I just wasted half an hour trying to look up how to change a setting in Windows. It is buried deep, very deep indeed. I found it in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article, which I found through another KB article. Half an hour after I started, I told the computer to turn off an idiot-proofing setting and then the setting I was going for magically appeared.
Windows 95/98 was too free: everyone could do anything
Windows 2000/Me failed and nobody used it
Windows XP was a huge step up but some stuff was put behind layers of precaution in non-obvious ways.
Windows Vista: see note for Windows 2000/Me
Windows 7: If all you want to do is use your programs it is beautiful. If you want to change an important setting, prepare to be digging for a while.
There isn't much useful they have done for me in the UI over the years, but systems settings have gotten more and more difficult to manage. This is because, if you put a little gray button labeled "Advanced" in a program, people who have no business clicking it will break their machines. To prevent the IT staffers being tied up solid, Microsoft has tried to protect the lowly user from himself . . . and made life more difficult for the rest of us!
:(
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment