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Post by theinsane101 on May 21, 2024 3:40:39 GMT -8
One of my favourite features from Windows Vista was its new way of searching for an organising files, called "Stacking." Unlike Grouping, which organises files into collapsible drop-down tabs, stacking allows you to organise files into stacks, which look and behave like folders, except these "folders" group the files by metadata properties, making it MUCH easier to organise and search content.
For example, stacking image files by dimension would give you "folders" that each contain all the files of the same dimension, so you'd have a stack for 1920 x 1080, one for 640 x 480 and so on. Here's an example of one using camera models: You could also enter one stack and group all the files in that stack by another stack, so you could enter your 1920 x 1080p stack and then stack all of that stack's files by camera model, etc. You can't do this with grouping. Finally, stacking can even take the files in subfolders and include them in the stack, which you also can't do with grouping.
Unfortunately, Windows 7 killed this feature, and after looking at beta builds of 7, I found they killed it in a very stupid and lazy way.
They replaced it with "Arrange by," which is USELESS for the following reasons:
- The option ONLY exists in Libraries. Vista's stacking worked EVERYWHERE.
- You can only stack by very few properties that MS arbitrarily chose. For example, you can ONLY "arrange" images by month, day, rating and tag. Vista's stacking let you choose ANY property.
- Not even all of the limited property options even "stack" the files! While arranging audio files by "album," "artist" and "genre" give you the "stack" view, "song" and "rating" give you list view, with the "rating" option automatically adding the rating column! Basically, Microsoft dumbed down stacking to preselected view modes and visible property header columns that they ASSUMED you would need.
The only improvements that 7 added to the stack option was to include thumbnails of the files in each stack, just like the Personalisation page does with themes that have multiple wallpapers, but that's it. Everything else is a downgrade.
I find myself needing this stack feature every single day and hate that MS made it useless.
When looking at even the public release beta of Windows 7, the stacking option still existed alongside the arrange by option, which leads me to believe that they created this garbage "arrange by" option from scratch, copying over most (but not all) of "Stack by"'s features, before removing the original feature entirely. The above image shows stacking still working, with the only change being that the file thumbails that were added for 7's theme previews also applied here, which makes the stacking even better!
You could even still stack inside library folders, meaning that libraries had BOTH "Stack by" and "Arrange by". However, I came across many bugs when attempting to use stacking inside the libraries (it worked perfectly smoothly everywhere else though), which is probably why they ended up removing the feature. Honestly, if I had to choose between only Libraries or Stacking, I would choose stacking. Libraries are a MISERABLE failed attempt at the file tags feature that OS X added 4 years after Windows 7.
My point is: the fact that the stack option remained this far into Windows 7 that you could still use it in the public beta could mean that the option is simply disabled in Explorer, just like many other Explorer features that were hidden but have been restored by the modding community. My question is whether anyone has investigated whether this is the case and tried to bring back this underrated and powerful feature?
Thanks for reading lol!
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 7, 2024 11:34:47 GMT -8
I can confirm that it is still working properly in Windows 10. I copied an File Stack Folder from Vista over to Win 10 22H2. This resulted in Working Stacks.
The Stacks itself are just xml files: <?xml version="1.0"?> <persistedQuery version="1.0"><viewInfo stackViewMode="icons" stackIconSize="96" displayName="Suchergebnisse in "Bilder"" autoListFlags="0"><visibleColumns><column viewField="System.ItemNameDisplay"/><column viewField="System.DateModified"/><column viewField="System.ItemType"/><column viewField="System.ItemFolderPathDisplayNarrow"/><column viewField="System.Author"/><column viewField="System.Keywords"/></visibleColumns><stackList><stack viewField="System.Image.BitDepth"/></stackList><sortList><sort viewField="System.Image.BitDepth" direction="descending"/></sortList></viewInfo><query><kindList><kind name="item"/></kindList><providers><provider clsid="{88CF4A86-5D7A-48EB-B53E-EA388A390096}"/></providers><scope><include path="C:\Users\USERNAME\Pictures"/></scope></query><properties><author Type="string">USERNAME</author></properties></persistedQuery> |
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 12, 2024 23:25:13 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackBy |
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 13, 2024 11:53:16 GMT -8
Also if the sort headers are used in an Stack they behave like in Vista excpet a few ones.
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tselim
Sophomore Member
entered a message
Posts: 144
OS: Windows 11 Pro 23H2
Theme: Aero10: Vista (Modified)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G With Raedon Graphics
RAM: 11.8 GB
GPU: AMD Raedon (TM) Graphics
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Post by tselim on Oct 14, 2024 5:37:04 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackByinstaller was in german when my locale is in en-US and it changed my icons to XP for no reason
Edit: found out it was resource redirect somehow switching to the xp icons I had on my pc upon installation of stacks
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 14, 2024 9:20:10 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackByinstaller was in german when my locale is in en-US and it changed my icons to XP for no reason Ok, can you maybe send me an screenshot due lack of english Windows and i don't know what you mean by XP icons. |
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 14, 2024 9:37:44 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackByinstaller was in german when my locale is in en-US and it changed my icons to XP for no reason
Edit: found out it was resource redirect somehow switching to the xp icons I had on my pc upon installation of stacks
Ok than i just have to fix the german installer currently installing english Windows in a VM will keep you updated. |
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Post by hanssepp123 on Oct 14, 2024 10:47:14 GMT -8
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Post by theinsane101 on Oct 17, 2024 6:01:29 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackByTHIS IS AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really hope others are able to figure out how to bring back the original GUI for it.
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tselim
Sophomore Member
entered a message
Posts: 144
OS: Windows 11 Pro 23H2
Theme: Aero10: Vista (Modified)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G With Raedon Graphics
RAM: 11.8 GB
GPU: AMD Raedon (TM) Graphics
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Post by tselim on Oct 17, 2024 6:23:43 GMT -8
I made a small program that adds the possibility back to create those stacks. The UI is although an WinForms and doesn't look like Vista, with the Contextmenus. github.com/KingKoopaDE/7-StackByTHIS IS AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really hope others are able to figure out how to bring back the original GUI for it.
oh dang that longhorn iconpack looks sick can u message me it? |
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Post by theinsane101 on Oct 19, 2024 4:02:10 GMT -8
oh dang that longhorn iconpack looks sick can u message me it? It was shared in the Custom Vista 5112 theme forum in the ClassicServ Discord. |
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