Comments on: Ten nine things I could learn Microsoft about software

By: handolio

handolio — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:06:38 +0000

I’ve remembered another one - it’s kind of point 6b: If you know something’s shit, use the first opportunity to fix it.

I’m thinking of Vista Backup here, which (and this is imbecilic) won’t support .bkf files created in Windows XP. Duh. Fortunately there’s a MS download available to let you read them.

Anyway, another idiotic thing about Vista Backup is that it won’t backup to network attached storage (NAS) devices. I’m not sure if this applies to all of them, but it’s certainly widespread. Vista itself can read or write to them with no problem, but the backup program prompts you for a user name and password, even when the drive has none (and when other Vista apps can access it no problem).

Good job that no-one buys a NAS to use for backing up their computers, eh?

Anyway, I was certain that this was such a major fuckup that MS would fix it in Vista SP1, but I’ve just checked and they haven’t (and my PC remains un-backed-up). I’m yet to find a workaround. Harumph.

By: david

david — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:35:09 +0000

You were on the edge of hysteria, but you showed restrain when none was needed.
Point 3 is the killer. If you have a four year gap (or at least in the product title) between releases, the new version should be four years of back breaking labour better. Where did all those work hours go? Designing the ribbon? please.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:22:15 +0000

I think Office 2007 makes more sense, but only if you look at it from a first time users point of view. It makes it easier to find functions you’ve either never or rarely use because they’re listed under function areas.

Handolio doesn’t like Windows, or Mac OS… do you like Linux or do you generally just dislike things?

By: handolio

handolio — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:46:09 +0000

It’s a good thing you’re on the other side of the world, Edwards

Seriously, I reckon it’s just personal choice. I know it leaves me open to the hostility and outright ridicule of my peers, but I don’t get on with Mac OS at all.

By: Nick Edwards

Nick Edwards — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:35:50 +0000

Will I be swearing if I say that I am now using a mac at my new job and thing it’s the best thing ever….. it treats me like an adult

By: handolio

handolio — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:39:35 +0000

Agree that some of the old stuff seems retro, but I still think 2003 is easier to use than 2007. For me the main problem is that they’ve grouped functions together under themed menus, but functions that just used to be there on the screen are now under separate menus.

It’s a small thing, but it means for example that where you used to just click once to put a colour highlight on some text or insert a comment on it, you now have to be in either the Home toolset or the Review toolset respectively, so that’s more to think about and perhaps an extra click.

Anyway, I use IE7 and Firefox, so there

By: Adam Boulton

Adam Boulton — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:20:16 +0000

I like office 2007 and office 2003 feels dreadfully retro these days.

@Simon: put your mouse where you mouth is and stop using IE and use firefox! If for no other reason other than the fact that IE 6 has crippled progression ofweb development for years…

By: handolio

handolio — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:12:40 +0000

Cheers Tom.

I’m stunned that there could ever be another celebrity beauty journalist. Especially as in Nadine Baggott’s case she, seemingly, actually means it in the sense of “I’m a beauty journalist what’s on telly, therefore I am a celebrity beauty journalist”.

1) XP was massively better than 98 in this regard, but still did it. Vista’s done it to me, but I think they’ve almost stamped it out, to be fair. I still find instances of the focus not being where I expect it, though.
2) Loads slower on my PC, which is a fast, modern fellow with bugger-all running on it. I’ve tried checking Vista’s (vastly improved) performance monitoring stuff but can’t find a culprit. This is my second Vista install on the machine (first one killed the MBR on one of my disks), the first install had the same problem.
4) Yeah, sorry, badly worded - should have taken that example out. They tend to use inconsistent menu hierarchies, though, particularly for the options. In Office 2007 apps, they’re an option on some rubbish root menu a bit like the Start button.
6) Yeah, just checked, still happens. It’s in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. If your machine’s slow it can take a few seconds before anything obvious happens.
7) I agree that there should maybe be some mechanism for stopping people destroying important files, but this probably isn’t it - it’s a very unfriendly way to greet a PC n00b who’s just having a poke around. I’ve long thought Windows should come with a ‘don’t patronise me’ checkbox, checked by default. Unchecking it would switch off the annoyingness. (I’m half expecting somebody to propose a dual-boot Mac as a solution to this)
9) You’re wrong, and you’re a grotesquely ugly freak.

To be fair, I haven’t used Vista as much as you, so I’d humbly suggest that people take my ranting with a pinch of salt. I’m now wondering if for balance I should do a follow up post with things that Microsoft is has improved in Vista - hibernation, and power management in general, for example.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:49:14 +0000

Hate to play devil’s advocate (Devil’s injury lawyers 4u?), but in the interests of fairness:
1) Never had this problem in Vista.
2) Vista is just as quick to start / shut down as XP SP2 was on my PC (actually, shutdown is quicker).
4) Haven’t noticed a MS app that doesn’t obey Ctrl-S and Ctrl-P - which one?
6) Never spotted this, although that’s possibly because I bitterly hate hyperlinks in Word documents and obliterate them whenever possible.
7) The argument over how much access people should get to the files on their own PC is a long and complicated one (and I can see both sides), but I don’t mind this. If the user really wants to go to the root of the disk, it’s a click away. If they have no idea what they’re doing, maybe this will persuade them to turn around and go play Solitaire instead, and I’d say that’s a good thing.
9) Disk space is cheap, and Vista is stuffing the spare memory deliberately. Well, unless you tell it not to. So, again, I don’t really see this as a big problem - with 2GB I don’t ever suffer from Vista paging too much to disk, so it seems to find room in RAM when it’s needed.

Obviously, you’ll notice that I left a few out. The way Windows handles optical disks (8) is indeed stupid, the background print message (5) is absolutely hateful, and as for Office 2007 - the IT department will have to pry the Office 2003 toolbars from my cold, dead hands. But nonetheless - it’s easy to hate MS products because we’re exposed to them every day, and usually at work. Try Lotus Notes for a few days, and see if your viewpoint changes a little

Oh, and by the way - Nadine Baggott has been usurped by another celebrity beauty journalist. The new advert is equally horrible, although it is quite funny to see what advertising companies think a journalist’s office should look like (Terminal 5 meets Ikea).