Things about Windows 10 #3: Taskbar icon apps are frustrating

In Things about Windows 10 #2 I wrote:

It turns out Windows 10 is fairly terrible at remembering window sizes and placement when connecting to or disconnecting from an external display.

This post is in a similar vein.

The Windows 10 taskbar houses a few apps that constantly run such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Docker, 1Password, etc. This is very similar to macOS’s menu bar at the top of the screen. These small apps don’t require full window interfaces in many cases, and they run all the time, so the developers decided not to make them full blown apps that have their own task bar items with other apps like your email or calendar.

The issue I have is that whenever I change display sizes the “faux windows” or small pop-up dialogs that these icons invoke all but disappear (see right side of screenshot). From my research and my own noodling around there is no way to retrieve these without restarting the processes these icons represent. It isn’t as easy as quitting the “app” since you cannot find the interface to do so. You have to open the Windows 10 Task Manager and find the process and quit it. Then reopen that process yourself.

I waited several builds of Windows 10 to write this post, thinking it would be fixed very quickly. I cannot imagine that Microsoft’s Windows team isn’t running into this every single day themselves so I’m hoping a fix is in the works.

October 19, 2018 Add Comment

I now have 3 full physical copies of my Photo and Video Library in separate geographic locations and 2 complete “in cloud” backups. I would like to add a new USB-C drive to my set up soon. Now I can worry less?

October 19, 2018 Add Comment

Google+ shutting down for consumers

Ben Smith:

Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+.

Thank heavens.

Also, this bit:

At the same time, we have many enterprise customers who are finding great value in using Google+ within their companies. Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network.

Remember Google Buzz? It was a way to have internal discussions inside of an organization and it worked really well within Gmail. It sounds like Google+ will no go back, in a way, to being what Buzz could/should have been. I think because Google themselves used Google+ they may continue to keep it around for a while.

A reminder, as I’ve said before, if you use anything Google makes that isn’t Adwords be prepared to wake up one day and read that they’ve decided to stop supporting it. Put a backup plan in place now to help with that. As an example, I use Google Photos every single day, but it is not my primary photo library or storage solution.

October 12, 2018 Add Comment

I haven’t been in the mood to blog much lately. Not ashamed of that either. I’ll write more when I feel like it.

October 9, 2018 Add Comment

Important note: If you plan on using Windows to store photos from an Apple product use Live Photos sparingly. They become MOV files and you lose the JPG or HEIC files. Learned this the hard way.

October 2, 2018 Add Comment

Finished my vacation video from Iceland. Now I’ll move onto editing my photos for a canvas book. I need to find time to share the photos here on my site as well.

October 1, 2018 Add Comment

Matt Haughey and I disagree about Instagram Stories

Matt Haughey, on this blog:

Instagram stories feel like work, like being forced to watch ads from my friends’ lives instead of casually browse stuff at my own pace. The feed: I can just scroll through quickly, and stop on interesting photos, but Stories slow down the whole process of popping into Instagram for just a moment.

Also? I understand it’s better to give people the right to forget their work, but when a true pro photographer does stories of their previous day with breathtaking shots, it makes me sad I can’t share those with others since they’re going poof in 24 hours.

Lastly, not being able to like or send some minor signal of support feels missing from Stories. I can only send them a DM, which feels invasive. I often want to send someone a congratulatory way to go! but sending them a direct message feels like too much contact.

I still like the main instagram, even though I can’t sort it by last uploaded and can’t pay to get all those ads removed, but I’m still tepid on Stories.

He and I disagree. We talked about it briefly on Mastodon. I understand his point of view. However, I really like Instagram Stories. I like making them. And I like watching them. For a good example of Stories take a look at my friend Dan Rubin.

October 1, 2018 Add Comment

Personal photo and video library management is nearly a full-time job.

September 25, 2018 1 Comment

Systrom and Krieger resign from Instagram

Kevin Systrom, former CEO and co-founder of Instagram:

We’ve grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion.

What a run! Talk about leaving while on top. A Seinfeld-esque move.

September 25, 2018 Add Comment

Fiery is oddly spelled.

September 20, 2018 Add Comment