SillyDog701

[Antony]

Running Windows without Explorer is generally considered as a heavily tweak! Not everybody is capable of doing such a tweaking job.

You call ending explorer.exe (via Ctrl-Alt-Del/Task Manager) a heavy tweak?

Is it that simple?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[Sonadow]

i tried to disable explorer.exe in my Windows 2000 OS.

Step 1: Go to task manager with ctrl + alt + del. (done)
Step 2: Locate explorer.exe process. (done)
Step 3: Select the process and choose 'end task' (done)

Desktop disappears, as expected. Then this window pops up:

End Task : Explorer.exe The program has stopped responding. To............... (i cant remember the entire dialogue.)

i clicked on 'end task' in the dialogue and explorer.exe fired itself up again.

so HOW do you terminate the explorer.exe process for good?

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[Antony]

so HOW do you terminate the explorer.exe process for good?

You can't. Not normally or without heavy tweaking.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[beanboy89]

Works for me. No tweaks used at all.

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/7715/explorerdv4.jpg

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[Don_HH2K]

Here's the process on an unmodified copy of Windows 2000 that I installed just a few days ago (unless you call moving the swapfile to a different drive a heavy modification, especially seeing that 2000 doesn't cooperate as-is with a 1.2GB drive). All I've installed on top of it is K-Meleon and Service Pack 4.

Sorry the video's so blurry, I wasn't checking the viewfinder on the camera while capturing that. Still, the lack of a taskbar or desktop until I manually go restart Explorer roughly a minute later gets the point across.

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[Antony]

Here's the process on an unmodified copy of Windows 2000 (...)

What is the format/codec and how big is the video clip?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[Don_HH2K]

MPEG-1 video, ~1min long, ~5MB in size. The audio track was ripped out to save space.

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[beanboy89]

Here's my take on closing the explorer.exe process:

http://billy.mozfaq.org/misc/explorer.avi

(AVI file, 10.1 MB)

Captured on a clean install of Windows XP Pro installed under Virtual PC 2007. The only software that I have installed is Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and CamStudio (which I'm using for screen capture).

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[Antony]

Few years back, [sdp=21770]I posted those comparisons[/sdp], it was based on the first generation of iMac (around 1998).
PC:


the (original) iMac.


Over those years, both Mac and PC have improved on the speed and functionalities, but the ugliness of cables behind PC towers remains.

There's the 2007 comparison:
Here's the PC:


Here's the iMac:

If you want to go for wireless, you can cut the cable down to 1 (main power). Apple provides technologies for wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, wireless networking, wireless printing and even wireless external storage (via AirPort Extreme's AirDisk).

Images taken from Apple Special Event.

Not yet using a Mac? Get a Mac!

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[Don_HH2K]

Personally I think the wire mess on the PC is exaggerated. Here's what it looks like under my desk:



From left-to-right, those are VGA (monitor), DB-9 (mouse), Ethernet (LAN), DB-25 (printer), PS/2 (keyboard), RCA stereo (audio), and power. In particular, notice that they are not a tangled mess.

There are a couple of things I'd like to point out about this picture.

First off, it's a Dell. Dell provides monitors with built-in cameras, and nearly all Dell LCDs I've seen have USB ports built-in. Therefore it would only be necessary to run one USB cable rather than three from the tower to the monitor in order to hook up the webcam, mouse, and keyboard with less mess.

Second, they've apparently got a USB dongle for Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi. To put the PC on a more level playing field with the Mac, it's worth noting that an equivalent internal card can be bought for about the same price as an external one. And as with the Mac, one could also hook up their keyboard and mouse through the wireless method as well, removing two more wires.

Third... Disconnected stereo cable. If there's one, there may be more, exaggerating the wire mess.


And to state the obvious... A more level comparison would've been the cables on a Mac Pro to the cables on a PC tower, since the iMac and tower are different form factors altogether.

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[Antony]

Personally I think the wire mess on the PC is exaggerated. Here's what it looks like under my desk:

You haven't showed the messiness (or tidiness) of your cables which you smartly hide them, just the tiny bit out of your PC.

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[Don_HH2K]

That'd be tough to take a picture of. They're all stuffed between the edge of my desk and the wall, where I can't wedge the camera for a picture.

Edit - But I can show you that the keyboard and mouse come out cleanly, without the cords tangling together. Most commonly I keep them on my lap and my laptop on my desk. Ironic, eh?



(The black cable on the right isn't part of the PC.)

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[Antony]

Edit - But I can show you that the keyboard and mouse come out cleanly, without the cords tangling together. Most commonly I keep them on my lap and my laptop on my desk. Ironic, eh?

So you keep two cables cleanly coming out, excellent.

Based on your previous picture, you have seven (7) cables coming out from the back of your computer. There are only two (2) cables coming out the back of the iMac.
That is... seven cables to mess around compared to merely two cables to position.

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[Don_HH2K]

Which leads to two meaningful cables, as in, the only two I need to manipulate. The other ones are more like drop-and-forget cables, since most people don't need to get back there very often.

It's important to consider that the iMac is an all-in-one, while most PCs aren't. So a better comparison would be of the iMac to a PC all-in-one and a common PC tower to the Mac Pro.

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[Antony]

The other ones are more like drop-and-forget cables, since most people don't need to get back there very often.

Hence the ugliness, unless you hide them.

With iMac, only one power cord and one USB for keyboard... there's no much need to hide the mess.

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