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Dear Bill Gates: Fixes and Features for Vista | |
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| Time: 13:45 EST/18:45 GMT | News Source: ComputerWorld | Posted By: Andre Da Costa | ||
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I'm sure that anyone who has used Windows has at least one pet peeve they'd like to see remedied. Although I like Windows in its latest incarnation, I'm no exception. Without further ado, here's a look at four problems I'd like to see fixed in Windows Vista: 1. Focus, focus, focus. The way Windows decides what window or application is active is one of my long-standing gripes. Example: Say you need to reference a Web page while editing a Microsoft Word document. As you type, the browser is launched, but you're not paying attention to it. As you continue to type in Word, you realize midsentence that you're on your home page and have been typing in the address bar. Exasperated, you have to click to your document and retype the sentence from where Windows changed the active window. | ||
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| #1 By 17996 (66.188.88.180) at 11/30/2005 3:48:20 PM |
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Let's look at his problems one at a time:
1. Focus issues. I don't know what planet he's on, but I've never had a problem with cross-process focus switching on XP. Starting with Windows 2000, Microsoft greatly tightened this up. There is a problem, though, with focus-stealing within a process. For example, one IE window stealing focus from another IE window. This is something that they should fix. 2. Problems deleting a large number of files when one is in use. With Vista, they're completely reworking how file operations work. When one file can't be deleted, it won't block the rest of the files from being deleted. I think they're also doing work to make it easier to know what app is keeping a file open, but I can't say for sure. 3. Event logging. In Vista, event logging/viewing is being revamped quite a bit, but I don't think it'll help the author out much. I agree that each loggable error needs to have some kind of easily-accessible documentation to go with it. 4. Reboots. "A new application is installed; Windows asks to reboot. Install a new driver for a printer; Windows asks to reboot. Get a new security update; Windows asks to reboot." Well, the first two cases are directly the fault of the application and printer driver, respecitvely. I've installed plenty of apps and printer drivers and never needed to reboot. The third case, rebooting after installing security updates, is something that Vista is addressing with the Restart Manager. So overall, this guy should (in theory) be pretty happy with Vista. Of course, the way he addresses his letter to Bill Gates is stupid. He doesn't honestly think that Bill makes feature decisions for Windows, does he? |
| #2 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 11/30/2005 4:31:52 PM |
| Patriot--you summed it up well, although I agree with the part about the focus issues--this is a huge pet peeve of mine as well. In my case, it's not so much the focus of different applications taking control (although this has happened to me also), but the modal dialog boxes that pop up while you're doing something and RESPOND TO KEYSTROKES. For a somewhat fictional but illustrative example, consider this--you're typing in Word, when a dialog pops up--do you want to reboot Now, or Later? If the next letter you type in your document is 'N', your computer reboots--and furthermore, you have no idea what the dialog said, because you had a tiny fraction of a second to read it. This happens to me all the time, where a dialog pops up and mysteriously disappears because you were in the midst of typing, and you wonder, "What the heck was that about?" This should NEVER happen. Modal dialogs are typically just a pain in the butt anyways, but they should not respond to simple keystrokes. |
| #3 By 8241 (69.193.56.15) at 11/30/2005 5:40:04 PM |
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I'm pretty sure TweakUI will fix this though. [ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx ]
Start --> Programs --> Powertoys for Windows XP --> TweakUI ||| General --> Focus --> Check "Prevent applications from stealing focus" Anyway, about modal dialogs... the instant ICQ came out many years ago, I really liked that blinking flower/notification. Little modal dialogs that tend to interrupt you, should just go down into the system tray and blink and wait for you to retrieve them. Heck, just have MSN Messenger add in a "Your Computer System" buddy and have them all go there instead. I dunno... |
| #4 By 61 (71.251.77.233) at 12/1/2005 8:21:39 AM |
| Nothing worse than being in the middle of a game and AIM decides that the IM is more important than anything in the world. |
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