Win Explorer VBE for Power-Users

[Guest]

Having watched the inexorable development of Windows O/S since Win98SE I've
come to the conclusion that Windows O/S is being primarily developed for IT
Professionals - networking and security - as well as Office - Word, Excel,
Power-Point etc - and Home - games, photos & music - use and appears to be
totally ignoring Power-Users.

By Power-User I mean scientists, technicians, engineers, 3D-CAD modelling
and CGI etc, where there is often a need to multi-task and more is expect
from Windows Explorer.

Several years ago I was able to download a very useful utility that took
over Windows Explorer's Copy and Move functions and gave then some
inteligence. When you copied or moved a file to another folder, if another
file with the same name existed you could set parameters that the file would
only be copied or moved if it had been modified more recently or was larger
etc, etc, etc. You can also download utilities for renaming files. But I end
up with a myriad of little utility programs that I'm not sure I can trust.

I'd like to be able to move and rename files at the same time.

I'd like to be able to copy and paste text, whilst getting rid of the
formatting.

There are thousands of other little jobs I'd like Windows Explorer to be
able to do, but it doesn't give me that option. I have to live with it's
limited functionality or download suspect utilities ... !

So I want to know why can't Windows Explorer include a Visual Basic Editor
and utilse VBA functionality ?

No doubt the home and office user will go, "what ... ?"

And the IT Profssional will go, "that's to dangerous, think of the security
.... !"

To which there are two answers; firstly, how dangerous it would be depends
upon what is exposed through the API. Secondly, it could be an optional
install is it is in most applications. Home and Office users needn't clutter
up their H/D by installing this option as the default install would be
without VBA and support. IT professionals could keep their usual appoarch to
allowing others to uses computers, basically don't let them have anything
that might make the job easier, so they wo't install this option.

But Power-Users could have access to some very powerful and useful
functionality that would allow them to get more out of their PC or work
station and be a more productive employee.

So how about it Microsoft ...



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[Ian Betts]

Having watched the inexorable development of Windows O/S since Win98SE
I've
come to the conclusion that Windows O/S is being primarily developed for
IT
Professionals - networking and security - as well as Office - Word, Excel,
Power-Point etc - and Home - games, photos & music - use and appears to be
totally ignoring Power-Users.

By Power-User I mean scientists, technicians, engineers, 3D-CAD modelling
and CGI etc, where there is often a need to multi-task and more is expect
from Windows Explorer.

Several years ago I was able to download a very useful utility that took
over Windows Explorer's Copy and Move functions and gave then some
inteligence. When you copied or moved a file to another folder, if another
file with the same name existed you could set parameters that the file
would
only be copied or moved if it had been modified more recently or was
larger
etc, etc, etc. You can also download utilities for renaming files. But I
end
up with a myriad of little utility programs that I'm not sure I can trust.

I'd like to be able to move and rename files at the same time.

I'd like to be able to copy and paste text, whilst getting rid of the
formatting.

There are thousands of other little jobs I'd like Windows Explorer to be
able to do, but it doesn't give me that option. I have to live with it's
limited functionality or download suspect utilities ... !

So I want to know why can't Windows Explorer include a Visual Basic Editor
and utilse VBA functionality ?

No doubt the home and office user will go, "what ... ?"

And the IT Profssional will go, "that's to dangerous, think of the
security
... !"

To which there are two answers; firstly, how dangerous it would be depends
upon what is exposed through the API. Secondly, it could be an optional
install is it is in most applications. Home and Office users needn't
clutter
up their H/D by installing this option as the default install would be
without VBA and support. IT professionals could keep their usual appoarch
to
allowing others to uses computers, basically don't let them have anything
that might make the job easier, so they wo't install this option.

But Power-Users could have access to some very powerful and useful
functionality that would allow them to get more out of their PC or work
station and be a more productive employee.

So how about it Microsoft ...

If you are really a scientist and I doubt it very much, what are you doing
using a home users system.

--
Ian

With patience there is always a way.

Please Reply to Newsgroup so all can read.
Requests for assistance by email can not and will be deleted.

 

[dean-dean]

Raymond Chen summarizes some of the whys you've asked regarding Windows
Explorer:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/08/03/4195888.aspx

 

[Duncan Anderson]

If you are really a scientist and I doubt it very much, what are you doing
using a home users system.

--
Ian

With patience there is always a way.

Please Reply to Newsgroup so all can read.
Requests for assistance by email can not and will be deleted.

Ian,

You're correct, I'm not a scientist, but a Professional Engineer using Autodesk
Inventor. One of the operating systems Adsk Inv specifies is Vista.

yours
Duncan Anderson, M.I.E.T., Dip.I.E.D.

 

[Duncan Anderson]

To summarise

Microsoft removed MS-DOS from behind the scenes sometime ago.

Why are we still forced to use it in the foreground ?

Why can't we use VBA from within Windows Explorer ?

With regards the security issues, the VDM allows a certain functionality that could
possibly compromise security. I don't believe that more holes should be made within
an O/S's security, but it does set a bench-mark.


--
Duncan
"Humour ... is one man shouting gibberish in the face of authority, and proving by
fabricated insanity that nothing could be as mad as what passes for ordinary
living."
(Terence 'Spike' Milligan K.B.E., 1918-2002)
www.autodesk.co.uk/inventorjobs

 

[Duncan Anderson]

Thanks for the link. But it only addresses one aspect or potential benefit from my
request.

Having read the blog and Googled "Turing-complete", Raymond Chen's blog supports my
request.

No Office Application is "Turing-complete" and therefore VBA was completed.

I wouldn't expect Microsoft to add bulk re-naming, intelligent copying and moving
nor format-free copy and paste.

But as Microsoft has made the precedent of giving the users the ability to add their
own functionality - within reason - I see no reason why this precedent can't be
extended to the core product, Windows.

By adding VBA to Windows Explorer it wouldn't mean that it had become
"Turing-complete", but it would give the user flexibility and choice.

It would also mean that they don't have to learn MS-DOS if they already know VBA.


--
Duncan
"Humour ... is one man shouting gibberish in the face of authority, and proving by
fabricated insanity that nothing could be as mad as what passes for ordinary
living."
(Terence 'Spike' Milligan K.B.E., 1918-2002)
www.autodesk.co.uk/inventorjobs

Raymond Chen summarizes some of the whys you've asked regarding Windows
Explorer:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/08/03/4195888.aspx

<snip>

 

[Paul Randall]

Hi, Duncan
I think you don't know about all the goodies provided with the OS.
Which version of VBA should the OS provide?

1. Do an analysis of the VBA versions associated with each of the Office
applications, and extract a list of the functions that you think the OS
version of VBA should have.
2. Do an analysis of WSH, VBS, JS, and the access to the related
programmable objects provided by the OS or freely downloadable.
3. Do an analysis of PowerShell.
4. Give us a list of functions found in item 1 that are not provided by 2
and 3.

-Paul Randall

 

[Duncan Anderson]

"Which version of VBA should the OS provide?"
The latest

"Do an analysis of the VBA versions associated with each of the Office applications,
and extract a list of the functions that you think the OS version of VBA should
have."
a) see above. b) assumes Office is the primary application of scientists,
technicians & engineers - it isn't. c) confuses functionality found in Office (see
b) with scientists, technicians and engineers requirements of O/S

"Do an analysis of WSH, VBS, JS, and the access to the related programmable objects
provided by the OS or freely downloadable."
a) Yet another programming environment to learn - scientists, technicians and
engineers aren't programmers. Once we've learnt something like VBA we don't want to
have to learn even more programming. b) Are they scripts languages easy to use and
de-bug, if so where are their Visual Editors ? c) We don't want to download anymore
dodgy progs that is necessary.

"Do an analysis of PowerShell."
a) That's a bit more like it, but why isn't it included with the installation disks?
b) Is it as easy to use as a VBE ?

My time is money for my employer and I don't have time to do all of this analysis
that you expect. I have a suspicion that if it was really wonderful it would be easy
to explain and all of the stuff you've mentioned would almost be self explanatory.

But you are right when you say I don't know about all of the goodies that come with
Windows O/S, this is primarily because they're not apparent, obvious and intuitive.
This is probably an area that Microsoft falls down badly, giving good simple
explanations of what else the O/S will do together with some installed samples.

I would be very interested in these scripts and scripting environments if it is
possible to easily add buttons and RMB menu items etc. I would be even more
interested if there was a readily available Visual Editor and De-Bugger that was
included with Windows Explorer as VBA is included with applications, including those
other than Office.



--
Duncan
"Humour ... is one man shouting gibberish in the face of authority, and proving by
fabricated insanity that nothing could be as mad as what passes for ordinary
living."
(Terence 'Spike' Milligan K.B.E., 1918-2002)
www.autodesk.co.uk/inventorjobs

Hi, Duncan
I think you don't know about all the goodies provided with the OS.
Which version of VBA should the OS provide?

1. Do an analysis of the VBA versions associated with each of the Office
applications, and extract a list of the functions that you think the OS version of
VBA should have.
2. Do an analysis of WSH, VBS, JS, and the access to the related programmable
objects provided by the OS or freely downloadable.
3. Do an analysis of PowerShell.
4. Give us a list of functions found in item 1 that are not provided by 2 and 3.

-Paul Randall

<snip>