Simple way to preview minimized windows
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avdonin
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This is along the lines of the comment I posted to a similar
item in the bugs section.
The problem I see with this is there are some programs that
take up a lot of memory, and switching between them when
they are minimized (to restore and then minimize) would add
a level of unneeded lag to the switching process. Lets say
you have 10 programs open, and the program you want is #3 in
the list. If the #2 program was minimized, you would have to
switch to #2, load it, get a preview, minimize it, and then
move onto #3.
Like I said in the bug's area, the only way I could think of
to get a valid screen shot of it to show up would be to
sense when the window is being minimized, to capture it and
store it in memory. The problem with this is: 1) It takes up
memory, and 2) If you open TaskSwitchXP after the program
has already been minimized, it won't get the preview.
Could a workaround be added? My guess is possibly, but I
certainly wouldn't want it as a feature enabled by default
just because of the memory required to keep the previews up
OR the added lag factor of restoring a program back up just
to get a preview.
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The 1.1 alpha 0 adds caching for preview images. If a window
gets minimized that was visible before while TBXP was
running, TBXP could present the full-sized cached image in
the preview list instead of displaying the title bar of the
minimized window. Of course, this will only work if TBXP at
least once had the change to capture a full-sized preview
image before the window gets minimized. But this is better
than nothing.
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by yosoyhector again (look for the forum about porting
PrintWindow to other OSes than XP)... I have to create an
account I think, LOL
With a Window Hook I think you can monitor when a window is
gonna be minimized, BUT, and it's a big, but ... Hooks in
general, are system wide, and cause some slowdowns ... so
this isn't good to be activated by default. I agrre with you
twintop.
As I told in the PrintWindow post, it's clear that restoring
the window, taking a sceenshot and minimizing isn't a good
solution: not sexy and xtremely slow ... you're right
avdonin ;-)
The other solution, the intermediate one, is: no hooks. You
cache the preview when you have it with PrintWindow (on XP)
or (WM_PRINT on Windows 95 and later), and you display it
when it's minimized ... if you don't have it ... you display
it minimized :S
This technique is very Memory consuming, so not active in
default config for me :D
CU ... :D
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Let the user decide, if he wants to show the snapshot preview
of multiple opened files within one programm instance (like
Excel).
I often have 5 or more Excel files open in one program
instance, but only one is shown as preview, the others only
as titlebar. It would make life easier if for all open files the
preview is available because sometimes the name of the files
does not identify or show the content of the file.
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better create handle:
whenever window is minimized get it's preview and then minimize
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Having a preview of a minimized window most of the time is
better than none of the time. If a preview has been cached,
then use that preview when minimized. If no cached preview
is available, then fall back to current behavior. Make this
behavior a non-default option if people are concerned.
Personally, I think this makes the tool much more usable so
it should be the default.