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For a while, I've wanted to vent my frustration with certain things I absolutely hate about Microsoft Windows. Here's a company that has made the top selling operating system over the last decade and a half but yet they continue to move all of the previously written software into the next newest version. Here's my ongoing list of pet peeves I have with Microsoft Windows, mainly Windows 7 because I refuse to move to Windows 8. I have some beef with that one too though... I point out Microsoft Windows 7 because they've had such a long time to perfect their operating system that Windows 7 is their best one to-date. But they are still doing some of the same asinine stuff 15 years later that has been around since Windows 95 and completely butchered stuff that used to work just fine. Seriously guys?
Reset Button
Working on a clients computer that was riddled with malware, the infection went through and hid all sorts of user folders making it appear as though the data was gone. I knew better because a simple dir /ad or dir /ah showed that the folder and files were indeed intact... Now, you would think that after 25+ years of having the absolutely buggiest and most insecure operating system known to man, that Microsoft would implement some sort of "reset button" to restore all of the folder and file permissions back to their default factory state as well as setting the hidden, archive, read-only and system attributes. Try doing a Google search for resetting the folder/file attributes and everyone's solution is to "just run attrib -h"! Seriously? On thousands of folders? Sure I can run the switch to do it recursively but that wipes out the default settings for the stuff that IS supposed to be hidden, or system, or read-only. What about the malware that changes all of the folder/file security? Yes, they're out there... The only way to fix this is yet again, another command line tool. Why is there no freaking restore button for the file system on Windows to fix this crap?? Everyone else seems to know how to create their own 3rd party version to do this, but Microsoft doesn't have the foresight after how many years with this problem to fix it? Is it one of their many tactics to "get people to upgrade"? Comeon Microsoft... If you're going to make crappy software, at least put a reset button in there to put it back the way it's supposed to be.
BTW, if you happen to run into this problem, take a look at bleepingcomputer's ComboFix. It is an absolute life saver to fixing all of the things Microsoft is too lazy or too stupid to.
Windows Explorer
One of my absolute biggest pet peeves with Windows 7 is how Windows Explorer takes and shifts the folder tree to the very bottom of the window, every time you expand a folder with sub-folders. WHY?!?? If I tell Explorer to show me ALL of the folders and have it set to automatically expand folders when I click on them, what on earth makes you think I want it to be at the bottom of the tree view?? Why not put it in the MIDDLE of the tree view so I can see what's above it and I can see what's below it?? Because chances are, If I clicked on a folder that has sub-folders, I PROBABLY WANT TO SEE AND USE THE SUB-FOLDERS!!! The fix? Hack the registry to get rid of Libraries and Homegroups... WwwwwwwOW.......
The next thing I hate about Windows Explorer is a bug that has been around ever since Windows 7 was released. It's a bug that, for whatever reason, still plagues Windows Explorer and It blows me away that it hasn't been fixed. If you are viewing a folder on the left tree side and have the file contents showing up on the right, then decide to delete the folder you're looking at, it crashes Windows Explorer. In stead of moving you to a different folder, it freaking crashes the program. I mean come on... Windows XP knew what to do with it, why is Windows 7 too stupid to know how to handle it?
System Management
Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft implemented a new indexing method for all of the files within the system. Think of it like how Google indexes websites and stores where they are on the web, this is kind of the same concept. Fine and dandy. But also with Windows Vista, they introduced about 100 new services to the operating system, to add to the 50 that were already in Windows XP. So, logically you would think they would take this new indexing service and make it index everything on the system that potentially holds some sort of relevant information, only they didn't. If you happen to be a computer repair guy (like me) or work for a company and fix computers, you're pretty familiar with the "Services" snap-in for the computer manager. Now, you would think that with adding an extra 100 services to Vista (which followed over to Win7) they would have put a nice big search bar up there in the services snap-in so you could SEARCH FOR A SERVICE. But... Like all things Microsoft, their software engineers are too short-sighted to make it easy for the guy who has to do all of the work fixing the things they can't seem to make robust enough not to break...
Registry
Windows Vista got a much needed visual makeover and with it, so did the registry. That's fine but for some stupid reason, the software engineers completely forgot to program it to HIGHLIGHT a registry key when you search for it. Instead, it opens the folder with pretty much NO indication at the very bottom of the key list making you triple guess whether you're on the right key or not. Windows XP at least had an OPEN FOLDER icon to make it visually OBVIOUS as to which key you were on... Again, WHY THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE LIST??
Two Desktop Environments?
Seriously, what in the bloody hell was Microsoft thinking when they decided to do two separate desktop environments? Now, I know Microsoft would say "The start screen isn't a desktop environment! It's the Start Screen!!" But it IS a freaking desktop environment... FOR A TABLET!!! They took Windows 7, add a few whistles and bells, removed the single most functional action button on the operating system (the start button) and then pasted a completely new operating system ON TOP OF WINDOWS in it's place! Why on EARTH would you want to make an operating system that is confusing by itself to 90% of the people who use it, EVEN MORE CONFUSING by adding a SECOND OPERATING SYSTEM?? People can barely figure out how to create a shortcut on their regular desktop, let alone grasp the concept that they have TWO active operating systems running on the same computer and now they can add icons not only to their Desktop, but their Start Screen as well!?? Oh, and to make matters worse, instead of making all of the Windows 8 backend functionally pull into the Windows RT frontend, they left the two environments completely separate... Really? I have to go BACK to the MAIN desktop, just to access common core programs because it wasn't incorporated into the frontend? Like PRINTERS? Do you have any idea how much of a pain it was the first time I tried to add a Printer on Windows 8? I gave up and just let the downloaded drivers run it's own setup!
What's sad is that Microsoft blames the PC manufacturers for the poor launch of ANYTHING dealing with Windows 8. They don't look at themselves for creating the most confusing and horribly backwards operating system I think the world has ever seen... DOS is less confusing than Windows 8!
What Microsoft SHOULD have done with the whole "start" screen, is to do away with the Windows "Active" Desktop (Is that even still around?) and inlaid the new Windows RT "Start" screen in it's place. It would serve as the "icon" location for starting programs but still give the power of a desktop environment without making it feel like two separate environments. They should have re-designed the taskbar with a more metro design to fit the "background" windows start page and made it still completely functional to show open programs, that way the REGULAR windows programs could still be easily multi-tasked between and easily switched between. Any program that is a "Windows RT" program would simply launch full screen and you have no choice about it. Also, what is up with the stupid scroll bar at the bottom of the screen on the Start page?? Really?? The Microsoft Engineers couldn't figure out how to get rid of the scroll bar and make the left mouse button, when held down, act like a finger that was touching the screen? Let off the button and "the finger goes up"? But yet they figured out how to completely butcher a laptop's mouse pad, to act like a tablet screen, but... wait... YOU CAN'T USE A TOUCHPAD LIKE A TABLET SCREEN!
Don't even get me started on the complete lack of visual queues that SHOULD be there to gently guide people on how to use it...
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