding my hierarchical menu system, as it was vanished (vanquished?) by the removal of the test run of Fences. So, should you like this behavior, and want to test, backup, when offered the choice, by the program.

My choice, for the time when I get my copy of Windows 7, of a ‘must have’ utility, will be a little item called Classic Start Menu, which removes the evil done by Microsoft to the menu of Windows 7, and gives back the behavior that I have come to know and love.

It may seem that this is atavistic behavior, but since the Windows 7 standard behavior is also atavistic and an anachronism, would my move not be classified as ‘back to the future’?

Update - After reviewing what I said, I realize that some have a need for part of the behavior of Fences; that is, ”blocking out” certain parts of the screen, so that different programs can run in their own screen space, and not overlap, or cause ofther problems. This behavior can be gotten very esily by means of a very light weight (both in terms of install file size and memory load) program called WinSplit Revolution. Recommended.

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