Windows Annoyances

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
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Paul McKeown
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Windows Annoyances

Post by Paul McKeown » Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:07 pm

Thought I might start a thread where people could give vent to their irritations with the Windows OS and its "ecosystem".

I could start out with things that drive desktop users mad in 8 (charms bar, apps that are not integrated into the desktop environment, etc.), but as these will apparently be fixed in Threshold/9/whatever it will be called, I shall refrain from that suggestion. Actually, under the hood, 8 is a lot more efficient than 7, most of the irritation is with the UI.

My starter for ten is:
- 260 char maximum path length. It's hard not to hit this limit from time to time. It drives me crazy at least once a month.

Other suggestions for limitations/functionality under Windows that drives people up the wall?

David Robertson

Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by David Robertson » Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:53 pm

I heard they've suspended further work on Windows 9 because it was 'too perfect'. They're moving straight on to Windows 10

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Paolo Casaschi
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Tue Aug 26, 2014 2:33 pm

The best way to get over windows annoyances is to try for a while the alternatives (MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS); realizing that every system has their own issues one often becomes more tolerant ;-)

PS: I've been using a chromebook for a while, I love the concept and the usability (once you accept the limitations of the platform); about chess, there are no dedicated chess applications but all the major websites and web services work fine (at least the ones I use).

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:15 pm

Paul McKeown wrote:Other suggestions for limitations/functionality under Windows that drives people up the wall?
Rather than first asking me, installing updates. This is wholly unhelpful on this particular machine, because its RAM is limited. So if I'm using it in a hurry, it costs a lot of RAM/time on Auto Updates, when the computer would function perfectly fine for a few hours without them. In the end, it's quicker to brute-force restart with the power button. :roll:

Simon Ansell
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Simon Ansell » Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:39 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Paul McKeown wrote:Other suggestions for limitations/functionality under Windows that drives people up the wall?
Rather than first asking me, installing updates.
You can configure Windows Update behaviour, why not turn auto-update off or set to "ask me first"?

I think Windows 7 is a pretty solid OS tbh and don't have any complaints with it but for certain dev environments I still need to dual boot my machines with a Linux distribution. I've not used Windows 8 yet.

Cygwin is a very useful Unix-like CLI for Windows.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Carl Hibbard » Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:03 pm

I expect Windows 9 could well be released for free next year not that I would use it.
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Carl Hibbard

MartinCarpenter
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by MartinCarpenter » Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:44 pm

Very unlikely to be free. They make very serious money selling it to companies etc. Apple can give their OS upgrades away because they make all their money via the app store/hardware sales etc. Google have their inbuilt cash mountain from web advertising to make use of somehow ;)

In general I guess I'll be happy if they go back to being vaguely sane, as opposed to whatever motivated some of the design decisions in 8.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Carl Hibbard » Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:55 pm

MartinCarpenter wrote:Very unlikely to be free. They make very serious money selling it to companies etc. Apple can give their OS upgrades away because they make all their money via the app store/hardware sales etc. Google have their inbuilt cash mountain from web advertising to make use of somehow ;)

In general I guess I'll be happy if they go back to being vaguely sane, as opposed to whatever motivated some of the design decisions in 8.
Wait and see :roll: free!
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Carl Hibbard

Paul McKeown
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Paul McKeown » Tue Aug 26, 2014 7:23 pm

Carl Hibbard wrote:I expect Windows 9 could well be released for free next year not that I would use it.
It should be available, as a public technical preview, from late next month. I understand that it will be a stable and usable product, so I will probably upgrade after a week or so of this pre-release, the week's wait just to confirm its reliability. The last time I used a pre-release Windows OS was Win XP/SP2. People often speak of XP in glowing terms, but they forget what a badger's arse it was before SP2 was made available, with hordes of people refusing to move off 2000. [XP did its job, provided you didn't want to have separate user accounts for administrative functions, which is when it revealed what a piece of trash it really was, awkward as anything. And provided you were happy with the limitations of running 32 bits without PAE, the 64 bit version was generally a bit dodgy. People going on about the golden era of XP are like UKIP voters: they forget how grim the past really was.] Win 8 is a thoroughly solid OS, but the UI is another badger's arse, the sooner fixed, the better.

As for Alex's query, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 (and the server editions, too, although rarely of importance in any except in the smallest installations) all allow the update behaviour to be configured, including the option to notify updates, but allow the user to determine when to install them. This changes with 9: always update, I understand.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:18 pm

Simon Ansell wrote:You can configure Windows Update behaviour, why not turn auto-update off or set to "ask me first"?
Didn't realise the option was available. Now done. 8)

David Sedgwick
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Re: Windows Annoyances

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:35 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Simon Ansell wrote:You can configure Windows Update behaviour, why not turn auto-update off or set to "ask me first"?
Didn't realise the option was available. Now done. 8)
I had a problem a couple of months ago with Windows auto-update causing me to be unable to be access Internet Explorer. I had to restore my computer to the position before the auto-update on several occasions.

I too did not know about turning off auto-update, but I asked for help in the arbiters' office at the Finals of the Counties Championships and Sean Hewitt gave me the appropriate tip.

You were in the office at the time, but you obviously weren't paying attention. I imagine that you were concentrating instead on your duties as ECF Director of Home Chess.

I'm sure that you'll get your priorities right on a future occasion.

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