Will Windows 8 be a Good OS for Desktop PCs?

We all know that Microsoft's upcoming OS "Windows 8" is under development. Microsoft has released a Developer Preview build of Windows 8 to public in past and very soon Microsoft is going to release a Beta (Consumer Preview) build of Windows 8 to public on Feb 29, 2012. Everyone will be able to download and use it absolutely free.
Windows 8 comes with several new features and enhancements like new Start Screen which has completely replaced traditional Start Menu, Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer, redesigned and enhanced file copy/move dialog box, enhanced Task Manager, Refresh/Reset PC functionality and much more. You can learn more about all new Windows 8 features in our exclusive Windows 8 section.

Although there are many improvements and new additions in this new Windows OS but the question comes, will Windows 8 be a good OS for Desktop and laptops? This question came in my mind because it seems Microsoft is mainly targeting touch-devices like Tablets for Windows 8 development. Why? Please read below:

Windows 8 Start Screen

Lets talk about Start Screen first. Start Screen shows big live thumbnails (called Tiles) of installed programs in Windows 8. Its extremely cool to have such kind of screen in touch devices as the user needs to use his finger to select an item and it would be really hard to select an item from traditional start menu. Big thumbnails help user in opening a program easily and quickly.
But what about Desktop and laptop users? Why would a Desktop user want new Start Screen to forcefully occupy the whole screen area to show big thumbnails of programs? Start Menu takes a very small amount of screen space and the user also have access to Desktop but in Start Screen, if you want to look at Desktop, you'll need to click on Desktop tile or use keyboard shortcuts.
Also using mouse to scroll between several program tiles on Start Screen takes much time compared to the good old start menu where it shows a list of all installed programs using small icons and text which doesn't take much space.
So for a Desktop user, Start Menu is far better than new Start Screen.
PS: There is a registry hack to enable Start Menu in Windows which can be found here. But again its a hidden trick and I'm not sure whether it'll work in final RTM build of Windows 8 or not? Microsoft can disable this trick in RTM build.

Removal of Start Button

Now the news are coming from latest Windows 8 testing build that Microsoft has removed "Start button" from Taskbar.
First removal of Classic start menu from Windows 7, then removal of the whole start menu from Windows 8 and now they removed Start button from Taskbar? Where are they going?
The Start button in Windows 8 Developer Preview build used to launch new Start Screen and now after the removal of Start button, you need to move your mouse cursor to the bottom-left corner of screen which shows a small thumbnail of Start Screen. You need to click on that thumbnail to launch Start Screen.
The reason behind this move is the presence of actual "Start Button" key on all touch devices. Actually Microsoft has provided some guidelines to all computer manufacturer companies to develop devices compatible with Windows 8. The first and most important guideline is the presence of Start button key. All touch devices must have a Start button on the device panel which should launch the Start Screen.
Now Microsoft is again thinking about touch devices and forgetting about Desktop users. Desktop users don't need Start Screen. They just need to click on Start Button and launch the desired program.
Instead of completely removing the Start button, Microsoft could have made it a bit shorter or could have used a rectangular shape similar to Aero Peek (Show Desktop) rectangle present in the end of Taskbar. Microsoft can make it completely transparent or put Windows flag icon or a big S on it. So that at least users can know that they need to click on it to access Start Screen.

Metro Apps

And about Metro Apps, why would a Desktop user need a chromeless Internet Explorer metro version when he already have an excellent IE9 version? Metro IE is great for touch devices like tablets where the screen is small and you need to use your fingers to browse the sites but for a Desktop user its not so great. IE9 already comes with minimal UI. It hardly takes screen space and provides much space to browse websites.
Again Metro Apps are great for touch devices but not for Desktops.

What Would Be The Best Solution?

Its true that tablets are becoming popular day by day but Desktop users are still there and will always be there so we should not forget about them.
Why to create a single OS which is perfect for tablets but not very good for Desktops?
What Microsoft should do is to develop 2 separate editions of Windows 8, one for tablets and the other for Desktops. Desktop edition should come with traditional Start button and Start Menu and the Tablet edition should come with new Start Screen.
Or Microsoft can program Windows 8 setup in such a way that it should automatically detect the computer system at the installation time whether its a touch device or Desktop and then it should install the right edition.
Also instead of completely removing a component, Microsoft should provide an option to switch between features. If they wish, they can disable Start menu but they should also provide an option in Taskbar Properties to enable traditional start menu. Same thing can be done for Start button. Providing options to user is better instead of forcing him to use something which he doesn't want to use.
I'm sure if tablets were not so popular and Microsoft didn't think about them, Windows 8 would have been something different than what we are seeing today.
Just my two cents. What do you think???
PS: I don't hate Windows 8. There are many things which I love about Windows 8 for example, enhanced Windows Explorer, Task Manager, File History, Reset/Refresh PC, new boot loader, etc. But implementing changes to make the OS compatible with tablets and ruining Desktop user experience is not a thing which I'll admire...

How to Pin a Folder or Drive Directly to Windows 7 Taskbar?

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We all know that Windows 7 comes with new Superbar which is a modified version of classic Taskbar. This new superbar in Windows 7 provides lots of useful features like jumplist, iconized program buttons and pin functionality.
Using the "Pin" functionality, you can put any desired program or file shortcut to Windows 7 Taskbar and can launch that program or file within a single mouse click.
But there is a limitation in this Pin feature. Whenever you try to pin a folder or drive to Taskbar, Windows pins it to Windows Explorer shortcut. As soon as you drag-n-drop the folder or drive shortcut to Taskbar, Windows shows a tool-tip "Pin to Windows Explorer" as shown in following screenshot:

Once its pinned to Windows Explorer, you can't launch the pinned folder or drive directly. If you click on the pinned shortcut, it launches Windows Explorer in Library mode instead of opening the pinned folder or drive. The only way to launch the pinned folder or drive is to first show jumplist and then click on the pinned folder or drive shortcut as shown in following screenshot:

Wouldn't it be great if you could pin a direct shortcut to desired folder or drive instead of pinning it to Windows Explorer shortcut?
If you can remember we have posted a tutorial in past about pinning useful system shortcuts like My Computer, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, etc to Windows 7 Taskbar:
How to Pin My Computer, Recycle Bin & Other Useful Shortcuts to Windows 7 Taskbar
Using the same trick used in the above mentioned tutorial, we'll hack Windows 7's built-in "Pin to Taskbar" feature to allow us pinning direct shortcuts to a folder or drive.
So without wasting time lets start the tutorial which will help us in pinning a folder or drive directly to Windows 7 Taskbar:
1. First you'll need to create a new shortcut. To do this, right-click on Desktop and select "New -> Shortcut":

2. It'll launch "Create Shortcut" wizard. Now you'll need to enter following command in "Type the location of the item" text box:

explorer "folder_path_or_drive_letter"

For example, if you want to pin a folder "Downloads" present in E:\ drive, then you'll need to use following command:
explorer "E:\Downloads"
And if you want to pin a drive E:, then you'll need to use following command:
explorer "E:"
In drive case, double-quotes ("") are optional.

3. After entering the command, click on "Next" button. Now enter the folder or drive name in "Type a name for this shortcut" text box and click on "Finish" button.

4. That's it. It'll create the folder or drive shortcut on Desktop.
If you want, you can also change its icon. Right-click on the shortcut and select "Properties". Click on "Change Icon" button:

Now you can browse and select any desired icon. We'll recommend to use imageres.dll file for selecting new icon as this file contains lots of good looking icons:

5. After selecting the new icon, click on OK and then Apply the changes.
6. Now you just need to pin this folder or drive shortcut to Taskbar. You can either drag-n-drop the shortcut to Taskbar or right-click on the shortcut and select "Pin to Taskbar" option:

As you can see now Windows is showing "Pin to Taskbar" in tool-tip instead of "Pin to Windows Explorer". Now the folder or drive will be pinned directly to Taskbar and you'll be able to launch it using a single mouse click.
That's it guys. Using this trick, you'll be able to pin a direct shortcut of any desired folder or drive instead of pinning it to Windows Explorer icon.

How to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files on Windows Vista or on Windows 7

Use the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe) to determine which file is causing the issue, and then replace the file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   sfc /scannow
   The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

To determine which files could not be repaired by the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt
   Note The Sfcdetails.txt file contains details from every time that the System File Checker tool has been run on the computer. The file includes information about files that were not repaired by the System File Checker tool. Verify the date and time entries to determine the problem files that were found the last time that you ran the System File Checker tool.
3. Type sfcdetails.txt in Search programs and files and press Enter.
   
   The Sfcdetails.txt file uses the following format:
   Date/Time SFC detail

The following sample log file contains an entry for a file that could not be repaired:

2007-01-12 12:10:42, Info                  CSI    00000008 [SR] Cannot 
repair member file [l:34{17}]"Accessibility.dll" of Accessibility, Version = 
6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_MSIL (8), Culture neutral, 
VersionScope neutral, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:b03f5f7f11d50a3a}, Type 
neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, file is missing

If the System File Checker tool cannot repair a file, follow these steps:

1. At an elevated command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   takeown /f Path_And_File_Name
   For example, type takeown /f E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.
2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER to grant administrators full access to the file:
   icacls Path_And_File_Name /GRANT ADMINISTRATORS:F
   For example, type icacls E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll /grant administrators:F.
3. Type the following command to replace the file with a known good copy of the file:
   Copy Path_And_File_Name_Of_Source_File Path_And_File_Name_Of_Destination
   For example, type copy E:\temp\jscript.dll E:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.