# Things other people do with computers that annoy the crap out of you **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 31, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697 "2012-05-31T20:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/21 "2012-05-31T21:35:50Z")
My mother uses AOL as her browser. Not just as her email, as her web browser. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/22 "2012-05-31T21:54:03Z")
Why on earth wouldn’t you maximize your windows? Why do you want distracting bullshit? My pettest of peeves is using the caps lock instead of the shift key. WTF, people? They hit the caps lock, then the letter, then the caps lock again. What is your major malfunction? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/23 "2012-05-31T22:01:44Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Why on earth wouldn’t you maximize your windows? Why do you want distracting bullshit? Because I’m doing something in one window, but I need to see information from another one, and it’s a lot easier to just have two smaller windows than constantly alt+tab between two maximized ones. With most monitors today being widescreen ones, it’s still pretty easy to have a lot of ‘content’ in a window, even if it only goes across half the screen. I mean…don’t most office-type jobs require a lot of this? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/24 "2012-05-31T22:10:31Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Touching a screen. Egads! Who wants little smeary fingerprints on a screen you stare at all day. _Never_, ever touch a screen. Only thing worse than that are the people who point at things on the screen… with a pen. I actually had to tell somebody, “If you draw on my screen, I will hurt you.” ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/25 "2012-05-31T22:11:07Z")
People who constantly talk about how great their computer is. They don’t use Windows or Linux. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/26 "2012-05-31T22:14:04Z")
“My pet peeve is: zillions of icons on the desktop. I mean geeze - haven’t you heard of folders?” Yeah, this for sure. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/27 "2012-05-31T22:17:44Z")
People who figure that larger numbers are always better, so they set their resolution to the highest possible setting, regardless of the size of their screen. So everything is tiny to the point of ridiculousness. And they don’t even compensate for this by slightly increasing the text size in the display settings. My (corrected) vision is pretty good, but unless my nose is practically touching the monitor, I can’t read shit on screens like that! Do these people have some sort of telescopic vision, or something?! I like to be able to lean back a bit. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/28 "2012-05-31T22:27:32Z")
people who talk into the mouse “Hello, computer!” ---
**Author:** ![grama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@grama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grama)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/29 "2012-05-31T22:27:51Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > People who constantly talk about how great their computer is. They don’t use Windows or Linux. bsd? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/30 "2012-05-31T22:36:40Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > people who talk into the mouse > > “Hello, computer!” A keyboard! How quaint. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/31 "2012-05-31T23:01:37Z")
It’s minor, but it always irks me when people click on the tiny down arrow on the scroll bar to scroll down a long document. Click on the scroll bar itself - it’s an easier target and it scrolls an entire screen at a time. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/32 "2012-05-31T23:17:28Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Because I’m doing something in one window, but I need to see information from another one, and it’s a lot easier to just have two smaller windows than constantly alt+tab between two maximized ones. > > With most monitors today being widescreen ones, it’s still pretty easy to have a lot of ‘content’ in a window, even if it only goes across half the screen. > > I mean…don’t most office-type jobs require a lot of this? I work with some pretty heavy duty financial spreadsheets with a lot of data, without being maximised I’d have do a lot scrolling around to get all the info I want. Luckily for my role we now have dual screens! My pet hate is actually something my wife does. She refuses to have more than one browser window open when web surfing. If I’m surfing for more than 5 minutes, I’ll invariably wind up with at least 2-3 (well tabs these days rather than new windows). But for her, one window at a time only!! 😕😃 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/33 "2012-05-31T23:21:34Z")
People on Macs who use the Red X to close the window, thinking they’ve Quit, but leave the Application running, then ask me why it’s so slow. “How many applications are running?” “None! It’s just the Desktop!” “How many icons on the Dock have a light under them?” “…I’m…not…” “Type CMD+Option+Esc and read the list to me.” "OK, hold on: iTunes Preview QuickTime Skype Quicken Citrix Entourage YoruFukuro Spotify Google Chrome PhotoShop Word Excel Safari TextEdit Firefox PowerPoint Finder" :smack: ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/34 "2012-05-31T23:55:17Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Oh YES. Also saving everything in one big folder, or worse yet, everything on your desktop. OMG! My wife saves _ **everything** _ on her desktop. She wouldn’t know the Documents folder if it jumped off the computer and bit her in the ass. I got her a separate laptop because I could not stand the thought of sharing a computer with her. There are times when the touchy-feely stuff gives way to survival! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/35 "2012-06-01T01:18:57Z")
People who don’t use the damn tab key while doing data entry. I just recently started working again and all 3 of the people I work with are tab-phobic. Type in box one, take your hand off the keyboard to use the mouse to move to the next box, put your hand back on the keyboard to type in the second box, take your hand off the keyboard to use the mouse to move to the next box… Drives me batty, it does. Of course the fact that none of them type more than 30 WPM also drives me batty and at least one of them types with 2 fingers and slowly. I don’t care if you don’t use all fingers as long as you type fast and accurately. One of them uses all fingers but spends half her time hitting backspace because she can’t tell when she’s on the right keys. She’d be better off using 2 fingers! They all think they’re faster than me because I’m new so when we’re super busy, they insist on doing my job so the customers can get out faster. They haven’t figured out yet that me being new doesn’t change the fact that I type 3-5x faster than they do with higher accuracy and I use the tab key so I move around the screen faster. So, even with them telling me what to enter, I’m still done faster than they are. I hope they figure it out soon because I’m gonna have to cut all their fingers off if they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![BowlOfDucks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BowlOfDucks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BowlOfDucks)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/36 "2012-06-01T01:34:42Z")
Browser search bars. _shudder_ Okay, I can kinda understand how somebody would use one, but two or three?!? Browsers where a third or more of the screen height is used by menus, search bars, etc. I hate browsing the web like that. It feels like trying to read a book through a letterbox. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/37 "2012-06-01T01:52:43Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > “How many icons on the Dock have a light under them?” How is it that I never noticed those lights before? That’s just, wow. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/38 "2012-06-01T02:41:31Z")
My husband, of all people,can’t enter a website name and hit CTRL-ENTER to go there. Instead, they go to Google and type in the name and search for it. Gah! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/39 "2012-06-01T02:43:10Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s minor, but it always irks me when people click on the tiny down arrow on the scroll bar to scroll down a long document. Click on the scroll bar itself - it’s an easier target and it scrolls an entire screen at a time. and: > [@congodwarf](#): > > People who don’t use the damn tab key while doing data entry. I just recently started working again and all 3 of the people I work with are tab-phobic. Note the nearby thread “[Ever been shocked at what some people don’t know?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=644820)” where posters tell of the incredibly well-known facts of life (according to somebody) that somebody somewhere doesn’t know. (There are well over 800 posts there so far.) Well, THIS thread is nothing more than a computer-user-specific version of that theme. I especially agree with the opinion that it’s painfully annoying to watch people using menus and pointing-and-clicking for sooooooo many actions that are sooooooooo much more efficiently done with the keyboard – especially in a company, like a software house, where you’d expect at least certain highly computer-savvy people to know things like that (but they don’t). But hey, we’re always learning new things (those of us whose minds are open to it), there are soooo many obscure little tricks that modern GUI user interfaces do. I think the common theme in all of the above-mentioned annoyances is that people just don’t want to be open-minded to learn all the oh-so-clever tricks that we are so eager to show them – brilliant genius super-users that we all are! :rolleyes: Why won’t those benighted heathen savages adopt our enlightened ways?! Hey, who knew that the wheel on a wheel-mouse is also a button you can click? Well, there was a time, not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away, when I didn’t know that – let alone what you could do with it. Take the example I quoted above, about various ways to scroll. (I still mostly just use the keyboard arrow keys myself.) Didja know that clicking on the mouse wheel will put any scrollable screen into smooth-scrolling mouse-gesture mode? I just learned that recently. (And I just noticed, as I type into this text box, that it does something entirely different here, but it’s not immediately obvious what.) ETA: Added the quote snippet about people not using the damn tab key. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/40 "2012-06-01T03:10:54Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Hey, who knew that the wheel on a wheel-mouse is also a button you can click? Well, there was a time, not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away, when I didn’t know that – let alone what you could do with it. Take the example I quoted above, about various ways to scroll. (I still mostly just use the keyboard arrow keys myself.) Didja know that clicking on the mouse wheel will put any scrollable screen into smooth-scrolling mouse-gesture mode? I just learned that recently. (And I just noticed, as I type into this text box, that it does something entirely different here, but it’s not immediately obvious what.) This might just blow your mind if your mouse is like mine. Not only is my mouse wheel a center mouse-button if you click it, but if you push the wheel left or right, it scrolls from side to side! (To try it, you have to be on a page/window that has something off the side of the screen to scroll to.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=3)