Especially with the Dashboard shell [1]. Was very convenient: compact, always at your fingertips, with extended virtual desktop, fully configurable and stable:

Especially with the Dashboard shell [1]. Was very convenient: compact, always at your fingertips, with extended virtual desktop, fully configurable and stable: you lay out things some way, they stay this way. It is interesting that modern UIs keep removing agency from the user. There is very little space in the system that feels mine because I am the sole owner of it. On Windows 3.1 I managed everything in the program groups. It was not too convenient (compared to that Dashboard shell or Mac), but still, if the system added a group now and then, I could always take it apart and rearrange to my liking. Now the Start menu is completely taken over. The ability to manually arrange things in a folder is taken away. The folders that should be rightfully mine (such as Documents) are constantly invaded by every program that feels entitled to put things there. As a result “we do not go there anymore.” The only places that are left for me to manage are: the area to the right of the start menu and the desktop. But I do not like the start menu and do not like cluttering the desktop, so the only place I still govern is a tiny custom toolbar I added to the taskbar. [1] https://winworldpc.com/product/dashboard/30 https://winworldpc.com/product/dashboard/30