My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA [Update]

A new version is available here:

http://blogs.labo-dotnet.com/simon/archive/2006/11/08/11485.aspx

Here is the original message:

Even if it was written in French, my last post seems to have been read by many people from all around the world. Thanks a lot to all my refferrers. So I am pleased to annouce a new version of MyExposé (sorry it is not yet on Codeplex...), and this time, in english !

What's new in this version ?

More robust code: Detection of resolution changes, desktop composition disabling...
"Sensitive screen corners": Exposé can be triggered by the mouse
Configuration file: Possibility to change settings like trigger keys/corners without restarting MyExposé
Extensibility: Third party developpers can develop their own triggers
Incomplete support of multi-screen configurations: Multi-screen configurations may encounter some visual bugs but should work as expected.
Performance: Better performances on multicore configurations (thanks to OpenMP)

You can download either Source code (you should have to configure projects to target your windows SDK folder) or binaries.

posted on vendredi 6 octobre 2006 13:58

Feedback

# [Copycat] Expose sous Windows Vista RC1 [update] 06/10/2006 16:12 Simon on the (dot)Net

# re: MyExpsé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 07/10/2006 11:43 Steve

Thank you! I love this application and I think it's a big improvement over the normal task switchers. I'm going to let others know about this :)

I was wondering why the animation is a little slow/jerky though. It was the same with your initial release. Is is due to some limitation in the user DWM functions?

# re: MyExpsé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 07/10/2006 15:41 Ely

This is a very nice program, I'm sure people will come to it in doves once they discover how nice it is, Keep up the good work.

# re: MyExpsé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 07/10/2006 17:28 Simon on the (dot) net

I don't know exaclty why the animation is so slow. Calls to DwmUpdateThumbnailProperties function are surpisingly slow. From what I have seen, only calls tranforming the position / size of the thumbnails are slow. Maybe there is a problem in the implementation. It looks like the position is not modified using a Direct3D Transform matrix, but directly by setting coordiantes.

# re: MyExpsé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 08/10/2006 18:15 Buzz99

Great software...

Can't wait 'til animation will be faster and smoother...

Awsome work !!!

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 18/10/2006 21:44 fred

jgjjkjk

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 18/10/2006 22:41 JBs

Hi Simon, first thanks a lot for that wonderful piece of soft that integrates Vista perfectly well & works great.

I only wanted to submit an issue I found after installing it: when trying to use the ^/¨ key (on an azerty keabord for example :-)), it systematically simulates/considers a double strike, which results in an unavailability to use the key. Once the 10Mb of the MyExposé process unloaded from memory, everything works back pretty well.

(Hope this small description is clear enough).

Be sure that I'll be waiting for the next upcoming version really impatiently!

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 18/10/2006 22:57 JBs

One thing I forgot: maybe an idea for upcoming vesions who knows... When starting having a bunch of active windows opened, using My Exposé by pressing F9, or reaching the screen's left corner, previews are quite small and sometimes unreadable/undistinguishable from one to another (example: about 15 Outlook windows).

Something that could be great would be to implement a "zoom" effect while cursor is sticking on a thumbnail.

Don't know neither if it is easily implementable nor if everyone thinks it could be a good idea or not :-)

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 19/10/2006 00:48 Simon

Thanks for the feedback JBs.
For the bug with ^ and other accents, it is a known bug. Fixed in next version.

The feature that you descripe is not so difficult to implement. I am thinking to implement it in next version too.

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 19/10/2006 11:59 Stanislas

Great job, this feature is great :-)

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 20/10/2006 13:41 Stanislas Quastana

Bonjour,

Je viens d'installer MyExpose sur mon PC (Vista RC2 US) et je suis face à un bug : quand je veux faire un accent circonflexe, si je presse la touche ^, alors cela m'affiche ^^ et donc il n'est pas possible d'écrire des lettres avec accent circonflexe. Si je tue le process MyExpose.exe, alors le problème disparait.

En espérant que vous corrigerez ce petit bug (car je n'ai pas envie d'arrêter l'utilisation de MyExposé :-))

# utilisation avec objectdock 22/10/2006 21:24 julien

bonjour,
super ce logiciel il améliore l'ergonomie de windows de façon impressionnante!
bon seul petit problème, j'utilise objectdock de stardock et le problème c'est que lors du passage de la souris dans le coin supérieur gauche, toutes les fen^^etres ouvertes s'ouvrent (ça c'est nickel) mais également tous les icones de la barre d'objectdock (ça c'est pas hyper pratique). Si il y a une solution à ce problème, ce serait super
merci d'avance, encore bravo et bonne continuation!

# OSX's Expose on Vista 26/10/2006 07:09 Smartwombat Blog

Simon created My Expose utility for Vista. My Expose is the OS X's Expose implementation using DWM and...

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 29/10/2006 14:59 Bryan

With the built-in Flip-3D, the windows automatically transition from the desktop to the cascaded 3D windows, so it disappears from the desktop. Is there anyway to make this do that, so the windows disappear from the desktop when MyExpose is enabled? Also, when I enable it, a blank window shows up for one of my programs, but when I click it nothing happens since this program is minimized to the tray. Programs that are minimized to the tray should not be showing up. Otherwise, this program is great!

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 29/10/2006 16:36 Simon

Flip-3D is directly built in the core of the composition engine. It has access to much more features than I have, using public APIs. Flip-3D do not use DWM thumbnails. It simply applies 3D transform Matrices to the windows. This is a thing I cannot do. So I cannot manipulate the windows directly, and if I hide them, they are not redrawing anymore, and my thumbnail are not "live".
For the next point, many users (and me) do not agree with you : Minimized windows MUST be shown (in the next version you will be able to choose this behavior).

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 30/10/2006 16:39 Bryan

I'm not talking about minimized, I'm talking about minimized to the tray. When I click on the window that is minimized to tray, it does not restore the window, so it seems pointless to be showing it in MyExpose, but I do agree that regularly minimized windows should be shown.

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 31/10/2006 19:31 Jay

Known bugs?
1 - Try it in high-DPI mode. The mouse pointer position appears to be read incorrectly by your app, so I have to click to the right of the windows (sometimes on a completely different window!)

2 - with focus on IE, trigger expose and then use the up/down arrow keys. Keyboard input focus is still in IE. Not a serious bug, and is actually kinda fun to try.

Otherwise, great job! I wrote a version of this with GDI a while ago and it sucked, so it's good someone did this against Vista pretty quick. Now I don't have to :)

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 03/11/2006 19:29 Bao

"This is a thing I cannot do. So I cannot manipulate the windows directly, and if I hide them, they are not redrawing anymore, and my thumbnail are not "live"."

Yours and Douglas Stockwell's demo served as inspiration for me to write my own C# Expose switcher: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=422289

A workaround to hiding windows is to actually create a thumbnail of the desktop (the HWND can be retrieved via FindWindow("Progman", NULL)) beneath the window thumbnails. You'll have to special case the taskbar and any other desktop bars for the full effect, but I've found doing this with the desktop significantly increases visual clarity.

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA 03/11/2006 22:36 Simon

Yes I have already thinked about it. Personnally, I prefer to see the windows behind the Expose effect, but I understand that some of you do not agree.

So, in next version, you will be able to choose between semitransparent background or "desktop" background.

What will not be in the next version (but surely in another one) is the drag & drop integration. I think that it is a great feature, so I will implement it in the future.

Stay tuned, the next version is for a day in the next week, and it comes with many improvements (Config tools, natural layout, Voice Control...)

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA [Update] 11/12/2006 13:54 FearofWeapons

Great tool and is the only one I keep on re-installing every time I rebuild my Vista box.

A couple of DCRs for upcoming versions. It would be great if the order of the windows was consistant. For example the previous window was in the top left, the one used before that was next right and so on with them spiraling around the screen in a historical way clcokwise. (The current window would be just below the previous; top left but down a bit) Or spiral it out from the center?

The other thing I would like to see is being able to tie the expose behaviour to a mouse key, for example clickng the scroll wheel; rather than having to push the pointer to the top left or press the F9 key. Very minor point and not everyone will want this.

great job though

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA [Update] 14/01/2007 14:39 cvs pharmacy

# re: My Exposé : A Mac OS X Exposé implementation for Windows VISTA [Update] 23/01/2007 23:18 debaras

Simon on the (dot)Net

News

Archives

Image Galleries

Feedback