Comments on: 10 ways in which Windows thinks it’s being helpful but isn’t http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/ Blogging in the real world Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:29:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Steve Cassidy http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-20625 Steve Cassidy Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:07:59 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-20625 imajes: by the sound of it you are struggling with the Finder. Get PathFinder for OSX if you need to do Windows Explorer-grade large scale file management work on a Mac. http://cocoatech.com/ and V5 has just come out. If I had to do any serious management of files on servers in the Finder in OSX, I'd probably fire up VMWare Fusion and do it in a Windows 2000 VM. It's quicker... the limit is the idiot UI, especially keystroke handling. It's not the file system: here my main file store is now a dual G5 XServe with an 850GB RAID5 volume on it. Not slow by any means...! Steve imajes: by the sound of it you are struggling with the Finder. Get PathFinder for OSX if you need to do Windows Explorer-grade large scale file management work on a Mac. http://cocoatech.com/ and V5 has just come out.

If I had to do any serious management of files on servers in the Finder in OSX, I’d probably fire up VMWare Fusion and do it in a Windows 2000 VM. It’s quicker… the limit is the idiot UI, especially keystroke handling. It’s not the file system: here my main file store is now a dual G5 XServe with an 850GB RAID5 volume on it. Not slow by any means…!

Steve

]]> By: technogeist http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-20142 technogeist Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:56:51 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-20142 Having more separation between Delete and Create Shortcut on the context menu would be nice. It's still far too easy to crash Internet Explorer with malformed content & unchecked scripts. Having more separation between Delete and Create Shortcut on the context menu would be nice.

It’s still far too easy to crash Internet Explorer with malformed content & unchecked scripts.

]]> By: Chris http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-20109 Chris Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:04:07 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-20109 What annoys me most about Windows is the insistence by everyone that programs for it on assuming that I am completely stupid. Am I sure I want to close the application? Yes of course I bl**dy do, I pressed Exit(etc). If I didn't want to and somehow accidentally clicked on that little hyperlink in the corner when I didn't actually want to exit then that's my error and I'll take the consequences. But 99.9 times out of 100 I clicked it because i really had finished what I was doing and thus efficiency is reduced by the double check. Grr! What annoys me most about Windows is the insistence by everyone that programs for it on assuming that I am completely stupid.
Am I sure I want to close the application? Yes of course I bl**dy do, I pressed Exit(etc). If I didn’t want to and somehow accidentally clicked on that little hyperlink in the corner when I didn’t actually want to exit then that’s my error and I’ll take the consequences. But 99.9 times out of 100 I clicked it because i really had finished what I was doing and thus efficiency is reduced by the double check. Grr!

]]> By: sweets http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-20067 sweets Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:22:17 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-20067 1. you really had a problem losing work after a restart? wow ok.... what were you working in, notepad? even notepad++ autosaves. 7. two boxes are annoying... but on the subject of wep keys, apple universally ignores the wep key length standard. id say thats more annoying. 'must be 5 characters'... and you can enter more if you like. you can set up your airport to declare that 5 chars are required, but define more, confusing anything that adheres to the standard (ie. non-apple). thats more annoying imo. 1. you really had a problem losing work after a restart? wow ok…. what were you working in, notepad? even notepad++ autosaves.
7. two boxes are annoying… but on the subject of wep keys, apple universally ignores the wep key length standard. id say thats more annoying. ‘must be 5 characters’… and you can enter more if you like. you can set up your airport to declare that 5 chars are required, but define more, confusing anything that adheres to the standard (ie. non-apple). thats more annoying imo.

]]> By: imajes http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19830 imajes Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:54:17 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19830 I also use a Mac [and a PC] and could list a different load of annoyances, most of which you are stuck with. Unlike many of the ones above that can be turned off such as autoplay, balloons or are not an issue, e.g. removing ext drives compared to what a pain that is on a Mac. Macs being quicker! Not necessarily. A job that would take me 25mins on the PC has currently taken over a day and is still not finished, due to Finder and the Macs simplistic, underpowered and clumsy file management. Not to mention Finder losing Hard drives at random. I also use a Mac [and a PC] and could list a different load of annoyances, most of which you are stuck with. Unlike many of the ones above that can be turned off such as autoplay, balloons or are not an issue, e.g. removing ext drives compared to what a pain that is on a Mac.
Macs being quicker! Not necessarily. A job that would take me 25mins on the PC has currently taken over a day and is still not finished, due to Finder and the Macs simplistic, underpowered and clumsy file management. Not to mention Finder losing Hard drives at random.

]]> By: muck http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19635 muck Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:57:45 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19635 yeah it's just a shame you don't 0wn any software to run on them :P yeah it’s just a shame you don’t 0wn any software to run on them :P

]]> By: phakebrill http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19554 phakebrill Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:16:10 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19554 Useful to be reminded why I switched to OS X / Ubuntu two years back... I get my work done now! I 0wn my computer, it doesn't 0wn me!!! Useful to be reminded why I switched to OS X / Ubuntu two years back…
I get my work done now!
I 0wn my computer, it doesn’t 0wn me!!!

]]> By: Andrew http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19440 Andrew Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:33:30 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19440 I have to admit that I'm usually pro-Microsoft. I think it's a pretty tough thing to create an OS that supports everything that XP / Vista does and I'm not usally too bothered about other people getting a cutting edge feature in other software long before MS include it. However last night (for the 3rd time) my Vista Ultimate 64-bit install finally became so slow and unusable that I had to wipe it again and start afresh. For ages it's been getting slower to boot and occasionally it just hung a minute / two after you've entered your password, but last night it had finally become unuslably slow / unreliable. Remember that this is the 64 bit version.!! I've tried the 32-bit version too (after the 64 bit one screwed up previously) and that was even worse, with blatent graphics glitches and no improvements in stability. If this happens again now I will seriously revert back to XP. It will make my 4gb of RAM pointless, but probably still be faster and almost certainly more stable. I'm dying to get Windows 7 installed and just hope that it really does remove all the crap and make a high-performance PC feel like one. Speedy boots please and minimal interuptions. I left the house this morning with Service Pack 1 installing. So hopefully tonight I can restore data, re-install apps and work again. :-( Fingers crossed. I have to admit that I’m usually pro-Microsoft. I think it’s a pretty tough thing to create an OS that supports everything that XP / Vista does and I’m not usally too bothered about other people getting a cutting edge feature in other software long before MS include it.

However last night (for the 3rd time) my Vista Ultimate 64-bit install finally became so slow and unusable that I had to wipe it again and start afresh. For ages it’s been getting slower to boot and occasionally it just hung a minute / two after you’ve entered your password, but last night it had finally become unuslably slow / unreliable. Remember that this is the 64 bit version.!!

I’ve tried the 32-bit version too (after the 64 bit one screwed up previously) and that was even worse, with blatent graphics glitches and no improvements in stability.

If this happens again now I will seriously revert back to XP. It will make my 4gb of RAM pointless, but probably still be faster and almost certainly more stable.

I’m dying to get Windows 7 installed and just hope that it really does remove all the crap and make a high-performance PC feel like one. Speedy boots please and minimal interuptions.

I left the house this morning with Service Pack 1 installing. So hopefully tonight I can restore data, re-install apps and work again. :-( Fingers crossed.

]]> By: technogeist http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19344 technogeist Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:55:07 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19344 Three more. Because your mouse-pointer slips off a menu item, the entire menu dissappears and you have to start all over again. Bah! Tooltips that obscure what you're trying to read. Searching for 'hidden' system files or folders. leaving you to go and find it yourself. Three more.
Because your mouse-pointer slips off a menu item, the entire menu dissappears and you have to start all over again. Bah!

Tooltips that obscure what you’re trying to read.

Searching for ‘hidden’ system files or folders. leaving you to go and find it yourself.

]]> By: muck http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/11/27/10-ways-in-which-windows-thinks-it%e2%80%99s-being-helpful-but-isn%e2%80%99t/comment-page-1/#comment-19335 muck Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:44:10 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=4422#comment-19335 Oh right my USB stick luckily doesn't have any 3rd party software trying to take over I've never used the safely remove USB thing either. I've never had any problems from just pulling it out. Had a lot of fun with the UAC thing though before I switched it off. It wouldn't let me alter a .txt file because I wasn't the administrator. I was swearing about it I must admit Oh right my USB stick luckily doesn’t have any 3rd party software trying to take over
I’ve never used the safely remove USB thing either. I’ve never had any problems from just pulling it out. Had a lot of fun with the UAC thing though before I switched it off. It wouldn’t let me alter a .txt file because I wasn’t the administrator. I was swearing about it I must admit

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