Oh wow! I'm glad I have win 7 now then. I do wish I had win 8 though, because my laptop has only 2 gigs of memory, so sometimes things run slower, like the copying of files and such. But that shortcut will be extremelz addesome! sent from the braille plus
valiant8086 <valiant8...@gmail.com> wrote: >Hi. >I'm probably stirring up a dead horse at this point, seeing I'm late to >the thread, but another nice thing about the task manager, in 7 and 8, >and 8.1, is you can hold down the windows key and hit the number >corresponding to how many icons from the left on the task bar the item >you want is, and it will, > >A. If the application isn't already running launch it > >B. if it is already running bring it to the foreground. > >I make heavy use of this feature to shorten the alt+tab process down to >one key press to bounce between Monkey Term and Thunderbird as needed, >or flip right over to the chicken nugget window assuming I have it not >hidden. I use windows+1 to open internet explorer for instance. how can >you beat that? Windows+e opens up the explorer window, and in 8.1 the >explorer window, on top of showing your list of drives, lists network >drives in a separate category that you can close if you want so you >don't have to see them all the time, and it lists important user folders >like documents, downloads and such as that right there in the window you >get when you hit windows+e. Again, how can you beat that? In windows 7 I >would go to start menu and type downloads and hit enter to open my >downloads folder. Now I hit windows+e and type dow, just do without the >w goes to documents, and hit enter and there I am in my downloads folder. > >In windows XP I used to use the connect to menu in the start menu to >work my way to the wireless networks dialogue box. When I switched to >windows 7 a few years ago I became rather upset because I couldn't find >an easy way to get to the networks list. I knew how to get there but it >was convoluted and not nearly as simple to get to as XP. It took me a >few months no kidding to figure out that there is an icon on the system >tray that shows what network you are connected to or not connected if >none. You can hit enter on that and it brings up a list of wireless >networks and dialup and cellular device connections, pluus lists >ethernet connections, right there just like that. So that discovery was >one of the things that really started selling 7 to me since going >through the system tray like that really feels actually a lot easier >than xp's way of doing it. usually I know what network I am connected to >also so if I'm on my satelite connection I just hit windows+b, type sat >and hit enter really quick so the balloon thing doesn't pop up and get >me stuck in there (XP does this too so don't go there especially with >the little problem where it would decide you wanted to be on a >particular item and every time you tried to arrow away it'd put you back >on the item you were already on, ug) and down arrow to the connection I >want and hit enter twice, first time it puts me on the connect button, >or if it was already connected it focuses a disconnect button. I hit >enter the second time and it just connects. What's more, 7 connects to >WiFi networks a lot faster than XP. I usually had to wait around 10 to >15 seconds on XP machines to connect to networks, 7 does it in around 3 >seconds on average. Not only that, but 8.1 has two sliders above all the >networks by which you can turn networks off. There's an airplane mode >switch you go to that and you can left or right arrow between off (left) >and on (right). If on none of your wireless networks will work unless >you explicitly enable them, Wifi has it's own on off switch just below >airplane in there which you can use to do this. Windows 8.1 gave us back >the ability to say that the desktop environment is what we want by >default. it also provides us the ability to make the start screen by >default always show all apps instead of live tiles. I tried the all apps >thing out originally, but I put it back to live tiles because I like to >be able to read the weather so easily. I admit while I'm on this subject >though that last time I messed with the built in windows 8.1 weather app >I couldn't figure out how to change the location. Only reason it works >good for me now is my computer figured out (with my permission) where I >am and set it up for me. So many people just totally trash the new start >screen. I sort of like it, wouldn't mind a more linear way to navigate >it if I desired, but on the whole it's kind of nifty. But while I say >that, I don't use it very often. I put shortcuts to stuff I use most on >the desktop, and that's working ok. There's no problem with hitting >windows+m , typing top and hitting enter to launch topspeed. > >One thing my friends have really been upset about windows 8.1 over is >the new task manager. While I would have to agree that the new task >manager really is pretty sluggish compared to the original version of it >that we love from windows 7 and the even earlier version from XP, it >always puts you on the processes tab. We generally need the details tab >though if we want to adjust apps using a similar screen layout to that >of old. Since you always land on the processes tab now when you open >task manager (assuming you have disabled it's simplified mode) we hit >ctrl+shift+escape, and shift+ctrl+tab twice and no doubt about it we're >on the details tab, assuming the computer is running ok. I like this >because time and again I would forget and leave my windows 7 task >manager on something like the applications tab, instead of the then what >we used processes tab, and so if jaws crashed and I was litterally >flying blind trying to fix it, I would run into issues trying to close >all the jaws related processes manually while intending to restart jaws >fresh. Now I know as long as the task manager actually opens in the >first place when I issue the keystroke I'm safely in the processes tab >and I know where to go from there. It's different, seems more >inconvenient, but it does have it's upsides. > >Yes, alt+f4 on the desktop works to bring up the shut down dialogue box >where you can pick what you want the computer to do sleep, hibernate >etc. But windows 8.1 gave us a new toy (not sure if this is in 8. >Windows+x gives you a list of different things you might want to do like >visit programs and features, adjust power options, launch the mobility >center and a lot more. Well there's a shutdown and sign out sub menu in >there too. Since you can use first letter navigation in the windows+x >menu, and since the hot letter for shut down and sign out is u, sound >familiar XP users? you can hit windows+x, u and unfortunately that lands >you right in the shutdown menu where you can sign out, power off >restart, hibernate, sleep and blahblahblah. > >So you see all these nifty little things I've found just go to show >that this is pretty different than what we used to use, but it's really >not worse, in many cases it's a big improvement, sometimes it's even a >serious accessibility improvement, though not as often as I wish. I do >have some issues with jaws making use of windows 8.1's new display >hooking method by which screen readers retrieve text. Sometimes for >instance in the Skype desktop app it decides to not say anything when >you hit insert+t to see which conference you're focused on, it just >says, title is, type in text documents. And if you hit alt+tab it says >the name of the conference you're in, but doesn't take focus away from >it. It's like somehow we're not actually properly focusing the chat. >There is a workaround of course, just close that conversation out with >your escape key and then reopen it. Note that this is using Skype's >compact view I have no idea if this applies to default view. This >doesn't happen very often and it's not really any worse than the issue I >had often back in the XP days where lines of text weren't represented >rightly in editors like notepad. You'd be on a different line than it >said you were on, and it would read the wrong thing. A fix for that btw >is to highlight the line you're on, hit home,, then press shift+end then >of course use an arrow key after your screen reader finishes reading >what you highlighted just so if you hit a letter or backspace or >something you won't delete that line you just used highlighting to read. > >My computer is a Lenovo Yoga 2 pro. It has a touch screen. I've messed >with it some. I found that I really can move around the windows >environment with it to some degree, but we need improvements in that >area. It works in a pinch though. The biggest complaint I have is just >with JAWS, JAWS doesn't seem to support touch typing on the on screen >keyboard. Narrator does, though and I tried it out. I have a weird issue >where when I bring up the on screen keyboard (you do it manually in >windows), it seems to hide a lot of the app I'm typing in, so I can't >see what I've typed or read the latest chats in Skype for instance until >I get rid of the keyboard which is a two step process. We're getting >there, let's hope 9 makes it better and let's also hope the next jaws >update fixes more of the little problems I have. I know that Skype title >issue I just mentioned is a jaws problem by the way because I've tried >other screen readers just when it happened to me with jaws, jaws >exhibits the behavior, I get rid of jaws, switch to NVDA, works fine. >close NVDA switch back to jaws, it's still messed up. Close and open >that chat again in Skype, problem solved for jaws too. >Cheers, Sent with Thunderbird 24.2.0 portable > > >--- >Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, >please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. 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