Is Windows that difficult for the average user?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is not meant to be some kind of “Mac vs. Windows” thread. I myself am a PC/Windows user myself (actually, I’m an NT system/network admin), so I’m very comfortable with the Windows environment. It makes sense to me.

Despite the fact that I’m am admin, I really don’t think of myself as being a super-duper “computer nerd”-type person, but I’ve been able to learn everything on the fly. I have friends/neighbors/relatives who I consider to be very smart people, but most of them can’t get past the “AOL level” of competence on their PCs. Even if they are very good users of their machines, they are utterly screwed if they ever have to troubleshoot anything.

So I guess that’s my question: Is it really that difficult to use (and manage) a typical PC? I’m figuring that doing it for a living has somewhat removed my objectivity, so I wanted to float this by the Dopers.

2

I’m not familiar with the Mac interface, so I can’t make a comparison. I’m reasonably adept at Windows, but that’s only because I need to be to do the things I want to do.

Is Windows difficult? Not especially.
Could it be a lot easier (and for the same result)? You bet.
[sub]Just my $0.02[/sub]

3

No, it’s analogous to this: if you’re using notepad to write your HTML, you will never use FrontPage. Shit like Windows seems of limited functionality after, say, Unix.

4

peoples mindset … i have a aunt who despite being shown how to use a computer many times has her self convinced that if she touches it the thing will basically explode

but tons of people are convinced computers are complex things they never will be able to master despite today there basically moron proof

so in some cases its not harder people just convince them selves its hard

5

I agree with nightshadea that it is a mindset thing. Natural tinkerers will have no problems with any type of computer interface. If as a kid you took your bicycle apart, and could get it back together again, then you’d be a natural with a computer.

6

Same thing here. Most of the limitation is in willingness to experiment. For example, my mother is absolutely convinced she can’t learn to use a PC, even though she has demonstrated her ability to use it several times. My dad, however, basically yelled “whoohoo” and dove right in when they got it.

7

I agree with you and nightshadea, but let me ask this then: Should computers only be for people who have taken their bicycle apart as kids (AKA tinkerers)?

8

You don’t need to be a tinkerer to use a computer, though it helps. (Actually, one objection I have to Macs is that you can’t really tinker with it.)

And, as a new generation comes along, they’ll be less afraid of computing. My daughter isn’t fazed by error messages and other little glitches, but my wife gets very concerned about every little glitch. I’m convinced that people raised on PCs will have fewer problems dealing with them.

9

My mom’s husband never touched a computer before he met her. Their biggest fights have been when she tires to teach him anything about it.

Windows is difficult for him for the same reason that it’s easy for technical people – there are so many ways to do one thing. You want to open an explorer window? You can…right click My Computer and click Explore or, Click Start then Run then type “explorer” or, hold down the window key and hit “e” or, right click the Start menu and click Explore. It’s a very fluid interface and I think it’s hard for him to form a conception of where he is or what he’s doing.

In the DOS days it was easy; you had the filing cabinet analogy. But that just doesn’t work anymore. A directory is a folder, and a file is a piece of paper in the folder. But what’s a window or an icon? How do you explain a hyperlink? [A sticky note on the paper telling you there’s another piece of paper, in another filing cabinet, in the building across town with more information?] Unless someone is willing to accept that this is something completely different, with it’s own set of rules and conventions which you need to learn like you would learn a language, they won’t ever be comfortable with windows.

10

I don’t find Windows difficult to use, but I do find it difficult to troubleshoot.

Prior to getting my new Dell computer last October, I was using a Macintosh computer for several years. Troubleshooting that computer was a cinch. I knew exactly what everything in the System folder did, and resolving system level problems was simplicity itself. I was simply able to know more about what was going on with the Macintosh than the Windows computer.

Windows system software is a lot more cryptic to me. I’m currently trying to figure out why Age of Empires II: The Conquerors is giving me an error message related to the audio compression files, and a reinstallation does not appear to solve the problem. Followed the instructions precisely, and it doesn’t work. I never had that issue with the Macintosh. I have found another possible solution, but will have to wait until tonight to try it.

11

As far as using Windows goes, I don’t have any difficulty. I’m quite comfortable with fishing around in menus, deciphering useless online help manuals, and punching icons to see what a program can do and to look for a better/faster way of accomplishing my tasks. It boggles my mind that they have entire classes teaching people how to use, e.g., MS Word. Uh, duh? You type stuff in. If you want to do something fancy, you have to hunt around a while and just figger it out!

However, I totally freak out whenever our computer at home “breaks.” It’s utterly irrational, and I’m trying to keep it under control, but man, I just can’t handle it.

At work, I have no problems. For one thing, I use Unix, which I think is incredibly more stable and transparent to the user. Also, as far is serious computer use goes, Unix is what I cut my teeth on, so naturally I’m more comfortable with it. More importantly, there’s this really cool guy who works down the hall from me, and his entire job is fixing things when moron users like me break them, and he’s good at it. So if something isn’t working, I bang my head against it for a while, using my miniscule knowledge to try to make it right, and if I fail, then I trot off and ask for help.

So I think that part of my personal computer problem is that I don’t have someone who’ll shuffle right over and help me. My hubby and I are on our own, and that’s pretty scary. Another problem is that Windows doesn’t make much sense to me. If the manual suggests sacrificing a black chicken, turning thrice about widdershins, then rebooting, I’ll do it without blinking, 'cause that’s about as rational as some of the fixes seem to me.

Probably what I should do is devote some time to understanding how Windows works so that it’s not so foreign and strange to me, but hell, I haven’t got time for that, 'specially since I use our Windows machine basically for entertainment, not work. Probably smarter in the end to just switch over to Linux.

12

I find that, in general, performing basic tasks in Windows is not terribly difficult for the average user. People can understand clicking on the “Microsoft Word” icon on their desktop to draft a memo, or launching Netscape to surf the web. The problem comes in when they want to try to perform a non-routine task. Maybe they need to launch an infrequently used program that doesn’t happen to have a shortcut on the desktop. Perhaps they need to find a file on their hard drive.

It’s been my experience that while Windows is supposed to be intuitive, it isn’t to many. Launching programs through Start --> Programs --> (program folder) doesn’t make sense to people that are used to launching programs off the desktop icons. Finding files is painful because the user doesn’t have an intuitive understanding of file structure. The user knows that his/her document is located in the “My Documents” folder, but where is that? To many non-technical users, directories are random folders scattered about with no obvious connection.

A large part of computer proficiency in association. If you remembered that to set your printer margins in Word, you went to File --> Page Setup, you might think to try the same thing in Excel. But then again, you might also think that you’re dealing with a completely different program with completely different functionality and call up IT for help instead. I’ve seen it go both ways.

13

Windows (IME of course) seems to fry itself rather routinely. I have friends – who are employed as sysadmins – who say that when using a large number of complex applications (such as games) they reinstall windows every 6 months. They recommend, for the average user, reinstalling every 12 to 24 months since the thing tends to self-hose for no reason. Reinstalling the whole deal is just a lot simpler for the average person than trying to figure out the problem.

That is completely lame.

14

Windows is an operating system. It should be completely transparent. You shouldn’t have to deal with it unless you want to. You should never ***have *** to.

The problem is that Windows has added so much crap to their program that they can’t get it to work right. Windows 2000 is the most complicated program ever written??? It’s an operating system! It should keep track of files and hardware!!!

Also, they have kept secret parts of their source code so that other programmers can’t write programs that access it well. Only Microsoft applications programmers can access everything.

The Newell Company buys other companies and “Newellizes” them to improve efficiency and procedures. “Microsofting” seems to decrease efficiency and procedures get more complicated.

Take Access. When the bought it, and brought it out, it was a neat little program - much better than dBase, etc. The first Microsoft upgrade - 2.0 - (I am assuming that this was done by the original Access programmers with help from MS people) was pretty cool - it added some nice features and cleaned up some problems. Access 95 got bloated and overly complicated, Access 98 corrected problems from Access 95 - still bloated - Access 2000 is completely over the top - nothing really new - outrageously bloated. It’s now over 100 Megs in size and the files are all over the place - you have to delete it using a special program, you can’t just delete the folder.

15

On the contrary. I’ve seen some rather astounding things done to old macs. My current favorite is the guy who modded up an old Color Classic II (one of those “breadbox systems”) to use a G3 motherboard. Yikes.

The really trick part is finding parts for them and dreaming up creative things to do, that’s all.

16

Having taught computer neophites how to use Windows and Macs on many occassions (often both to the same subject), it’s my own objective observation that the Mac user interface is easier to learn than the Windows one. Things are a bit trickier if you’re teaching someone fluent in one UI to use the other (especially going from Windows to Mac), but for folks who don’t have any preconceived notions, Windows is a bear every time.

(And to RealityChuck: if Macs aren’t tinkerable, how come they come with that one-touch door that levers open to expose all the guts at once? I’m still waiting for a Windows PC manufacturer to come up with something comparable…)

17

Amen- our NT tech shows up pretty much daily, but it’s a rare thing if our G4 workstations need anything more complicated than Norton. Usually we don’t even need that-it’s a simple matter (usually) of moving a few extensions around.

And since trouble-shooting is something all computer users have to do, I’d say windows is a lot more difficult in that respect.

Of course, Mac OS X may change that-haven’t had a chance to mess around with it much, so I don’t really know if it will be as easy to trouble-shoot or not as OS 9x.