Separate desktops for different OS installs

[Syntho]

I've always noticed that you've got the same desktop icons when going to and fro a different OS or at least a different install of the same OS. How can I separate these so I only see the desktop items I moved onto that particular OS's desktop?

Bonus question: is there any way to get contextual menus in OS7.6.1? Maybe I can just drag over the contextual menu extension. I'll try that now.

 

[Elfen]

I'm a little confused on the statements and questions here.

As for the icons, from the first System/Finder .97 to 6.08 were the same icons to keep things simple, though things were added in System/Finder 4.0. System 7 inherited the icons System 6 had and then had "3D icons" in OS8. OS9 inherited 3D icons from OS8. There are some versions of System 7 with 3D icons, but those icons were taken from OS8 and hacked into System 7.

As for Contextual Menus - if  you mean menus within menus, thats a System 7 feature and accessible from the Control Panel, I forget which one.

 

[Syntho]

If I have two OS installs on the same hard drive, when I put something on the desktop in one OS and boot into another, it appears there as well. I'd like to keep them separate if possible.

What I mean by contextual menus is control-clicking on an icon and getting more options. Doesn't seem to work in System 7 and I didn't see anything in the Control Panels that would let me change it,

 

[IPalindromeI]

It was introduced as a part of Finder in 8.x. Context menus as implemented by applications (like Netscape or IE) work on 7.

 

[Syntho]

So I guess there's no way to get the control+click menu dropdowns working in 7.6.1?

 

[Elfen]

If I have two OS installs on the same hard drive, when I put something on the desktop in one OS and boot into another, it appears there as well. I'd like to keep them separate if possible.

What I mean by contextual menus is control-clicking on an icon and getting more options. Doesn't seem to work in System 7 and I didn't see anything in the Control Panels that would let me change it,

As for the separate OSes and their software/data, that is not exactly possible. You can have separate partitions for each OS, their software and their data, but they will be visible. Even in OS 9 and OSX, they are still visible and accessible to each other.

The only thing I can think of is three partitions - 1 for System 7 on HSF, its software and data; 1 small partition for OS 8 Booting on HSF and 1 for OS8 software and data under HSF+. This would only hide the HSF+ partition from System 7, but everything done on System 7 can be seen in OS 8. This is not exactly a two-way street.

 

[feeef]

Hi Syntho,

If you want to tune your finder to make it easier to browse, you could use popup folder => <snip>

It adds contextual menus to all the folder to be able to browse without opening many windows. You can define keyboard shortcuts for making copies and aliases when you move your files. It also lets you create favorites that are available from the menu bar and the open/save dialog.

Also, it replaces the stickyclick extension. (if you use this feature on popup folder, you will have to remove the siticky click extension)

In fact, I use popup folder on my 9500 running system 7 and I find the finder even better than OS X. In fact, the finder in OS X has never really changed since nextstep

I also use this great software on system 7 => http://www.semicolon.com/Tilery.html

It is Launchpad for our old macs. You can even define a hot corner or a function key to make it appear when it is in the background. It has a more features than launchpad regarding the applications. It is lightweight and is much better than a dock in my opinion. It runs very well on my LC III.

 

[wthww]

Hello all,

Just a friendly reminder that we don't distribute software unless we have acquired the rights to it.

Thanks,

//wthww

 

[Cory5412]

In Classic Mac OS (up through 9.2.2) every disk has a desktop folder. Every disk that is mounted has its desktop folder displayed.

As such, if you have, say, a Mac SE/30 and it's booting system 7.1 off a hard disk. When you create a file called Letter to Granny (in SimpleText, for example) and put it on the desktop, it's going to the desktop of your boot volume. It's being stored at Macintosh HDesktop:Letter to Granny

If you have a boot volume and a second volume (a floppy diskette, for example), when you save onto the desktop, it goes to the desktop of the boot volume, still at Macintosh HDesktop:Letter to Granny

However, what should happen is that you can move the file onto the diskette so that it's at Corys Data Diskette:Letter to Granny, and then from there, I think you can move the file onto the diskette's desktop folder, so that it displays on the desktop but when you put away or eject the diskette, the file disappears off the desktop. At this point, it would be on Corys Data Disketteesktop:Letter to Granny

If you're installing your operating systems onto different partitions or physical disks, then ejecting them when you're not using them should help, but you'll likely still get icon interference right when you boot up.

Also to my knowledge this doesn't work on network shares, but I'm putting it on my to-do list to check this out on my 180 or 6100 to confirm what I think is happening anyway.

Mac OS X changed this behavior, of course, by being a BSD userland and a mach kernel, so in OS X land, your desktop is of course at /users/$USERNAME/desktop rather than just at /desktop (or really, Macintosh HDesktop:)

 

[Syntho]

I guess what I could do is buy a completely new HD and have the installs on different disks rather than different partitions on the same disk. That would probably help.

 

[gsteemso]

I guess what I could do is buy a completely new HD and have the installs on different disks rather than different partitions on the same disk. That would probably help.

I really doubt it. From the high-level file system’s perspective, there is no difference between a logical “volume” (the official term) that is kept in a partition on a given drive and a volume that is kept on a separate physical drive altogether.

 

[Elfen]

Wait. There is a way to have a single OS Install with at least one partition, usually in OS8 but it can be from System 7 to OS 9.

Set up an Apple Share server on the machine you need this done. Set up the number of users you want on the system, each user getting their own account.

Then its getting to set up Chooser to select the Appleshare Server on boot and turn on Users & Groups to log onto itself. The Users get their own desktops and though everything is on the same drive, things are put away in separate folders.

 

[Elfen]

You will need AppleShare or AppleShare IP, AppleShare Client, Apple Remote Access, and At Ease. After setting up the apple share server and the users and groups, as stated above, you need to set up At Ease to connect to the Apple Share Server with a list of users or log in boxes on start up.

This can be done on the Local Machine - the machine which has the server, and other Macs connecting to it the server with At Ease. At East must turn on at each boot cycle to connect to the server.

 

[Cory5412]

You don't need the server components of At Ease in order to create user profiles, but At Ease (or "Multiple Users" in Mac OS 9) will help split different people's files apart, that is true.

An alternative to all of this is simply to avoid using the desktop as a matter of a personal practice, and it looks like that may be part of Elfen's suggestion anyway.

 

[Syntho]

Instead of creating a new thread I'll just post this here:

The 9600 I bought came with the original 7.6.1 restore CD but every time I install it there is no Applications folder or Utilities folder. I see the Utilities folder on the CD so I just copy that over to the drive after installing, but the Applications folder isn't installed at any time. It seems to have a custom icon so I'd like to get that onto the drive. How would I go about doing that?

 

[finkmac]

ResEdit or the "Get Info" Icon copy/paste should work fine.

I never understood why the applications folder icon was in the system file, but wasn't actually used.

 

[Syntho]

I have to do that on the System file? So that explains it. The Applications icon was never installed like in OS8 or OS9. Hmph.

 

[finkmac]

No, not on the system file, on the Applications folder…

The icon exists in the system file, however.

 

[Syntho]

That's what I'm asking. where is the Application folder? I can't find it. It's not installed when installing OS7.6.1.