Windows 7: Windows 7 annoyances
Windows 7 annoyances
by rje49 - 9/30/09 4:23 PMI've never been a Microsoft basher. I've tried most alternative OSs and browsers, but have always come back to XP and IE. Why? They work for me, but most of all I'm very, very, familiar with them, and THAT is extremely valuable. I've been using Windows 7 RC on a spare computer for more than two months. It seems to work ok for the most part, but there are sure a few things I don't like!
1) Some windows refuse to fully open. I have to drag the bottom down about 2 inches every time, like Control Panel, My Computer, some web pages, etc. 2) No equivilant to Power Toys for XP. I went 3rd party for an Image Resizer and to fix those arrows on desktop icons. Why isn't it included? They have a neat tool and dropped it? 3) I think the look of folder icons looks sloppy, like the contents are spilling out. If this change was purely for looks, it's awful. What was wrong with a sharp looking flat folder? Don't tell me users asked for this design change! 4) I never used Vista, so I was dazed and confused by my first look at the Control Panel. After 2+ months, I still get frustrated trying to find things in there. Intuitive, huh??? It has a childish feel. Did AOL help design it? Example- I wanted to enlarge the tiny red "X" in the upper rt. corner. I searched for an hour. A MS forum moderator pointed me to "Personalization/Window Color" Shudda known; window color, of course!?? 5) Don't laugh- the new Solitaire "look"... It's new design makes it much more difficult to instantly recognize the cards when playing for speed. The XP version is much clearer, sharper, and plays quicker because of it. I suppose we asked for this, too? This is simply a perfect example of ruining a good thing via re-design, for no apparent reason.
Conclusion - it's nice looking (except for folders), but I'll be sticking with XP. Scrambling the Control Panel made the difference. To me, MS caters to IT pros on one end, and novices on the other. The enthusiasts in the middle take out their frustrations by bashing everything MS does. As somebody in this Forum once said, they should make just two versions; Windows smart and Windows dumb.
Thanks for the feedback
by TaraS_WinTeam
- 9/30/09 4:39 PM
In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49
Thank you for the feedback, I am sorry you don't like Windows 7. Thanks for testing out the Release Candidate! I'll be sure to pass your feedback along. Feel free to contact me if there are any questions I can answer while you are still running the RC.
Somewhat agree but who can blame them?
by Steven Haninger - 10/1/09 1:30 PM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49Heck, take a look at your toothbrush. It's all "swoopy" looking and feels weird in one's hand. It's made by a designer and not an inventor/engineer. It doesn't do a better job than the cheap one you had years ago either.
I remember that the first thing I did with XP was to make it look more like 98. There's something about the familiar that is comforting. I've Win 7 RC as well and will probably buy it and try remove as much of the glitz as possible. I do like some of the features but don't care for some of the rearrangements and re-namings that were done. I do hope they come up with a Power Toy package. It's surprising how useful it can be. Simple and solid is what I prefer. No goofy animations, fade in/fade outs, or stupid noises either.
It's when looks impede...
by rje49 - 10/1/09 6:52 PM In reply to: Somewhat agree but who can blame them? by Steven HaningerWe know by now that "looks" are going to change and there ain't nothin' we can do about it. But when those changes impede the user's ability to instinctively(meaning quickly) use their computer, THAT'S what "upsets" me the most. The new(as of Vista) Control Panel is my pet peeve and perfect example. A few months ago, a friend asked me to come over and figure out why his printer didn't work. It was an old printer....and my very first look at Vista. It was an obvious case of no driver available, so all I could do to help was uninstall the non-functioning printer. It took me 15 minutes looking through the maze called "Control Panel" to find Add/Remove. Was I embarasssed! Don't forget, they call the design "intuitive".
What we need is
by Bobwojo1 - 10/2/09 5:53 PM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49................Windows 7 CLASSIC.............
All the OS and security fixes of windows 7 with the look and feel of XP or Win2000.
What I hate in windows 7:
Start menu (Win95 had it right) 7's all programs list is terrible....
Control panel-- I agree, Yuck
Explorer -- How is this an improvement? XP had one button to switch to folder view right on the tool bar. Now you have to click (organize, layout, navigation pane) to do the same thing.
Basically MS has to change something in order to sell more software when all the user needs is for MS to FIX the current OS. However that will not allow them to charge for a new OS so they have to add useless features that do nothing for the user.
I'm running 7 on a laptop that will not run Solitaire correctly because the video card is to old. Solitaire is so slow it is useless. and this is just a card game used to kill time in a staff meeting.
A sad situation
by rje49 - 10/2/09 6:27 PM In reply to: What we need is by Bobwojo1If marketing drives the change to useless features, it's certainly a sad situation. Wouldn't it be funny if another company introduced an operating system that had the look and feel of XP, with fixes where needed. Too bad that can't happen, because of copyright problems. Talk about a product the public wants!
My wife whips me regularly at XP solitaire, with wins down in the high 60 sec. range, but she refuses to play it W7 anymore.
solitaire is a teaching tool
by bassman123 - 10/2/09 11:12 PM In reply to: What we need is by Bobwojo1My first inroduction to solitaire in a Windows pc was as a tool to teach mouse use. Later to build accuracy. If it can no longer do that...
Solitaire requirement
by rje49 - 10/3/09 6:49 AM In reply to: solitaire is a teaching tool by bassman123The first computer I installed Windows 7 in was a 5-year old eMachines that was given to me because it was dead. After fixing it, I didn't have anything else to do with it so I decided to try Windows 7RC. Solitaire was indeed useless at first, so I got a $39 graphics card from Newegg and the game became perfectly playable- unless you play for speed. The game seems to play fast enough, but what I mentioned above was that your eyes & mind must instantly, instinctively, and clearly see all cards - especially the bottom card peeking out from under others. The new design is simply not clear and sharp enough for quick playing. If all you want to do is plod along and don't care about your score, then it works OK. I used this as a PERFECT example of MS ruining a good thing, as it's NOT just a matter of looking different; it dosen't work nearly as well.
W7 ptewueee
by tedtks - 10/3/09 12:32 AM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49I will wait till W8 - or something LOL
I didnt go to vista because of some of their dumb changes
that I used alll the time, made more difficult or ' where
is it '
So.. I will stick to xp pro - dont care if they stop supporting
it - I stopped getting updates a while back due to a couple of them
actually slowed things down and I had to go back to a previouse
version.
one day I may HAVE to upgrade to ie8 when it stops being usable
at enough sites - but that will be a while.
either the programmers are bored and change things 'just cause
they can' or the management doesnt use computers. hahaha at MS ?
more than likely its a long term setup so that next year or two
they can $Sell$ another version with all that crap fixed - and again
different ie: unusable.
the Lotus percentages I see are increasing. hmmmm...
Same old Windows
by 3rdalbum - 10/3/09 4:22 AM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49What I'm annoyed about with Windows 7 is that it's "the same old Windows". I thought this was supposed to be a huge leap for computing?
1. Windows Vista was supposed to ship with a huge load of drivers; but I've built two Vista machines for two different people, with different hardware, and nothing was recognised out-of-the-box. Same problem with Windows 7 - no drivers out-of-the-box and even when the Ethernet driver was in place there was still no offer to automatically install drivers from the Internet.
If I'm installing an operating system, I have better things to do with my time than install a dozen different drivers. Have it all work out-of-the-box, or download and install automatically.
2. No DVD playback support on a default Windows Vista or Windows 7, and the operating system doesn't offer to help you install them. There is nothing like "Medibuntu" for Windows, from what I've been told. You have to buy DVD playback support.
3. The notification area gets RIDICULOUSLY cluttered with all sorts of useless icons. All the drivers I had to install manually have cluttered up my notification area, and whenever I scoot over it with my mouse I get a popup saying that my "EPU is at Performance mode".
It makes it so much harder to see the little icon that you actually want, and it decreases your taskbar space.
Software developers must either not misuse the notification area, or the OS must ask the user whether the program should be allowed access to the notification area.
4. There's still no single easy interface for discovering, adding and removing programs. You can remove them once installed, but there's no way to find new software from within the Windows interface.
5. Windows programs come packaged up in .exe binary installers, where all the software is statically-linked. This means that if you have three programs that use a particular 3rd-party software library, you'll have three different copies of the library eating up disk space.
The only exception is where the programs depend on something like the .NET framework; you'll only have one .NET framework on your computer at a time, but the first time you go to install a .NET program you'll need to manually find and download the framework yourself.
So, Windows programs either waste your space by installing things you already have, or if they have any extra dependencies they will not resolve them for you.
6. No visual effects except some simple fades. BORING!
7. No virtual desktops built-in.
8. The system costs money to buy, and complete release upgrades cost more. (for instance, I bought Vista for $109, and if I want Windows 7 I'll have to buy the upgrade disc). Yeah, sure I can use the release candidate for a few more months, but you can't install the RC on a customer's machine.
9. You can't work with any files on NTFS hard disks that contain special characters such as quotes or question marks - it will claim that the file can't be found. As if that wasn't bad enough, this bug has existed since Windows XP and...
10. ...there's no public bug tracker, so you can't easily report bugs to Microsoft, and you can't easily get information on workarounds and you can't get involved in testing the patches.
That's all the significant points I can think of at the moment. Windows 7 is just as unpleasant for me to use as Vista. It's still the same old Windows, and the less I have to use it, the better.
Changes
by mwooge - 10/3/09 6:42 AM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49Part of the problem you're having with W7 is that it's not the release version, it's the beta. Putting out a beta version, of course, is to find these problems.
The problems you're finding are the ones they'll (hopefuly) fix.
Darn close
by rje49 - 10/3/09 6:57 AM In reply to: Changes by mwoogeI read where Windows 7RC was essentially "done". RC is one step after Beta. I'll bet anything that any of the things that I've read people complaining about remain exactly as is. The idiotic things they've done were done on purpose.
Windows 7
by JCipo - 10/4/09 3:33 PM In reply to: Windows 7 annoyances by rje49Thank you for feed back on this new OS. I was upset with Vista and missed XP . I'm finally use to Vista and I got most of my programs running. After your info I think I'll not upgrade.
Win 7
by Bobwojo1 - 10/4/09 4:22 PM In reply to: I would by rje49Having looked at both Vista and 7 i would agree 7 is better. Still has all the unwanted feature issues and problems listed above but seems overall better.
But as i said earlier, all I really need is for MS to fix the problems with XP, don't need a new OS.
Maybe my Son is right, he switched to a Mac.
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