3 great features of Ubuntu and Mac OSx in Windows 7

After I finished quietly weeping from switching back to Windows 7 from Ubuntu, I immediately went to work making Windows more like Ubuntu.

Lets just get this out of the way... IMHO, there is no good desktop cube program in windows. Nor is there any good way to have wobbly windows. The few programs that attempt to recreate these features aren’t nearly as good as in Linux, plus they use waaaaay more resources than Linux uses.

Here are the 4 features I have applied to windows:
1. A good dock
2. 2 finger tap right click and 3 finger tap middle click.
3. Smooth scrolling
4. Scroll with mouse over window instead of having to select the window to scroll

Here are the 3 Windows utilities:

1. Rocket Dock (with stack addon)

Some people like docks, some don’t. I find this one very useful. I don’t use it as a start menu replacement; I put it at the top of my desktop and use it as a launcher. Make sure to use the stack addon to add a fan or grid. This is the link for the addon installation instructions.

One inconvenient thing about the stack addon is that you can't drag new icons into the fan or grid. You have to open the folder, and then drag the program into the folder, and it will then appear in the stack. A minor inconvenience, but not really a big deal. Overall this dock is the best option out there.

I'll give you 2 fingers!
Actually, this is Winston Churchill looking forward to
a day when one could scroll a touchpad with two fingers.

2. TwoFingerScroll

My Synaptics touch pad already has two finger scroll. However, clicking with this touch pad is weird. You have to push down the whole touch pad at the bottom. I find it much more convenient and intuitive to be able to use a two finger tap for a right click and a three finger tap for a middle click. (For example to open a link in a new tab while web browsing.)

This program also does a good job of smooth scrolling. Smooth scrolling is a feature found in Mac OSx, but not in Windows or Linux. Why doesn’t every operating system come with this natively? I mean, what is this, the 1990’s?

In the settings, on the general tab, I have checked “Start with Windows”
On the scrolling tab, I use the “Smart” option under “Scroll mode”
Under the tapping tab, I set Two fingers to be Right button, and Three fingers to be Middle button

I also turned off the normal two finger scrolling settings in the control panel. If this program doesn’t work, try going to the control panel, find your mouse settings, then to the touchpad settings, and turn off scrolling. Just let this program take care of the scrolling.

One more thing. The smooth scrolling only works with my touchpad, not my mouse. I’m pretty sure it is because the normal scroll settings trump this little program, and I don’t think its possible for me to turn off scrolling on a normal mouse.


3. WizMouse

From the WizMouse website:

"WizMouse is a mouse enhancement utility that makes your mouse wheel work on the window currently under the mouse pointer, instead of the currently focused window. This means you no longer have to click on a window before being able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. This is a far more comfortable and practical way to make use of the mouse wheel."

'Nuff said! I love this feature. Again, I have no idea why Windows doesn’t include this natively. I find it so useful. For example, if I’m following a tutorial for some software, I can scroll the tutorial in the background and stay in the program I am working on. If you’ve never had this feature, you might not understand the significance... but try it!