the design of Windows XP volume control

[Summercoolness]

has it been about 15 years since the volume control window stays the
same, from Windows 3.0 to Win 3.1, Win 95, 98, ME, and XP?

up till today, my dad is still confused by the design and how to get to
the recording source or level.

so we see the volume/speaker control, and then we need to click
"Option -> Properties" and by checking the radio button and click OK,
then we see the recording source and level? That is, by changing a
property in "playback", we get "recording"? "Recording" is not an
obviously property of speaker volume setting, or playback setting. It
is a property of "audio device setting", but the window is not really
audio device but "playback" control, so it is somewhat misleading.

isn't it easier to have a "play back" tab and a "recording tab", or
won't it be easy for the user to see both playback and recording
controls at the same time?

or even, just keep everything the same, but instead, use "View ->
Playback settings" and "View -> Recording settings", and in Options,
allow the user to set what devices are displayed in playback and in
recording.

just the fact that changing the Options -> properties and then the
whole window changes to "recording" doesn't seem to go coherent with
most other window and dialog box design. It feels somehow like a
college project, moved to Windows for the past 15 years.

 

[Summercoolness]

Windows 95, 98 are pretty good, and then Windows XP is really stable,
being able to run continuously for weeks without crashing. My hope was
that the volume control can get better, such as in Vista.

 

[DanS]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Windows 95, 98 are pretty good, and then Windows XP is really stable,
being able to run continuously for weeks without crashing. My hope was
that the volume control can get better, such as in Vista.

Or months. In reality though, XP much better deals with errors than 9x,
most of which required a restart. If you look at the Event Logs, you are
sure to see some error events.