My current desktop on Win 7 - What's yours?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

My current desktop on Win 7 running a fair selection of my YWE creations and one of my VB6 applications.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

New PC, new desktop.



Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0ghz, ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO Mobo + 32gb DDR4, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8gb DDR5, 512SSD and 2TB data. My fastest PC yet, quick by my standards. More than I require but still not enough for Win11.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Now Win11.

[Peter Porter]

Looks pretty cool.

I figured out how to create a shell over a year ago. In a couple of weeks, I'll tweak it, and show you what it looks like.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I look forward to that.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Some people say that one can have too many gauges, I feel unsure of the matter myself.

Sometimes I want far too many gauges for one single man to handle. Today is one of those days.

This is my telly running Windows - ish. Could you guess which version from looking?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

The reason for having too many gauges is to experiment. The gauges at the top are all written in javascript using the yahoo widget engine. Those duplicated below are written in jscript for the Xwidget engine. More or less the same code.

I have resurrected those as I have managed to get a Linux Ubuntu laptop operating successfully with Wine and those Xwidgets actually run in that environment. I can have the javascript code/imagery that I originally wrote for the Mac o/s desktop and have that running on Windows XP-11 and now on Ubuntu as well. It is good to have analogues of your useful utilities available on the different oses that you have to use.

Seeing those running on Linux is a revelation as I had not expected Xwidget to operate there at all. Photo to come.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

And no it is not Yamato rendered above, it is a WWI cruiser, German, the Scharnhorst I think.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

My current Windows 10 desktop. A mix of Xwidgets (javascript), Yahoo Widgets (javascript), one VB6 rotating earth widget, and my VB6 dock at the bottom.

I am overhauling the Xwidgets and then testing them for running on Ubuntu/Wine. It has proven successful in operating these javascript windows widgets on Wine. Still a surprise...

The dock uses GDI+ to place the resized PNGs on the Desktop with some resizing animation, VB6 is merely the logic glue. The rotating earth widget uses a different graphics framework, ie. RC5 Cairo for future cross platform compatibility. Just experimenting. Slow but sure.



At the top is retroBar, a WinClassic retro taskbar - at last I have one combined task bar that looks and operates on ALL my Windows systems from XP to Win 11.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Looks pretty cool.

I figured out how to create a shell over a year ago. In a couple of weeks, I'll tweak it, and show you what it looks like.

Peter, how's that shell proceeding?

[Niya]

What is it with you and steampunk

[yereverluvinuncleber]

What is it with you and steampunk

You imply a disparity where none exists, some degree of separation. There is none. I simply AM steampunk.

[Niya]

You imply a disparity where none exists, some degree of separation. There is none. I simply AM steampunk.

Hahaha

[yereverluvinuncleber]

One by one, updating ALL my widgets to get them up to scratch. This is just a portion of them, there are many more!



When I get them to a state I am happy with, only then I will start to convert to VB6 types. I am flying!

[2kaud]

Like the old style valves (tubes in US)

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I love my thermionic valves...

[wes4dbt]

Wow, I thought I was back on a dial up modem. Those pic's were being displayed one line at a time. Probably took @ a minute to display your post. lol

Very nicely done. Very unique.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Thankyou.

The uniqueness is starting to feel claustrophobic - ALL the widgets on one desktop, it's a bit frightening.



Halfway through sorting, bringing them all up to scratch, synchronising and then archiving. No more work on these... Time to move on.

[wes4dbt]

"Time" seems to be the key word. lol

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Yes, quite. Several clocks of different types, alarms, timers, calendars, stopwatches, interactive &c, each with a different look/function, to appeal to a specific need/user. Then, many were duplicated using a different engine, so copies abound. Seven Nixie/thermionic valve types. Clocks are the easiest.

Extracting system metrics can be more tricky so, slightly fewer of those, but yet there are at least 32 of that type shown just there. Then there are the trinkets, the planetary marbles. Everyone likes a trinket.

Possibly, all those may be duplicated yet again.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's hard to gauge whether they're all worth it. Perhaps you should dial it back a bit.

What do they all do? I recognize the clock(s), but what of the rest?

I hadn't been into this thread in a good long time. My desktop is pretty generic, after all, so not worth sharing. But what was that comment about the Yamato? Did somebody actually confuse that ship, with it's single pair of turrets, casement mounted secondaries, coal burning engines, reduced superstructure, and early WW1 bow lines with the Yamato?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Your questions are very difficult to answer Tripitaka. Yes, re: the battleship. They thought it was the YamAto.

The gauges are: clocks, date and time, plus timers and alarms.

In addition: Several types of CPU, RAM, storage, temperature sensor gauges, network i/o, wireless i/o, outside barometrics including air speed, temperature, air pressure, humidity and cloud cover, current rainfall, resistor value calculator, media player, note taker and diary, site monitor and moon phase gauge. Electrical power generation monitors for UK including Hz, % generated by wind, coal &c &c.

Whether these gauges are worth converting, you will have to give me a few pointers...

[fafalone]

@yereverluvinuncleber very impressive, reminds me of the days I had the patience for configuring a million status widgets

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I'm getting rid of the widgets as I upgrade each and then synch. the buggers to github. Slowly clearing the desktop.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

I'd say half of those are now VB6/GDI+/RC5,6 instead of Javascript+ engine.

Making progress.

[Peter Porter]

Looks good, ber.

I was working on my own desktop shell for Windows 7 and 10 just over a year ago. I'm gonna try to make time to work on it again.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Please do! I'm looking forward to seeing that.

[Ibycus1]

Wow, my desktop is not even close to the one from the topicstarter!

[yereverluvinuncleber]

My current desktop showing VB6 creations, only two of the old .js widgets still extant all others VB6 using RC5 & 6. OK, also some GDI+ and some native VB6 forms skinned.

Now Windows 10

[yereverluvinuncleber]

This is my Christmas or rather my advent desktop.



The same old desktop with the addition of my Advent Christmas widgets, all still javascript, I have not managed to convert those yet.

As you hover over each bauble, they slowly appear with increased opacity and when your cursor leaves, they fade partially into the desktop leaving an outline. If you click on a bauble, the door opens, a pretty scene is displayed inside and a carol is sung. The opened baubles stay fully opaque. I will convert them to VB6, given time.

[Shaggy Hiker]

When you say that, "the door opens", do you mean that the bauble itself is a round door that will open?

Which one do you have to open to get the, "Twelve things about Christmas that are such a pain to me" carol?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

The GIF is running a little fast and is of course all happening slower in real life but an animated picture still speaks a thousand words (x the number of frames). As this bauble opened its door, the tune to "Whilst Shepherds Washed Their Socks by Night" was sounded.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Just a few tweaks:

[yereverluvinuncleber]

a little bit more busy... I think I know how he feels.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Nice artwork. I assume the gauges do something, but that runs into the same problem I have with home automation: There just isn't anything I care to automate. When it comes to gauges on a computer, there isn't anything I care to monitor real time, including the clock.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Same with modern cars, most people don't want gauges nor ever look at them. My car has gauges.

I look at them.

I have gauges on my PC and I look at them. That's the sort of chap I am.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I look at them.

You should be watching the road

My car has so many gauges that I have a toggle button the steering wheel to allow me to toggle through all the different screens.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

No, no, no. The gauges on my car are REAL. You can touch them, they have physical feeds from the engine. A tube from the engine pushes oil into the gauge and then the needle is pushed around from the force of the oil pushing - not the poncey fake gauges like the ones I create...

[yereverluvinuncleber]

It is sunny outside.

[Jack11]

I am using window 10 rightnow.