IconX bug(s) report

from WinCustomize Forums
Hi - I'm using IconX and its working great for many things but I've discovered several problems:

(1) all shortcuts have lost their "little arrow" annotation that helps you distinguish shortcuts from real files

(2) when I first turned IconX on, I found that alot (but not all) shortcuts could not find the default icon embedded within the exe they are pointing to. I was able to delete and recreate ~half of the shortcuts and IconX found its way to the correct icon. Having to do this should not have been necessary.

(3) In the shortcut problem described previously, I have not been able to get icons to appear on many of my shortcuts. IconX seems to be unable to find the default icon within the exe. This seems to be an IconX problem only - if I drag these shortcuts onto ObjectDock+ it seems to find them.

(4) If I click the "Show desktop" button on the Windows Quick Launch bar, my original desktop is displayed rather than the IconX desktop (they appear to be different). I have found that opening windows, closing, etc. will restore the iconX desktop. Its very strange.

(5) There seems to be no IconX support forum (although the "new post" "Category/Topic" listed it)

Any suggestions/ideas for resolving this?
iconpackager
3,852 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I can answer #4 and guess at #5.

#4: The show desktop does not actually minmize everything. It actually opens a new (special) Explorer window with not no title, menu, or borders. So it puts Windows default ON TOP OF the real desktop that IconX is applied to.

#5: IconX was spun off from DesktopX . . . no one ever got araound to creating a seperate library. On the bright side though, everything is displayed (for a while at least) in the parent discussion forum.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Your explanation for why "Show Desktop" doesnt work makes sense. So, now that we know why it doesnt work ... what's the fix?

IconX should contain basic documentation to discuss some of these unfortunate interactions with builtin Windows XP functionality and tell you what to do about it.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
what's the fix?


There is no fix. It's not broken. [Winkey-M] actually does a "true" minimize all windows and [Shift=Winkey-M] restores. Dependign on what you want to do, you can use those keystrokes or build an app to toggle the two ([Winkey-D] toggles betwenn the two.)

IconX should contain basic documentation to discuss some of these unfortunate interactions with builtin Windows XP functionality and tell you what to do about it.


That is one option. Another is to understand how a system works before one starts adding applications that change the base system. Documentation has never been a strong suite of Stardocks. But that's what you have these forums for.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the replies Zubaz, I appreciate that you've taken the time to respond. Is the [Winkey-M] a feature in WindowsXP? Or is this functionality from another Stardock product?

I think you're a little more tolerant of quirks in the product than I am. I can see that many of the Stardock products have a freeware/shareware lineage. And for a free product, a person should be grateful for any support > 0 they receive and if a little research/under the hood knowledge is necessary to use it then that's fair too. But I have just paid $49 for Object Desktop and that creates a whole different set of expectations.

I'm a software engineer myself, and the problems I'm pointing out via my original post violate 2 important usability tests: (1) the principle of least surprise and (2) the "my mom test". My Mom should be able to startup IconX and find it just works in her system. (And this is a particular good application of this test because making icons prettier is exactly the sort of thing moms might try to do.) If while using IconX she clicks the "Show Desktop" button (that worked before installing/running IconX) and her desktop goes crazy then she sees this as a flaw in IconX. Frankly, when my wife first encountered this, she wanted me to remove all the "crap" that I'd just installed on our computer because "its really flakey".

So, by that definition, the IconX desktop is broken because the design doesn't cope with a common usage case in a way that my wife/mom could figure out.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So, by that definition, the IconX desktop is broken because the design doesn't cope with a common usage case in a way that my wife/mom could figure out.


But could your kids figure it out? My wife has a hard time with my desktop because it is fully Stardocked. Objectdock+, ObjectBar, DesktopX, Windowblinds (with smart buttons), WinFX, CursorXP but my six-year-old just jumped right it. SAme for my tabletPC. Kids just get it.

Winkey is the key typically next to the Ctrl and Alt key. Looks like the Windows logo. It is XP specific.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Kids? LOL True - only problem for Stardock is that my wife/mom have alot more money to spend than the kids!

Actually, a quick google of "Show desktop" IconX seems to show that this is a fairly common complaint.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok - I've figured out that my "Show Desktop" issue is not asking for the impossible. In January of 2005, ObjectDock 1.1 was released that incorporated the following feature: "Supports WinKey+D now (show desktop no longer hides ObjectDock if it's set to always on bottom or top)"

Also, as I play around with ObjectDockPlus 1.3 I can see that the "Show Desktop" issue is not a concern.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Also, as I play around with ObjectDockPlus 1.3 I can see that the "Show Desktop" issue is not a concern

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I guess I should clarify for those that will use this thread in the future... ObjectDockPlus starting with v1.1 (released in Jan/05) correctly handles "Show Desktop" and WinKey+D. When I run both IconX and ObjectDock+ and then "show desktop", IconX screws up and ObjectDock+ responds correctly.

Anyways, I've forwarded my original post to [email protected]