Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

General Questions, Rumors, Real news & More
Post Reply
Message
Author
gpvillamil
Sophomore Member
Posts: 170
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 10:47 am
Location: New York, NY
Contact:

new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#1 Post by gpvillamil » Thu May 13, 2010 2:21 pm

Just applied the latest update to the HotKey manager, and noticed a pleasant change: instead of the previous bright green on-screen display, you now get an elegant black & white display for volume, brightness and Thinklight.

Graphics are anti-aliased, and the OSD fades out instead of just disappearing.

It seems much more Thinkpad-like, and is much more visible. Not mentioned in the changelog, as far as I can tell. Came as a pleasant surprise.

yak
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1256
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:17 pm
Location: NRW, Germany

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#2 Post by yak » Thu May 13, 2010 2:30 pm

I like it too.

Lenovo seems to gradually redesign the ThinkVantage UI. The new Power Manager and Access Connections UI, new battery and network gauges on the taskbar and finally the hotkeys OSD. I welcome these changes as long as they don't sacrifice the performance which unfortunately is the case for Power Manager UI.

The new hotkeys OSD design is nice and matches much better the Vista/7 design which is a good thing now that we finally move away from 2000/XP era.
ThinkPad™ X201 / AFFS-120
i5-560M 2.67Ghz, 8GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD, Win 8 Pro 64-bit, UltraBase X200, ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard,
Dell U2713HM (2560x1440, IPS), ExpressCard USB 3.0 (2 ports, flush), Nexus 7+10

ARD
Freshman Member
Posts: 121
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:50 am
Location: Miami, FL, USA!

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#3 Post by ARD » Thu May 13, 2010 4:33 pm

In Winodws 7, you can change the color of the OSD if you so desire by going to the control panel, display, adjust screen resolution, advanced settings link and finally selecting the OSD tab in the video adapter box. I set mine to red to match the TrackPoint.
This space for rent!
Send PM.

IBM (No Lenovo logo on LCD bezel) ThinkPad T60 2623-D6U, Core Duo 1.83 Ghz, 14.1" SXGA+, 4GB RAM, Hitachi 7k320, Windows XP Pro SP3
Lenovo ThinkPad T500 2055-2CU, Core 2 Duo 2.53 Ghz, 15.4" WSXGA+, 8GB RAM, Hitachi 7k750, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

yak
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1256
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:17 pm
Location: NRW, Germany

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#4 Post by yak » Thu May 13, 2010 5:16 pm

I think the traditional green color of the indicators came from the fact that all ThinkPad indicators (LEDs) are green.
ThinkPad™ X201 / AFFS-120
i5-560M 2.67Ghz, 8GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD, Win 8 Pro 64-bit, UltraBase X200, ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard,
Dell U2713HM (2560x1440, IPS), ExpressCard USB 3.0 (2 ports, flush), Nexus 7+10

goofyGAguy
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1065
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:20 pm
Location: Snellville, GA

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#5 Post by goofyGAguy » Thu May 13, 2010 6:49 pm

ARD wrote:In Winodws 7, you can change the color of the OSD
Works in XP as well.

mgo
thinkpads.com customer
thinkpads.com customer
Posts: 877
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:59 pm
Location: Tucson, Az

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#6 Post by mgo » Thu May 13, 2010 11:16 pm

It's nice. I like it. And thanks to user "yak" for the tip on how to change the display colors.

yak
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1256
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 3:17 pm
Location: NRW, Germany

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#7 Post by yak » Thu May 13, 2010 11:22 pm

mgo wrote:It's nice. I like it. And thanks to user "yak" for the tip on how to change the display colors.
You're welcome but it wasn't me, it was ARD :).
ThinkPad™ X201 / AFFS-120
i5-560M 2.67Ghz, 8GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD, Win 8 Pro 64-bit, UltraBase X200, ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard,
Dell U2713HM (2560x1440, IPS), ExpressCard USB 3.0 (2 ports, flush), Nexus 7+10

ansible212
Sophomore Member
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:34 am
Location: Dudley, United Kingdom

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#8 Post by ansible212 » Fri May 14, 2010 2:22 am

I like the new look as it has a much more modern look and feel.

Shame, however, that they forgot to change the number lock indicator. That's still the old style green indicator and looks really naff and out of place compared to the new indicators.
X1C 5th Gen : WQHD : i7-7500U : 16GB : 1TB Samsung 970 Pro : ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock : ThinkVision P32u-10

X220 : Premium HD : i7-2640M : 8GB : 256GB Samsung 850 Pro : Mini Dock Series 3 with USB 3.0

X200s : WXGA : C2D SL9600 : 4GB : 256GB Samsung 830 : Ultrabase

Navck
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1036
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 2:20 am
Location: Southern California
Contact:

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#9 Post by Navck » Fri May 14, 2010 4:25 pm


ansible212
Sophomore Member
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:34 am
Location: Dudley, United Kingdom

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#10 Post by ansible212 » Fri May 14, 2010 4:57 pm

Yep. (Although the scroll lock indicator doesn't show on my external ThinkPad keyboard... and come to think of it why do the stupid Windows caps lock/scoll lock/number lock text indicators still display? C'mon... attention to detail Lenovo. :roll: )
X1C 5th Gen : WQHD : i7-7500U : 16GB : 1TB Samsung 970 Pro : ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock : ThinkVision P32u-10

X220 : Premium HD : i7-2640M : 8GB : 256GB Samsung 850 Pro : Mini Dock Series 3 with USB 3.0

X200s : WXGA : C2D SL9600 : 4GB : 256GB Samsung 830 : Ultrabase

netzspannung
Freshman Member
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:57 am
Location: Moscow, Russian Federation

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#11 Post by netzspannung » Tue May 18, 2010 4:04 pm

I like the new design so much that I actually have downloaded and installed it ;)
The new black look is really good, and in the past I was very reluctant to sacrifice even a few MB of RAM for an app that just hangs there and does nothing more than display hideous-looking green stripes that look like something out of Win95 years...

Really nice to see Yamato software team get their act together and update the thing. Even better of they had made it 5 years ago... BTW, let me remind that you can reprogram the blue Thinkvantage button to something useful (use search)
760ED -> 600X -> T22 -> T41 -> T42 -> T60

sysiphus
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 250
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:12 pm
Location: New York

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#12 Post by sysiphus » Sat May 22, 2010 5:41 pm

yak wrote:I think the traditional green color of the indicators came from the fact that all ThinkPad indicators (LEDs) are green.
Depends on the ThinkPad. Pretty sure that the hard drive access light on my 570 is yellow/red-ish. Then again, it's also unlike a modern ThinkPad in the lack of a blue Enter key.
HP EliteBook 8460w/Scientific Linux 6.5

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#13 Post by Marin85 » Sat May 29, 2010 10:22 pm

+1 for the new OSD. And I have set the middle bar to the good old poison green :mrgreen:
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

GomJabbar
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9872
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:57 am

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#14 Post by GomJabbar » Sun May 30, 2010 8:19 am

I like it fine. :)

I was surprised to find out that it now includes what used to be the Lenovo Interface Driver for Vista and Windows 7. I just had to reinstall Windows 7 a couple of days ago due to a failed hard drive and the Lenovo Interface Driver was nowhere to be seen. A search on Lenovo's site pulled it up for a couple of model laptops, but the majority do not need it with the new Hotkey Features driver.
DKB

Marin85
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2975
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 10:54 am
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#15 Post by Marin85 » Sun May 30, 2010 2:40 pm

I think, the System Interface Driver is still present, but it is now included in the driver package of the Hotkey/OSD driver. It is still listed under "Uninstall or change a program" in Windows 7 as a separate program.
IBM Lenovo Z61p | 15.4'' WUXGA | Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 2x 2.16GHz | 4 GB Kingston HyperX | Hitachi 7K500 500 GB + WD 1TB (USB) | ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 | ThinkPad Atheros a/b/g | Analog Devices AD1981HD | Win 7 x86 + ArchLinux 2009.08 x64 (number crunching)

Noslen
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:29 am
Location: Toronoto, Canada

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#16 Post by Noslen » Mon May 31, 2010 11:41 am

Where can i get this?

GomJabbar
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9872
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:57 am

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#17 Post by GomJabbar » Mon May 31, 2010 3:36 pm

Marin85 wrote:I think, the System Interface Driver is still present, but it is now included in the driver package of the Hotkey/OSD driver. It is still listed under "Uninstall or change a program" in Windows 7 as a separate program.
Seems so. :)
DKB

GomJabbar
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 9872
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:57 am

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#18 Post by GomJabbar » Mon May 31, 2010 3:38 pm

DKB

Jack98110
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 12:29 pm
Location: Bainbridge Island, WA

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#19 Post by Jack98110 » Sun Sep 19, 2010 6:24 pm

The 'permanent' Caps Lock indicator just showed up on my X100e today. Rebooting didn't help. It also looked like it was reporting the status in reverse, Caps Lock On when it was off and vice-versa.

So I started the Task Manager and noticed TpNumLkD running so I decided to kill it and the on-screen display disappeared so it seems that this Num Lock thing is involved. I then found TpNumLkD.exe in \Program Files\Lenovo\HOTKEY (along with TpNumLk.exe) so I manually ran it and now the on-screen display appears to be working normally. When I hit Caps Lock the indicator comes on (but without the CAPS LOCK ON works) and stays until I hit Caps Lock again and the icon appears with a slash through it for a few seconds and then disappears.

I just tested this through a reboot, and the problem still exists. I redid the work-around and am good until the next reboot. It would be nice to know why this started and how to REALLY fix it. For some reason Bluetoot Service is also running even though I don't have any hardware that requires it.

TpNumLkD.exe is Version 1.11

Jack

neenee
Freshman Member
Posts: 104
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:16 pm
Location: Gelderland, Netherlands

Re: new look hotkey OSD - your thoughts?

#20 Post by neenee » Mon Sep 20, 2010 3:55 am

A minor correction to the original post - it's not anti-aliased, the rounded corners are cleary jagged, not smoothed.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “GENERAL ThinkPad News/Comments & Questions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests