quirks you bring to non-mac systems?

haha, i have hot corners set up on my powerbook for Expose, you should see me on a Windows computer moving the cursor to the corners until i realize that i am not on a Mac. On my computer im used to Command+Q to quit everything, and i find myself trying to use that keyboard shortcut on PCs too, im glad that i dont have to use em that much anymore though

question fear said:

One of my co-workers pointed out to me today that I drag quite a few of my programs on my work computer to the windows taskbar, and have it set double-tall so i can fill it with word, excel, calculator, and several proprietary program links.
I looked closer, and realized I was essentially doing the best I could to create a dock on a crappy networked windows 98 system...but it worked (as well as can be expected) since i barely needed to use the start menu and every program i needed was neatly lined along the bottom of the screen. Voila! ugly ass pretend dock!
Anyone else find themselves trying hard to "macinize" a non-mac machine?

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i find myself wishing i had Quicksilver and Expose on all my windows machines.. i feel lost without them. i have a feeling i'm going to miss my smart folders when i get tiger too... lol

well I don't think your mac-a-tizing your 98 setup at work. if anything your probably understand the usability of the quick launch bar cause of using a mac. If have yet to use OSX but in windows I allways make sure my Quick Launch bar is there and has my fav programs I use.

question fear said:

One of my co-workers pointed out to me today that I drag quite a few of my programs on my work computer to the windows taskbar, and have it set double-tall so i can fill it with word, excel, calculator, and several proprietary program links.
I looked closer, and realized I was essentially doing the best I could to create a dock on a crappy networked windows 98 system...but it worked (as well as can be expected) since i barely needed to use the start menu and every program i needed was neatly lined along the bottom of the screen. Voila! ugly ass pretend dock!
Anyone else find themselves trying hard to "macinize" a non-mac machine?

Click to expand...

before my PC died i had a dock on it... and i hid the start menu... and a huge multicolored apple logo centered on my desktop

question fear said:

One of my co-workers pointed out to me today that I drag quite a few of my programs on my work computer to the windows taskbar, and have it set double-tall so i can fill it with word, excel, calculator, and several proprietary program links.

Click to expand...

I did both of these things on Windows before OS X came out, and long before I wanted a Mac.... Double-tall for that reason, and also so that there was plenty of room for applications' window buttons. Quick launch items because it just *works*. Nicely. And damn-fool-idealistic-crusade to get rid of all the annoying widgets in the tray that do nothing.

What drives me crazy with out lab PCs is that the system automatically loads icons onto the desktop (if you delete them, they come back) and uses tray widgets to launch several apps. The first problem with the latter thing is that you can't make your own tray widgets easily, so you're stuck with some items in the quick launch on the left, and others in the tray on the right. The second is that they run as processes, and sometimes get screwed up or killed somehow, fail to appear in the taskbar, etc....

But I do little Mac and Unix things. Most definitely type "ls" at the command prompt entirely too often. Ctrl-W and Ctrl-Q instead of Alt/Ctrl-F4. And I hold dragged objects over directories or start bar window buttons, stupidly waiting for them to spring-load.

I miss not being able to use the keyboard to create a folder. I use Apple-Shift-N all the time. Then again I like to press Return to get into a folder too and that only works in Windows Anybody know an Apple keyboard shortcut that enters a folder?

Heh, I did the ctrl-w and q thing too. Plus I tend to look towards the left of the window for the close/minimize/maximize buttons, became perplexed at why they disappeared, then suddenly remembering it's on the right just as my eyes saw it.

Cooknn said:

I miss not being able to use the keyboard to create a folder. I use Apple-Shift-N all the time. Then again I like to press Return to get into a folder too and that only works in Windows Anybody know an Apple keyboard shortcut that enters a folder?

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im used to enter as well, and so i thought your question was a good one, so i selected a folder in the Finder and went to the file menu, turns out Command+O will open it for ya, so woohoo we learn new stuff everyday!

Cooknn said:

I miss not being able to use the keyboard to create a folder. I use Apple-Shift-N all the time. Then again I like to press Return to get into a folder too and that only works in Windows Anybody know an Apple keyboard shortcut that enters a folder?

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If I understand what you mean, I think Apple + down-arrow does what you want. It also launches a program if it's highlit.

EDIT: This also has the advantage that Apple-Up will take you backwards, like the backspace key in Windows.

For creating a folder in Windows...hmmm...I'm not in front of Windows right now, but I'm sure there's a way.

PlaceofDis said:

turns out Command+O will open it for ya

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SWEET I never thought to look at the File menu - DOH

Cooknn said:

SWEET I never thought to look at the File menu - DOH

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what mkrishnan said will work as well now that i tried it out

PlaceofDis said:

haha, i have hot corners set up on my powerbook for Expose, you should see me on a Windows computer moving the cursor to the corners until i realize that i am not on a Mac. On my computer im used to Command+Q to quit everything, and i find myself trying to use that keyboard shortcut on PCs too, im glad that i dont have to use em that much anymore though

Click to expand...

HAHA! I do the exact same thing with hot corners/expose.

mkrishnan said:

But I do little Mac and Unix things. Most definitely type "ls" at the command prompt entirely too often. Ctrl-W and Ctrl-Q instead of Alt/Ctrl-F4. And I hold dragged objects over directories or start bar window buttons, stupidly waiting for them to spring-load.

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I do the same thing with almost all of those.

I often fine myself attempting to press the F11 key....
I also sometimes find myself looking for a CD eject button. I try to type "C:\" sometimes on my Mac... but that's rare.
Sometimes I get the shortcut keys wrong, but that isn't too often.

I hate the quick launch. Yes, it is the most dock-like, but EVERY FREAKING PROGRAM adds itself to there. And I still can't get MSN messenger out of the system tray and can't figure out how. The WinXP CD let me remove the shortcut from the start menu but not from the computer or even make it stop appearing at startup!

I also find myself looking at the Control Panel in vain attempts to do things under Windows.

mkrishnan said:

But I do little Mac and Unix things. Most definitely type "ls" at the command prompt entirely too often.

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That's my #1 thing after using Linux or Mac for a while, then switching to Windows. And I keep trying to use "ls" for several days afterwards... For some reason the same thing doesn't apply the other way around. I never try to use "dir" in Linux or Mac. No idea why.

Mechcozmo said:

I hate the quick launch. Yes, it is the most dock-like, but EVERY FREAKING PROGRAM adds itself to there. And I still can't get MSN messenger out of the system tray and can't figure out how. The WinXP CD let me remove the shortcut from the start menu but not from the computer or even make it stop appearing at startup!

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It's easy to remove apps from the quicklauch, plus most installers let you choose whether or not to place apps there. Mine is quite nice and tidy, with only the most used programs.

As for Messenger, you probably need to run 'msconfig', choose the 'Startup' tab, then uncheck 'msmsgs'. And whatever you do, don't run Outlook Express! It'll just readd Messenger to the tray.

--

Another Mac/Windows thing has to do with the keyboard and the placement of the '@'. After using my PB, then switch to the PC, the e-mail addresses I type end up as user'domain.com instead of user@domain.com. I only do it once, but it's also something I *always* do once.

Don't know about habits that carry into Windows, but I know that when I first switched to OSX, I kept my fingers on Alt, Control, and delete.....ready to push them when needed.

Abstract said:

Don't know about habits that carry into Windows, but I know that when I first switched to OSX, I kept my fingers on Alt, Control, and delete.....ready to push them when needed.

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LOL, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it!

I've realized, thanks to this thread, that I'm also imitating the OS X dock on my WinXP machine by using the QuickLaunch toolbar...I have pretty much every program I ever use in there! I hardly ever open the Start menu. What's funny about this though is that I don't have or use a Mac! I'm a soon-to-be switcher, though, and can't wait to get my 12" PB!

--Greg

Mechcozmo said:

I hate the quick launch. Yes, it is the most dock-like, but EVERY FREAKING PROGRAM adds itself to there.

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You can just right click the icons in the Quick Launch and delete them. It only deletes the shortcut, not the program.

Try Stardock's docking bar. I had my PC skinned like a Mac briefly, for about a week, but came the conclusion that since no matter what I made it look like, it still felt like Windows, there was no point and I should just get a Mac. The only think I kept was the drop shadow effect around my windows (google for xyshadow).

Mechcozmo said:

And I still can't get MSN messenger out of the system tray and can't figure out how. The WinXP CD let me remove the shortcut from the start menu but not from the computer or even make it stop appearing at startup!

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Is MSN messenger in your Startup folder? Go to Start/All Programs/Startup and delete the shortcut from there. You can also stop the process and hence remove it from the System tray by right clicking and selecting "close".