You can make a shortcut directly to Device Manger - just point it to devmgmt.msc
You can do this with various other Windows thingies that you usually have to click a bunch of things to get to. But good luck finding what filename to use.
Likewise, you can go straight to most Control Panel applets. Looks for files named *.cpl or *.msc in \windows\system32. You can run them straight from a command line, from a shortcut etc. Some do have non-obvious names, it’s true. wscui.cpl is Windows Security Center User Interface, for example.
OS X:
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It cannot move files in one step between drives using just the mouse or mouse+one key. There is no “Cut” on the Finder menu. Really. *
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Occasionally the OS gets wonky and you have to delete “plist” files, but there’s no documentation so you can determine when to do it and which plist file to get rid of. Thank goodness for Applecare.
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It cannot handle DVD’s in multiple drives. The first one loaded is the only one it will play. Once it’s ejected, the other drive usually can be played. Multimedia computer? Pah!
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The Keyboard Shortcuts in menus uses labels that don’t exist on my keyboard. **
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The vaunted Spotlight won’t search system folders. This isn’t documented anywhere nor do most Applecare people know this.
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Firewire 800 support is sketchy at best. ***
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It throws icons all over the desktop for removable drives and downloaded files. Plug in a camera flash card? It ain’t necessarily going to be near any other icon on the desktop. It could be hiding all the way to the left of the desktop. Who knows how it decides the icon placement.
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For program icons on the Dock, the “program running” icon is a small, faded, 3-dimensional ball in the reflection of the program icon. That’s it. I found out about this on my tenth or fifteenth call to Applecare. Neither the color nor size can be changed.
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It won’t dim the screen enough to enable proper matching of screen image to printed output. I had to download a utility to do this. Guh?
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It doesn’t allow changes in “ballistics” on Bluetooth mice.
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It doesn’t really support Bluetooth speakers well.
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It can’t pass line input audio to speakers or headphone jack. Again, I had to download a program to do this.
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Quick Look doesn’t preview photo files in file name order or any other order I can figure out.
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Quick Look doesn’t default to Index View when multiple files are selected.
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Quick Look disappears when you click anywhere outside the Quick Look screen.
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There’s no documentation on how to blank the internal iMac screen. There’s no menu option. It’s a multi-fingered keyboard shortuct. I stumbled across it on a non-Apple website.
These are in addition to what everyone else has noted about OS X. There’s more but I’ve got to get to bed. Count me as not an Apple Fanboy.
- You can choose all the files, then Copy X Items from the menu, then navigate to the destination and choose Paste Items from the menu, then return to the origination to manually move the files to the Trash. You could also open both the origination and destination locations, select all but one of the files in the origination, hold the Command key+left mouse click on the remaining file and drag it all to the destination. I have up to 5 hard drives attached to this iMac and a couple camera flash card readers. This little flaw isn’t helping me enjoy this machine.
** Take a look at the Force Quit on the Apple Menu. The first and third keystrokes do not appear on my genuine Apple US keyboards, wired and wireless. After calling Applecare (best investment I made with this computer), I found out the first key is the Option key. Then, dammit, why not print it on the US keyboard like you do on the international keyboards and older US keyboards, Apple?
*** Right now one of my Firewire 800 drives isn’t being recognized. Rebooting doesn’t fix it. First, I have to power off the computer, unplug the computer and drives from wall power, and unplug all Firewire 800 devices’ data cable from the computer. A few minutes later, plug the computer into wall power, power on the computer while holding down 4 keys simultaneously until the machine “chongs” twice, then power down. Plug the Firewire 800 devices into wall power, plug the data cable back into the computer, then power on the computer while crossing fingers. Ugh.
It can be. It’s just (as I mentioned in my complaint) needlessly difficult. Go here to download some bigger, brighter indicators. The same site explains how to install them.
Randy, at this point I’m sucking it up. I’ve already decided that when this machine dies or next year, whichever comes first, I’m moving to a different platform. I may revert to XP or leap forward to Windows 7 or take the lateral move to Linux. I can’t believe an OS that’s had 5 major revisions over almost a decade still doesn’t have the Cut command in the Finder/Explorer. [shakes head, walking away]
Nothing makes me flash white hot anger more quickly than the breathy, echoey few orchestral notes that play when WinXP starts up. Every time, they are shouting in my face Microsoft’s belief that they have nothing better to work on than this foolishness, because their product does what the docs say it does. This is like the police dancing around a Maypole all day every day in the belief that there is no crime anywhere.
I for one am just gratified to hear Mac users admit that there’s anything less than Garden-of-Eden perfect about their precious little unibutton operating system. 
Knead, I think I’ve been informally banned from a few Mac stores. I wonder why? To show I’m an equal opportunity crank…
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Linux (Fedora specifically): Why is it so freaking hard to download an rpm package and install it manually? My netbook runs Linux. I have to “reformat” it periodically because I do stupid stuff. On the other OS platforms I download the install files and keep them on an external drive so that I can reinstall them quickly after an OS reformat. Not so on this Linux. Some dependencies aren’t noted, some things require strange command line syntax to install, icon files often have to be manually, um, whatever, to get them visible.
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All dialog boxes don’t resize for the screen resolution. The netbook’s screen is wide but not very tall. Linpus/Fedora has a few system dialog boxes that extend below the bottom of the screen. What’s down there? The secret of Ben Stiller’s popularity?
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Having the Trash Bin on the desktop prevents USB drives from auto-mounting. Whaaaaa?
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Putting the machine to sleep disconnects all network connections and mounted external drives. Sorta defeats the purpose of coming back online quickly.
One day when I have the time, I’ll tackle putting a completely different distro on the netbook but it’s pretty low on the list for a machine I don’t use very often.
See if this works (I haven’t verified it myself, just did a little poking around):
1 - Open the Control Panel.
2 - Open the “Sounds and Audio Devices” applet.
3 - Click the “Sounds” tab.
4 - In the “Program events” list, click the “Start Windows” item.
5 - In the “Sounds” dropdown, select “(None)”