kkunderwood

Join Date 10/2003

+10

Solid State Drives and Stardock Applications

My MSi GTX780DXR laptop died, so I purchased an MSi GT70 Dominator which comes with a 250GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. As I began to install the Stardock Applications, I quickly realized that data files such as the Windowblind and CursorFX themes would be installed on the SSD. This would be a terrible waste of the limited high speed space since I had 1TB of HDD available.

A quick look at the Windowblind and CursorFX applications showed no way to change the location of these themes. I found the registry hack that allowed me to move the Windowblind themes to the HDD, but so far I have been unsuccessful in moving the CursorFX themes off of the SSD. I haven't even tried to move sounds or dreams.

Since virtually every current laptop system I looked at comes with the OS and USER directories on an SSD, Stardock needs to change its applications to support locating data files onto an arbitrary drive and directory.

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The data files are going to be so small there is little to be gained and being on a SSD will in fact be a good thing for WindowBlinds as it has to load up a number of images which is perfect for SSDs as there is basically no seek time. Throw in the laptop is no doubt powering down the second drive often and you could end up with larger stalls on app launch with WindowBlinds as files it needs would be on that drive.

However if you wish to relocate things then set the OS to put the user directory on the other drive. I imagine there is a reason why the computer was not configured like that out of the box though.

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I currently have 1136 WB using 11.3GB of storage that I have collected over the years as a Stardock and WinCustomize subscriber. This does not include the icons, sounds, cursors and dreams that I have not even moved from the old system backup. The Windows installer must assume that there is only one installation partition, so the O/S and the USER directories are going to be on that one. Most Stardock users are not going to be capable of safely relocating the USER directories.

A user friendly option to relocate data directories to an arbitrary disk and directory would be extremely useful. I stand by original post!

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1808

Neil's the one to heed re suitable/proper/preferred locations for the Windowblinds files.

Any GUI [shell] enhancement software really needs to be on the same/speedy drive as the OS so as to not impact adversely on the functioning [speed] of the OS...as that ultimately affects everything else.

In your case you probably should consider whether 1136 Windowblinds skins/themes all really need to be installed at the same time. Over the decades I think I might have maxed out at 30 or 40 at any one time.

Not sure how many I have at the moment...but they're all on the OS drive [it's partitioned to about 250gig...and is an M.2 'SSD' so yes....the space is premium....and in my case quite expensive too. [$612 AUD].

But that's where they need to be...

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One of my first concerns with the new laptop was the Microsoft OneDrive folder. I have a large number of music and photos files in the OneDrive cloud, so the last thing I wanted was to waste precious SSD space. Guess what? One of the available settings in OneDrive is to locate the folder ANYWHERE I WANT!

I see no performance issues at all with the WindowBlinds app on the SSD and the themes on the HDD. I should probably clean house, but that is really not the relevant issue here. This request for Stardock desktop applications to provide an option to move data files to an arbitrary disk and folder is neither unreasonable nor particularly difficult to implement. So far all I am seeing is that it is too hard for you to do, so you won't even consider it.

"Because it's easier to try than to prove it can't be done" - Moody Blues

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1808

Quoting kkunderwood,

reply 4

I see no performance issues at all with the WindowBlinds app on the SSD and the themes on the HDD.

So...you have them that way? Where then is the problem?

Or are you saying that you do not see a potential issue IF they were placed so....in which case it's speculation, not reality.

This is specifically NOT the same issue as the totally arbitrary placement of photographs and/or music. The OS uses neither to function. They can be on an external drive only accessed once a month/whatever. OS files cannot. If an OS kernel has to actively search for images/data each time the GUI [shell] is accessed on [as Neil suggests] a non-OS drive which has gone to 'sleep' in between reads/writes - common on laptops in particular you will see a very real lag.

I have a particularly high-end computer and the thumb-twiddle time I have accessing platter drives as they power up again [they're green] is quite entertaining....whereas the OS drive is the fastest currently available...and access is 'instant'...

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I speak as a retired senior software engineer with experience in everything from x86 assembler to C# and as a Windows/Linux/network administrator. Although my main focus was scientific control system applications and utilities, I did my fair share of Windows applications.

Now I discover that SoundPackager and IconPackager will not install on Windows 8. While DeskScapes will install, it only displays a black screen. Not only is Stardock support downplaying my perfectly reasonable suggestion, they are apparently not supporting Windows 8 or presumably Windows 10. I guess I can save some of my retirement dollars by not renewing my Stardock or WinCustomize subscriptions.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1808

Quoting kkunderwood,

reply 6

I speak as a retired senior software engineer with experience in everything from x86 assembler to C# and as a Windows/Linux/network administrator.

Did you retire before Microsoft's release of Windows 7 and subsequent OS releases? If so perhaps you're not conversant with Microsoft's subsequent requirements towards 3rd Party software developers for their accepted placement of file installations [public/roaming/default/all users/etc] which 'requires' much of what you see as undesirable placement.

It's the responsibility of 3rd party program developers to adhere to Microsoft's general requirements.

Regarding support/compatibility with some software vs some OS versions part of that is actually issues with the OS not providing the capacity for such programs to function as expected [or found on early OS releases]... the non-inclusion of codecs with the [modern] OS distribution is just one issue...

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Quoting kkunderwood,

reply 6

The MSi GT70 Dominator is a high performance gaming laptop. Whether the HDD spins down or not is not obvious. Perhaps when I an running on the battery, there may be a delay as the drive spins up, but I am willing to tolerate that. The real issue is having to do things like hack the registry in order to point WindowBlinds to a folder on the HDD instead of the SSD. A simple modification to the Stardock desktop apps to add a setting that points the data files to something other than the default location is neither unreasonable nor difficult.

I speak as a retired senior software engineer with experience in everything from x86 assembler to C# and as a Windows/Linux/network administrator. Although my main focus was scientific control system applications and utilities, I did my fair share of Windows applications.

Now I discover that SoundPackager and IconPackager will not install on Windows 8. While DeskScapes will install, it only displays a black screen. Not only is Stardock support downplaying my perfectly reasonable suggestion, they are apparently not supporting Windows 8 or presumably Windows 10. I guess I can save some of my retirement dollars by not renewing my Stardock or WinCustomize subscriptions.

Would your high performance gaming laptop have Intel graphics? There is a known driver bug with those which causes Deskscapes to show black. This is a problem at Intels end not ours unfortunately and only showed up with recent drivers.

Regarding your other issues, I suggest you read this : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx

Storing those files on another drive is an edge case that almost none of our customers would require, but the tools are built into the OS for you. There are good reasons for us keeping things in one location and changing the registry keys for WindowBlinds is also totally unsupported as they are leftovers from the pre Windows Vista days. I am sorry this isn't what you would like, but I hope you can understand that whilst your needs are very important to you, this particular need is not overlapping with the rest of the customer base.

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2210

Quoting kkunderwood,

reply 6

While DeskScapes will install, it only displays a black screen.

I have DeskScapes installed AND running on several Windows 8.1 rigs, including my mediocre laptop. Dreams, by the way, can be stored on the HDD. The program allows you to turn off the default folders and browse to wherever you have them stored. I store mine on the HDD. My SSD is small.

I did move my WBs to a HDD, and I did see performance issues, mainly the WB program took a bit longer to populate the skins list, as it had to look for them, rebuild list each time I changed skins.

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hmmm i dont think stardock apps or themes should take up much room and 250-500 gb ssds are fairly cheap nowadays

you cant honestly tell me that the stardock software is filling that up as windows alone only takes 14 gigs or so and thats including updates

put every other program on a big hdd and keep stardock things on the os. and did i read right.1,1336 wb themes? who the hell has the time to switch that much in a yr . just seems silly to me

also ssds are not only secure but they are super optimized and compressed so windows would only take half of what i originally said probably

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