Window Titlebars in Metro Apps... Beat 'em until they bleed

[The Jimmy James]

I absolutely hate this idea. I thought it would be a so-so thing that doesn't affect me at all. I was wrong. Let me give an example of why.

I'm using a website in IE with a touchpad attached to one of my tablets, or on my desktop. There's a control at the top of the page, so in IE it's sitting right at the top edge of the display. I go to click on it, but I'm unable. See, what I've done - as I've done for years - is slam my mouse arrow right into the edge of the screen, since by doing so, I can still click the control. Doing this makes the control "infinitely tall". I can keep pressing up with the mouse, and I'll never leave that control behind. (It's why the invisible Start Button wasn't actually a big deal to anybody but whiners, since the best way to activate the control was just to slam the arrow into the corner and click. Start was "infinitely large" since it's in a corner. Oh well. I guess cognitive science isn't part of UI design anymore.)

Now when I do this, that absurd titlebar appears. Jesus. I don't need a titlebar. I know I'm running Internet Explorer. It's filling my whole screen for heaven's sake.

Why can't I have granular control over every one of these new features. I like the idea of the Taskbar being able to appear in Metro. I hate that to have that, Windows dumps me back at the desktop when I close something. I don't want these cretinous titlebars. Most of all, I don't want those crappy-looking desktop menus showing up on the start screen.

Overall, the Spring Update has some hits and misses. Maybe it has more misses for me than most people.

My question is this: Registry hack to remove metro titlebars? Please, someone tell me how to do this. If not, I'll probably be spending less time running Windows in the future.

Yes. I think it's that bad.

 

[neo158]

I absolutely hate this idea. I thought it would be a so-so thing that doesn't affect me at all. I was wrong. Let me give an example of why.

I'm using a website in IE with a touchpad attached to one of my tablets, or on my desktop. There's a control at the top of the page, so in IE it's sitting right at the top edge of the display. I go to click on it, but I'm unable. See, what I've done - as I've done for years - is slam my mouse arrow right into the edge of the screen, since by doing so, I can still click the control. Doing this makes the control "infinitely tall". I can keep pressing up with the mouse, and I'll never leave that control behind. (It's why the invisible Start Button wasn't actually a big deal to anybody but whiners, since the best way to activate the control was just to slam the arrow into the corner and click. Start was "infinitely large" since it's in a corner. Oh well. I guess cognitive science isn't part of UI design anymore.)

Now when I do this, that absurd titlebar appears. Jesus. I don't need a titlebar. I know I'm running Internet Explorer. It's filling my whole screen for heaven's sake.

Why can't I have granular control over every one of these new features. I like the idea of the Taskbar being able to appear in Metro. I hate that to have that, Windows dumps me back at the desktop when I close something. I don't want these cretinous titlebars. Most of all, I don't want those crappy-looking desktop menus showing up on the start screen.

Overall, the Spring Update has some hits and misses. Maybe it has more misses for me than most people.

My question is this: Registry hack to remove metro titlebars? Please, someone tell me how to do this. If not, I'll probably be spending less time running Windows in the future.

Yes. I think it's that bad.

Blame the people who complained that Windows 8.1 was too hard to use with a keyboard and mouse, that's what I do!!

 

[rabilancia]

The Jimmy James,

I agree 100%! There needs to be a way to turn this behavior completely off!

 

[anon5997296]

Blame the people who complained that Windows 8.1 was too hard to use with a keyboard and mouse, that's what I do!!

That's what I do.. Lol..

 

[Funky Cricket]

Why not just complain that you can't dock your touchpad on the vertical side surfaces, that would still be as "infinite" and easy to get to. It seems arbitrary that this one thing is "so bad". I know change is bad, I ranted and ranted about 8 and how it treated multiscreen and mouse users in the beta, but once I made a few minor habit changes, no more problems. I don't have 8.1 on my desktop yet, so I can't replicate the behavior to see it exactly, but I haven't noticed any issues on my surface with title bars getting in the way in metro apps.

 

[neo158]

Why not just complain that you can't dock your touchpad on the vertical side surfaces, that would still be as "infinite" and easy to get to. It seems arbitrary that this one thing is "so bad". I know change is bad, I ranted and ranted about 8 and how it treated multiscreen and mouse users in the beta, but once I made a few minor habit changes, no more problems. I don't have 8.1 on my desktop yet, so I can't replicate the behavior to see it exactly, but I haven't noticed any issues on my surface with title bars getting in the way in metro apps.

On Surface the primary input method is the touchscreen so you won't notice the title bars unless you use the keyboard and mouse input. Habit changes are what we said to all the luddite Windows 8 haters and now they got what they wanted by being a vocal minority, that's what sucks about it. A future update is supposedly going to force the decade old Start Menu back onto all of us, whether we want it or not!!!

@OP If you want to stop it going to the desktop be default then you need to turn off "Show Windows Store apps on the Taskbar" and "When I sign in or close all apps on screen go to the desktop instead of Start".

 

[xxXTechcr3xx]

Why you don't want Windows 8.1 Update 1? It's to make Metro easier to navigate for mouse and keyboard.

 

[xxXTechcr3xx]

On Surface the primary input method is the touchscreen so you won't notice the title bars unless you use the keyboard and mouse input. Habit changes are what we said to all the luddite Windows 8 haters and now they got what they wanted by being a vocal minority, that's what sucks about it. A future update is supposedly going to force the decade old Start Menu back onto all of us, whether we want it or not!!!

@OP If you want to stop it going to the desktop be default then you need to turn off "Show Windows Store apps on the Taskbar" and "When I sign in or close all apps on screen go to the desktop instead of Start".

Why you don't want the Start menu back? We're familiar with the Start menu for 20 years since Windows 95!