20 Worst Windows Features of All Time
 

I am a recent Mac convert & I still receive email newsletters from various PC magazines & websites. This one just popped up today & I thought I would pass it along. There are several Apple/Mac references in the article.

20 Worst Windows Features of All Time

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...l?tk=nl_wbxsld

I hate the search characters--especially the dog (and the paperclip in Word). They are the first to go with I have to get a PC at work. I like what it was called in the article... "bastard pup of Microsoft Bob"

Even the little screenshots for "Notifications" was irritating me!

I have to agree...I just had to use XP the other day for ten minutes, and was besieged by pointless notifications that I had unused icons on the desktop, that a new program was installed (duh..I was the one who installed it) and other things. Then, when I needed to search for something, do you think I could just click a box and start typing? No, I had to click start, then search, then I had to specify that I was searching for files and folders (what do I usually search for?) then wait half a hour watching that poor abused dog!

The horror...the horror

I love the Mac for that; just punch Command+Space and off you go.

He-he:D Clippy - die die die!!!! (This picture is a moving .gif file. Click on it!)

Most of all I hate this stupid yellow dog in the search!!!!!
http://images.pcworld.com/news/graph...wsXpsearch.jpg

I'm writing this on a PC, you don't have to get too sympathetic with me, as i forgot to bring my Ubuntu live CD so it's my fault i'm having to use Windows.
I loathe windows, it's covered in popups and useless crap.
I agree with blubbernaut, how thick does the stupid thing think i am, telling me that i have just installed software, oh yes! here was me thinking that i'd installed hardware with that CD with 'installer' written on it!
I also hate the error messages, it tells you everything and anything that you either already know, or couldn't care less about, then refuses to tell you things that you need to know, eg: it's delighted to have the opportunity to tell you that you've just opened a new tab in IE when you open a new tab, but when the laptop's battery starts going low, instead of telling you so that you can plug it in to it's charger, it conviniently hibernates, so you have to plug in the charger and wait for it to boot up again.
If it crashes it's either because the cartoon dog on wants to go for a walk, or Clippit's looking at porn again!
Here is a whole website dedicated to just how bad winsucks really is.
Here is a BSOD spoof found on that website.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on an XP Pro machine yesterday trying to get the plain old vanilla Microsoft Backup program to work. It would run manually, with no schedule. But the instant I tried to give it a schedule it would gleefully tell me that I had no Read Write privileges to create the file. Of course this was on a second internal hard drive that I had full permission to use. Of course that was the same hard drive that I could create/modify/delete the Backup file if I ran the program manually. But a schedule? Nope. In classic Windows fashion the program would quit as soon as the "error" message came up.

Reading through the Worst Features link was very informative. I'd no idea how complimentary to macs, the pcWorld magazine is. There are quite a few references to macs' ease of use, clean interface, and reliability.

Very entertaining/informative was the secondary link one could navigate to from the feature regarding Shut Down.

If windows is so bad, why millions of people keep using it everyday? - That is the question:D

When I was in a position to pay for, populate and manage a Faculty-wide student network (I was the Dean) to replace a hodge-podge of departmental networks, I bought 100 PCs running an early version of Windows instead of far fewer Macs running OS 7.5 or thereabouts. The PC's were all manufactured to order by a local assembly house and were identical for easy servicing. All the software was on servers.

Further, a few IBM servers running Novell Netware were easily configured to copy protect and parcel out the limited seats of licensed specialty software that needed such protection and it was easy to integrate a CD tower into the mix with licensed library reference search indexes on it. Finally, it was easy to set up all the machines with an invisible ghost partition that standardized their operating systems in the visible partition so when students buggered Windows all they had to do was restart, and it was also possible to boot the machines up in X-11 and a UNIX variant (Linux, I think) for those developing their own software (mostly the database mashers doing complex finite-element stuff).

In those days there was simply more bang for the buck and much more engineering specialty software available.

The Faculty of Architecture adapted Macs, and they were alone.

There is a variety of reasons. I know many instances where businesses are dependent on third-party machines that can only run using their proprietary software on Windows.

Whenever a new development comes about, Windows is the first to use it because of the dirge of PCs out there. A good example is NetFlix's movie download. Windows and IE ONLY.

As for the layman who walks into CompUSA and does not know about Macintosh. They will say, "I need a computer to surf the net and I only want to spend $1,500." Will the salesman take him to the Macintosh area or Dell?

IT departments like their jobs.

Some days more than others. ;)

The Dell every time because they can claim that the Dell is cheaper at the same time that they pad their profit margins. They know that if they sell the Dell, they're much more likely to get billable hours for their "Geek Squad." Mac users have a nasty habit of buying their computer and not calling for help. :eek:

I know I will have to run at least one app on my PC for now. Quickbooks Pro for the Mac is not the same as on the PC. In particular I need the Timer app that is included in the PC version & not the Mac. For now I will keep it on the PC. In the future I will probably run Parallells and Windows XP (if I can still get it).

I will also continue to use a great image program called AcDSee on my PC. I downloaded GraphicConverter on my Mac but it is way too complicated for the tasks I need to do: batch rename, batch resize & file conversions.

Had to try and sort some issues for my boss on his new Vista box yesterday. It was a less than pleasant experience for me. His monitor didn't help though, it had some sort of strobing diagonal lines that were freaking me out. I hated the expanding fade-in alert boxes. And if I tried to do anything like copy a file you had to ok three different alerts. And you couldn't just hit enter because the default button on the last one cancelled the whole process so you had to click on the right button. And what's with the semi-transparent blurry background window frames? And the file selection dialogs with the new user structure was a nightmare. And you start an application in XP compatibility mode you have to ok the unknown program. I could go on but I know I'm preaching to the converted.

Just get Parallels it will save a lot of your time then. I came to a conclusion that using Parallels for me is much more time-efficient than using a PC-machine...

horrible windows
 

haha i did this to my friend then said i was such a genius and knew how to stop it. install it on one of your windows using friends:

http://www.computerpranks.com/downlo...fm?ItemID=1750

Very very good points. I work in an eDirectory environment and Novell does some really great things and some really retarded things just like everyone else.

Also, you can fault the windows UI all you want, but at least with Windows there are like 10,000+ different ways to tweak and customize the UI. Heck, check out this:

http://www.flyakiteosx.com/screenshots/

In reality any feature that is part of the UI in windows can be changed that you don't like. In OS X that is not true you have to live with it.

I hate the registry, and I hate any kind of helper type creature whether it be a dog, a paper clip, or that damned purple ape!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzi_B...rts_of_spyware

When I used to work for a retail computer repair/support center I would have endless clients that would install that damn bonzai buddy on their systems and I hated that thing. I even think it tried mocking me, that grape ape is evil!

Vista is just a horrible thing. I wrote a review just recently about vista and my experiences on another forum. We have this brand new laptop from HP that we are testing to see if we like it or not and to make sure its fully compatible with our technologies we use, we decided to load vista on it to see how it would fair in the future. First off vista is resource hungry and it sucks on a desktop, vista sucks 10 x 4.5^10 (i have to use scientific notation to describe it's vast suckiness!) times more on a laptop. I mean after using vista I'll take my XP with that damned paper clip telling me how to copy/paste stuff in word, thats a lot better than dealing with vista.

Don't get me started on how many things broke with vista, I am trying to mentally block out vista's whole existence!

Three years ago, I converted my family law firm from a PC shop to a Mac shop. We have between 10-15 computers in house, plus some home office and road machines that VPN in. We bought mostly white CRT eMacs, along with 12" and 15" PowerBooks.

Unfortunately, despite our desire to be a Mac-only shop, the reality is that some software we need to use runs exclusively in Windows. So, we installed Virtual PC, with all the usual hiccups, bumps and slowdowns. But it worked.

On top of that, we needed group calendaring software, so that legal secretaries and paralegals could write to and edit the attorneys' calendars. Unfortunately, despite the simple iCal interface, that's not a function it supports. We nearly went back to a PC calendar app, but instead went with Now-Up-To-Date, with another set of hiccups, bumps and slowdowns. Not crazy about it, but it works.

Prior to the conversion, we spent approximately $30,000/year on an outside IT consultant to come in, manage the network, maintain and troubleshoot the PCs. That's right -- $30,000/year.

Since switching the office over to Mac, I am the in-house IT guy (and one of the attorneys, to boot). I spend roughly 2-3 hours/month at most doing maintenance and troubleshooting. Was using Remote Desktop, but might actually switch to OSX Server, which will apparently also soon allow us to host an iCal server and enable the long-awaited group scheduling functions coming in Leopard.

Now, three years later, we have saved $90,000 in outside IT support (and have probably paid me $5,000 - 10,000 in soft costs through my paycheck).

Do the math... our small office has saved $80,000 over three years. And that's one small office. Imagine if lots of small offices switched, or even lots of large companies. Picture the loss of revenue to the IT support industry, geek squads, corporate IS and IT staff, etc. Is it any wonder that job security is likely one of the biggest impediments to switching?

So, that brings us to today. Just went to our local Apple Store and are planning the next round -- lease is up and getting new machines. Intel iMacs, running Parallels and Windows XP Home and no more Virtual PC. I've been running it to death on a test machine over the past few weeks, trying to break it, and not having much luck (clarification -- easy to break Windows, Parallels seems pretty rock-solid for our uses).

For the most part, using Parallels Coherence, running Windows apps is "nearly" transparent... as close as it gets for now to running Windows apps natively on the Macs. Performance is BLAZING fast. Solid.

Given this, why on earth would anyone ever need to run Windows on a PC again?? OK, OK, I know why some people would, but this really changes things dramatically. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually jazzed about having Windows running WELL on our Macs. Except, of course, for the fact that it's Windows, which is what this thread is all about... ;-)

GS

P.S. Alright... not "jazzed", but maybe "pleased"... ;)

Oh really? Can you get it to permanently (as in NEVER again) stop popups of any kind appearing in the system tray?

yes, you can disable the security manager (or whatever windows calls it) from the system registry. So you never get the bubbles that pop from the system tray.

LOL! Hacking the registry is like rewriting OS code, only more likely to cause problems. If you want to go that far you can install Darwin and create your own version of the Mac OS, customizing it any way you like.

No disabling non "mission critical" features via system registry is not hacking. You simply put a value of 0 instead of 1

It seems that it will take more than changing a simple value to accomplish this. You did note that I said permanently, as in NEVER again, right?

From Microsoft's site:

This of course means that it's possible for software to alter the registry settings to allow popups without getting the user's approval. I know, who would do a nasty thing like that? Microsoft, for one.

This is nothing new, because all users have to run as admin level in windows. Its been this way for a long time and applications sometimes need to be run as admin level to run. Its a flaw by design.

If MS did implement adware in their OS I am sure there would be tons of people jumping ship to Linux and OS X.

It may not be new, but I think that's got to be the worst Windows feature of all time, or at least in the top five. More than just being a security issue, it shows how Microsoft sees your computer as their property. Theirs to force you to view their popups (really just ads for more Microsoft junk), and theirs to sell to advertisers.

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20 worst features?
I think one of them certainly has got to be "The Steven Ballmer Show" -- in its various hilarious, or rather tragicomic manifestations. :D

Really? I think it's the funniest comedy ever! At some point it will need to be canceled, if only to provide Apple with a true competitor, but for now, enjoy the laughs.

Not necessarily. Granted, windows has some customizations right at hand. But if you really want to change the GUI you have to start hacking. So, if we can hack on PC, we can hack a Mac as well.

Personally, I use ShapeShifter with GUITweak to get the looks I wants. Throw in a great background from www.interfacelift.com and you're set!

Zalister, you really do have outstanding eyes! (this could be the start of some monty python skit). I see why you liked the new apple web site.

While I really like the design, your screen would be tough on old eyes like mine.