For those of you who know about Windows 7http://windowsteamblog.comhas a great article about libraries, and it brought a few questions in my mind, hopefully answerable here. You can't mumble here, but I'm speaking as softly as possible.I have a question about Libraries, Will Older apps be able to somehow still use Libraries?which was better summarized in the blog:http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/archive/2009/04/23/consuming-the-contents-of-windows-7-libraries.aspx#comments >>When I select the 'Libraries' folder I cannot open or save files as I get an error message. > As you've discovered, libraries have been designed to be compatible. >Your Word 2003 example, is a great example of why applications should use the common file dialog. >It is using a custom file dialog that was explicitly designed for Windows XP and earlier. >The file dialog still works with files and folders bit it doesnt have all of the latest improvements >in the Windows Explorer since Windows XP like search, improved navigation and libraries. >As the user experience evolves users expect their applications to evolve with it. >The common file dialog is the best way to make that happen Ok This is either Orwellian doublespeak or I read it way wrong, which is why I quoted so much.But let me argue a single poiint:"As the user experience evolves users expect their applications to evolve with it."More like, I expect the large company to expect me to buy a new version. And I see that argument, rising effluence raises all boats. Consultants, manufacturers, software companies all see a boon from a new OS. I'm not a project manager, but if I were, I'd order some minions to make a "shim" so legacy applications could load/save files.PS XP-mode or "virtual xp", does it see your real hardware or does it just make it up the way Virtual PC 2007 does? I have to stop now, the little editing window is getting jumpy, excuse any typos.

It's not really that confusing. Windows has (for a VERYlong time now) had these things called "Common Dialogs" These are actually built into the OS, not into the application. So when you go to open or save a file in a given app, it makes a call to the operating system that the current app wants to save or load a file. It then loads the appropriate DLL and you're then able to open or save files. BUT... Some applications don't use the Common Dialog system. The programmers (for whatever reason) wanted a specialized File Open or File Save dialog. Those apps may be trying to do something different - like as a for instance, a graphics app may try to show a preview of the selected picture. This is kind of redundant if you're viewing thumbnails but... Those didn't exactly exist way, way back in the day.I'd expect most such apps to be a hit or miss kind of thing. Some might work with libraries and some may not. I use PaintShop Pro 7 quite frequently - Version 8 was never quite stable enough and they made a bunch of changes I didn't really care for. Fortunately, PSP 7 which came out 9 years ago in 2000 seems to be able to handle the new Libraries well enough. Other apps may not be quite so forgiving. It may actually be necessary to reengineer some apps - especially older ones - to make them more compatible. And at that point, you'd need the source code and that would tend to not exactly be legal. If you've got an app that doesn't like Libraries or has other issues, the time to send feedback to the developers would be NOW... Let them know that a given app is not working properly with libraries and give them as much info as possible. They may beable to dosomething about it to make them more compatible with your app...

Thank you as always, not sure how to say otherwise. Paint shop does have issueshere (9, I think), in that it likes to save various settings in the documents folder, which is supposed to be of my choosing.Mywishis that the default save location of the documents-folder in the documents library, is a "physical" location unrelated to my user files eg, g:\documents instead of c:\users\bob\my documents. Writing to the developers, I first got the response that it wasn't desirable to have all documents and related files in one location. I read somewhere else that the whole single folder/many subfolderidea was old and was being replaced with the user folder idea. I don't agree, but judging from posts here I'm guessing no one cares much, at least yet. In the next installation I Do plan to erase and start over, erasing any tweaks, to see why libraries are so good. I like libraries I want to declare a default save location, with subfolders if every "user" in my system needs to declare this, that's ok (but redundant?) If the library is somehow destroyed, my data (My data) would be easy to find being in one location with rooms (music, pictures, the other guys music and pictures) If the partition is wiped out (wiping the library) the data is still there and easy to map back to a new library.I'm not sure this comes off sounding like an opinion, it didn't work so I tweaked heavily. Now I await.