# 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:** 6
**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:** [June 1, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/102 "2012-06-01T23:55:23Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > Me too! I do it all the time, and I don’t know why. Is there a name for this propensity? Highlight-tosis ---
**Author:** ![dtrobson099](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@dtrobson099](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtrobson099)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/103 "2012-06-02T00:02:15Z")
Just slow users in general. I work in software engineering, so when I’m showing someone how to do something simple and they take forever to follow a simple set of instructions on the screen whilst still fully grasping complex networking concepts, it throws me a little. I always find it odd that some people can know so much about computing and yet be so slow at using them. ---
**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 2, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/104 "2012-06-02T00:39:18Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Having a name of “Deleted Items” doesn’t in any way indicate what the desired retention behavior should be for that folder. > > For your company to just assume it can be wiped out because the folder is named “Deleted” is pretty odd. Are you serious? You’ve never used a mail client? Ya know, the kind that has a “Empty Deleted Items” menu item? How dare Microsoft assume so much? It’s as if the cleaning staff at my office were to empty my garbage basket once a week. Don’t they know it’s where I keep my important documents? > [@](#): > > You’ve now just forced people to create a staging folder for things that are on their way to getting deleted so that they can properly manage the retention period and archiving behavior. These items are not on their way to be deleted, that’s the point. (If your post was meant to be ironic, then it’s funny.) ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/105 "2012-06-02T00:57:59Z")
“Oh, you work with computers? Maybe you can help, my printer won’t work anymore and I keep getting these virus warnings…” ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/106 "2012-06-02T01:43:04Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > Are you serious? You’ve never used a mail client? Ya know, the kind that has a “Empty Deleted Items” menu item? How dare Microsoft assume so much? It’s as if the cleaning staff at my office were to empty my garbage basket once a week. Don’t they know it’s where I keep my important documents? Uh, what? The point is that I choose when to empty Deleted Items - you don’t choose for me. For example, maybe I delete items from my Inbox but desire to retain them for 30 days in the Deleted items folder. Just because it’s called “Deleted Items” doesn’t mean it’s not part of MY mailbox anymore. It’s just a logical (as in not physical) place to organize things, one of many, and nobody else should be touching it - that’s an odd policy to have someone else remove things from my mailbox regardless of where I’ve placed them - (as supported by the number of complaints). > [@](#): > > These items are not on their way to be deleted, that’s the point. > > (If your post was meant to be ironic, then it’s funny.) The items are meant to be in whichever folder I placed them, and they are meant to leave those folders (by means of archiving or permanently deleting) when I say - having someone else jump is unusual (never personally seen anything like that before, but have seen forced deletion after X years to avoid litigation problems). ---
**Author:** ![dtrobson099](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@dtrobson099](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtrobson099)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/107 "2012-06-02T01:51:16Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Uh, what? > > The point is that I choose when to empty Deleted Items - you don’t choose for me. > > For example, maybe I delete items from my Inbox but desire to retain them for 30 days in the Deleted items folder. Just because it’s called “Deleted Items” doesn’t mean it’s not part of MY mailbox anymore. > > It’s just a logical (as in not physical) place to organize things, one of many, and nobody else should be touching it - that’s an odd policy to have someone else remove things from my mailbox regardless of where I’ve placed them - (as supported by the number of complaints). > > The items are meant to be in whichever folder I placed them, and they are meant to leave those folders (by means of archiving or permanently deleting) when I say - having someone else jump is unusual (never personally seen anything like that before, but have seen forced deletion after X years to avoid litigation problems). Look into AutoArchive. Your company or whatever network administrator is probably using some kind of Exchange setup, in which case your Inbox, Outbox, Litterbox and Hotbox are all actually just references to a folder on another machine. If you want to keep the files on your machine, out of reach of the network admin, you need a local copy. Even your deleted items reside in public space - it sucks, but the mail server’s admin has final say over everything in that space. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/108 "2012-06-02T01:57:28Z")
> [@dtrobson099](#): > > Look into AutoArchive. Your company or whatever network administrator is probably using some kind of Exchange setup, in which case your Inbox, Outbox, Litterbox and Hotbox are all actually just references to a folder on another machine. If you want to keep the files on your machine, out of reach of the network admin, you need a local copy. Even your deleted items reside in public space - it sucks, but the mail server’s admin has final say over everything in that space. I don’t want to keep anything on my local machine, and fortunately I work for a company that doesn’t have the strange policy of assuming they know when I want messages to permanently disappear. That’s the discussion - the other poster that gets complaints because they purge people’s Deleted Items folder - and it bugs him/her that people would complain. My point is that it’s natural and normal to complain when someone else makes assumptions and does something with items you are working with. The only thing they should do is set mailbox max size and allow each person to manage however they please (that’s the normal/standard way to do it). ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/109 "2012-06-02T02:13:34Z")
> [@dtrobson099](#): > > Even your deleted items reside in public space - it sucks, but the mail server’s admin has final say over everything in that space. Normally the mail server admin(s) don’t have final say over something like this. Neither does the CIO - it’s typically a policy decision arrived at by the business - IT supports the business requirements they don’t arbitrarily make the decisions. Once established the mail server admins better not be messing with anything outside of those established rules (the ones working for me would be fired if they did). ---
**Author:** ![dtrobson099](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@dtrobson099](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtrobson099)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/110 "2012-06-02T02:25:17Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Normally the mail server admin(s) don’t have final say over something like this. Neither does the CIO - it’s typically a policy decision arrived at by the business - IT supports the business requirements they don’t arbitrarily make the decisions. > > Once established the mail server admins better not be messing with anything outside of those established rules (the ones working for me would be fired if they did). Guess that was poor semantics on my part. The mail server admin(s) set the policies they’re told to set, all I was trying to say is that it’s out of the end user’s control. > [@RaftPeople](#): > > I don’t want to keep anything on my local machine, and fortunately I work for a company that doesn’t have the strange policy of assuming they know when I want messages to permanently disappear. I actually agree with you here… I’m accessing email from 5 or 6 different machines, through Exchange and :choke: IMAP (only option from OS X when company still uses Exchange 2003), and rather than AutoArchive I just delete away to keep my mailbox under the embarrassingly low 250MB limit. However, I’ve known AutoArchive to work for users who only access email from a single machine in their office, who don’t have work email on their phone or access to their Exchange server from home. I’ve never known of a case where purging is done automatically either, but if it’s happening, the user should know that Deleted Items is no different from their Inbox. If the server is purging things for them, the only way they’ll be safe is to get them off the server. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/111 "2012-06-02T02:47:18Z")
> [@dtrobson099](#): > > Guess that was poor semantics on my part. The mail server admin(s) set the policies they’re told to set, all I was trying to say is that it’s out of the end user’s control. Yes, true, sorry if I sounded argumentative. > [@](#): > > I actually agree with you here… I’m accessing email from 5 or 6 different machines, through Exchange and :choke: IMAP (only option from OS X when company still uses Exchange 2003), and rather than AutoArchive I just delete away to keep my mailbox under the embarrassingly low 250MB limit. However, I’ve known AutoArchive to work for users who only access email from a single machine in their office, who don’t have work email on their phone or access to their Exchange server from home. 250 is pretty low, I’ve been places where it was 500 and that required constant attention (large docs back and forth between vendors eating up space rapidly). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/112 "2012-06-02T13:22:27Z")
I have come to the conclusion that this thread has a specific answer: “doing things in other ways than yours”. I’m going to stop reading, before I get into an argument about what is the correct way to cut and paste. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > It re-loads the page. Duh. You’ll notice I said DESKTOP. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/113 "2012-06-02T13:32:49Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Naming files all\_lowercase\_with\_underscores like they did in the olden days. Careful now. Some of us have to transfer the same binary files to a bunch of OS’s. Not all of them tolerate blanks in the name (at least not well). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/114 "2012-06-02T13:51:21Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > “My pet peeve is: zillions of icons on the desktop. I mean geeze - haven’t you heard of folders?” > > Yeah, this for sure. I’ll parrot this one. When I was the director of a construction department that administered a lot of contracts, I hired this guy who seemed like he was competent. One day, the office administrator comes to me and says, “have you seen Bob’s computer desktop?” The guy had every document he ever wrote on his desktop, with no way to reference specific contracts. Even after having someone show him how to create folders, he continued to do things that way, and as a result it could take him up to an hour to find a document. My boss couldn’t figure out why her computer was dragging. Turned out, she didn’t know that you had to physically empty your “sent” box, and had six years worth of emails sitting there. People who smack the enter key as if somehow that’s making a statement of some sort. Too many movies, moron. Ah, my dear wife, who I love with all my heart, but who has to print out everything, rather than just read it on the screen. We go through reams of paper in my house because of this. Even if it’s a saved document, she wants a paper version, too. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/115 "2012-06-02T14:07:23Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > 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.” Oh, I can do one better…my boss will draw on the computer monitor with a grease pencil when she is trying to resize a job. That’s semi-okay with our old CRT monitor, but when we got a flat-screen monitor for the other engraver, I read her the riot act. She now knows better than to take grese pencil t THAT screen! Now if I could get my other coworker to power down the computer properly by closing the program then going to the start menu and choosing shut-down…instead, she turns off the power button on the monitor. I covered the button last week with a metal plate… ---
**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 2, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/116 "2012-06-02T15:02:21Z")
That reminds me of another annoyance … People who think they need to shut down their computer every single time, and that they need to watch it while it happens. You know what, if there’s a reason to be an a hurry, just let it go to sleep. It’s going to hurt it if you leave it on over night once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/117 "2012-06-02T15:36:24Z")
> [@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. You are the bane of my existence at work. I paid good money for those pixels, you had better use them all. Even if you have to learn methods for… > [@](#): > > 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. So do I, and I’m running 1920x1080 on a 23" monitor, sitting about five feet from it and I have no problem reading. Maybe you need a new eye doc. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/118 "2012-06-02T15:51:12Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > 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.) I use this all the time with my Logitech. My chief annoyance is people who use Windows. 😃 ---
**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 2, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/119 "2012-06-02T23:35:10Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > ONow if I could get my other coworker to power down the computer properly by closing the program then going to the start menu and choosing shut-down…instead, she turns off the power button on the monitor. Even though that’s not shutting it down, which perhaps she thinks it is, there’s no harm with leaving a computer on. I always left my computers on 24hrs. It’s only recently with Win7’s Sleep mode (presumably also in Vista) that I’ve started to use that instead. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/120 "2012-06-03T00:05:53Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > 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. I can keep quite a few open without affecting performance. And if I quit the application, it takes more time to get it started when I need it. I’ve got 9 open now. No biggie. I don’t like to watch then dance every time I need to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697/121 "2012-06-03T18:32:00Z")
I currently live with my mother to look after her before she moves to live with my brother (as I’m moving to the UK). We share her desktop, although since I do so much writing I probably use it more. I don’t mind going to use my laptop if she wants to check her email or make online store-orders. But it bugs the ever-living piss out of me when 1. I return to the computer and she’s closed all the windows, including the ones I was using for work when she took over the computer briefly. No matter how many times I ask her not to do this, she still closes everything. 2. She constantly deletes the desktop shortcuts for malwarebytes and superantispyware because she thinks they’re something evil 3. She opens up every fwd fwd fwd fwd x 1000 attachment her cronies send her, and I spend the next four hours cleaning shite off the harddrive 4. While she doesn’t ever use the Office suite, she has noticed sometimes that I have a lot of Word folders – these represent classwork, lectures, conference papers, grant proposals – in other words, a fuckton of work and research. She is _constantly_ telling me that I’ve got ‘too much junk’ stored in the computer and is it ok for her to delete all that stuff. (While she is pretty internet savvy, she still believes that adding more stuff to the harddrive makes the computer heavier or bulge at the sides or something.) This one comes usually when I’m overseas. Do I have everything backed up in literally no less than four places (ex harddrive, memory-sticks, online storage, and my own little netbook)? Good God, yes. 5. No power on heaven or earth can convince this woman that her online bank account and email account doesn’t just live inside her computer, and that she can access it at the house, my brother’s house 2,000 miles away, or on the other side of the planet if and when we finally tape her up in a box and ship her there out of frustration. 6. Not quite user-peeves, but she constantly bugs me to let her use my Skype account (no), my Amazon account (no), and my ebay account (Oh, God, hell no.) No, she cannot have my passwords. No, she cannot read my emails. 7. When the computer wakes back up after going to sleep, you might have to wait about 30 seconds for the internet connection to sort itself out. Because she can’t instantly get to QVC within nanoseconds of waking up the computer, she calls me to tell me the computer is ‘broken’ again. I realise she’s 83 and time is of the essence, but 30 seconds isn’t asking too much of her patience. There’s so much more, but I can feel my heart rate reaching hummingbird speeds, so I’ll leave it at that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-other-people-do-with-computers-that-annoy-the-crap-out-of-you/623697.md?page=7)