I've found as far as Explorer Replacement mode is concerned, that Dopus 9 running on Vista is inferior to Dopus 8 running on XP.
I say this because no matter what I set in the "Explorer Replacement" options, even if I set it to "Replace Explorer for all folders", it still doesn't do just that.
The most annoying one is Control Panel. I know Directory Opus can read it because when I type "Control Panel" in the Location bar it comes up just fine. But I try clicking the links in the Start Menu for control panel, or even if I click on it from inside a Dopus window pointing at the Desktop, it STILL opens in Explorer. Same thing with "Administrative Tools", "Printers", and other folders that display a list of objects in a file-list fashion.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would the option to show all folders in Dopus be there if it doesn't work?
Really, I hate Explorer. I hated it before with XP but I REALLY hate it now with Vista. I hate this trend that Microsoft is doing to try to make all of their products have the same lack of functionality but stylish appearance that the Mac OS is known for.
I also which there was a way to get dopus to replace common dialogs such as Open and Save. The ones in Vista waste so much time for me simply because Microsoft has removed the "up one directory". Why? This is another thing that Explorer lacks that makes it pretty much unusable in my mind.
We made the decision to specifically not replace Explorer for the Control Panel on Vista, because it simply doesn't work that well. Personally I have Control Panel set as a cascading menu on the start menu, I find that's a much quicker way of accessing it than through a browser interface.
This is a suggestion I very much agree with. Specifically, in this case the Open/Save dialog could communicate with an existing DO Lister, for example:
When saving a file from a program, in the Save dialog there could be a button (or a drop-down menu) which would allow to go to the directory actually displayed in a DO Lister. This would save a lot of search and clicking in many occasions.
Having the option to add the same command buttons in the Open/Save dialog as in DirectoryOpus.
Having the same File Type dependent views in the Open/Save dialog as in DirectoryOpus.
Etc.
AFAIK this depends on how the Open/Save dialog (which of course is a Windows dialog) is implemented in the calling program. The programmer can use different options when writing the call for the Open/Save dialog. I've tried it now in Vista, and the "up one directory" button is there. I've seen very basic Open/Save dialogs (e.g. no shortcut-bar or static size) with some programs and other programs offering more features.
Windows does not, to my knowledge, provide a reliable and supported way to replace the Open and Save dialogs. (Heck, as already discussed in this thread, Windows doesn't even replace its own dialogs with the newer versions; programs have to explicitly ask for them to avoid breaking compatibility with software which expects and modifies the older versions.)
I know there are programs which do replace the dialogs, presumably via some kind of hack, but the anecdotal stories I've heard from people who have tried using them suggests it results in a lot of problems.
I don't like the Open and Save dialogs either but, given the above, it does not seem like a sensible thing for Opus to attempt to do. Changing the program which gets launched when another program "executes" a folder is very different from changing the API and memory structures that another program uses inside of itself.
Control Panel
Apart from being able to re-use the window for another path, would there be any advantage in having Opus handle Control Panel rather than Explorer? None of the features that Opus adds for general file management seem useful when viewing Control Panel, but maybe I am overlooking something.
For years I've been using a program called File-Ex. It won't work with Vista but it does a great job on XP. It allows you to easily jump to favourite/recent directories and files.
At least with the new-style dialog in Vista, you can simply drag folders to the bar to add them to it. No need to edit the registry. You may still need to edit the registry for the old-style dialog; I'm not sure.
(BTW, Running XP's TweakUI on Vista seems like something that could cause a mess.)
I expect File-Ex is doing the dialog replacement in the best way it can and the hooks and tweaks are a necessary part of the messy process because there isn't a proper, supported and generally reliable (without application-specific tweaks/hacks) way to replace the dialogs that other programs use.
I am not GPSoftware and have no say about what they add to Opus but, personally, this is something I'd stay away from because I think making it work with lots of different software -- that sometimes only a couple of people have -- could turn into a time consuming task (and because I don't like the idea of writing code that has to make assumptions about and patch other programs because there's no other way to do what it does).
I hate the O/S dialog simply because its behaviour when it comes to listing files is the same as explorer. I.e. if you view thumbnails it create a thumbs.db file (those files are so annoying) and if you rename a file the file extension is also selected. It little things like that that bug me.
It seems to me that the view showing the list of files and folders is essentially still explorer. If DO could override just that bit it would be a step in the right direction.
Apart from being able to re-use the window for another path, would there be any advantage in having Opus handle Control Panel rather than Explorer? None of the features that Opus adds for general file management seem useful when viewing Control Panel, but maybe I am overlooking something.[/quote]
Well, with Dopus we'd be able to rename Programs & Features back to Add/Remove Programs...
hehe.. just kidding.
All kidding aside, Jon had a good suggestion to set Control Panel in the start menu to open in a menu. You can do that with Administrative Tools too. I'll run like that for a while and see how it goes.
AFAIK this depends on how the Open/Save dialog (which of course is a Windows dialog) is implemented in the calling program. The programmer can use different options when writing the call for the Open/Save dialog. I've tried it now in Vista, and the "up one directory" button is there. I've seen very basic Open/Save dialogs (e.g. no shortcut-bar or static size) with some programs and other programs offering more features.[/quote]
Is there a way to "hack in" just that "up one directory" button in the dialogs? There's gotta be some registry hack or something. Because that's really the only main annoyance I have with it.
