I have heard so many people post problems with this program, but the thumbs rating is overwhelmingly up. I didn't download and try this program because of all the negative posts, although I really wanted to try it.
I'd like to hear comments from people who have had success with it. Then I might consider purchasing it.
Aston Desktop Shell
(11 posts) (6 voices)-
kc
MemberPosted 17 years ago # -
Ignore the thumbs rating. I've seen 30 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down in the first 15 minutes of the giveaway. I'm sure 30 people haven't downloaded, activated, installed and tested the product in 15 minutes.
A lot of people probably click on thumbs up or down as soon as they see what is being given away for the day, thinking "hmm, that looks pretty cool" - "thumbs up" - "ok, now to download it".
I'm sure it's the same method many people use when hiring a dvd movie. Look at the screenshots and read the 2 paragraph summary to determine - "is this a good movie"?
But in regards to Aston - you probably need to ask yourself, "Why do I need this software?" and "What problem am I trying to address?"
It might be you just want the screen to look different, you have a performance problem (your desktop is running sluggish), or something else.
If I liked Aston (for example) because it moved my start button somewhere else - so I thought the program was really great. Based on my recommendation - you will be really disappointed with Aston if you use drag & drop (it isn't supported).
You get my idea.
Posted 17 years ago # -
Well, it's a good program, it goes a little slower. You can do skins for you computer, etc. It's more customizable. One of the downs is your desktop doesn't show your desktop. You have to manually open it. It does have some pluses like "widgets". I really wouldn't buy Aston, especially for $30. That's my two cents.
Posted 17 years ago # -
BillW50
MemberWell kc, I just *love* Aston's shell. And I drag & drop items to the Aston's desktop all of the time. Works great! And unlike Explorer, anything dragged to the Aston's Desktop only becomes a shortcut (link). This is the way I always thought the Windows Explorer should have behaved for the desktop folder.
Also every computer I had in recent years, Windows Update causes this problem to come to go I think. That is Windows Explorer shell crashes for some unknown reason. I have reason to believe this might dump unsaved settings from the active registry too. Thus I believe some has lost their activation from this behavior. Plus I am positive that some icons disappear when this happens, but they are still running. I haven't seen Aston do this once. Thus I find Aston far more stable than the Windows Explorer shell.
Besides the above, I believe the Aston's shell looks and works better than MS. As it is far more configurable as well. There are differences though that some have become accustom too under MS, that just don't work the same under Aston's. For example, Windows 2000/XP actually uses two Start -> Programs folders and Windows shows the two mixed together. Although when you view the same through Explorer (as a file manager), they are separate. This is quite confusing. Aston treats them as always separate. And once you understand this, I believe one would like it much better. This is the complaint that some have had that some of their icons had turned up missing. As they are not really missing, as Windows stored some of them in a different folder.
Here is what my Aston's desktop looked like a few days ago. It still looks the same, except the clock is now also showing seconds. Which is handy for me to instantly tell if the screen ever becomes frozen.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5303/20070305172929mf1.jpg
I have installed Aston on 4 machines. 2 Windows XP, 1 Windows 2000, and a Windows 98SE machine. And I love it on all of them. Although 1 Windows XP machine, I never switched over to Aston yet. I don't use that machine very much. Nor do I want to forget what working within MS shell is really like. Hahaha… like that will ever happen. :)
Aston you can even made things transparent as well. Even the taskbar if you would like plus the menus too. I also love the click to open and click to close of the tray works too. Windows XP should have this feature. As using Windows autohide feature, it wants to autohide before I am finished. :( You can set some icons to always show like Windows XP too.
It also runs faster than Windows shell. The menus open up faster. It doesn't store multiple same application windows like Windows XP does in the taskbar. And I don't like that feature of Windows XP desktop. Oh I thought I would at first, but you have to click twice instead of once just to reopen the window. And closing one becomes a much tougher task. Not true of Aston.
Aston also gives you more room in your taskbar. So you can have and see more items than Explorer does. Plus if you hover over an item, it shows a thumbnail of the window in real time. Boy this whole Aston experience really spoils you really quick. And if you do ever get your taskbar overloaded. AltDesk is made by the same people and works well together. One of the easiest to use virtual desktops I have ever came across. And it is super stable as well.
The only negative thing I can think of about Aston, is things that hook into the Windows shell doesn't work in Aston. Which only makes sense. Like True Launch (but Aston's Quick Launch is also very fast, so no big lose there). And I miss my USR utility that displayed the byte count in the Internet traffic. But Aston has plugins that does this too.
So I think the bottom line is if you love the Explorer shell so much, you probably won't like Aston's. But if you don't love Explorer's so much, you will probably love Aston's. :)
Posted 17 years ago # -
AlexSJ
MemberI also downloaded the Aston and have come to love it. I found a beautiful theme MilkVista online, which I set up on the 2 computers I use the most. On the work one, I moved all the icons to the pop up side bars and organized them in folders (security apps, grafic apps etc.) - this way I have quick access to them, but no clutter on the desktop. Those that are left on the desktop have customized icons from one of the other Giveaways. These are locked in place so no occasional user can mess them up. I don't really miss the Drag&Drop simply because I don't do much moving around anyway. If a new app turns out to be something I use a lot, I add it to the sidebar and finished (http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3169/desktoplv1.jpg).
I guess as with all programs there is a learning curve and some open questions:"All Users": I installed first on my son's computer under my admin account, tried the shell switching and marked "all users", which did not sit well at all with the PC because when I tried my son's account I got the blank screen. I tried to install the Aston under his user, also a no go. Now he would love to have the cool themes on his account, but what to do? I set up a new user, also a no go.
"Icons - Right mouse click behaviour": I frequently switch Printers and have 2 links to them on the desktop. Right clicking used to let me select as Default Printer. Aston does not support that behaviour. Where is the button to configure that?
"Language Bar": The language bar icon disappeared, but I need to switch languages frequently. I have set one one hotkey now, but it is not the same because I cannot see which language is active at the moment.
Posted 17 years ago # -
BillW50
MemberDon't forget to checkout my reply, AlexSJ:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/520/page/2?replies=44#post-3084
Posted 17 years ago # -
Wolven
MemberBillW50
It doesn't store multiple same application windows like Windows XP does in the taskbar. And I don't like that feature of Windows XP desktop. Oh I thought I would at first, but you have to click twice instead of once just to reopen the window. And closing one becomes a much tougher task.
Bill, if I copy you correctly, that feature can be easily disabled. Right click on your taskbar > select 'Properties' > un-check 'Group similar taskbar buttons' > click on 'Apply'.
Thanks for the Aston review and snapshot - I've only been here for a few days and missed that shell. I'll do a little research,..seems interesting.
Posted 17 years ago #
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