# Other people's annoying computer habits **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590 "2009-06-12T19:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/101 "2009-06-19T03:16:17Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > “Are you trying to open it in Word?” :rolleyes: I had this guy using file - open in word to open excel files. Initially, I was somewhat confused about what was going on. See, the utter stupidity of what he was doing blinded me and I couldn’t understand why I could open it on my computer, but he couldn’t. Then it hit me. This guy was an idiot (which explains why he is so high up in the company). After that it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was doing wrong. I had to bite my tongue when he told me that he always opened files this way. I did tell him that he had never been able to do this as it was impossible to be done. Maybe he normally was in excel and opened excel files, but not from word he didn’t. I might have been a little assertive with him, but I ain’t the help desk and if he wants nice he can call them. ---
**Author:** ![Casserole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Casserole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casserole)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/102 "2009-06-19T04:13:02Z")
> [@Black\_Sunshine](#): > > Also, my boss who if, while typing a document, realizes she made a typo, will move the cursor to right before the error, then re-type the WHOLE THING, sort of editing what she’d previously typed, as she goes. By the time she’s done with a one-page document, there’s two pages of this weird stream-of-consciouness mishmash down at the bottom. You may want to introduce your boss to the insert key. It seems as though she was raised on computer systems with this sort of setting as off, so characters are overwritten if the cursor was on top. > [@Arglefraster](#): > > Me: What happens when you try to print? > Them: It doesn’t work. > Me: Do you get an error message? > Them: Yes. > Me: What does the error message say? > Them: It doesn’t work. > Me: Do you print by hitting the “Print” icon, or by going to File - Print and choosing your printer from the list? > Them: I’m printing like I always do. Oh boy, does this bother me so! A friend of mine keeps reminding me that she’s the most tech-savvy person in her family, and that I shouldn’t sugar coat things for her when teaching her how to fix errors… but then when she _does_ have a problem, she’ll suddenly be so very vague, that I won’t have any clue what’s wrong. Me: “Did you try changing the resolution?” Her: “No, but I didn’t touch it, so that can’t the reason why.” Me: “Go to the display properties, what is the resolution?” Her: “It’s in the middle.” Me: “:smack: That doesn’t mean anything. What’s the number?” Her: “1024x768.” Me: “Does that work with your monitor?” Her: “Maybe?” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/103 "2009-06-19T08:38:45Z")
People who type into a webpage field and HAVE to click the Enter or Go or Submit button or Arrow button or whatever it is, instead of pressing Enter on the keyboard. I also hate it when people mis name hardware. “I plug mah power cable into my CPU” Really? You took the case off and ran the AC power cable through the heat sink onto the Central Processing unit? or “MY hard drive won’t cut on”. Then there was a woman that insisted her printer was plugged into an external hard drive, THEN a USB cable went into her computer. Yea the ‘external hard drive’ was actually the tower, the ‘USB’ cord was just the video cable to the monitor. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > In a row? I just laughed out loud in a silent room at work. Thanks a lot! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/104 "2009-06-19T11:56:54Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > I also hate it when people mis name hardware. “I plug mah power cable into my CPU” Really? You took the case off and ran the AC power cable through the heat sink onto the Central Processing unit? But to be fair, “CPU” is dual-use now. In fact, we were using “CPU” in the late 70’s to refer to the case that holds the processor (and probably earlier than that). This stems from the fact that before there were microcomputers (from which our current generation of PC’s are derived), there were also minicomputers and mainframes, wherein the “CPU” wasn’t a single integrated circuit as it is today (microprocessor). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/105 "2009-06-19T12:14:03Z")
> [@Black\_Sunshine](#): > > shorfilnamsthbugmejun.doc > > Translation: Some people in my office learned to use computers a VERY long time ago, when there were more restrictions on file names. I’ve tried to tell them that you can use spaces, capital letters, etc., and that you have more characters to work with, so you can give your files names that do what names are supposed to do. OTOH, there are those who insist on a long list of the file contents as part of the file name: “Betty and Tom’s birthday party at Bob’s house last week where Jane danced the frug.jpg”. Since CD directories have limits on name length shorter than hard drives, this can present problems when backing up, and it makes wild card searches impossible. If you know that wild cards can be used, maybe you will use similar file names for similar files. Think ahead…you might need to find that file sometime in the future, and how would it best be named for that purpose? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/106 "2009-06-19T15:23:48Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > OTOH, there are those who insist on a long list of the file contents as part of the file name: “Betty and Tom’s birthday party at Bob’s house last week where Jane danced the frug.jpg”. Since CD directories have limits on name length shorter than hard drives, this can present problems when backing up, and it makes wild card searches impossible. While in (modern) Windows filenames can be up to to 255 characters, that’s also the maximum file _path_ as well. By time you waste all of the characters in C:\Documents and Settings\balthisar\My Documents\Suppliers\Visteon\MY2013\Quotes, you don’t have a lot of room left for huge, descriptive file names. Sure, the name can still be up to 255 chactacters, but most of your applications won’t be able to open them! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/107 "2009-06-20T02:17:19Z")
Hours ago my boss called me. He had just been creating a new Word document, typed I-don’t-know-how-much stuff, then closed Word, and when it asked if he wanted to save it he accidentally said “no.” He called me to ask how to recover it, because I had recovered various crashed Word documents for him before. When I told him that a document that was never saved after a normal exit has no recovery information, he almost acted like it was my fault. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/108 "2009-06-20T02:19:33Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Since CD directories have limits on name length shorter than hard drives… Never knew that. Just today I wrote a directory to a CD using XP’s built-in CD writing, and couldn’t figure out why some file names had been truncated, leaving longer file names alone. I guess the full path was longer. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/109 "2009-06-20T02:39:57Z")
Wasn’t there a period after Microsoft first introduced “long filenames” in Windows where, in reality, there was the “long” filename that you saw in Windows Explorer, and then there was a truncated 8.3 filename that Windows itself used for actually keeping track of things? And if you burned your long-filenamed files to a CD, they’d show up on the CD with the 8.3 name? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/110 "2009-06-20T02:54:23Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > **Screen-touchers.** > > By all means, drop by my cubicle to show me that one thing you were talking about earlier. I’ll pull up the web page, or spreadsheet, or source code, or trend plot, or whatever it is, and we can look at the problem together. Nice to see you by the way. How are the kids? > > Ah yes, I think I understand now. The new combobulator script must be miscalculating the — but which values is it supposed to — _Aaaaah! Aaaaaah! AAAAH! You’re touching my screen! You’re touching my screen! You’re getting your fat, greasy fingerprints all over my screen, you clodhopper! Stop it! Do your pointing with a goddamn pencil or something! What is wrong with you?! AAAAH!_ I’m very non-confrontational/passive-aggressive, but that’s one of the few things I’ll actively call people out on. Touching my screen (especially now that I have a ‘glossy’ one), oh, and that goes for the windshield in my car also. The other thing, if you REALLY have to use my computer, PLEASE minimize windows that you need out of the way, you really don’t have to close all my applications. That goes double if you’re using one of my older, slower computers. We keep QuickBooks and Print Shop open all the time for a reason, they take a few minutes to get loaded up. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/111 "2009-06-20T02:57:56Z")
> [@ghardester](#): > > Got a wireless router? Where should the code be? Well, taped right to the bottom of course. My parents had been having a problem for years with their router locking up. I finally decided to take a look. Turns out my brother, the physicist, taped the password info to the TOP of the router, right over all the little vent holes, as soon as I moved the paper, the problems disappeared. Upon my parents relaying this to him, he got HIS router to stop locking up also. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/112 "2009-06-20T03:00:09Z")
One more. My parents, for the life of them, absolutely cannot grasp that AOL isn’t ‘the internet.’ I’ve gotten them to use IE and firefox. Even showed them how to check their AOL email via the web. They’ll even do it that way for a little while. Then the next day I’ll see AOL running again and them complaining that the computer is running slow. They just don’t get it. To give them a little credit, like many people, AOL/Prodigy/ExecPC etc was, for all intents and purposes, the internet during the days of dial-up, they just can’t break the habit. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/113 "2009-06-20T03:05:40Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Wasn’t there a period after Microsoft first introduced “long filenames” in Windows where, in reality, there was the “long” filename that you saw in Windows Explorer, and then there was a truncated 8.3 filename that Windows itself used for actually keeping track of things? And if you burned your long-filenamed files to a CD, they’d show up on the CD with the 8.3 name? Wanna now how to fubar your system. After Windows introduced long filenames, I ran _something_. Can’t remember what it was, but something that would check the entire hard drive, something along the lines of a defragger. Whatever it was, it didn’t understand long file names and started truncating everything with the ~1. That. was. a. mess. I had to rename all the files. Luckily I caught it early, that it wasn’t too many and I spent enough time messing around with computers that I figured out most of them. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/114 "2009-06-21T03:38:13Z")
My 17 year old has been taught very thoroughly by the school system to never use Wikipedia for anything. It’s a horrible source that can’t be trusted in any way, she says. She gets very upset when she catches me on it for any reason. But guess what she does when she wants to know something and Wikipedia seems to be the only answer? She just goes to Ask Yahoo… ---
**Author:** ![Casserole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Casserole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casserole)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/115 "2009-06-21T04:22:19Z")
> [@RachelChristine](#): > > My 17 year old has been taught very thoroughly by the school system to never use Wikipedia for anything. For a scholarly work, I wholeheartedly agree… but when settling a bar bet? You bet I’m going to Wikipedia. In fact, when searching for general information online, chances are, I’d check wikipedia first, then google. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/116 "2009-06-21T13:54:25Z")
> [@RachelChristine](#): > > But guess what she does when she wants to know something and Wikipedia seems to be the only answer? She just goes to Ask Yahoo… Ask Yahoo??? She might as well use the YouTube comments section. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/117 "2009-06-21T16:45:06Z")
> [@Casserole](#): > > For a scholarly work, I wholeheartedly agree… but when settling a bar bet? You bet I’m going to Wikipedia. > > In fact, when searching for general information online, chances are, I’d check wikipedia first, then google. Actually, that reminds me. Going to Wikipedia and Google for absolutely everything, without considering what the most useful reference to answer your question would be. I recall a thread either here or a similar message board where someone started an OP looking for a secondary or ternary meaning of a word, but all the google and wikipedia results they could find regarded the primary definition. The answer was, of course, in the dictionary ([dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), [m-w.com](http://m-w.com), etc, take your pick) which they did not think of consulting. (edit: before anyone points it out, yes, it is possible to do this in Google using the “define:” function.) ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/118 "2009-06-21T18:36:33Z")
Me, at my sister’s house: “Hey, when did you switch to Telus as a service provider?” Her: “I didn’t” Me: “Well what’s that over there, isn’t that a Telus modem?” Her: “Yea, but that’s Wayne’s (her husband).” Me: “I don’t get it.” Her: “Telus offered a new (crappy) laptop to any new subscribers, so Wayne got set up because he needed a new laptop.” Me: “Uh, ok, so you cancelled your old account with Shaw, I assume?” Her: “No, we’re still hooked up with them. That’s what I said before.” Me: “Wait a minute, you’re using both Shaw and Telus as service providers at the same time?” Her: “I’m not. I use Shaw and Wayne uses Telus.” Me: “Why don’t you both use Telus? You do know that you can use more than one computer per account, right? Get rid of Shaw.” Her: “Well, I don’t like Telus. _I don’t trust them_.” _Checks over shoulder for approaching black helicopter_ Me: 😕 … “What does Wayne think of all this?” Her: “Oh, he doesn’t know I’m still hooked up to Shaw.” Me: “He hasn’t noticed the two plastic boxes full of blinking lights next your computer?” Her: “No.” Me: 😕 * * * Most everyone I know: “Hey, there’s something wrong with my computer.” Me: What’s wrong with it?" Them: “It’s really slow and it crashes all the time and it locks up and it won’t play my MP3s and it puked on the carpet.” Me: “When was the last time you defragged?” Them: “What’s that?” Me: “…updated your virus definitions and ran a scan?” Them: “Uhhh…” Me: “Which firewall are you using?” Them: “I dunno” Me: “When was the last time you ran Windows Updates?” Them: “I’ve never done that.” Me: “Spyware, what are you using to fight spyware?” Them: “I don’t use anything.” Me: “When was the last time you reinstalled the operating system? Have you ever? Do you know what I’m talking about?” Them: “Not really.” Me: “How old is this computer?” Them: “Three years.” Me: “Didn’t we go over this? Didn’t I say that you had to take care of your computer and explain how to do it?” Them: “Well, I didn’t think I _had_ to do it.” Me: “No, I will not fix your computer.” * * * Or when I finally cave and offer to reinstall the OS to give them a fresh start: “Ok, so you realize that E V E R Y T H I N G will be erased. right? Nothing will be saved, right? You understand this? So you’ve backed up all your photos and emails and everything personal that you hold dear? Think of everything you do on your computer. Think of all the things you use. All of those things will be gone. Have you saved them elsewhere so we can put them back? If not they’ll be gone forever. You understand this, right?” Them, giving me the eye-roll of the century: “YES. You told me! I did it. Geez!” Me: “Ok then. Here goes.” _Some time later, when all is said and done…_ “Hey! Where are my bookmarks?!?!? WHERE ARE MY PICTURES???!!!?!?!?!?!!” Me: “You do, of course, realize that you are a complete idiot, right?” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/119 "2009-06-21T21:13:33Z")
Shamozzle, WRT all three of your examples, maybe you could explore the possibility of reinstalling the _user_. I mean, the OS didn’t do anything to deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590/120 "2009-06-22T00:48:40Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > Me: “When was the last time you defragged?” Defragging is overrated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-peoples-annoying-computer-habits/499590.md?page=7)