[quote="reck"]I really, really hope that the opus update supports libraries. I know that they are around in vista but they were mostly hidden. In Win7 they are right there in explorer, in fact the documents folder is a library and contains the "my documents" and "public documents" folders by default.
They are really useful and I they would be a big lose when moving from explorer to dopus (never thought i'd miss something from explorer by moving to opus lol). Right now I can't think of any other reason to use explorer apart from support for libraries.[/quote]
Unfortunately collections are not the same as virtual folders. Believe me once you start using them you don't want to go back to using just normal folders.
That's why I don't want to have to choose between all the power and customisation of dopus or the virtual folders and inbuilt indexed search of explorer.
Ideally opus would be able to tap into the windows 7/vista indexed search engine and virtual folders and integrate them into opus. Then there would be no reason to use explorer at all.
reck, can you please try to explain to me the power of Libraries in Windows 7? i don't see the appeal. i know where my files are, and with Opus, i can get anywhere with just a few keystrokes. how do Libraries improve productivity?
For a long time opus was miles ahead of explorer and explorer offered nothing extra by using it. But starting in vista with the introduction of indexed search and virtual folders (or libraries) it actually offers something opus doesn't. In win7 we are seeing that they have exposed even more of the virtual folder system and as such will most likely be used by mainstream users and not just power users. This seems like as good as time as any to take a look at these two areas to see if it's possible to integrate the win7 indexed search and virtual folder system straight into opus.
Using win7 libraries with directory opuses viewing filters and display options would be the ultimate combination.
On a separate note it sounds like the final release of win 7 is only a few months away now assuming nothing critical pops up. The RC is extremely stable and some people have even been using the beta as their "main" os with no problems. This is something that would have been very risky with previous versions of windows.
FWIW, Opus already displays Win7 libraries, but the display is handled like My Computer etc. with an embedded Explorer inside of the Opus window. So you don't have to switch programs to view libraries but you lose a lot of the Opus functionality when doing so.
(This isn't directed at Reck as he knows how it works already. Just wanted to clarify for anyone reading the thread who hasn't had a chance to play around with Opus on Win7 yet.)
Hi newguy. Here is some info regarding windows 7 libraries.
XP & Vista have their “shell” folders, (My) Documents, (My) Pictures etc but these are just shortcuts to real folders like C:\users\bob\my documents. If you want to view your documents you can just open the (my) documents folder shortcut and there are your documents.
But what happens if you have documents stored in other locations on your computer? For instance I have a share folder setup on my D drive where I place documents to share with other people. I also a folder on a network drive where I store documents as well. In this sort of situation (my) documents doesn’t really paint a true picture because what I’m really seeing is just a subset of my documents and not all of them.
With windows 7 the documents folder is no longer just a shell folder, it’s a virtual folder which means it can display your documents from different locations. By default it will show you all documents within the my documents folder and the public documents folder. It’s also very easy to add additional folders as well. So I can add my share folder on the d drive and also the folder on the network drive that also contains documents. This means when I look in my documents folder in windows 7 I’m getting an accurate display of all my documents on the computer and not just in one folder.
The nice thing is that the library is not a static list of files, it’s dynamic. If I add or delete a word document for instance in any of the locations specified this will be reflected in the library. This is a key difference between libraries and opus’s collections, collections are not dynamic. My hope is that collections will be replaced with libraries in the next opus release but I have no idea if this is even possible or something that the devs want to do. But to me it seems a logical next step because although virtual folders were cut back in vista at the last minute and were slightly hidden in windows 7 this functionality has really come to the front. This is because as mentioned the shell folders are virtual folders to begin with and the explorer gui has also been altered to very easily create/delete and change library folders so it’s something people are going to get used to using. For this reason I think it would be a big benefit, if possible, for opus to tap into the facility. Especially when you think how much better it would be in opus with its advanced filtering and display options.
One other thing to bear in mind is that the documents library is just one ready built library. The Pictures and videos folders are another two examples of prebuilt library folders. The other really cool thing is that you can also create your own library folders (just right click -> new library) and then add other locations to it to create collections of related files that may not reside in the same folder on the disk.
thanks to all for explaining what makes Libraries special. i've been using Window 7 as my primary OS since pre-beta, but i've also been using Opus as my file manager, so i ever really checked them out.
i guess i'm a simple guy, because i keep all my documents in one place, all my videos in another, and so on. i really don't see any need for virtual folders. i'm very compulsive about staying organized, and i tend to remember exactly where things are
I have tried DOpus on windows 7 RC x64 and it seemed to do OK with replacing explorer disabled.
But when I right click my desktop and choose personalize or any other item windows explorer crashes and restarts again. Exited Dopus comletely but the same thing happened. After uninstalling DOpus the crashes were gone.
I just wanted to share it with you.
I got W7 RC on tuesday last.
Of course I played with it.
Anyway, I do not like the start menu, I hate it, so I found a work aaround it to have the folders that I want in and the shortcuts in the folder that I want, just as in Vista & XP.
Go into C:\Program Data\Start Menu\Programs
then copy all thats in there to another location.
In the start menu create what folders you want in there and copy the shortcuts into the folders you want to.
BTW, this can be done in Opus, but not in My Computer because the Start Menu is set to not allow this.
I forgot to mention in the post above that there will be a few entries in the start menu folders in C:\ USERS, and as you install programs there will be a few, but not as many as in Program Data.
[quote="Xenophon"]I have tried DOpus on windows 7 RC x64 and it seemed to do OK with replacing explorer disabled.
But when I right click my desktop and choose personalize or any other item windows explorer crashes and restarts again. Exited Dopus comletely but the same thing happened. After uninstalling DOpus the crashes were gone.
I just wanted to share it with you.[/quote]
I had the same problem.
Disabling "Add layout and other items to Desktop context menu" (Settings - Preferences - Miscellaneous - Windows Integration) will resolve this.
On a second note, I really dislike the windows File - Save window so I hope, now Windows 7 is in the RC stage, GP Software gives us an updated version where we can re-enable Windows Explorer replacement very soon ... one that also works on my 64-bit system
)