WOF: Windows' biggest annoyances in your book

I forgot how annoying the network connections are.

Xp and windows 2000 were so much easier.

Now they went and added "home network" add that and server won't see the dang pc's until you mess with it for a day and a half. ugh

I'm on a .. home or business network.. It needs to have a apply button in that menu.

If you ever have a power outtage or just plain reboot after the updates.. Sometimes windows wants to put you on the business network. and then you have issues.. lol

Drive mapping is a chore now as well.
 
@g4mer
the one in win 7 ,well first off it looks better :p...and its been very functional for me....there is nothing i come across and say : 'damn i cant do that'....im satisfied as far as it does the job....and u said UAC is annoying and u also said it can be disabled, well thats the beauty of windows, u can bend it to your liking
 
Windows 7 is the best OS that Microsoft has put out. My complaints are relatively minor:

1. Boot up time.
2. Booting out of sleep mode - takes as much time as doing a cold boot. Plus, the OS won't recognize my two CD drives when coming out of boot mode.
3. For some inexplicable reason, I'm now unable to view video file icons in thumbnail view. This is a well known bug. There are a few fixes that work for some users, but not others. I'm one of those where regardless of what I do, nothing works. Very annoying.

I disagree that Windows 7 is a resource hog. I find it to be extremely efficient, especially in its use with RAM swapping. At idle with nothing else running, my CPU is at 0% usage and 1.56 GB RAM usage - which was well advertised by MS that you need a minimum of 2GB of RAM to run properly. If you are using more than that, then go into msconfig and get rid of all the unnecessary start-up programs that are running in the background.
 
Wait for it....

INTERNET EXPLORER is the worst piece of software to ever run on a windows machine, when compared to ANY other browser, its performance figures are a joke. The first thing I do with any fresh install of windows - Install Chrome, disable access to IE.

One would think a company that specializes in software and operating systems would be able to design a reasonable browser... Apparently not.
 
It seems that I woke up some protective sentiments toward Windows. Now let me say that I'm still primarily a Windows user, however looking forward there are things I'd like to see improved, some of which are already lagging against the competition and some others where I see a paradigm shift is taking place and Microsoft cannot afford to stay behind.

If you read my personal list of complaints, a few depend completely on the OS like wake from standby. You can have Windows taking as much as 30 seconds to become operational while Macs can become usable in about 2 seconds on the same hardware.

On the other hand my complaints regarding third party software... My point is if Microsoft really wants to improve the user experience they will have design more rigorous guidelines for developers and limit access to OS level settings by default. Crappy software will always by crappy software but what you want to prevent is having a majority of software trying to install its own unnecessary background service, its own updater, or even worse its own toolbar as default and the OS letting that be.
 
Julio said:
IOn the other hand my complaints regarding third party software... My point is if Microsoft really wants to improve the user experience they will have design more rigorous guidelines for developers and limit access to OS level settings by default. Crappy software will always by crappy software but what you want to prevent is having a majority of software trying to install its own unnecessary background service, its own updater, or even worse its own toolbar as default and the OS letting that be.
Click to expand...
Well, I think that M$ has made good faith attempt to do this with "M$ Security Essentials". Which on its own, is good enough to keep at least the Security software developers honest. On the other hand, if M$ adopted policies as rigid as you suggest, they would probably find themselves involved in more anti-trust lawsuits then they already are. Not to mention a deluge of very unfavorable comparisons to the draconian, isolationist policies of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Although the toolbar issue is often times directly connected to ad revenue subsidies for freeware
 
I have two major bugbears with windows, and although my experience comes from a 5 year old (and now very slow) XP laptop, I think they're valid across the windows universe:
1. Deciding which window is selected/appears on your screen for you: imagine you're working on something and either something pops up or (my case, due to the slow machine!) something you'd called 3 minutes previously finally loads - windows moves screen to other app and you're left typing/controlling in new window
2. no clear explanation of where your resource are going: windows task manager loads almost instantly (even in major go-slow) but it gives rubbish information. i like to use processexp but it takes an age to load and sometimes even then you can't see where all your resources are going or why your comp is so slowwww!
 
Windows 7:

-Windows 2000 had a cleaner, faster, and more responsive look and feel.
-The Network and Sharing Center should be improved.
-Some tools such as the Windows Sheduler are not so easy to use, and the Quick Shedule is just not so helpful neither.
-More features and tools should be added.
-Boot-up and boot-down are too slow although they have been improved.
 
Microsoft really should have an application maintenance/update API so programs can update all via a single interface. That would cut the rubbish out and streamline updaters and update check schedules and reboots!

The other major pain in the backside is the lack of real multitasking. Sure it is multitasking under the hood but try doing multiple things in practice. Outlook, Explorer, Word, Windows Update etc all steal focus. They really need to just get rid of that from the API altogether. Let the user choose when to context switch so we can do real multitasking.
 
I do not like that Windows 7 forgets the path when installing software.
Have to install additional software to run X Window programs (ie java -jar)
Installing HP Printers drivers on Windows 7 64 bit is a pain.
Installing HP Printers on Ubuntu was effortless.

Windows 7 needs to multi task better, like Ubuntu.
Windows 7 is slow, needs to be less bloated. I get better performance with Ubuntu on significantly less hardware.

Some programs do not install as easy on Ubuntu as Windows 7.

Debian needs better driver support. It would not recognize my network properly. Ubuntu had no problems with the network.
 
What I dislike most is the reboots. I don't like them and don't want to be forced to do them.

I don't know why people are having problems with sleep. It may be a device issue. Switching my Vista x64 PC out of sleep is very quick. Only thing that sometimes takes a little time is the network connection (it's inconsistent in the time it takes). Having tried Linux recently (openSUSE), it got out of sleep more slowly.

BTW, the sleep mode idea to save to disk is great. No need to hibernate, you get out of sleep instantaneously normally, but if power was lost you can still get back to the state you were (even if more slowly).
 
Julio; It takes 7 seconds for my Windows 7 x64 system to get out of S3 standby mode...

Are we allowed to change our "what's the most annoying thing about Windows" posts?

This is by FAR it; http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=256095
The "NVIDIA Display Driver Service"

This is something that drives me almost mad, I'm sure the intentions where good but it just does not work
It is a driver helper service, that when you turn off a monitor for example, it disables this port
So if you where running in "dualview" mode with two monitors it changes to single view mode
I guess so n00bs don't run into the problem where the desktop is stretched but only one of the views visible
Well problem is when you turn it back on dualview is not enabled, and many many times if you turn off both monitors you wont get any signal at all when turning them back on
In Windows XP and XP x64 it is as simple as disabling the service, but in Vista and Win7 it is not, as far as I have been able to test, possible to disable this "feature"

It's also great on servers, if you have a KVM switch, you view server1, then switch to server2, now server1 looses it's DVI signal so it turns off the port, now you switch back to this server and it does not enable it's port...
Don't believe me? A company is making a HARDWARE device to solve this SOFTWARE bug, they are also the manufacturer of a KVM switch, just amazing!

And I do think this is Microsofts problem, afterall they have the WHQL testing lab that certifies that drivers are good and working as intended
 
@Per, your "Windows 7 x64 system" is that a desktop? Half of my problems above are gone when I'm using my desktop that uses a quad-core CPU, loads of RAM, SSD, etc. etc... but when running on a laptop wake from standby becomes way more relevant. As I said, on a Macbook Pro it can take anything from 5 seconds to up to 30 seconds to wake Windows 7 up, whereas OS X will do it in 2-3 seconds every time.

But back to my original point, this wasn't meant to be a "let's flame Windows" discussion but rather what still needs to be fixed in the next-generation Windows for it to prevail against rising competitors.
 
Julio said:
. As I said, on a Macbook Pro it can take anything from 5 seconds to up to 30 seconds to wake Windows 7 up, whereas OS X will do it in 2-3 seconds every time.
Click to expand...
Is it possible that Apple, (at least partly), planned it that way?

Julio said:
But back to my original point, this wasn't meant to be a "let's flame Windows" ....[ ]...
Click to expand...
OK, here I think you're just being modest. :rolleyes:
 
OK before i go into my tirade on windows and the people who use it, lets be clear on one point: windows xp is the best commercially available operating system. 95 in second, win7 third.

now almost every complaint i have seen on this open forum can be solved by simple maintenance and adjusting settings within windows itself.

don't like constant reminders to update your system? well you have three options here, 1) set windows update to not display update alerts, 2) set windows update to automatically down load these updates and install them when your PC shuts down, 3) or you can complete turn off windows update and tell it not to alert you and it will never bother you again, at the cost of no new updates.

security giving you hell every time you try to open new and sometimes old programs? easy fix, if your in vista, which you most likely are if you have this problem, is to open "help and support" from the start menu then search either "User Account Control" or "uac". you should get a result that leads to the section of the control panel that will allow you to turn UAC off. ironically it will trigger a User Account Control dialog box to try to deter you from turning UAC off.

computer running slow/stating slow/using excessive amounts of ram? if this is the case and your running any version of vista then your only option is to buy more ram, or install a better version of windows (95 would be a definite improvement). if either option is unavailable, then your SOL. for all other versions of windows periodically defraging your hard drives, cleaning out your registry with any freeware registry cleaner, and just plain deleting the unused files on your PC will do a world of good. the ram issue all depends on you and your particular install. running vista or win7 on a gigabyte of ram is just plain dumb.

the 2007 laptop i am writing this on:
core 2 duo 2.0ghz, 4gb(3.125 available to windows),
500gb hdd, win XP x86.
this rig boots with only 147mb(-/+) of ram used, in 35 seconds

windows is the only operating system for everyday and power user usage. for every thing else, Linux is god.
 
Great rant, Guest in post 45...! Although I didn't see mention of a good program to manage start ups. Or giving the old turd a good "msconfigging".

BTW, some of us aren't blindly irresponsible. Why, believe it or not, I myself have been know to utilize "CCleaner" from time to time.
 
good start ups? well keeping the registry free of unused entries and the hdd defraged was my answer to slow start ups. i guess you could use msconfig, but a good old fashioned "vanilla" boot with a clean registry will be more than fast enough for any normal user.

i just want to say that any ***** who tries to access the start menu while explorer is still loading deserves a BSOD every time he tries it.

also any program that allows you manually edit the NTLDR if your brave enough to do it should be shown some respect.
 
People really like to complain about windows, I never really had any problems with it that I couldn't solve within 5 minutes, longer than that and its time to reformat which in itself is no big deal. If you don't like using a computer because of the software on it, become a programmer and fix it, if not live with it because a lot of it does make sense in a way. Just because you think something should be done in a different way doesn't mean its the way it should be. I'd look at windows and think Microsoft did a rather good job, the sheer vast consumer base. the unlimited supply of programs, the customization itself that allows the user to make their OS their own. Complain if you want, its not going to change anything. Finally to all those people complaining about windows being a resource hog, yes if your using a computer with less than 2GB of ram you are going to have a problem so why not upgrade your 8 year old computer thats a ticking time bomb of failure and realize that windows actually runs well on current hardware...

PS. This has gotta be the fumiest read ever, I was going to leave this out but felt other Techspot members will feel the same way, the number of people giving their "two cents" about the most absurd problems. LAWL...
 
Guest said:
good start ups? well keeping the registry free of unused entries and the hdd defraged was my answer to slow start ups. i guess you could use msconfig, but a good old fashioned "vanilla" boot with a clean registry will be more than fast enough for any normal user.

i just want to say that any ***** who tries to access the start menu while explorer is still loading deserves a BSOD every time he tries it.

also any program that allows you manually edit the NTLDR if your brave enough to do it should be shown some respect.
Click to expand...
So does this mean you're right and I'm wrong, or you just weren't finished raving? In which case you should thank me for helping you to get it all out of your system.
 
Julio said:
@Per, your "Windows 7 x64 system" is that a desktop? Half of my problems above are gone when I'm using my desktop that uses a quad-core CPU, loads of RAM, SSD, etc. etc... but when running on a laptop wake from standby becomes way more relevant. As I said, on a Macbook Pro it can take anything from 5 seconds to up to 30 seconds to wake Windows 7 up, whereas OS X will do it in 2-3 seconds every time.

But back to my original point, this wasn't meant to be a "let's flame Windows" discussion but rather what still needs to be fixed in the next-generation Windows for it to prevail against rising competitors.
Click to expand...

Julio, I honestly don't know what you are talking about regarding the wake-up time from sleep. My son has an HP laptop (Core i3) and it wakes-up instantly (2-3 seconds). My wife has Acer One netbook and it also wakes up within 2-3 seconds. Even when it goes into hybernation mode it takes less than 10 seconds to be fully functional upon wake-up. Both machines are hardly powerhouses.

I agree with your gripe about a lot of third party software insisting on installing its own update checkers and insisting on loading those on start-up. I get that you can disable the functionality, but it's an extra hassle that I don't want to go through. I really think that Windows needs some centralized install/update service.

Otherwise, I am pretty happy with Windows 7, especially compared to XP.
 
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