# what drives you crazy in Windows? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2001, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538 "2001-01-24T13:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/1 "2001-01-24T13:03:56Z")
What features/bugs in Windows drive you crazy? I’m not looking for answers like “everything in Windows sucks” or “Bill Gates is worse than the devil”. I’m a Windows system administrator, and I prefer Windows over Novell, Mac, Unix, etc. But there are some things that drive me batty: a) How, by default, extensions of known file types are hidden b) The “Web content in folders” option in Windows Explorer c) How the “+” sign appears before directories that actually have no subdirectories Also, if anyone knows how to avoid these issues, please share… ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/2 "2001-01-24T13:17:58Z")
[ul][li]The fact that I can’t seem to re-unite the three virtual drives that make up the _physical_ second hard disk that my computer has. I got it from a friend, he patitioned it into three virtuals, and that’s what it is. No turning back. Can’t compress it, cause it’s FAT32. Can’t merge them unless they’re compressed. AAARRGHH![/li][li]Also, Windows will for these three virtual drives accept no other designation than D, E, and F. Nothing I can do changes that. If I do it the usual way, via properties, the box with the designation remains gray. Unalterable.[/li][li]As a result, Windows had moved my CD-Rom player from D to G, automatically. This seems to work fine, although I think it’s causing problems with some games, like Grand Prix III.[/li][li]Consequently, my HP 8100 CD-Writer has moved from E to H. Guess what? It doesn’t do _anything_ anymore. MADDENING!![/ul]I’m sure all these problems are related, and can be resolved as soon as I am able to either merge the three virtual disks, or name them X, Y, and Z (or something). **BUT HOW, DAMMIT??** [/li] Windows only works if you change _nothing_. Any alteration will confuse it, in my experience. Of course, any help is greatly appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/3 "2001-01-24T13:26:22Z")
A Mac user’s perspective: a) The Save/Save As/Open dialog boxes. Miserably difficult to use without taking your hands off the keyboard and reaching for the mouse unless you’re into memorizing and typing complete file paths. b) The way that the document-window-within-an-application-window motif makes it annoyingly difficult to set up two (let alone 3 or more) running applications so that you can see them simultaneously on a single monitor. c) Unnecessarily opaque and uninformative process names. OK, some background process is misbehaving and I need to force-quit it so I do the 3-finger salute and…uh, Cpqeaui? Systray? Bttnserv? Comsmnd? Syntpenh? Syntplpr? OK, let’s just randomly kill processes, shall we? ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/4 "2001-01-24T15:26:54Z")
I thought of a couple more: When in a file dialogue box, there is either no browse options (this happens sometimes in driver installations in Windows NT) or in Windows 2000 when you can use a UNC address in the address bar. Uggghhhh. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/5 "2001-01-24T15:38:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*[list][li]The fact that I can’t seem to re-unite the three virtual drives that make up the _physical_ second hard disk that my computer has. I got it from a friend, he patitioned it into three virtuals, and that’s what it is. No turning back. Can’t compress it, cause it’s FAT32. Can’t merge them unless they’re compressed. AAARRGHH![/li]…help is greatly appreciated! \*\* Option #1) Buy a program called Partition Magic. It can usually help. Option #2) Try doing an FDisk to delete the partitions. If that doesn’t work, then there’s one method: Option #3) A full Debug of the HDD. This _will_ remove all those partitions. It will also destroy all info on that HDD. If you don’t care, it’s probably your best option. Here’s a decent [Debug](http://www.computerhope.com/rdebug.htm#4) routine. After you run it, you need to do an FDisk and then a Format on the hdd. I can provide more info if needed or I can e-mail you with more detailed directions. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![muppetsoup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@muppetsoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muppetsoup)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/6 "2001-01-24T15:53:35Z")
Whenever you open the start menu, or a right click menu, if a window is opened it makes those menus go away and you have to open them all up again. Dammit! ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/7 "2001-01-24T15:54:07Z")
1). I don’t like Windows Explorer. In the old days (3.11) you could open 2 directories in explorer and drag files around. Now you have to open 2 windows to do the same thing. Some progress. 2). I hate the tone of the troubleshooter questions which sound like they are patronizing a moron. Your printer isn’t working? Well, did you make sure your printer is connected to your computer? Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? 3). I hate having secrets kept from me. Like they registry. There are billions of entries in the registry, many of them are useful tweaks to personalize your computer so it behaves the way you want it to. Is there any documentation or even a summarized list of these keys and what they do from MS? Noooooooooo. ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/8 "2001-01-24T15:54:51Z")
And why do you need the original disk to uninstall!!! ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/9 "2001-01-24T16:19:34Z")
**A full Debug of the HDD. This will remove all those partitions. It will also destroy all info on that HDD. If you don’t care, it’s probably your best option.** That’s interesting. I had the same problem but I didn’t know about this debug routine. I cheated by getting linux to chew up the HD and then I could fdisk. When windows runs well I think it is just fine, but they sure could improve their documentation for troubleshooting. Windows will print the error “the fleegildorf is conflicting with the spizgink”. Try looking up fleegildorf or spizgink and there are no records. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/10 "2001-01-24T16:23:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xizor \* > \*\*1). I don’t like Windows Explorer. In the old days (3.11) you could open 2 directories in explorer and drag files around. Now you have to open 2 windows to do the same thing. Some progress. > [snip] > 3). I hate having secrets kept from me. Like they registry. There are billions of entries in the registry, many of them are useful tweaks to personalize your computer so it behaves the way you want it to. Is there any documentation or even a summarized list of these keys and what they do from MS? Noooooooooo. \*\* **xizor** , I may be able to offer some help. re: point#3 above, try going to [www.regedit.com](http://www.regedit.com) or [www.windows2000faq.com](http://www.windows2000faq.com) for some very good, detailed information about the Windows Registry. I have found a nifty little shareware program called **Singularity** , which offers a two pane interface, and is a pretty darn good Windows Explorer replacement. You can get a trial version at [www.winability.com](http://www.winability.com). Hope these help. Life is full of Windows annoyances! ---
**Author:** ![Dev\_Null](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Dev\_Null](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dev_Null)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/11 "2001-01-24T16:24:36Z")
What do I hate in Windows? Applications grabbing focus. Arrrgh! What I mean by “grabbing focus” is a window in the background suddenly decides that it really needs to be on top of all the other windows I have open. Say I’m reading my email, and click on a link somebody emailed me. Explorer comes up, demands focus, covering up my email. OK. Click back on Eudora. Continue reading email while site loads. Explorer gets focus again, although site not yet loaded. Click back on Eudora. Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally, the site has loaded, and I’m checking it out, about halfway through it. That’s when Eudora gets foreground because it just received another email. AAARGGGHH! Other apps do this as well, not just IE and Eudora. I don’t know the number of times I cranked up my DUN connection to the internet, went back to whatever I was typing. When the connection is complete, a little window pops to the foreground, over whatever I was typing. But I keep typing for a few milliseconds on the now forgrounded window, disconnecting me from the internet. And windows needs a cut/copy function that saves the last five or so cuts/copies you made. Would make much of the coding I do less time consuming. ---
**Author:** ![Dev\_Null](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Dev\_Null](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dev_Null)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/12 "2001-01-24T16:39:06Z")
Muppetsoup said: > [@](#): > > Whenever you open the start menu, or a right click menu, if a window is opened it makes those menus go away and you have to open them all up again. Dammit! I am so with you on that. It’s another one of those focus things. ---
**Author:** ![Tymp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tymp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tymp)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/13 "2001-01-24T16:48:26Z")
In Windows 95 & 98, only a handful of computers will appear in Network Neighborhood. This is terribly annoying when, on a network of more than 100,000 computers, one wants to map someone else’s HDD. Ever tried synchronizing files and directory structures between an NT box and a 9x box without a special app? Oh, yes! Please put a stupid little arrow in the lower left-hand corner of every icon for a shortcut that I create. Why? Because I am a freakin’ moron who will never be able to tell a shortcut from its target without these unsightly visual clues! Hm. Let’s see. I put a file on my desktop. Now I want to move it from within Windows Explorer. Do I find that in C:\windows\desktop, C:\windows\all users\desktop, C:\windows\profiles\all users\desktop … Why is my desktop in the Windows directory? What crack smoking psycho thought that would be a good idea? This computer is locked up. What’s that key sequence that interrupts the power? There isn’t one? Oh. Well I guess I’ll crawl under my desk to unplug the #@&% thing then. That’s always fun! “Pagefile.sys” … WTF is that, and why is it taking up 200+ Mb on my freshly created partition? In order to shut down this machine, I click a button labeled “Start” … Makes perfect sense. I want to copy this cool application from one computer to another. I can just copy the application directory, right? Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/14 "2001-01-24T16:57:57Z")
Okay, here’s my big beef with Windows- Why doesn’t deleting a directory activate the uninstall program? I mean, you never really know where the uninstall is- is it in the directory, is it in Add/Remove Programs, or is there one at all? Wouldn’t things be much simpler for the user if all you had to do was try to delete the directory- Windows detects that you’re trying to delete a program which has an uninstall, it activates that uninstall, and _then_ deletes the directory? ---
**Author:** ![S-Terry\_Dan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@S-Terry\_Dan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/S-Terry_Dan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/15 "2001-01-24T17:11:45Z")
A lot of people bitch about the Blue Screen of Death. When I was using Win32, I rarely saw it. No, the damn thing froze, did illegal operations, or even SPONTANEOUSLY REBOOTED, but it rarely gave me a BSOD. Also, the wallpaper. If you download a image file other than a .bmp, you can’t make it the background image. If, however, you open it in IE, right click on it, and “Set As Wallpaper”, you can. And for some reason, if I opened an image-only file in IE it spawned the image viewer. So, I had to make a HTML file, use the image in that, and go from there. Ugh. And that also leads many sites to make wallpaper in huge-assed .bmp files. The Document History. Like a kilo of heroin, incriminating and difficult to flush. When you buy it, all you buy is the OS, browser, and a few piddly-ass applications. And all the themes are ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/16 "2001-01-24T17:11:51Z")
Most of my problems with Windows involve it’s complete indifference to decent human interface design. Someone already mentioned the focus problem. And someone also mentioned the window-within-a-window paradigm that means that half the real estate in every application is taken up by frames and menus. I can’t keep enough of a document on a 19" screen to maintain context. They named two different applications, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer the same. So whenever I want one, I always invoke the other by accident. (I know, the functionality is shared between the two, but the configuration isn’t. It’s just bad news.) Finally, there’s system-level crap everywhere. I never know which files are vital and which are just random deletable junk. ---
**Author:** ![S-Terry\_Dan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@S-Terry\_Dan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/S-Terry_Dan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/17 "2001-01-24T17:18:06Z")
Oh, there’s a program I can recommend to those of you stuck with Windows. It’s called Magic Set, and you can get it somewhere on [hotfiles.com](http://hotfiles.com) . Tymp, it’ll even get rid of those little arrows on the shortcuts. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/18 "2001-01-24T17:26:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by S-Terry Dan \* > \*\*The Document History. Like a kilo of heroin, incriminating and difficult to flush. > \*\* This one’s easy. There’s a freebie program from Microsoft called TweakUI which was apparently made by and for Win95/8 programmers who were equally annoyed with the documents history. DL it, run it and look in your control panel. Double click the icon and look for a tab labeled “Paranoia”. There’s a check box that’ll allow you to flush the Document History each time you reboot (it also allows all _sorts_ of other fun. There are lots of apps that’ll do this sort of thing, but TweakUI has the advantage of being free and easy to use. I believe it’s available [here](http://www.annoyances.org/win98/features/tweakui.html) Note that I don’t know if it works on windows ME, but it certainly works on 95/8 Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/19 "2001-01-24T17:29:39Z")
> [@](#): > > I have found a nifty little shareware program called **Singularity** , which offers a two pane interface, and is a pretty darn good Windows Explorer replacement. You can get a trial version at [www.winability.com](http://www.winability.com). > \*\* A similar one that I’ve been using for years and love is [Windows Commander](http://www.ghisler.com/). Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538/20 "2001-01-24T18:17:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tymp \* > \*\*“Pagefile.sys” … WTF is that, and why is it taking up 200+ Mb on my freshly created partition? > \*\* Pagefile.sys is the file that Windows uses to manage your virtual memory. The pagefile (sometimes known as a “swap file”) is an area on your hard disk that the OS uses to read and write information. On a Windows NT\2K machine that file needs to be at least a little bit bigger than the amount of physical memory (RAM) installed on your PC. That’s probably why it’s so big. And believe me, you can be glad it is there. The OS doesn’t do so well without it! **Fenris** , thanks! I hadn’t heard of Windows Commander. It looks very useful. (Yes, I’m installing it now!) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-drives-you-crazy-in-windows/51538.md?page=2)