Start Menu in the Dock
Rest assured, you are not hallucinating. There it is, in all its Windows XP glory - a blasted Start menu in the OS X dock thanks to the latest upgrade to Virtual PC.
In what has to be one of the most mind-bending cross-platform integration ideas ever seen, the new Virtual PC 6.0 allows users to launch Windows applications (and whatever else is in your Start menu) from the OS X dock.
Launch a Windows application from the Start menu, and it appears right alongside your OS X applications with a tiny Virtual PC icon badge to distinguish it from the pack. The Windows application icons even appear in OS X utilities like DragThing and Lite Switch, though with less functionality.
The usefulness of dock integration unfortunately runs out if you try to do more than just switch apps, like dragging and dropping an OS X file on top of a Windows app in the dock, which is unfortunate, but may simply be unrealistic. You can however drag and drop files between desktops, as always, and open in whatever app you please.
Between apps like Virtual PC and Microsoft Remote Desktop, the line between Macs and PCs is blurrier than ever.
Comments
I'm a little confused as to why the start menu in the OSX dock is a useful feature. Can't you click on the "start" button in the VirtualPC window?
Posted by: webspiffy at December 19, 2002 2:31 PM
Yes, you can obviously do that. The dock Start menu is handy if you have the VPC window minimized, or behind a bunch of other windows. Obviously it isn't worth a dime if you run VPC full screen (which covers the dock) but it helps to quickly launch XP apps without having to go through the XP interface. Plus, and here's the weird thing, Windows doesn't even have to be running. You can select a Windows app from the dock Start menu, and Virtual PC auto-launches for you.
Posted by: Todd Dominey at December 19, 2002 2:38 PM
I'd even argue that dock integration for the purpose of application switching isn't useful. If I have an XP Pro session running, with Internet Explorer behind Windows Explorer (both maximized), clicking on the IE icon in the dock just brings the XP session forward, not IE in the XP session. It stays put behind Windows Explorer.
And Windows Explorer doesn't even show up in the dock.
Another annoyance is the dock label, when you mouse over an item in the dock. It doesn't say "Internet Explorer", it says "iexplore.exe (Win XP)". I guess you could argue that the icon is enough, but what if the app doesn't have a descriptive icon? Or a descriptive executable name?
Finally, if anyone wants to NOT have PC apps show up in the OS X dock (like me), as far as I can tell it can't be turned off. I didn't see it in the help viewer and it's not in the preferences.
I guess it's a nice try, but I think it's a half-assed implementation. And the fact that you can't turn it off is not cool.
Posted by: frank at December 19, 2002 2:38 PM
Actually, you can turn it off. Click "settings" in Virtual PC List and you'll see a dock preferences option at the bottom. Yes, I agree, it is a little half-assed right now, but I think the IDEA is what is most appealing. I can only imagine what it would be like if VPC were a wholy intergrated app, where Windows apps were treated just like, or close to, native ones.
Posted by: Todd Dominey at December 19, 2002 2:46 PM
Pretty neat. I see this as taking a step towards the Mac Classic concept. You can click any app you want, but some require their own little environments to load first, and will run slower. But being able to do it at all is great.
Posted by: Jon at December 19, 2002 4:07 PM
And when I say Mac Classic I mean "OS9 in OSX"
Posted by: Jon at December 19, 2002 4:07 PM
this is actually a response to your phone book post: the atlanta college of art's printmaking department uses old yellow pages for wiping ink from etching plates. it's not exactly environmentally friendly, and probably more trouble than it's worth, but if you've got a lot of old books you might call and see if they'd like them.
Posted by: nat at December 20, 2002 3:32 PM
To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.
Posted by: Vergil at December 20, 2002 10:24 PM
BTW I live in Kennesaw and we recycle our phonebooks
Posted by: Vergil at December 20, 2002 10:25 PM
On my g4 emac with 512k, virtual pc is too slow to be worth using.
Posted by: Mark Crane at December 26, 2002 2:32 PM
