hmm. i’m not entirely clear on what youre asking yet but it sounds like you want rhino set up in a similar way as i have it… (though i don’t have a tool palette in a separate window, i keep it in the left sidebar at 2 icons wide)
watch the (unrelated) video in the second post of this thread:
http://discourse.mcneel.com/t/extrudecrvtapered-inaccurate/7340
is that what you mean by ‘command dialog pop up’ accompanied by the ‘details dialog’?
if not, how would you like rhino to act in comparison to what you see in the video?