Micro-Shells: The next step in Windows customization?

Extending the basic functionality of Explorer

from JoeUser Forums

Where will customization go from here? Are we at our limits of what we can do to customize Windows? The answer is, not by a long shot. In the past year we have seen a movement towards widgetizing the desktop. On MacOS X Konfabulator is a popular program for adding desktop widgets. On Windows, DesktopX provides similar functionality. These programs help bridge the distance between icons and full fledged programs.

But that's really just a taste. One place Stardock sees things moving in the future, especially as Longhorn nears and Windows XP becomes the defacto standard in businesses, is the concept of Micro-Shells.  In the old days, programs tried to replace the entire shell (explorer). Micro-Shells instead extend pieces of the shell. One part of the shell Stardock is particularly interested in extending in the future is the folder views. We don't want to replace what's there. What we want to do is extend it so that there are other ways of viewing the files in a directory (folder) than what we have today.

We take this view for granted. But really, it's kind of a one size fits all. Sure, you can make them be thumbnails or lists, but that's pretty weak. Stardock has experimented with adding more views with "Treeview" in Object Desktop but it has proven challenging to make it robust.

Object Desktop includes "Tree View" which is an experiment in trying to add a new view to Explorer.

What is really needed is a robust, way for third parties to be able to fundamentally change bits and pieces of the shell. Hence, Micro-Shells. Different Micro-Shells could be installed on your computer to re-arrange how you might view things. A Micro-Shell to extend the standard folder metaphor might include ways of viewing your data as a book. Or maybe display things like your Tivo does. Let's face it, these days, we deal with so many different kinds of data that we need vastly more ways to view and organize it. Users could right click on a folder and select which view they want it to default to.

Right now this is it. These are your options for customizing a folder. Imagine instead a way where users who download a micro-shell that extends the folder views could actually design up their own folder view and upload it to a website like WinCustomize.com. Once installed, it would show up on this list. Some of these would be cosmetic but like the widgets of today, some of these could be highly useful. A simple one would be designed to display as many files with basic details as possible. Another one might be designed specifically for displaying movies in a way that isn't just thumbnails. Another view might display the contents like a report with files linked into it. It all depends on what the purpose of a given folder is. As it stands now, there is no easy way to add more views to this list. You've got 7. And of those 7, most of them are pretty much the same.

Once a micro-shell for extending the folder view mechanism is done, other micro-shells become possible. There are lots of areas in Windows that could be tweaked or expanded in ways that are subtle or profound. Controlling how the mouse works in interacting with items on your computer to adding mouse gestures to changing the way context menus work. The point of micro-shells is to expand the functionality of the Windows shell seamlessly so that you don't end up bloating it up and slowing things down.  It may be until Longhorn comes out before Micro-Shells are able to be done to the Nth degree but I think this is going to become one of the "next big things" in customization.

-Brad Wardell

36,524 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
What I want is that dang sidebar to tell me file size as soon as I highligh one or more items. Right Click->Properties is soooo annoying!
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I thought that this was originally the direction that MicroSoft was taking Windows, but somewhere along the way they lost it. The B OS that was supposed to have been the next (no pun intended) OS on the Mac partially implemented this kind of possibility as well, by modeling the OS on a database structure. I was pushing for this approach with the Amiga, and the original Amiga OS that got cancelled because of Jack Tramiel's decision to try to kill the Amy with his idiotic Atari ST - which forced Commodore to cancel the in-house design and go with a version of MetaComco's OS, also contained the basic functionality you would need to do this on the OS level. IBM's OS/2 Warp also had a lot more possibilities than anything out there now as a major market player. Too bad.

In the late '70's, IEEE published an article on Hypermedia that really set the standard, even today, for what to aim for. I was thinking along similar lines and brought up my ideas to a friend who was doing AI research (and still is - with intention of uploading, for real), and so he mailed me a xerox of the IEEE thing that I still have somewhere. Anyway, they showed models of data organization based on browser-type windows that were all "objects." One model allowed the user to draw a line between any two objects and then specify the nature of the connection. The specifics of the connection could included filters or nodes of other types that performed various operations such as automatic branching or bot-type searches. Anything the user created could essentially be collapsed into an iconic representation and then used elsewhere as another object that could be refined, limited, overloaded, etc.

A working example of this on a commercial level came with the Mac OpCode music software, which followed this original IEEE model fairly closely. At the 2nd or 3rd CyberArts Conference held in Pasadena around '92, I attended the night show as press and watched these guys who had done the entire scoring for the movie "Kafka" recreate the music live as background to a special video of Kafka with the music track missing, for that purpose. They used two networked Macs running OpCode and controlled the music from the keyboard and a drum machine. Note that they were creating the music on the fly while the movie was playing. What they had done was build in three days an Eastern Europpean, 1900's style, piano music generator that perfectly produced the tinkly, minor chorded, gypsyist kind of music needed for the movie, as the movie producers had been unable to locate live musicians who could do it.

Imagine search objects that incorporate one's personal biases, perspectives, history, etc., and can be applied to any part of a document being viewed, building a link structure on the fly to myriads of references.

I can see a new set of professions evolving here, as people customize their dataspaces, with music that matches their mood, etc...

I personally would like to be able to easilly build bots and filters into whatever I'm doing, so that I'm not limited to just what links are provided. The ability to simply link to specific points in any document would be nice. Currently I can only do so if the author is so kind as to provide link names within the document, a practice I encourage and try to remember to use in my blogs.

Of course, Xanadu had it all....

Almost. I STILL have THE BEST search engine design stored in my brain and nowhere else. However, who needs designers or design? Look at Windoze.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

I sure hope, one day, to have a such a thing.

When i first got XP RC1 i was excited to see those folder cutomization choices in that drop down list.   For the next 6 months I looked (through the web, and through poking around) to find ways to add new views tot hat list, with no luck :(

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
you say "micro shells" and all i can think about is Macaroni and Cheese... you know, shells and cheese
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
The LongHorn idea, as explained to me, is that any file you create is not stored in a folder, but in a database, with a bunch of facts about what that file is.

They way you browse your computer is then worked out by filtering the data in your computer, and displaying relavent files. Brilliant for people who don't know how to use PCs, however its really going to screw the current educated workforce. We're so sued to the filing system of folders and subfolders.

The micro-shell idea would be great > for developers. However, to be honest, you'd want to get involved with Microsoft _now_ to submit ideas for organising data. Will there be any space to program on futuristic Longhorn PCs?

I can think of some nifty shell-integrated ideas for displaying files. If you set a file folder as a tree base, then build up mini trees of information sprouting from the centre of the viewing area. This would be a useful way of viewing small projects in a circular kinda fashion as icons spread out from the centre.

Also, modification on the tree structure displayed in the article. When you open a sub folder with lots of space, don't list the icons, show them as a grid, like 'small icons' view. That way you can condense the levels of tree, meaning you don't have to scroll down as far. It reduces the average distance to many of the icons too, so you don't need to move your mouse as far/fast and less acuurately.

Microshells... hmm, designing a photo album viewer thats different to the existing WinXP one? Probably just cosmetic, and likely to turn into small programs rather then being integrated to the shell.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nope, not buying it. New skin on a wore out Bannana.
If a user, is educated and diligant about thier file structures, most of these ("needs")
are redundant.Heck Windows, never seems to want to remember my Preffs for which,
Dir to keep thumbnail Views in and etc... why add an extra Layer? I wonder then is this New
Microshell, an opening death knell for TreeView, or a way to slyly move it to a new Product and out of OD? New Stardock MicroShell Pro v1.0 or Better Yet Stardock M-Shell Pro Extended Edition V1.0 Plus with Treeview as the Free Version, or TreeView gets stagnated as a OD Product?
I remember when there was a way to really make Windows look cool and Customize the Pictures in the Directories actual Background Pictures. It was a Neat way to make the folder seem transparent, matching the desktop Background to the one displayed in the Directory Folders. I think the data was stored in .ini files for each customized Directory. How many ways do we need to look at the detailsof our Data? why make it more confusing? I do not buy into this, millions of files and Users getting confused and Hard Drives getting so big that the File structures are becoming underpowered to handle the needs of the User Base. What is happening is there is becoming a need for (by Big Media and Business) to attach more overhead to files in General, and the file systems in the works are more to the benefit of Big-Brother than Joe-User.
Diligence and Planning keep a Machine, Files and Flotsom and Jetsom in Order. Sloppy Users make for Sloppy Machines, and no Custom View Software will change that. The Thing about these ("Improvements & Enhancements") is that they end up taking up Monitor Real Estate, in your Explorer Windows, Same thing with SideBar Apps, and alot of other Widgets, ans whatnot.
You Want to Impress Me? Make a Customizable View, that opens as a Balloon Message on Mouse Over.
Now that would be sweet. Windows XP does this partially on mouse over now, but only list a few files, and genal Dir Size, and then Guesses or makes vague statements when Dir's are really big (say in the over 5-10 GB Size and up.) Make or expand this fuctionality to encompass the Treeview Idea, include features like Mouse Over Pie Chart for Dir Sizes, or Bar Graphs,or Gauges... ANything could show in the Ballons as to details. Mix the Balloons with WinFX's transparency levels and suddenly you have ghostish type Balloons on Mouse over, Semi-intrusive or Customizable to the Users want of level of Intrusion, also add to this functionality the ability to say Mouse Over an Internet shorcut (s) and view a Balloon as to say (per visits) (per frequency of Visits) (last visit) etc... Same goes with Music files, or any file type.
Use the Micro Shell to do things Usefull, flag Files/ Directories as to amount of Usage, Popularity, or any Metric a User wants to Designate, and track the file through a Users MAchine, and after a while the Custom View can recommend deletion, archival or removal or Modification, of unused, unpopular or otherwise tagged items, this is something I can see as a Microshell, and not just a justification for a pretty or otherwise modified version of something windows already does.

Also I am really hung on the pop up balloon thing as you can tell, this is a cool thing because I see it as Highly customizable (and typical Stardock Faire) think about it, custom skinned Balloon Dialogs. Now when I mention Balloons, what I envision is similar to dialogue Balloons as in the Comics and Comic Strips. This would be to die for, customized dialogue backgrounds and editable Fonts, and Transparency Levels, with File tracking ability, various Metrics as to Usage, Size, Location, Read/Write Status, Ownership (you name it) Sky is the limit.

Well, I am sorry I rambled... Hope I made sense and didn't want to seem as coming off too Harshly.

Edited because I am a Dummy
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The most annoying thing about explorer windows is that horrible film strip view which seems to appear by itself. I've disabled that who knows how many times
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I would love to see the 'tree view' use sizable icons instead of the minuscule 16x16. My screen resolution is 1280x1024 and those things are tiny. So, if you could do that it would be marvelous
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think that I would tend to agree that this, as described, wouldn't help much, but only work to create even more complexity in a system that has already become far too overgrown. Maybe I am just stuck in my ways, but I have a very efficient filing system for my hard disk. Everything has a folder, and things go in their respective folders. If I need something I simply go to my docs, my downloads, games, doom3, file... sure it's a lot of clicking, but you don't have to look for anything, almost every folder I have (save my pictures, of which I have several gigabytes) the entier contents easily fit within the window, requiring no scrolling.


I say if you want to revolutionize the data storage arena, come up with a way to do it better than the directory structure... But don't expect too many people to jump on it too quickly, many others have tried and failed because we are creatures of habit. Everything we, as humans want to store ends up in containers, and those containers inside other containers, so on and so forth. If you want to store photos, you put them in albums, this section for xmas, this for 3rd bday. Then you put the albums in a book shelf, this shelf for 1995, this one for 1996. If you get past the single bookshelf, you may be tempted to put two book shelves in a separate room with books as a library. The directory structure is ingrained in us, and it will take a truely revolutionary thing to ever change that... but once you do you just may change the entire world