After 31 Years, Why Does Microsoft Windows still _______?

[pmv]

$&@“$ autohide taskbar. It often won’t come up or won’t hide when you need it to.

Of late, mine seems to be behaving itself (in current build of Win10). But it definitely used to be flakey like that. Wouldn't surprise me if it starts acting up again.

Several other recurrent problems with Win10 (like start button suddenly stopping working) seem to have gone away with successive updates. I almost don't mind it now even if I still don't care for the aesthetics of "Metro".

 

[pmv]

I want the default view for everything to be 'general items' and 'details.' I can go through the menu to set the defaults, but it just doesn't stick. windows keeps thinking I want some folders to be set to video or pictures, which makes it load thumbnails or previews, and then also to load up metadata which can take forever, rather than just name/date/size/type. so each new directory needs to be set back to general items and details. I should probably go tweak the registry, but i'm lazy.

worse is search. at least with new folders, once you set them to general items and details, the setting sticks. not so with search. search wants to present its findings with thumbnails and all sorts of other lag-inducing garbage. and I have yet to find a way to tell it, no I want details. and only details. name/date/size/path. that's it.

I don't know why it just can't trust me that the thing I want to be default, I actually want to be the default.

Case in point being folders of music that don't display file-size or modified date by default, when most of the time that's what I'm looking at even with music files.

That seems like a specific case of a general windows problem. It always tries to second-guess you and present you with what it thinks you want, and almost always gets it wrong.

 

[mikeymikec]

Win8x and 10 getting rid of the F8 early startup menu, instead relying on the OS booting properly in order to present the user with a very long (or impossible if the OS is acting up - gee, why might I want to get into safe mode?) way to get into safe mode.

 

[mikeymikec]

I want the default view for everything to be 'general items' and 'details.' I can go through the menu to set the defaults, but it just doesn't stick. windows keeps thinking I want some folders to be set to video or pictures, which makes it load thumbnails or previews, and then also to load up metadata which can take forever, rather than just name/date/size/type. so each new directory needs to be set back to general items and details. I should probably go tweak the registry, but i'm lazy.

worse is search. at least with new folders, once you set them to general items and details, the setting sticks. not so with search. search wants to present its findings with thumbnails and all sorts of other lag-inducing garbage. and I have yet to find a way to tell it, no I want details. and only details. name/date/size/path. that's it.

I don't know why it just can't trust me that the thing I want to be default, I actually want to be the default.

That stupid 'content' view in search really gets on my nerves. Why can't we simply have a UI, similar to the autoplay devices UI, where one can set which views one would like to see in various scenarios. Pretty much the only time I want thumbnail view is in a folder structure only containing images and videos. It irritated me greatly the other day when I accessed my Documents folder on Win7 in an unusual manner (through 'libraries'), and then Windows decided that I wanted to look at it in Thumbnail view from that point on.

 

[whm1974]

After reading all of these issues users are having with Windows, I'm glad I ditched that OS completely back in late 2014 and just used Linux for everything. I really feel sorry for those who are forced to still use Windows for some reason or another.

 

[deustroop]

When I am attempting disk access activities, e.g., renaming a file, why does the OS say
I will need to provide administrator permission to do it ?
When I am the administrator ?

 

[mikeymikec]

When I am attempting disk access activities, e.g., renaming a file, why does the OS say
I will need to provide administrator permission to do it ?
When I am the administrator ?

Because you're running with standard user privs until you've agreed to that message, and only then for that particular operation. If you're still wondering why, think about the implications for your system's security if you had a browser open which then gets nailed through a security vulnerability and the attack has immediately picked up administrator privs.

 

[deustroop]

The chances of my browser facilitating faked admin privileges are fairly minuscule I suspect. Even should that happen the hack too gets asked the question. So that idea is dumb. MS should fix this

 

[mikeymikec]

The chances of my browser facilitating faked admin privileges are fairly minuscule I suspect. Even should that happen the hack too gets asked the question. So that idea is dumb. MS should fix this

And you can speak for every other Windows user on the planet...

- edit - what do you mean by "faked admin privileges"? The purpose of exploiting a process (such as a browser) is usually to pick up the privileges on the system that it is running with. With the 'User Account Control' feature, that browser is running with user-level privileges, so if it gets exploited (hint: there's probably several currently known ways to exploit the browser you're currently running even if it's the latest version and you're not doing anything stupid) then that means the attacker would have to use another exploit to escalate their privileges to admin/system. If however the browser was running with admin privs, the attacker gets admin privs, making the attacker's job a lot easier.

 

[whm1974]

And you can speak for every other Windows user on the planet...

OR you could move to Linux, far fewer issues.

 

[escrow4]

OR you could move to Linux, far fewer issues.

If Linux was so so good everyone would be using it. Except they are not because it isn't. Windows is still the default choice for piles upon piles of hardware and software choices. The issues in this thread are thanks to a decades old kernel that Microsoft is desperately trying to keep modern with fresh coats of paint on top of a rotting superstructure. Which it won't be until its gutted and rebuilt which won't be happening anytime soon.

 

[whm1974]

If Linux was so so good everyone would be using it. Except they are not because it isn't. Windows is still the default choice for piles upon piles of hardware and software choices. The issues in this thread are thanks to a decades old kernel that Microsoft is desperately trying to keep modern with fresh coats of paint on top of a rotting superstructure. Which it won't be until its gutted and rebuilt which won't be happening anytime soon.

Actually Linux is good enough to replace Windows for most users, and has been for awhile.

 

[Smoblikat]

Permissions.

/thread

Seriously though, when you have every single domain admin including the netadmin trying to restore deleted files for somneone else, but cant because "You do not have permission to access this folder", and you need to restore them under the users account instead, somthing is seriously wrong. How could the owners of the network not have access to files stored on the network??

Not to mention the infinite amount of "This file or folder is locked by system/administrator/trustedinstaller etc. and windows hates you, please use linux instead"

 

[ElFenix]

Yesterday I received the new windows feature update on my work computer. When I left I had it update and shut down. I turned it on this morning and instead of doing all the updates and shutting down, it only did some of the updates and shut down. So now I get to wait on it doing the updates it didn't do last night.

Edit: had to leave after an hour and it was still going. Thanks, Microsoft!

 

[ElFenix]

Came back hours later and it's still doing @$#&ing! updates! I don't need to see your nice little messages about "hi there!" "These updates help protect you!" and "we want everything to be ready for you"! If you wanted everything to be ready for me you would have done all this crap without my intervention when I told you to update yesterday!


And why did it change the position of my task bar?!? I use a 2-high task bar and it changed it to one. Quit screwing with my settings!

 

[Ketchup]

Came back hours later and it's still doing @$#&ing! updates! I don't need to see your nice little messages about "hi there!" "These updates help protect you!" and "we want everything to be ready for you"! If you wanted everything to be ready for me you would have done all this crap without my intervention when I told you to update yesterday!


And why did it change the position of my task bar?!? I use a 2-high task bar and it changed it to one. Quit screwing with my settings!

That really is annoying and stupid. You just can't say update and let it do it's thing. They make you interact when it's seemingly barely over half-way though. On an update no less!

It's like the can't make up their mind - you HAVE TO receive security updates and not touch a thing, but build updates require you to manually OK settings that have ALREADY BEEN SET. One way or the other, please Microsoft.

 

[whm1974]

Come to Linux, much faster updates and you can still use your computer while updating.

 

[Ketchup]

After years and years of you can do this and you can do that, with Linux, I have tried it at least half a dozen times and I can still only manage do to a little bit of this and a little bit of that, for me anyway.

 

[lxskllr]

After years and years of you can do this and you can do that, with Linux, I have tried it at least half a dozen times and I can still only manage do to a little bit of this and a little bit of that, for me anyway.

If windows compatibility is *required*, gnu/linux won't be a good fit. NEED $proprietary_program? Windows is your best bet. If it's only a question of familiarity with a particular program. you may very well get by with gnu/linux. You trade off a bit more work up front(sometimes) for software that's yours to use as you like, with no artificial restrictions. I never have to worry about my o/s not activating if I change hardware, and if I run a cloned version of my system simultaneously, that's perfectly fine. I keep a bootable o/s in my wallet for emergencies, and no one has a problem with that. I can clone it to a different thumb drive, and you can have it too. Gnu/linux has a powerful command line that allows the user to "write" their own "programs". If you're willing to use a search engine, you can probably find a replacement for many trivial tasks either built in to the o/s, or available in the repos for download at several kilobytes. No hunting around virus incubators looking for trivial graphic programs.

All of which is to say there's trade offs, as there is with everything in life. If you're tired of dealing with company's bullshit, and want to take control of your computing, you most likely can do what's *required* with gnu/linux. Some things will have to be relearned, and you may have to do without other things, but it'll be all yours.

I think you'd see more gnu/linux adoption if everyone didn't take our cool toys. Anyone can take our stuff, but we can't take other's stuff. Libre software is widely used in Windows world. If you could paradoxically give freedom(a feature), but restrict the use by proprietary systems(I do not endorse that), selecting an o/s would be a more interesting exercise.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Came back hours later and it's still doing @$#&ing! updates! I don't need to see your nice little messages about "hi there!" "These updates help protect you!" and "we want everything to be ready for you"! If you wanted everything to be ready for me you would have done all this crap without my intervention when I told you to update yesterday!


And why did it change the position of my task bar?!? I use a 2-high task bar and it changed it to one. Quit screwing with my settings!

Yes, i totally agrrrree. That must be the most annoying thing about windows 10 updates.
Which idiot at Microsoft came up with that idea to let you first go through a run of updates and restarts and then when you think your pc is ready for using, after logging you get these slowly fading messages while i noticed from the hdd activity led that not much is happening. Why is there no "skip intro" option for this. Grrr. Rawr, Arrgh, RRRAAA!

 

[Smoblikat]

I got another one, maybe even worse than permissions:

Why in the name of all that is good, does windows TELL ME that it cannot move/delete a file because it is in use by another program, but has absolutely no option to tell me WHICH program is using it, or better yet, forcibly terminate all the programs preventing me from having access to the files on my computer.


W T F

 

[kn51]

I think the best one I read was an admin working on a 2012 Server. He actually had to ask the question on how to restart the server because at the time it was in the charm bar. And the only reason I posted this is because I was in the same situation.

 

[Ketchup]

I think the best one I read was an admin working on a 2012 Server. He actually had to ask the question on how to restart the server because at the time it was in the charm bar. And the only reason I posted this is because I was in the same situation.

We interact with a couple servers like that were I work (amongst hundreds). Putting a charm bar in a consumer OS was bad enough. On a server? just plain retarded.

 

[Chaotic42]

I think the best one I read was an admin working on a 2012 Server. He actually had to ask the question on how to restart the server because at the time it was in the charm bar. And the only reason I posted this is because I was in the same situation.

Yeah, that's gotten me before as well. I wish Microsoft would stop trying to combine business and consumer operating system interfaces. I will say that years of using Windows 10 has made me miss it when I use Windows 7.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have another rant.

I installed the netflix app on my work pc for a test.
And although the app works fine and shows up in the startmenu.
The search function cannot find the app.
The pc on my work is also upgraded to 1709.