Some part of your software squite is making the file manager part of Windows Explorer fail. It just never shows up on screen when it's called. That's not a big deal. I like your pretty desktop toys, they're great and a little bugginess won't kill me. But the thing is, besides Windowblinds with it's unload option there doesn't seem to be a way to turn most of your programs off. Some have a pause option. It's pretty random how much you can disable any given one of them, if at all, and if so where and how. I have to use the task manager which isn't ideal.Just about every commercial software house of any size nowadays seems either malicious, unwilling to let people easily turn off what they've installed, or oblivious with their heads stuck so far into nether regions that they don't even realize customers might want to turn off their precious baby once in a while. Neither of those are good looks and I hope neither of them are Stardock. I've always liked your toys and Windows improvements. Please put in consistent, centralized controls for your programs. You've got the Object Dock so put it there please. Every element of your suite: Turn On, Turn Off, Pause, Unpause.Not having this is also leading to me being unable to simply turn off Curtains when I've decided I like Windowblinds better. Curtains still starts, service and all, when I boot up. The only choice I see is to delete the tasks in the task manager every time, or uninstall Curtains which is more extreme than I wanted to do.
Now I will try to figure out which program is spoiling the file manager and see if I can turn it off on its own. I suspect I'm going to have to just uninstall it to keep it from starting up every boot since it was probably built with a one-way On switch and no Off.
Hello,I have forward your request to the Stardock Support Team for their review and recommendations. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We really do appreciate your feedback, Thanks
Basj,Stardock Community Assistant.
I support the idea of having an "Unload Curtains" option acailable on right click of the Cutains systray icon.
Thanks.
I'm sad to say that it's Windlowblinds that's killing Windows file manager. It wasn't happening at first. I think, though am not certain, that the problem began happening after I turned on Curtains instead of Windowblinds then changed my mind and went back to WB. Though it might possibly be Deskscapes because I also started using that and it's never really seemed that stable. Unfortunately the results of turning things off one by one to see what happens aren't helpful because once the problem starts it doesn't go away until Stardock things are off, no matter what order they're turned off in. But starting WB alone did make it happen again.
I am going to uninstall the whole thing then reinstall without Curtains and see what happens. Curtains and Windowblinds seem so similar, at least from the user perspective, maybe you should integrate them at least in the user experience if not the actual implementation. Put them in one UI, so if we pick a WB theme then Curtains turns off and vice-versa instead of having both running when only one seems to be controlling what we see on the screen.
PS., You also might want to emphasize that Start 10 and Start 11 should be installed on an either/or basis and not both. Or at least I think that's how it is. I installed both without knowing that all I really needed and wanted was 11 (even though I run Windows 10; maybe you should stop referring to things as 10/11 when they aren't actually tied to either Windows version). I think that might have caused a little bugginess that would have been avoided if I had only ever installed Start 11 to begin with. Sometimes my mouse doesn't click correctly until I turn Start 11 off or restart it. I'll see what happens after my clean Stardock re-install.
For simplicity the services and related processes are left enabled. This is because services are system wide and cannot be disabled on a per user basis. So it could cause problems on a multi login setup.
The processes barely use any resources and should not have any interactions with other processes on the system. The services start the per user process ready for use which then sit there idle. These often require higher rights to launch hence the user cannot launch them manually.
Some products have ways to disable them largely such as Groupy with an on/off switch but that will disable the app but leave the helper processes running as it helps restart things later. Curtains will turn off if you pick the Windows theme, likewise WindowBlinds when you pick the default themes.
Start11 does not offer a current unload option but has on/off settings and can be disabled on a per account basis from the Start10tweak app and also has on/off options for most of the options in the software.
Multiplicity on the other hand does have an unload option. This will stop Multiplicity on all user accounts as unlike the other products it is a system level tool even applying from before you login.
You have to remember that many of the utilities are not apps you launch for a minute and close like notepad. Their purpose is to extend the operating system and where possible feel part of the OS. We have no unload option on Start11 but the Windows start menu also has no unload option and that is also a separate process which starts up.
With regards do your issue, which OS are you using?
My uninstallation progress is already telling me some things by showing me a simple list of what software of yours is installed. A small thing is that you're enjoyment of cute names in the home furnishings theme ("blinds," "curtains," "tiles") is starting to obscure the function of your programs a bit too much as your collection grows. A more important thing is you ought to be more exclusive about what versions of things we can install and run. I always have Groupy 32 and Groupy 64 both running, and I see on my uninstall list that I have Fences 3 and 4 installed. One should normally replace the other, shouldn't it?
I am using Windows 10 pro.
I see your point about the services being small, and agree that they might not be a bother when they are working as expected. But this is Windows. As expected should never be expected to last very long.
Your Start 11 ought to have an unload whether or not Microsoft's own thing does. Maybe theirs should too, but I don't have high expectations of them.
Groupy 32 and 64 are required processes. One is needed for 32 bit processes running, the other 64 bit.
With regards to Fences, yes installation of Fences 4 should remove the Fences 3 entry. However installation of Fences 3 after Fences 4 can produce two entries as Fences 3 wouldn't know to remove the other entry.
?
In the start11 install directory is the Start10tweak.exe file. This offers some additional options. It is the same file from Start10 hence the name.
The problem I was having seems to be from Windowblinds, but fortunately only with one skin/theme so far. It's a shame because it's a nice one, but that's not any kind of deal breaker regarding the whole software.
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