StartIsBack+ adds taskbar to Start Screen on Windows 8.1

by Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2013 in Windows 9

More than a dozen different start menu programs have been created which all add a start menu back to Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Depending on which program you install, you may have access to other features that improve the usability of the operating system.

The release of StartIsBack+ today introduces one of the coolest features yet: the display of the Windows taskbar on the Start Screen.

StartIsBack+ has been designed for Windows 8.1 exclusively, which means that you cannot use it on Windows 8. That's not that much of a problem though, considering that all Windows 8 users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free in October 2013.

Once you have installed StartIsBack+ on Windows 8.1, you are greeted with a screen that informs you about some of the features that it introduces.

Note: The program is not free. You can try it for 30-days without restrictions. It reverts to a basic mode afterwards that is not that useful. You can buy a personal license for two computer systems for $3, which is a reasonable price, or a 5 PC license for $5.

Existing StartIsBack users do not need to buy a new license. It will work on StartIsBack for Windows 8 and StartIsBack+ for Windows 8.1.

StartIsBack+ for Windows 8.1

The taskbar is just one of the features that the program adds to Windows 8.1, but it is definitely one of the better ones, as you can access taskbar programs right away from the operating system's start screen.

The program ships with four different start menu designs that you can choose from. Plain8 is the default selection, but you can also select one that resembles the Windows 7 start menu style, and two that use Aero.

You can tap on the Windows-key to open the start menu, or Ctrl-Windows to open the Start screen. Those settings can be modified in the options:

1. When I log on to my PC: Show Desktop, or Show Start Screen.
2. When I close modern apps: Switch to the last used environment, or Switch to Desktop, or Switch to Start Screen.
3. When I press Windows key: Show Start Menu, or Show Start Screen, or do nothing.
4. When I press windows key+CTRL: Show Start Screen, or Show Start Menu, or do nothing.
5. When I hold Windows key: Do nothing, or Show everything at once (focus charms), or Show everything at once (focus search).
6. All screen corners are active on the desktop.
7. Enable top screen edge (snap).
8. Enable top-left screen corner (started apps).
9. Enable top-right screen corner (charms bar).
10. Enable bottom-right screen corner (charms bar).
11. Enable bottom-left screen corner (Start Screen).
12. All screen corners are active on secondary monitors.

And this is just one of the configuration screens StartIsBack+ offers. When you switch to Start Menu, you get the following options:

1. My Programs: use large icons, display Start Screen shortcut, Display frequently used Modern apps.
2. All Programs: Sort items by name, Display folders before items, Display as flyout menu (Windows XP style).
3. General: Highlight newly installed programs, Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer, Display Start menu adjacent to vertical taskbar.
4. Search: Search programs and settings, Search public folders.
5. Right side items: Display user folder, custom folders.
6. Power button default action: shut down.

You will find other options in the configuration. Here you can disable the recording of recently closed programs and items, whether you want to enable shared corners between multiple monitors, or modify the start menus' look and feel in detail.

Closing Words

The coolest feature by far is the integration of the taskbar on the Windows 8.1 start screen. It is a simply thing but it improves the usability quite a bit. You are probably wondering what is happening when you start modern apps on the start screen. The taskbar fades away so that apps use all of the screen by default.

If you are running a multi-monitor setup, you will benefit from other features that StartIsBack+ offers. This includes a start menu button on each monitor, options to disable hot corners between monitors so that you do not open them all the time when you are moving the mouse cursor from one monitor to the other, and options to selectively disable hot corners that you do not need

Top tools to optimize your website’s loading time

Top tools to optimize your website’s loading time

by Martin Brinkmann on October 13, 2013 in Development 6

Making sure that your website is as fast as it can be in regards to loading time should be one of the top priorities of every webmaster. The core reason for that faster loading times stand in direct correlation with improved conversions and other benefits.

Mozilla shaved 2.7 seconds of the loading time of Firefox download pages for instance, and managed to increase downloads by 60 million per year thanks to that. A speedy website may result in an increase in newsletter signups, sales, or downloads, but also in other metrics such as a reduction in bounce rate or an increase in regular visitors.

Other studies, by Google, AOL or KissMetrics confirm that page speed is one of the most important on-page factors.

Those benefits do not even include the increased traffic that some webmasters may see if they reduce their site's load time, as search engines such as Google use the load time in their algorithm.

The following list offers resources that you can use to analyze how fast your websites load, and for suggestions on what to optimize to bring the loading time down.

Tools to measure your website's page performance

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights by Google

Enter a web page url into the form and wait for the web performance results to be displayed to you. The tool does not measure loading performance, but highlights area of the page that you have entered that can be improved.

It provides you with a score for the mobile version of your site and the desktop version, and displays suggestions based on a red (measurable improvement), yellow (improvements) and green (no significant issues) colors.

While it highlights areas of improvement, it won't provide you with tools or information on how to make changes to the website to increase the score.

2. Pingdom Website Speed Test

Website speed test by Pingdom

This free online tool runs various connection tests to display your website's performance grade, the load time, page size, and requests made. In addition to that, it also lists all files loaded in a waterfall list, provides you with grades for various performance related tests, e.g. the use of browser caching or compression, or minimizing of redirects, a page analysis that highlights load time by various factors such as content, domain or file type, and a history.

3. Web Page Test

Test a Web Page

This one is more detailed than the other two mentioned before. Not only can you select different test locations, you also get to pick the web browser you want to test your page with.

The results are displayed in tabs that include several interesting features. You can watch a filmstrip or video of the page loading, get information about the first load and a second load (to highlight changes based on caching), a performance review that offers details on how to improve various file loading times, a content breakdown, and a breakdown by domain.

4. GTmetrix

GTmetrix performance report

The tool checks the selected page using Google's Page Speed tool and Yahoo's YSlow tool. Both grades are displayed and you can switch between both ratings easily on the results page.

You can click on any recommendation to display the list of files that may be optimized, and a link to a "what does it mean popup" and link to find out how you can optimize those resources.

5. Web Page Analyzer

Web Page Analyzer

The online application runs a single connection test and displays information about objects, download times, and the individual objects that got loaded during the connection on the page of results.

What may be interesting to some is that it displays the download time based on connection rates ranging from 14.4K connections to T1 connections.

Applications

You can use local applications and scripts to test the performance of your sites. Here is a list of tools that you can install or run locally:

1. Developer Tools of Chrome or Firefox (press F12)
2. Firebug for Firefox
3. Google Page Speed extension for Chrome or Firefox
4. Multi-Mechanize Performance Test Framework
5. Pagetest for Internet Explorer (not updated since 2010)
6. YSlow for Chrome or Firefox

Resources

The following resource list provides you with information on how to interpret the results of web performance tests, and provide you with detailed information on how to optimize your site to improve its performance.

1. Google Page Speed Rules offers optimization and minimizing information.
2. Web Performance Optimization checklist.
3. Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do
4. Yahoo YSlow best practices and rules.

Closing Words

Depending on your website, it may not always be possible to get that perfect score.What you may be able to do though is shave of milliseconds or even seconds of your visitor's load times, which in turn will increase conversions and other metrics. And since this is something that you can do without depending on third-parties, it is one of the best options to improve the overall performance of your website.

Windows Files Monitor records any file system change in its interface

by Martin Brinkmann on October 14, 2013 in Software 6

You do not really see what is going on in the background when you install a program on a Windows PC or execute an application on it. The only indication that something is happening is if the RAM or CPU usage spikes in the Task Manager, if the program displays a dialog with files that it writes to the system, or if you hear your hard drive loud and clear.

It is usually not an issue, especially not if you are installing a popular program such as Firefox, 7-Zip or WinSCP on your system. But what about a newly discovered program that does not have a high reputation yet? What if you need to be sure that a program does not sneak in anything maliciously on installation, before you deploy it on a company network or customer PCs?

The only real option in this case is the monitoring of the installation or program execution process. Programs like Process Monitor or the ancient InCtrl5 do so for you, and so does the new Phrozen Windows Files Monitor.

Windows Files Monitor

What you need to know right at the beginning is that the program records file changes on the system, but ignores the Windows Registry. If you need to monitor Windows Registry changes as well, try and run a program like Primo in addition to this one.

The program won't monitor anything right on start, and you have to click on the record button to start the recording. The idea here is to only record data when it is necessary and not all the time, as you'd amass a large amount of data in short time.

If you want the program to record at all times, change the preference that lets you do so in the program settings. When done, it will start recording right after it has been started on your system.

Tip: If you use the program for on and off recording, you may want to disable the feature that clears the information when you stop the recording. This can be done in the options too.

Information are displayed in a tree-style view that displays all modified files in the folder structure of the hard drive. This improves the usability quite a bit. Some events are highlighted: deletions are displayed in red for example, while file creations in green.

You can switch to a list view instead, which appears to use a chronological list of all changes on the system.

Recorded information can be saved as text files to the local system, so that they can be accessed again at a later point in time.

The program preferences offer additional features that you may want to go through on first start. Here you can browse the list of events that the software captures by default, and disable events that you are not interested in.

The extensions and folders menu provides you with the means to monitor only select extensions, e.g. executable files and not all file types, and to add paths that you do not want captured to the ignore list so that changes made to them won't appear in the main program window. Here you can also disable the monitoring of connected drives.

Closing Words

Phrozen Windows Files Monitor records file changes on Windows systems. The big thing that is keeping it back is the lack of Registry recording, as it plays a big part in most software installations on Windows. The program could use a couple of extra features, like auto saving logs, a search option, or the option to open a file or the folder containing it right from the program interface.

There is room for improvement, but since this is the first version of the application, it is likely that at least some of the missing changes will be added in future updates.