The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:59:43 GMT

I always found it a weird choice that property sheets didn't show up in some places such as the taskbar. They also don't get minimized by Win+M, so that's the easiest way to reach them, even if you have a mouse. I think MS finally fixed this in Vista or Win7.

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

jader3rd — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 22:43:32 GMT

I've been trying to use the WinRT apps without a mouse, and quite honestly find it impossible. There are no hints as to what keys do what, and the keys that I try usually end up not doing anything.

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

mschaef — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:57:59 GMT

Great story. (One of my favorite aspects of Windows has always been how well it can be controlled with a keyboard, so I'm very sympathetic to the cause.)

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

steveg — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:29:37 GMT

Somebody stole his keyboard as well and Surface was born?

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Mike Dimmick — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:54:50 GMT

@Ray: No, Windows Mobile was scrapped because it was so far behind. The all-or-nothing security model (i.e. apps had to be signed by an approved certificate, for most consumer phones, but once running could do anything), the stylus-driven controls, the legacy Win32 GDI drawing model, the open multitasking model (where background apps still run and drain the battery), were just completely uncompetitive with the iPhone. On top of that you still had (and have!) the 32MB-per-process limit from Windows CE 1.0; fixed in Windows CE 6.0 but the Windows Mobile team seriously dragged their heels on porting to CE 6.0.

Technically it was moved from the consumer products division to the Windows Embedded division, where it is in maintenance: it has been renamed Windows Embedded Handheld. You can still buy Windows Embedded Handheld devices, if you're willing to buy rugged devices from Motorola Solutions, Intermec, Casio, Honeywell, Psion Teklogix, Denso ADC, etc. I'm still writing .NET Compact Framework applications for Windows Mobile/Windows Embedded Handheld, or for OEM custom Windows CE platforms (excuse me, 'Windows Embedded Compact'). We're starting to see customers wanting Bring-Your-Own-Device or just to make use of far cheaper Android devices or (within reach of wireless LAN) iPod Touch, and there are Android devices coming soon from those OEMs, such as the Motorola Solutions MC40.

MS have of course faced exactly the same issue with Windows 8 tablets. This time they've gone with fusing a new interface - both user and programming - together with the old. There is of course a far larger marketplace of existing Windows applications out there!

Back to the topic - there's something of the opposite in Microsoft Management Console, where the property sheets of virtually any snap-in don't appear in the taskbar, they aren't owned by the console frame window (so don't pop back up when you click the taskbar button for the console) and you can only get back to them by Alt+Tab or by moving windows out of the way!

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Neil — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:22:04 GMT

I was so annoyed that my control panel dialogs didn't appear in the Alt+Tab sequence that I went and wrote a replacement RunDLL32.exe; I did run into a number of gotchas but I basically got it working well enough for the infrequent use that I put it to.

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Raphael — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:57:19 GMT

@Medinoc:

That be called "Mouse keys", landlubber. Has been a part of Windows since 95, when men were still scurvy and lasses curvy. ARR!

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Medinoc — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:11:38 GMT

Next step: Have the next version of Paint move the pointer with the Arrow keys!

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Ray — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 07:51:55 GMT

"You notice that you can totally use a Windows Phone without a mouse."

Well, certainly without the mobile equivalent, the stylus. Finally. Just a shame that MS Internet Explorer'd Windows Mobile - "Job's done lads, time to quit development. Surely nobody will ever catch up with us."

re: The day I stole Joe Belfiore's mouse

Larry Hosken — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:22:21 GMT

"Give Joe his mouse back!"

No way, the incentive is still working amazingly. You notice that you can totally use a Windows Phone without a mouse.