Stone-age GUI

[Super Fast]

CCleaner has had a major GUI overhaul in the last couple years.

 

I'd love to see Defraggler brought out of the stone age, into a matching app like CCleaner.

I believe Speccy & Recuva are already in a similar color scheme.

 

When are you guys gonna bring Defraggler GUI "up-to-date" to match the GUI of the other piriform products?

 

Thank you!

[Guest]

'Stone age' in what way? Personally I like having a minimalist/simplistic UI, it represents what Defraggler really is; a fast, straight to the point file defragmenter. A bit like Chrome in a way.

[Super Fast]

'Stone age' in what way? Personally I like having a minimalist/simplistic UI, it represents what Defraggler really is; a fast, straight to the point file defragmenter. A bit like Chrome in a way.

What I mean is, it would be nice to have a matching defraggler.

 

While I do like defraggler, it sticks out like a sore thumb when you have a dark themed CCleaner/Recuva/Speccy, & Defraggler is the only one in the group that doesn't "match"!

 

Would be really nice if it was brought up to date with the rest of their products!

[Sob]

Please no! I don't want another great application ruined by custom "oh so cool" hardcoded skin... Sure, it might match the three other applications (which I don't use, so I don't really care how they look), but it would make it not match thousands of other applications.

 

I don't get this. Microsoft did great job in the past with system-wide settings. If someone liked green, he could have all his apps green in only a few clicks. Someone else more into pink could be happy too. There was choice for everyone. And for those who felt too limited by what Windows offered, there was WindowsBlinds, available for ages, to satisfy even the craziest skinning needs.

 

But for some strange reason some application makers feel the urge to ignore this great system and make their applications stick out. Screw user preferences, we know best how our application should look. It usually happens when they run out of useful ideas and are desperately looking for anything to add that might attract few new users. Who cares about old ones, most of them will stay anyway. And it's so easy, just add new shiny skin and voila, it's completely new application that everyone must be just dying to have it. Or maybe not?

 

One problem with hardcoded skins, if we're talking only about visual appearance, is their inconsistency. Take ten applications from ten different developers who implemented this and you'll find out that you have zero chance to make them match visually. Ok, you may have some chance if you like some dark theme, it is often there in some form (but still not always). But if you like anything else, you're out of luck and end up with whole heap of "sore thumbs".

 

But I guess this fight is lost anyway. If MS Office did it, then the message is clear. Skins are super-cool and three color schemes must be enough for everyone! Sigh...

[Super Fast]

Hmmm...

 

I understand. But here, I feel the developers of Piriform products are very good.

I do believe with CCleaner they trialed the skin theme initially to see how people liked it, & the reactions were overwhelmingly positive.

 

I am sure that should they do so with Defraggler, they wouldn't do it without first seeing how people in general like it.

I will be the 1st to admit that I was a little nervous initially when they started talking of updating the GUI to CCleaner a while back, but it was an unfounded fear.

 

The developers have done great, it turned out really awesome, & there is no doubt that I think you can fully trust them to do the right thing.

I have been following the development of piriform products for a while, & I do believe they are some very trust worthy people, who strive to do it right!

[Sob]

Well, I checked other Piriform products...

 

Recuva seems to be completely standard application. The dark top may stand out a little, but I can't really say anything against it. It's still perfectly acceptable. At first look it even seems to respect system settings (colors, fonts...). On second look it's not so perfect with fonts, dialog definitions in executable have MS Shell Dlg and it's mapped to Microsoft Sans Serif by default (at least on my Win7), so fans of new Segoe UI may be a little dissapointed. But the mapping can be easily changed in registry, so it's fine.

 

Speccy is more radical. At least it uses standard Windows menu and not some self-drawn Office clone. But that's it. The rest of the window... I don't say it's ugly, because it isn't. It just doesn't fit anywhere. Speccy looks like it doesn't belong there with any theme available by default on XP or Win7. It may probably fit with Vista, it has dark theme if I remember correctly. CCleaner is basically the same as Speccy. And both have hardcoded Tahoma almost everywhere, not exactly user friendly approach.

 

All three apps in general are still relatively decent. At least they use standard Windows controls (buttons, etc..) and respect some of user's preferences. It could be much worse (see new FoxIt Reader 5, it's like authors saying "users are idiots, we know best what's good for them", it ignores colors, fonts, window styles, everything). But while it's not that bad with Piriform apps, is it really needed? Does it add anything functionality wise? It doesn't. Does it limit user's customization options? It does. Wouldn't be the needed effort better spent somewhere else? Some useful new functionality for example? Definitely yes, in my opinion.

 

I fully support your goal to have your applications look exactly as you like. But it's something that would be much better done in system-wide way. Because unless these four Piriform apps are the only ones you use, you still have the same problem with most other existing apps - they look differently.

[Andavari]

I do believe with CCleaner they trialed the skin theme initially to see how people liked it, & the reactions were overwhelmingly positive.

Your version of reality must be different from mine because in the 7 years I've been on here and using CCleaner I definitely don't remember that. Not that the users would really have any say anyways how the program was going to look because in reality we don't.

 

I do agree that skinned apps have gotten a bit out of control when so much don't use the Windows theme built into the OS.

[Super Fast]

Your version of reality must be different from mine because in the 7 years I've been on here and using CCleaner I definitely don't remember that. Not that the users would really have any say anyways how the program was going to look because in reality we don't.

 

I do agree that skinned apps have gotten a bit out of control when so much don't use the Windows theme built into the OS.

 

Guess it was.

 

I wasn't too picky, so long as it was:

 

- Simple

- Worked

- Looked ok doing it

 

I thought the older version was much harder to use, because even with the ability to run it portably, it would still sometimes erase someone's old CCleaner settings unless you did the reg backup, replace, restore method.

 

I really thought that the newer version, with no requirements to register this or that OCX or DLL to run portably, & no worries about muddling with the registry were really huge improvements.

Course, some here may get into having to have a certain font, a certain way, whatever.

Not me.

 

I'm a simple guy.

Didn't realize so many people have problems.

Guess those improvements weren't that great to some people, but to me, it made a whole world of difference.

 

I will say this though. I noted that a lot of people use the Make Font Bigger function of Windows 7, completely blind to the fact that if you make a font 150% bigger, of COURSE dialogue boxes are gonna be too small for the text on some applications.

 

Hmmm... So I never use that method. You could make the screen bigger by lowering the resolution, or just hold down CTRL & middle mouse wheel scroll up & down while on a web page to make it bigger or smaller in Firefox.

 

Guess others use it different. Dunno.