News - Further Windows 8 usability improvements detailed

[HEXUS]

Copy jobs get some love and attention.

Read more.

[pauldarkside]

Nice addition but it makes me miss my DOpus installation

[Unique]

copy jobs - that surely can't be the real name?

[OilSheikh]

Terracopy FTW!

[dangel]

Terracopy FTW!

I wouldn't go that far but it's most useful feature - queueing - is something opus now does well and something we all ought to add a comment on the Win8 blog requesting be there. Already done it myself in the hope they've still got the flexibility to add in new features at this stage.

TC makes some rubbish claims about speed improvements but really it's the queues that make it handy (I used to invoke it via custom buttons in Opus before V10 offered the same functionality).

[OilSheikh]

I have no idea what Opus is but Terracopy maxes out your transfer speeds and provides an accurate transfer completion time unlike Windows built-in copy.

[Saracen]

I have no idea what Opus is but Terracopy maxes out your transfer speeds and provides an accurate transfer completion time unlike Windows built-in copy.

I'd assume .... Directory Opus

[jim]

Seems a bit like something I brought up ages ago... bringing more of the power of utilities like Teracopy and robocopy into the gui can only be a good thing.

Copying large files via the gui is a nightmare.

[gagaga]

... and make more use of available RAM. 8gig is not unusual anymore, 16gig will be next.

If i'm coping a folder of 1gig of small files from one place to another on the same disk, drag it all into RAM and write it out in a chunk rather than thashing away a file at a time.

[TheAnimus]

... and make more use of available RAM. 8gig is not unusual anymore, 16gig will be next.

If i'm coping a folder of 1gig of small files from one place to another on the same disk, drag it all into RAM and write it out in a chunk rather than thashing away a file at a time.

It already does, sort of (its at the stream layer), just not with much buffer, and its also contraversial as to how much to do.

What happens if you've a power cut, you don't know when the async task has truely completed etc.

[miniyazz]

It already does, sort of (its at the stream layer), just not with much buffer, and its also contraversial as to how much to do.

What happens if you've a power cut, you don't know when the async task has truely completed etc.

Most people have a laptop now anyway - but that aside, as long as the dialog box stays up until all files have been written to the HDD, then I don't see it as a problem. Either way I'd have to double check that everything that I expect to be there is there.
Granted it perhaps doesn't make sense to copy big, big amounts of data to RAM as the time penalty for copying, say, 512MB chunks is going to be absolutely minimal compared to 5GB chunks.


This looks good, I'm always in favour of more advanced features being included by default, and the current copy paste situation is acceptable in that it gets there in the end but dated and certainly not the most efficient way/best of doing it by any means.

[TheAnimus]

I think your hitting on an issue with the filesystem and small files, not the copying process.

[crossy]

I wouldn't go that far but it's most useful feature - queueing - is something opus now does well and something we all ought to add a comment on the Win8 blog requesting be there. Already done it myself in the hope they've still got the flexibility to add in new features at this stage.

Cheerfully admit to not being up with Opus/Terracopy/etc, but if this feature means that we get a print-queue like control for CMD (sorry, Copy/Move/Delete) then I'm all for it.

Is it just me, or does Windows8 look like it could top Win7 for usability? Just hope that they don't screw it up by assuming that everyone's got tablets or touchscreens. At this rate I might be tempted to put in a pre-order when they're offered (I got a Win7 pre-order even though it took me more than a year to get a machine to install it on).

[dangel]

I have no idea what Opus is but Terracopy maxes out your transfer speeds and provides an accurate transfer completion time unlike Windows built-in copy.

Directory Opus as someone else replied (the best File Manager i've used on Windows period). TerraCopy's speed claims weren't backed up by results when I used it for many years - as I said the key feature was queues for me - especially when the Windows team reworked the network stack. Opus' predictions/speed stats are accurate anyway for me.

Cheerfully admit to not being up with Opus/Terracopy/etc, but if this feature means that we get a print-queue like control for CMD (sorry, Copy/Move/Delete) then I'm all for it.

Yup, that's pretty much it - all we're asking for on top of that is the ability to stop jobs being concurrent which causes a big slowdown on most copies due to devices thrashing between jobs.

Is it just me, or does Windows8 look like it could top Win7 for usability? Just hope that they don't screw it up by assuming that everyone's got tablets or touchscreens. At this rate I might be tempted to put in a pre-order when they're offered (I got a Win7 pre-order even though it took me more than a year to get a machine to install it on).

I don't think MS are the same company thesedays - the blogging shows they're being transparent about features and the reasons for the decisions as well as gathering views from commenters. People are getting confused but the new touch layer - it does not replace the shell for the desktop it's additional. The problem is they showed this first and so people jumped to unfounded conclusions. The new blogs show this isn't true and BUILD will show much more no doubt this coming month.

From what I see, the development of 8 is much like 7 - I'm expecting 8 to be damn good as a result.