# What are your computing bad habits? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226 "2009-04-24T15:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/1 "2009-04-24T15:41:31Z")
(Other that wasting time on message boards when you should be writing employee reviews. Yes, it is that time of year.) For me it’s the Recycle Bin. I used to have a horribly stupid habit of sending an file to the Bin and then immediately going to the Bin empty it. This is, obviously, pointless, as the Bin will slowly ditch its contents after it reaches a certain percentage of your hard disk space, and you can control that amount; and also because as you can set Windows to bypass the Bin entirely anyway. Moreover, that old habit of mine defeats the purpose of the Bin, which is to allow the user to easily retrieve a file which has proven needful after being deleted. But the Bin being full that way just looks untidy, and I am compulsive about that sort of thing. I am forever reminding myself not to empty the Bin for no good reason. Anyway,that’s me. What are your bad computer habits? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/2 "2009-04-24T15:46:30Z")
Saving everything directly to the C: Drive instead of placing it in folders for the sake of organization. I console myself by saying I’m better than my wife who saves everything directly to the desktop. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/3 "2009-04-24T15:48:43Z")
My posture…I slump over my RL desktop and get too close to the screen… ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/4 "2009-04-24T15:49:38Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > (Other that wasting time on message boards when you should be writing employee reviews. Yes, it is that time of year.) > > For me it’s the Recycle Bin. I used to have a horribly stupid habit of sending an file to the Bin and then immediately going to the Bin empty it. This is, obviously, pointless, as the Bin will slowly ditch its contents after it reaches a certain percentage of your hard disk space, and you can control that amount; and also because as you can set Windows to bypass the Bin entirely anyway. Moreover, that old habit of mine defeats the purpose of the Bin, which is to allow the user to easily retrieve a file which has proven needful after being deleted. > > But the Bin being full that way just looks untidy, and I am compulsive about that sort of thing. I am forever reminding myself not to empty the Bin for no good reason. > > Anyway,that’s me. What are your bad computer habits? I seem to share your compulsion, seeing as I always permanently delete stuff using shift+del – I too can’t stand having stuff in the recycle bin. It just seems the ‘proper’ way to do things to me. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/5 "2009-04-24T15:49:48Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Saving everything directly to the C: Drive instead of placing it in folders for the sake of organization. I console myself by saying I’m better than my wife who saves everything directly to the desktop. I have the reverse issue. Being compulsive, I spend way too much time not merely making sure I put everything in the appropriate folder, but also appending pointless tags. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/6 "2009-04-24T15:53:10Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I seem to share your compulsion, seeing as I always permanently delete stuff using shift+del – I too can’t stand having stuff in the recycle bin. It just seems the ‘proper’ way to do things to me. I have managed to get around this by hiding all desktop icons, which looks neater anyway. It still bothers me knowing that the unemptied bin is sitting there, invisibly mocking me, but the urge to empty it is manageable until I actually see it. The solution here, of course, is to use a naked picture of Natalie Portman as desktop wallpaper. Obviously I’m not going to clutter up THAT with silly icons. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/7 "2009-04-24T15:58:05Z")
Backups. I tend to spot-backup certain things - throw a folder over on another computer, or copy it to a DVD every few months, or email myself an important file through my gmail account so it lives there forever. I should have ongoing daily backups. I know it; I worked for years at a software company who published one of the major backup applications in use today. I know how backup software works, I know the right theories & methods of backup up, I have no excuses. Part of me looks at hard drive crashes as a forced spring cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/8 "2009-04-24T16:03:08Z")
Oh! I’m bad about backups too (better than some though, at least I do them occasionally). I do them scrupulously at work, daily, hourly, onsite, offsite, but I got a message on my home machine saying I hadn’t backed up my machine in 200 days or something. You see, about 100 days ago I took apart my home backup drive for something, and haven’t exactly gotten around to assembling it again. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/9 "2009-04-24T16:30:10Z")
I tend to ignore my chiropractor’s advice to get up from computing every 20-30 minutes and stretch. And then I pay for it later. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/10 "2009-04-24T16:59:33Z")
I constantly click the screen and highlight things at random when I’m reading. I mean, _constantly_. I hardly notice myself doing it\*, but it drives people reading over my shoulder crazy. I suspect it’s a symptom of my undiagnosed ADD. - Excapt when reading the New York Times. The bastards. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/11 "2009-04-24T17:05:44Z")
Whoa, **Alessan** , I thought I was the only one who did that! ---
**Author:** ![Alastair\_Moonsong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@Alastair\_Moonsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alastair_Moonsong)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/12 "2009-04-24T17:11:57Z")
> [@TroubleAgain](#): > > Whoa, **Alessan** , I thought I was the only one who did that! That makes three of us. Granted I use a laptop so my mousepad is simultaneously scroll wheel and right/left click, but still… _scrollscrollscroll_ CRAP I JUST HIGHLIGHTED THE WHOLE PAGE! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/13 "2009-04-24T17:15:49Z")
> [@TroubleAgain](#): > > Whoa, **Alessan** , I thought I was the only one who did that! Thirded! I’m extremely anal about organization of my folders. A place for everything and everything in its… wherever is convenient at the time. My desktop has files that stretch off of the right side of the screen by several feet. I blame my brother who copied every file on his camera to my PC. ---
**Author:** ![Drygon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@Drygon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drygon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/14 "2009-04-24T17:19:53Z")
> [@TroubleAgain](#): > > Whoa, **Alessan** , I thought I was the only one who did that! I’ll go ahead and say fourthed. When I was younger my dad made me buy my own mouse to use with the family computer. He said I wasn’t allowed to use the family’s mouse because, “A mouse comes with a certain number of clicks in its lifetime, and you’re wasting all of them.” ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/15 "2009-04-24T17:20:48Z")
I do the bin thing as well. In fact, ever since I discovered shift+del, I dispense with it entirely. A full bin is just untidy, isn’t it ? ETA : maybe not a bad habit per se, but an idiosyncracy : I use the mouse as little as possible. If it can be done with a keyboard shortcut, it will be. Instead of clicking on the icon I want on the desktop, I’ll press “home” to highlight the first icon, and navigate with the cursor keys. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/16 "2009-04-24T17:30:07Z")
> [@TroubleAgain](#): > > Whoa, **Alessan** , I thought I was the only one who did that! Fifth’d! I think I do it subconsciously as a placeholder, so if I look away from a large block of text for a moment, I’ll be able to find the point where I left off much more easily. ---
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/17 "2009-04-24T17:37:33Z")
I run way too many apps. Right now my taskbar is 2-high and has 45 active windows. Thank goodness for tabs in browsers. I easily run 20+ tabs at any given time. oh! And some of those 45 windows are virtual PCs that themselves have a handful of apps going at any given time. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/18 "2009-04-24T17:39:37Z")
> [@Stealth\_Potato](#): > > Fifth’d! I think I do it subconsciously as a placeholder, so if I look away from a large block of text for a moment, I’ll be able to find the point where I left off much more easily. It does make a dandy bookmark. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/19 "2009-04-24T17:42:57Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I do the bin thing as well. In fact, ever since I discovered shift+del, I dispense with it entirely. A full bin is just untidy, isn’t it ? > > ETA : maybe not a bad habit per se, but an idiosyncracy : I use the mouse as little as possible. If it can be done with a keyboard shortcut, it will be. Instead of clicking on the icon I want on the desktop, I’ll press “home” to highlight the first icon, and navigate with the cursor keys. I don’t think that’s a bad habit. I deliberately use the keyboard as much as possible, because it’s often faster and because, if I find myself with a non-functioning trackpad or mouse, I’ll be used to it and thus better able to deal with the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226/20 "2009-04-24T17:50:20Z")
I have no bad computer habits, I am one with computers. Ok, really, it’s backups. Backups at work are done automatically but at home I never got in the habit of doing it beyond just emailing myself documents despite screwing myself a couple times. Also, I have a habit from the bad old days of AutoCAD where I type with my left hand and keep my right hand on the mouse. At times, I do this for minutes without actually needing the mouse for anything which wastes a lot of time…on the plus side it annoys my co-workers that I can type with one hand. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-computing-bad-habits/494226.md?page=2)