Designing Aero Snap

re: Designing Aero Snap

xpfanboy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:15:24 GMT

I can manage my windows with confidence but I can't manage my files with confidence due to Windows Explorer's confidence, productivity, control and power boosting enhancements. Several others seem to be having problems too, but MS perhaps doesn't want us to manage our files with confidence.

re: Designing Aero Snap

insanities — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:55:01 GMT

I find Aero Snap a bit useless, because I don't have enough time dragging it up to the top. I do it the old fashioned (and save a bit of time) way by double clicking or clicking maximize button. The only use of this feature is for touch screen users... that's if they even know how to use it.

Other from the taskbar and all the small but really cool changes in 7. I'd really be interested and looking forward to futuristic user interfaces. 7 didn't give me that feel that I'm in the future. Vista beta did because of Aero and all that. Wonder what Microsoft has cooking up after 7. Good luck. :)

re: Designing Aero Snap

Xenan — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:33:35 GMT

Since the days of Windows 95 I wondered why there isn't a "partly maximize" function in windows and I'm glad to see it is finally there!

This is a great time and mouse-movements saver.

And for user insanities, I think you just doesn't have discovered yet the power and ease of this feature :)

re: Designing Aero Snap

Tihiy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:39:09 GMT

There should be way to disable/tweak Aero Snap.

As suggested on Win7taskforce, when CTRL is held, disable snap temporarily.

Aside from that, Aero Snap sure is nice feature!

re: Designing Aero Snap

Domenico — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:56:45 GMT

I love Aero Snap

i use monitor 27 1920 x 1200 and form me Aero Snap is very very important!!

I LOVE IT

re: Designing Aero Snap

anotherjohnboy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:40:40 GMT

Too bad both my Thinkpad and external keyboard don't have a Windows key. Sounds like the Win + Arrow thing could be a solution to my issue of moving a window from a secondary screen to a primary screen, when the secondary screen is not visible.

BTW, on a so called extended desktop with multiple screens, Side-by-Side still requires a certain amount of mouse work: Move window A to border to resize, align window A on the opposite half of the screen, then move window B to border to resize.

re: Designing Aero Snap

bluefisch200 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:27:47 GMT

Hello there

i LOVE Aero snap, its one of the best things we ever can get for window management, but...there are a few problems...

also thank you for fixing loosing mouse control when you use aero shift(when you put around one window and the others fo away)

if you have more then 1 screen the right and the left side snapping are useless. Maybe you do something for that...maximize window when you have 2 screens?

also i need to ask for is the show desktop function, the way you do it right now brings a problem...for example...show desktop(with the button on the lower right corner) and then rightklick on the recycle bin an empty->Result: you will not see the window asking you for deleting the files...maybe a better way to show desktop is to minimize them all like you do it with shift(when you put around one window and the others fo away)....looks better also...

re: Designing Aero Snap

TAC4U — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:40:27 GMT

Aero Snap is a useful tool, probably more so with touch screens. I'm sure I'll come to use it more over time as it becomes natural and instinctive.

The biggest problem I have with the Win7 changes is that you can no longer minimise applications with multiple windows open by clicking on the taskbar icon. Take Firefox, for example - usually I just click on the taskbar icon to minimise or restore it but with Win7 if I start downloading a file (which opens a separate download window) then I can no longer do that. It may seem trivial but it's a huge usage issue.

The solution I propose would be to have the first click minimise all windows for that application and the second click restore them to their previous state, meaning minimised windows remain minimised. It's slightly quirky from a user perspective, as clicking the icon twice would still leave minimised windows minimised, but the current implementation breaks a feature I have been using with Windows for countless years and have come to rely on. It's the biggest issue I have with Win7 currently (aside from audio distortion on my EMU 1820M).

re: Designing Aero Snap

d_e — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:26:03 GMT

Yeah. Great stuff. Seriously! I miss Aero Snap everyday at work (XP).

Now if there was a minimize gesture to minimize windows I'd be even happier. And a way to make Windows span multiple monitors.

Yes I'm one of the commenters with a multi-mon setup :)

re: Designing Aero Snap

kaib00 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:57:37 GMT

One thing I like is that even windows that are maximized in their default state still utilize the Aero Snap drag from top to 'restore' state.

Overall I like seeing how much thought was given to something as 'small' as this.

It is definately something that will have to be put into commercials for all the people that don't get to play with, or read it about beforehand. There are going to be millions of people that will never know about it (or will discover accidentally) unless they are shown somehow.

I can't wait till I go on leave so I can try out the win key shortcuts for this on my laptop.

re: Designing Aero Snap

rlopez — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:13:27 GMT

Amazing article.

Thanks!

I find aero snap kind of useless for maximizing (although sometimes I use it...) but I find it extremely EXTREMELY useful for side-snaps. It's a super time saver for comparing two things, or working on something that requires 2 windows. Awesome feature.

re: Designing Aero Snap

dsmtoday — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:42:43 GMT

There's a big bug in Win7 Beta Aero Snap. Try putting a monitor ON TOP OF the main monitor in front of you, and then also put a third monitor to the right of your main monitor. Now when you try to vertical maximize something on your main monitor, it goes all the way to the top of the top monitor, which is something you never want to happen.

Also, none of the Aero Snap stuff works on the top of the main monitor. It only works on the top of the TOP monitor.

Now try the feature where you drag a window to the far left or right of a monitor and it half-maximizes. Well, that doesn't work between the main and right monitors.

The bug in all this is that Aero Snap activation is VIEWING SPACE relative. It needs to always be MONITOR SPACE relative.

re: Designing Aero Snap

GRiNSER — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:58:19 GMT

@dsmtoday: i have to second that - MultiMon + Aero Snap in current builds -> Epic Fail

re: Designing Aero Snap

NiteShdw — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:16:34 GMT

To me, the biggest annoyance of Aero Snap is the decision to make a window restorable from the "supersized" state. It breaks the expected functionality that when I close and re-open an application, it opens in the same position and size as when it was closed. Now, it re-opens to the RESTORED state, not the supersized state.

For example, I love to run Outlook on the left side of my screen, all day long. I use Aero Snap to position Outlook on the left side. Then, when I close it and re-open it, the Outlook window is back where it was before I used Aero Snap. So, every single time I open Outlook, I have to use Snap to move it, or MANUALLY resize the window (defeating the purpose of Snap) to the left side of the screen.

So, I don't use Snap anymore, I use WinSplit Revolution which only resizes a window, so windows DO save their current size and position.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Kosher — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:58:28 GMT

How about giving people the option to only activate with the shift key? I found it a little annoying that it would snap or do funky stuff when I didn't want it to.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Kosher — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:05:50 GMT

Linux uses shift for enabling snapping, don't try to be all different with the ctrl key. Keep it standard please.

re: Designing Aero Snap

locolorenzo — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:37:52 GMT

Good feature, but I am going off topic here:

@Steven

I am using Windows 7 in production as my main OS now, I am wondring if you can address some of the features that should be uninstalled before conducting an upgrade...

I noticed that IIS7 did some funky things after my upgrade.

Keep up the wonderful work here and on Windows 7, I am amazed at the levels of perfomance that I am getting with Windows 7.

Thanx

re: Designing Aero Snap

inarius — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:34:24 GMT

I agree with dsmtoday and somewhat with NiteShdw. I think Aero Snap is an essential addition to Windows 7 - most relevant to widescreen monitors and multi-monitor setups. But the approach it takes sometimes breaks too heavily from the mantra of consistent UI principles.

Multiple monitors have the apparent visual distinction of being different workspaces. A user would rightly expect the snap behavior to be the same on one as the other, regardless of the monitor position. When approaching monitor boundaries, this would required the added precaution of briefly snapping the cursor to the boundary when the proximity is close which is probably why this was avoided, but I would consider that a totally acceptable (and useful) modification. In fact, I have long preached that this behavior should be standard for cursor control on multi-monitor devices, because the edge is difficult to use in a multi-monitor configuration. I hate scrolling a window on a left-mounted monitor because the scrollbar is as easy to navigate as I instinctively expect it to be.

As for the restore behavior, I think the ability to move windows in and out of a snapped state easily is paramount. But I see no reason why the snapped state shouldn't be treated like any other window position for most operations, including on program close/open. If I want a window to be in a certain position, snapped or not, that preference should be preserved. To me, snap is not a window status or a change in how windows work, but a feature to speed and simplify window movement and resizing.

Finally, of all the shortcuts provided by Snap, it seems obvious to me that the least important is Vertical Maximizing, and one could easily do without it. My reactions to the feature set:

Side-by-side windows: Awesome!

Maximized windows: Awesome!

Multi-monitor snapping: Awesome!

Vertical maximizing: Neat.

So wherever a consideration of the behavior of that feature interferes with any of the other Snap consistency or usability concerns, I would opt in favor of usability.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Mike Williams — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:51:32 GMT

I find it useful on my 1920x1200 monitor, but only for arranging a half-window on the left of the screen.

Because support for the sidebar is gone now, I now have to _manually_ manage the window max state etc so that the important widgets on the right aren't covered. I'm playing around with tools like MaxTo but they aren't snap-aware.

Do you have APIs that allow third-party window tools to integrate with Snap?

re: Designing Aero Snap

Gamer_Z. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:16:04 GMT

I think you guys did a great job with Aero Snap. I have honestly NEVER used the maximize button since getting Windows 7 (except when a Mac user goes "what does that button do?"). The side-by-side view is very useful for copying files. I have not found the vertical maximize feature to be useful, but it is nice to have the option. When my Mac-using friends say that Mac is all about having what you want, I tell them that Windows is about having what you want and what you will want tomorrow.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Xepol — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:39:12 GMT

In a previous discussion on the whole tile windows topic, I pointed out that the feature was useless because you could not control the order of the windows.

From the playing around I have done so far, I have found this new design to be very promising, with a few potential gotchas.

The feature is impossible use in Virtual PC if you have multiple displays or your monitor is larger than the virtual display. Once you move to the edge of the display you can move PAST the display, focus is lost and the feature's functionaly self destructs. Annoying, but not a real show stopper.

This does, however, give me serious pause to wonder how the feature will work with multiple displays on a shared boundary. I will be finding out soon. The only machines I have used Win7 on are VPC and a machine with a single display thus far.

Anyone with multiple monitors want to vote in here?

Regardless of how well the features works with mouse dragging, it would be nice if there was a way to control this feature through a second channel, such as the system menu or off the task bar right click menu. Perhaps that rightly belongs in the feature accessiblity column, since not everyone can control their mouse with total control.

Pen and Touch

Antimatter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:50:03 GMT

I had always thought you designed aero snap with Pen and Touch in mind. When I'm using my fingers, it's very hard to hit the maximize button as it's stuck between minimize and close. Just dragging a window to the top of the screen, or away, is great.

However, I should tell you that there are big problems with Aero snap when using pen or touch. Triggering it is very unreliable due to how some digitizers recognize inputs near the edge of the screen. On my Latitude XT, sometimes my finger will be all the way to the edge and I won't be able to trigger Aero snap because the digitizer says it's about a millimeter away from the edge.

I think Aero snap is a great feature, and it's another way that Windows 7 is making windows friendlier to those of us who use pen and touch as a primary input method, but this it could definitely be improved.

re: Designing Aero Snap

gkeramidas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:17:45 GMT

if there wasn't a bug in 7000 that automatically re-anabled aero snap, it would be off all of the time. useless feature for me.

re: Designing Aero Snap

gkeramidas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:19:19 GMT

one other thing. if you're getting usability data from sqm data that i have it enabled, it's erroneous data, because of the bug.

re: Designing Aero Snap

techAU — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:37:56 GMT

You really need to increase support for multiple monitors and let you snap windows to the left and right sides of each monitor.

I know this can be done by keyboard shortcuts, but is not very convenient.

I made a video of my thoughts - http://www.techau.tv/blog/?p=1040

re: Designing Aero Snap

Dearly — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:01:20 GMT

Now that we're on the topic of design--have you considered updating Windows Media Player default visualizations? The quality is really legacy in comparison to everything else in Windows 7 and Vista. I can actually see the "pixels" with the naked eye which I measured at 3x3 actual pixels. It feels like I'm on Windows 95/98 whenever I watch visualizations.

Just some constructive feedback. I'm surprised that the visualizations have been left untouched for so long.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Urvabara — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:05:18 GMT

*IMPORTANT*

"As many of you mentioned, doing a drag drop operation from one window to another is sometimes a pain."

Yes, it is, because there is no "File|New|Window" menu item in Windows Explorer! I am always looking for it. There is "File|New|Window" menu item in Internet Explorer. Why is it still missing from the Windows Explorer?

Well, Ctrl+N seems to do the trick, but I would still like to see the menu item in Windows Explorer.

Did you really remove the "Edit|Invert Selection" menu item? Please, bring it back. People should learn to use it.

I would also like to see Always on top -option in every window.

I would also like to see Minimize to Notification area button.

Tabs in Windows Explorer could also be a great thing.

*IMPORTANT*

re: Designing Aero Snap

hdw — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:13:57 GMT

when a window is snapped and closed in the snapped state . It should be in the snapped state when it's reopened.

re: Designing Aero Snap

hdw — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:15:02 GMT

when a window is snapped and closed in the snapped state . It should be in the snapped state when it's reopened.

re: Designing Aero Snap

kayzee46 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:15:22 GMT

I really like this feature, I find it useful when chatting in several different windows too.

In fact, I wish it could be implemented more. For instance, when you drag and drop Winamp around, it will snap to the outer rim of your desktop whatever the size or location.

I often spend a lot of time organsing windows to look right like that. I'd also love it if windows such as MSN conversation ones would automatically adjust to the same size and location as last time they were open... maybe it's just me but it's probably my OCD shining through :D

re: Taskband

Bjartr — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:43:12 GMT

I love Aero Snap and for the most part use the shortcuts exclusively.

On another note, although the support for using the taskband on a side of the screen rather than the top or bottom is far and away the best in Windows so far, please allow it to be made narrower. Right now, with 'small icons' enabled there is what appears to be more that 8 pixels of dead space on either edge. I don't need 2 columns of notification icons, I don't need to see the date, or even the time really! I moved it to the side because I only have 600 pixels of vertical resolution so it makes more sense to save that for content.

tl;dr: Let me make the taskband narrower when it is docked to an edge of the screen.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Leo Davidson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:18:16 GMT

Tihiy wrote:

"There should be way to disable/tweak Aero Snap. As suggested on Win7taskforce, when CTRL is held, disable snap temporarily."

Kosher wrote:

"Linux uses shift for enabling snapping, don't try to be all different with the ctrl key. Keep it standard please."

FWIW, Photoshop uses Ctrl to temporarily override any "snap-to-grid" or "snap-to-edge" functionality when dragging, so Ctrl would be what I would naturally try as well.

(Whether more Windows users also use Photoshop and apps which follow that model, or use Linux, I don't know. I'm just pointing out that there are at least two standards here and the proposed Ctrl one is what I at least would find natural.)

I also think it's better to have a key which temporarily turns the feature off, rather than one which turns it on. First, it helps people discover the feature (though they then have to discover how to override it, I suppose). Second, if the feature is well-designed then it should be rare that you need to override it.

I have not used the Beta as a day-to-day OS so I don't know how often I would want to override it. I know I definitely would want to override it sometimes, though. (Indeed, in other programs I use that have this "docking" behaviour at the screen edges, I can remember several cases where I've needed to override it. Usually I'm happy with the default, though.)

re: Designing Aero Snap

AlphaBeta — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:32:49 GMT

I should start of by saying, that I have not had the opportunity to try out the beta. So I might be completely wrong on this.

You mention in your post, that one of the questions that arises, is "what if you want to rezise a windows width?". From what I've seen, this is a point that has unfortunately been overlooked. I agree that Aero snap is an improvement of the old Tile vertically feature, but it does not greatly improve usability, unless the user is able to change the amount of screen real estate that one window occupies. A 50/50 split is only useful if the content of the windows, that you wish to compare or simply view, takes up an equal amount of space. I think in most cases you might want an unequal division of space, say 60/40 or 70/30.

It would be helpful if it was possible to change the width of one window, by dragging the edge, and have the other window dynamically scale. And similarly with three or four windows tiled (video conferencing, mail, a document, browser), dragging the corner of one window could scale the remaining.

Right now the Aero snap feature appears to only make it faster to tile vertically, but it does not really make it much easier to compare window content or divide screen real estate, as compared to the old tiling actions.

PS: Really looking forward to the new OS

re: Designing Aero Snap

ignitedfirestarter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:00:27 GMT

I must say of all of the new features introduced in Windows 7, this is the biggest letdown.

It's like you have taken a really great idea and made a half-hearted attempt at implementing it. Why can I not snap windows to each other, why don't windows snap to monitor edges (not screen edges), why can I only perform 50\50 splitting?

These are all relevant use cases, and it's just a shame that something that is going to impress so many people could work so much better.

The amount of times (even in beta) that I have vertically maximised windows then had to *carefully* slide them across the top of the screen neatly stacking them next to each other.

All I'm saying is that you have missed a lot out, somehow.

That said, you have made a great start, so if by release you fancy squeezing the extra bits in that would be great!

re: Designing Aero Snap

TAC4U — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:04:20 GMT

"It would be helpful if it was possible to change the width of one window, by dragging the edge, and have the other window dynamically scale. And similarly with three or four windows tiled (video conferencing, mail, a document, browser), dragging the corner of one window could scale the remaining."

The problem is that Aero Snap cannot know which of the windows you want resized so it would have to do it for all snapped windows on both sides of the screen, which is a quirky way of doing things. The current method allows you to snap a window and increase or decrease its width without unsnapping the window - this can be done on both sides to do what you describe.

As an aside, one of the things I dislike about placing the taskbar on a different side of the screen - especially on Win7 now that's it is actually practical - is that the Start Menu doesn't mirror the change. By this I mean if you move the taskbar to the top of the screen then the search box and All Programs menu remain in the same place (towards the bottom) - that means you have to move your mouse much further to access the All Programs menu and means the profile picture is emerged rather than hanging down. It's still impractical to move the taskbar away from the bottom. And when you put it at the side the date looks bad because it goes right up to the edge.

PS - I don't like the way the taskbar icons now take more clicks if there are multiple windows open. Messenger is especially bad with its "fake" window, meaning I have to click twice versus the one click it takes on Vista. It takes longer to access the windows I want.

re: Designing Aero Snap

inarius — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:33:44 GMT

@TAC4U, I agree, dynamically resizing multiple windows at once is not intuitive. It would be a nightmare for designers and users alike I think.

But I was brainstorming about the use for splits other than 50/50, and I think there is an interface mechanism that could be usable and save a bit of effort on the users part.

If a user wishes to place two windows in a 70/30 split for example. One window could be placed first at 50%. Then manually resized horizontally to the desired dimension (i.e. 70% of the screen). Next, when the second window is attempted to be snapped on the other side, the initial dimension for the window would display an outline of 30% of the screen and would snap to that dimension if the window is released. If the user (without releasing) instead moves the window out of the snap trigger zone and then back in, the outlined snap dimension would be 50%. I believe this behavior would be quite intuitive, because a user surprised by the non-standard snap dimensions would be quite likely to wiggle the mouse or move out and back in to the trigger zone to verify the behavior. In addition, the non-standard snap size would only be suggested if a snapped window existed on the opposite side of the same screen (monitor) which was not at all covered by any non-modal windows.

This suggestion might seem complicated, but to me it seems very intuitive and useful from a user-perspective.

re: Designing Aero Snap

keff — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:49:46 GMT

Thanks for nice insight into UX design process - and by the way, I have 22" monitor and I LOVE this feature :)

re: Designing Aero Snap

gkeramidas — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:00:25 GMT

@Urvabara

"Did you really remove the "Edit|Invert Selection" menu item? Please, bring it back. People should learn to use it"

it was mentioned in the previous blog that this was re-instated.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Mos842 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:54:53 GMT

Aero is really cool. I think it can be extended more so that of you drag the window to some corner, it will maximize itself to 1/4 of the window!!!

Also, how about some keyboard shortcuts for cascading windows!!! or even a dedicated applet in the control panel for custom shortcuts!!!

re: Designing Aero Snap

Ravewulf — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:29:49 GMT

I love this feature and this post! I am currently in my first year of college and I hope to be working on UX type stuff so that users find the interfaces to be intuitive and attractive. In depth posts like this are really useful for learning as well as for discovering the reasoning behind features.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Jan Kučera — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:27:11 GMT

Hello,

thank you for insight to the process of designing the feature.

I really like Aero Snap and use it almost everyday. However, there are - although not that often - situations, when it can get me a bit angry very easily.

"...our top goal for the Aero Snap feature is to provide you with an effortless way to position your windows the way you want them."

"In a general sense, we want you to be able to manage your windows with confidence and create a feeling of power and control."

Well, that's not my case. They are cases where Aero Snap does not know what I want better than I.

A very real scenario: running 1920×1200, open remote desktop connection and connect to a computer with 1680×1050 resolution. Now see what happens if the opened window is smaller. Obviously you don't want to maximize it, as it would stick to the top left corner. If you take the bottom right corner in order to resize it to the full 1680×1050 size, the Aero Snap starts to annoy very intensively (trying to vertically maximize it for example). You also hardly can take the window and move it around, as it gets snapped everywhere. I do not find it effortless, even possible to position the windows the way I want, and I do not feel power or control. I rather feel my efficient desktop size has been shrunken.

Yet still, I like the feature very much. So I think there should be a way to temporarily disable it, as others already pointed out. I would keep it on by default, as it helps to discover the feature and the situations where you need to disable it are indeed not very usual.

For me, there is no discussion how should be this done – Microsoft itself already uses proven way in its other products as Visual Studio, Office etc. – hold the control key while dragging. So it would be consistent and very intuitive to allow the control key to disable snapping the same way as it disables docking, which, in fact, is the same operation.

The control key does not introduce any UI, any globalization problems, does not degrade the feature in any way, neither does it interfere with any other tasks (e.g. when you need to drag files with ctrl, you have the windows already positioned). What is most important is that the design is well proven and used for couple of years already, and that it allows you to accomplish the very goals you had at the beginning – that the user can place the windows the way they want and makes them feel a bit more of control.

That are my feelings, thanks for listening.

If interested, other notes I have are that I no longer can put the windows side by side horizontally, which I could up to Vista. I no longer can hold control and select several windows in the task bar and close/arrange/tile/whatever them. Personally, I would welcome the top and bottom of the screen to allow side by side windows too rather than using the top side to maximize a window, as you can do that in several other ways already, like double-clicking the window caption. Also maximize horizontally by resizing the window in horizontal way would at least help if the former is not going to happen.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Warel — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:44:52 GMT

As said:

"I can manage my windows with confidence but I can't manage my files with confidence due to Windows Explorer's confidence, productivity, control and power boosting enhancements. Several others seem to be having problems too, but MS perhaps doesn't want us to manage our files with confidence."

I totaly agree. Aero snap is a good implementation, and appears to be going to be even better.

BUT, please, fix windows explorer. OR, better, give me a option to simple use explorer.exe from windows xp (with libraries, they are very good), because that was not broken.

I need to see my file sizes in the statusbar and/or preview pane, WITHOUT having to select them.

I need to see full file names in list view, and NOT having they cut because of a fixed size column.

When a file is selected, it´s file size appears in the uper line at right (for pictures) or in bottom line, at left (for documents) and so on... where is the consistency we had in xp?

Can´t we have a nice option to always show file sizes in, lets say, the right of the status bar, much like xp always did?

re: Designing Aero Snap

tom5 — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:40:12 GMT

Slightly off-topic but I still can't understand the sense of linking an image in the post which is actually smaller than the original one:

example:

http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/e7/WindowsLiveWriter/DesigningAeroSnap_13DE4/image_10.png

re: Designing Aero Snap

Aeon-Slayer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:42:56 GMT

Great work on this as always guys...

One thing I can think of... SHIFT modifier should allow you to pin a window to the TOP LEFT, TOP RIGHT, BOTTOM LEFT, or BOTTOM RIGHT of your screen. Very useful for large res / projector desktops where you have the screen real estate for it!

I would also like to see the drag to Taskbar to minimize be brought back from your original ideas! The whole thing about Snap is that you don't have to press the GUI buttons to do anything but close the window, and minimizing has always been somewhat annoying. It seems intuitive enough: you are dragging the window back down to join its icon in the minimized state: what could make more sense! :P

Also, somewhat off topic, I would like it if there was an option to make the "Show Desktop" perform a Win+M instead. At the very least, having right (or Shift+) click perform this command would save power users some of the annoyances with Win+D...

Lastly, I still feel a simple "pin to top" command when you right click the Taskbar would be an excellent function, and would work perfectly in tandem with Aero Snap. This would simply save me from having to run Power Menu or another third party app to perform this basic function. Also, I honestly don't think anyone would be sad to see "Move" and "Size" be forever removed from that same menu!

Anyway guys, great work, keep it up (and implement some of my ideas from the last post PLEASE! :D)

- AeonSlayer / Simon

re: Designing Aero Snap

Jan Kučera — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:59:34 GMT

@Simon, Move and Size menu items are required if you are working with keyboard only.

I also use both Win+M and Win+D and wouldn't like to see go any of them.

What I miss is the Aero Snap for resizable common (open/save) dialogs. You are allowed to double click their caption to maximize them, so I think that being able to do it by dragging is a natural request.

Windows 7 Snaps Improvements !!!

pinko76 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:34:53 GMT

Dear windows 7 Team , I suggest you this:

Aero snap is a great feature, great!!!

But i Hope that you Improve it Small , addition , this snaps:

SNAPS OF 4 ANGLES OF SCREEN , SO THAT IT'S POSSIBLE OPEN 4 WINDOWS RESIZES ON THE DESKTOP !!!

I HOPE YOU ADDITIONS THHESE SNAPS AND OTHERS IF POSSIBLES !!!!

THANK YOU !!!!

re: Designing Aero Snap

Aeon-Slayer — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:33:01 GMT

@Jan Kučera: Fair call about the Keyboard only users (I personally never do this, so I didn't know -- love the mouse :P)

I think Left click for Win+D and Right click for Win+M makes sense? I use rainmeter at the moment, and the only reason I don't like Win+D is that is minimizes EVERYTHING but Windows Gadgets, which is a pain.

- AeonSlayer / Simon

re: Designing Aero Snap

anonymuos — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:36:43 GMT

Bringing up properties in Windows Explorer using Alt+Enter is still not fixed in the left pane of Explorer. It is broken, only gives a default beep sound doing nothing but brings up the properties in the right pane. I've reported this bug on blogs, email, Feedback tool, Connect but to no avail.

WINDOWS 7 AERO INTERFACE BUG!!!! IT DRIVE CRAZY !!!!

pinko76 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:32:16 GMT

I write away , for another Bug , present in windows 7 Beta , present forward also in windows vista operating system:

1) Aero interface Lqd and Latency , present in many areas , for example : lag of windows , lag of preview open applications , lag of Flip 3d when switch into many open windows and others areas !!

2) Another bug of Aero Interface in windows 7 Beta is: this is more complex to describe , that :

WHEN I CLICK WITH MOUSE ON DESKTOP AND AFTER ONE CLICK ON TOP BORDER OF ANY OPEN WINDOW , THIS WINDOW IT OPEN TO MAXIMUS SIZE !!!!!

THIS IS NOT NORMAL , BECAUSE FOR OPEN WINDOW TO MAXIMUS SIZE DESKTOP , IT IS NECESSARY TWO CLICK !!!!!

BUT WITH THIS BUG , IT IS ENOUGH ONE CLICK ON BORDER WINDOWS , SO IT OPEN !!!!

IN OTHER WORDS, OFTEN OPEN WINDOWS AND OTHER PARTS OF AERO INTERFACE THEY DRIVE CRAZY !!!!!!!!!

IN OTHER WORDS , AERO INTERFACE OFTEN IT DRIVES CRAZY AND MORE IS NOT HAD THE CONTROL !!!

I PRAY TO YOU ANOTHER WAY !!!!!!!! FIX THESE BAD BUGS OF AERO INTERFACE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I PRAY TO YOU !!!!!!

FIX IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DO NOT KNOW LIKE OTHER TO SAY IT TO YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU.

re: Designing Aero Snap

Kalbakk — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:19:41 GMT

The new window handling in W7 looks great.

However, there's one thing I _really_ miss from the Unix world of window managers: The ability to move windows by [alt]-clicking windows.

Alt+left mouse allows you to move the window.

Alt+right mouse allows you to resize the window.

This is such a good feature I can't imaging how it would be to live without it. Please consider this a feature request. Thanks.

re: Designing Aero Snap

manicmarc — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:58:45 GMT

These changes look really good.

I use Tortoise SVN as a UI for Subversion. It allows users to middle-click the maximise button to make a window maximise vertically. I can see this has a disadvantage for laptop users with no middle button, so great to see you have come up with a different way.

re: Designing Aero Snap

bananaman — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:13:39 GMT

Yep, here's my list, all ideas mentioned already.

1. Snap should work along a shared edge of 2 monitors.

2. A way to turn snap off for those who don't want to use it.

3. A way to temporarily not snap (ie. hold Ctrl key during drag)

Really cool feature I find myself missing in XP/Vista already.

Windows 7 Repair

Wolf-Tech — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:12:45 GMT

I would like to bring something too your attention that is a major flaw in windows 7. I tested the latest build and changed one setting in the registry for a test. The machine would not boot. So I went to the recovery boot up and noticed one thing. Even with command prompt theres no way to open the registry with regedit. All the reocvery start up see's is the drive but will not access the registry. I also looked all through the drive for a "repair" folder to even try and replace the "system" hive. Nothing I couldn't replace or fix that one setting it was a complete wipe and reload for something that would have been a simple 2 min fix. "Please Fix that!!!!!"

re: Designing Aero Snap

Eghost — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:34:19 GMT

There is still a bug, If you have the task bar on the top, a window that is not full screen, ie can't be made full screen can still get stuck under the task bar. This has been happening since the inception of the task bar in Win 95 and still continues in Windows 7, When will if ever this be fixed?

Can we combine Flip3D and alt+Tab???

jitendragarg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:30:11 GMT

Why can't we just combine the Flip3D function with default Alt+Tab function? Why do we need two different key combination for the same task? Can't we provide Flip3D as a replacement to regular Alt+Tab, and an option to use the older Alt+Tab feature, in Control Panel?

Oh, by the way, this Aero Snap feature is cool and productive at the same time. Nice work on this one.

re: Designing Aero Snap

icarusxp — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:40:02 GMT

i want to move my windows with ALT Key pressed and clicking somewhere on the window. thats the feature i'm most missing in windows!

4 Window Tiling

Axion_Impulse — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:00:27 GMT

Great blog article! It's nice to the progression of ideas to implementation. Good stuff :) However, I didn't have the chance to read the entire thing so forgive me if this was covered.

Now, I use Aero snap quite a bit, but there are sometimes when I'd like to have up to four windows snapped at a time. For instance, having an IE window open on the right, and two Live Messenger convos on the right, stacked one atop the other. Would it be possible to make it so that dragging the windows to the very corners of the screen would enable this quarter-tiling?

The other thing concerns the vertical tiling. Since we have vertical, and I know people do not use horizontal tiling as much, there are sometimes timew when I think it would be handy. Would there be some way to use a trigger area where dragging a window to the top centre of the screen (about 50% of the monitor width, orginating from the centre) would maximize the screen, and then the 25% on either side of the trigger area would allow horizontal window tiling? Tiling the bottom window would work the same way I'd think, dragging it downward towards the taskbar.

Just thoughts :).

GAH! After writing all that I realized that Pinko talked about it a bit. Either way, I think it would be great to implement.

Too Twitchy

bigfish — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:10:26 GMT

I already sent this as feedback, but I feel the snap feature is a bit too sensitive. A common motion for me is to grab a window and "toss" it out of the way. But if my mouse happens to end up at the top of the display when I release the button, it maximizes and ends up even more in the way than it was!

The way I would like it to work is to require the pointer to be held [nearly] motionless for a short period of time before the effect is "armed", and then commit it on release of the button. This would also enable a two-stage effect...the first stage to maximize vertically, and if the user keeps holding the button down, we can get full maximization.

MS Office problems

themadczech — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:15:55 GMT

I think Aero snap is a great addition to the system and I've used it extensively...

But has anybody else noticed that you can't tear off MS Office applications when fully maximised? Is that just me...?

Try it... All corners and positions work apart from max.

re: Designing Aero Snap

dotnetcyborg — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:49:46 GMT

Am I the only one who cant stand the "round ball" start menu logo? I would love it if it was a square or rectangle. Why a ball? Its a computer not a bottle of perfume right?

re: Designing Aero Snap

Axion_Impulse — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:23:55 GMT

I've noticed that as well themadczech. In the past, I wasn't able to pull down MS Office 2007 programs in maximized mode. I say past since that I'm able to do it now though. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a component connected external monitor and that Windows may be detecting it differently, or if it's because of Office 2007's Service Pack 2 installation, but I can do it now (I strongly think it's SP2's installation).

re: Designing Aero Snap

Axion_Impulse — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:33:48 GMT

False alarm on that one. I still cant pull Excel out of maximized mode like I can with Word. Weird...

sohan (boiler installer)

sohan — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:12:02 GMT

We have a boiler installation company at UK London

re: Designing Aero Snap

porum — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:34:14 GMT

Oh, by the way, this Aero Snap feature is cool and productive at the same time. Nice work on this one.

re: Designing Aero Snap

davepermen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:06:21 GMT

I'd like to have Aero Snap in Vertical Mode on the Tablet, too, so I can attach windows to the top and bottom part of the screen instead of left and right.

Have you considered having a 90° turned around behaviour if the aspect ratio changes of a screen to have more height than width? It would be very useful that way.

re: Designing Aero Snap

camtarn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:30:04 GMT

Aero Snap is one of the many beautiful pieces of attention to detail that I noticed when I first got Windows 7. Thank you for making something that just 'feels right' :)

re: Designing Aero Snap

web developer — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:35:31 GMT

Well i have not tired Windows 7 till now. But soon i will be testing W7 myself. Features look good.

re: Designing Aero Snap

MMOGamer — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:17:29 GMT

I really liked the Aero in windows vista, but this is actually soo much better and more visually impressive. GJ Microsoft.

re: Designing Aero Snap

blu ray ripper — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:24:47 GMT

This is very good news was well informed that the followers of the issue I am. Thanks...