# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/41 "2012-06-01T04:34:35Z")
[This video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa9DLxDtPtc) suits this thread very well. ---
**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, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/42 "2012-06-01T06:23:54Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > 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.) Doesn’t seem to work here. I think the mouse itself physically doesn’t do that. Maybe if I had the right mouse, my system (older Linux box) and browser (older Firefox version) might handle it. (ETA: But I’ve heard of this from others before.) But if I center-click (on the wheel) on a page that scrolls horizontally as well as vertically, it goes into mouse-gesture-mode that works in all directions – by moving the mouse a short distance in any direction out of the little circle, the window can scroll smoothly in any direction, including diagonally. (Still, as it so happens, I’m a keyboard person mostly, so I hardly use the mouse for things much. And yes, I know, THAT annoys some people!) ETA – Maybe I’ll play with this smooth scrolling more – I can get it to scroll continuously at any speed I wish, so I can get it to scroll at whatever speed I can keep up with reading the text, and then do completely hands-off reading! ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/43 "2012-06-01T06:26:55Z")
> [@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. YES Have you seen people who right-click on the desktop and click “refresh” repeatedly? What’s that supposed to do? ---
**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, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/45 "2012-06-01T07:03:22Z")
reported ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/46 "2012-06-01T07:11:52Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > For me that number is a bit higher (14,858). Doesn’t bother me at all. Yup - once it’s marked as ‘read’ and has fallen off the bottom of the screen, it’s as ‘filed’ as it needs to be. I don’t have the time or inclination to dick around sorting emails into little boxes - and the trouble with creating categorised folders to file everything away is that, invariably, cases will arise for which the correct filing category is either ambiguous or nonexistent, and more time and effort is wasted _handling something you’re already done with_. My emails are filed by strict date order, below the bottom of the page - and if I want to find one of them, I only have to tell my mail client to search for it. ---
**Author:** ![MetroGnome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e7dd6/32.png) [@MetroGnome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetroGnome)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/47 "2012-06-01T08:42:56Z")
Mac users who don’t know where their actual files are. They think all their photos are in iPhoto, all documents are in Word, all mp3s in iTunes, etc, and open the programs first to manage the files. For example, when copying photos to a flash drive, they open iPhoto, search by date, open the image, and do a “save as” for each and every photo. When I find the actual folder containing the documents and show them how to drag and drop, they are surprised and have a hard time believing it’s so easy and intuitive :(. I thought that was the whole point of Macs. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/48 "2012-06-01T09:41:31Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > 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. This was a very good point back in the days of huge CRT monitors, but with modern LCDs all screens have a native resolution that it is always recommended to run at as, frankly, it looks like shit in any other resolution as approximations and processing on the pixels has to be performed rather than showing how things are actually supposed to look. MY personally one is Mac users that set the corners of the screen as Exposé hotspots. Trying to point at something in the corner of a webpage and suddenly all my windows minimise? Lovely. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/49 "2012-06-01T09:43:37Z")
> [@MetroGnome](#): > > Mac users who don’t know where their actual files are. They think all their photos are in iPhoto, all documents are in Word, all mp3s in iTunes, etc, and open the programs first to manage the files. For example, when copying photos to a flash drive, they open iPhoto, search by date, open the image, and do a “save as” for each and every photo. > > When I find the actual folder containing the documents and show them how to drag and drop, they are surprised and have a hard time believing it’s so easy and intuitive :(. I thought that was the whole point of Macs. I don’t have a Mac here to check, but IIRC with certain programs, like the iPhoto you used as an example, the actual files ARE hidden from the user by default. They are stored in an iPhoto library that is actually a package. You can see the files contained within by right clicking and choosing “Show Package Contents”, but you can’t browse to it like you would with ordinary folders. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/50 "2012-06-01T09:57:59Z")
People who say they are having a problem with “Windows” or “Microsoft” when it’s actually a component of Office that’s playing up. People who say “2010” when you ask them what version of Windows they’re running. Plus variations on the theme. To people with screens full of icons: [USE THIS FREE TOOL](http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/) (Windows Fences) Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/51 "2012-06-01T10:06:57Z")
> [@SunSandSuffering](#): > > [USE THIS FREE TOOL](http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/) (Windows Fences) Thanks. That looks absolutely rubbish and pointless. Hell, I’d class that as “Things other people do with computers that annoy the crap out of you”. Running crap like that. ---
**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 1, 2012, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/52 "2012-06-01T10:48:39Z")
I have a friend who, whenever he sends me an image, puts it in a Word file first. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/53 "2012-06-01T11:07:09Z")
Whenever someone hooks their laptop to a projector I’m always surprised by how many desktop shortcuts they have and how they are randomly arranged around the screen. On my own PC, once I get to about 5 columns of 12 shortcuts, I want to start culling the ones that aren’t getting used. It would really irk me to have a desktop where I couldn’t quickly see a shortcut if I forgot where it was / didn’t have a shortcut key. > [@freckafree](#): > > People who don’t learn the keystroke shortcuts for common actions, like cut and paste. Instead, they slooooooowly navigate to the menu bar then slooooooowly scroll through the drop-down menu to “Cut.” Then they place their cursor and do it all again to paste. GAH! I have to say I have my own one of this: in Visual Studio, to build a solution (a very common task), you can just press F7. Somewhere down the line though, I learned the alternative keypress Shift + Ctrl + B, and it’s stuck. It seems to wind people up to see me use 3 keys where 1 would suffice (although, as I type this out I’m wondering whether it’s really faster to find the function key than those 3 keys which are much closer to where my hands normally rest…) ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/54 "2012-06-01T12:08:38Z")
Me, it’s the “Apply” + “OK” sequence. Often accompanied by a verbal “Oh yeah, I’ll press Apply first, otherwise it won’t really do it”. (I have to say that some nitwit, 12 years ago, programmed one of our own utilities so that it really would behave this way. So some of my coworkers can be somewhat excused for believing that Apply+OK is necessary.) I agree with **Senegoid** that it’s normal not to know everything. I’ve been a programmer for 25 years, I’ve lived on DOS and Unix, I have Windows, Mac and Android computers, and much of the stuff mentioned in this thread is unknown to me. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/55 "2012-06-01T12:26:41Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I don’t have a Mac here to check, but IIRC with certain programs, like the iPhoto you used as an example, the actual files ARE hidden from the user by default. They are stored in an iPhoto library that is actually a package. You can see the files contained within by right clicking and choosing “Show Package Contents”, but you can’t browse to it like you would with ordinary folders. You are correct. And this has been changed in more recent versions of iPhoto, but it used to be the files were organized in a very convoluted way; photos were separated by year, then month, then date, then “session,” each in their own nested folder, making finding a specific file almost impossible if you had a lot of photos. Thankfully they are now organized just by year and “event.” Speaking of Macs, something that annoys me to no end is people who, similar to the “no keyboard shortcuts” thing (and likely the same people), refuse to use the trackpad gestures. Granted, I don’t use a lot of them myself, but the most convenient one is scrolling by using 2 fingers. It’s so simple! They know of it, because I tell them every time I see them moving the cursor over to the scroll bar and clicking on the tiny little scroll arrows, they just don’t do it. ---
**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 1, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/56 "2012-06-01T13:14:31Z")
> [@MetroGnome](#): > > Mac users who don’t know where their actual files are. Mac users may be the worst, but Microsoft has been playing catchup in this department in the race to obscuration of vital components. Most users haven’t a clue as to the [del]directory[/del] folder structure, and this is the root (no pun intended) of many problems. Q: Where did you save the file? A: In Word. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/57 "2012-06-01T13:31:09Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > People who don’t learn the keystroke shortcuts for common actions, like cut and paste. Instead, they slooooooowly navigate to the menu bar then slooooooowly scroll through the drop-down menu to “Cut.” Then they place their cursor and do it all again to paste. GAH! And you know what? They’d be equally slow if they used the keyboard shortcuts. Because you can do edit-cut/copy and edit-paste in a fraction of a second anyway; whether or not it’s faster than CTRL-X/C and CTRL-V depends on where your hands are. They’re doing it slow because _they’re_ slow, not because the _operation_ is slow. Hell, if you’ve just highlighted some text to copy or cut, one hand is _already_ on your mouse, so it’s not like it’s going to slow you down much to do it by mouse. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/58 "2012-06-01T14:28:59Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > YES > > Have you seen people who right-click on the desktop and click “refresh” repeatedly? What’s that supposed to do? It re-loads the page. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/59 "2012-06-01T14:38:51Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Speaking of Macs, something that annoys me to no end is people who, similar to the “no keyboard shortcuts” thing (and likely the same people), refuse to use the trackpad gestures. Granted, I don’t use a lot of them myself, but the most convenient one is scrolling by using 2 fingers. It’s so simple! They know of it, because I tell them every time I see them moving the cursor over to the scroll bar and clicking on the tiny little scroll arrows, they just don’t do it. Personally I can’t stand gestures full stop, but with the trackpad ones I hate the trackpad even more. First thing I do is a plug a mouse into a laptop if possible. As such me using a trackpad full stop is very rare, so remembering a trackpad gesture that annoys me anyway: highly unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/60 "2012-06-01T14:41:07Z")
Number one peeve: People who put two spaces after a period. You’re not using a typewriter – cut it out! > [@bouv](#): > > 1. Having your laptop automatically go to sleep when you close the lid. Isn’t this an overheating issue? > [@](#): > > 1. Leaving unread emails in your inbox, trash, etc… > > … > > Even emails I have no desire or need to read I’ll scroll over so they become read, even if I’m going to delete them…because having a blue (12) next to my deleted folder is just as annoying! Who the fuck cares if there are unread messages in my trash? They’re going to get dumped eventually anyway. > [@corkboard](#): > > It infuriates me how he always double-clicks hyperlinks. It’s irrational, I know, but it really bugs the hell out of me. Yeah, this bugs me too. > [@tdn](#): > > People that maximize every window. Go back to DOS, you luddites! What the hell are you talking about? I want to use the maximum visual space for whatever task I’m doing. So I maximize everything. And I don’t want to see clutter from things I’m not dealing with at the moment. > [@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? You’re joking, right? Different jobs require different things. If I _need_ to see two screens at once, I’ll set them up that way. Otherwise I’ll maximize everything. > [@freckafree](#): > > People who don’t learn the keystroke shortcuts for common actions, like cut and paste. Oh, god. My boss uses the freaking _menu_ to do a “find on screen” instead of using Ctrl-F! Gaaah! > [@Ethilrist](#): > > I’ve had techs get PISSED at me because I set the four apps I always need to launch whenever I start the computer. Sorry, dude, but that’s what you guys gave me the computer for… Techs are nuts. They keep telling me not to do things that my computer clearly was set up to do. > [@Shoeless](#): > > There is one woman at work who has her folder options set to open every folder in a new window. I do that. I don’t like the “browser” style way of handling the folders on my desktop. I want a new window for each folder. > [@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. Better yet, why not use the arrow keys or “Page Up” and “Page Down”? > [@GreedySmurf](#): > > My pet hate is actually something my wife does. My wife does a lot of crazy things. Like refusing to update any software because she _just doesn’t like changes of any kind_. And refusing to let Itunes and Iphoto back up everything on the Iphone and Ipad. > [@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. Since my mouse-wheel doesn’t seem to work on more than half the applications/websites I use, I’ve basically forgotten it exists. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/61 "2012-06-01T15:24:18Z")
If recordset.BOF or recordset.EOF then Why? If BOF is true, then so is EOF. You only need to check one. (This is for empty recordsets only.) Garrrrr! Og smash! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=4)