Care to list them?
Or would you rather just keep whining?
Frank
Gee Frank surely you've heard about the numerous driver problems. M$
fault or not, it still makes a big freaking headache for users. Let's
see what else???? Hours/ days to copy files? Some files can only
be deleted after a reboot.....isn't that a neat feature and a real
time saver.
DVD playback in Windows Medial Player or Media Center will only play
in interlaced mode making it VERY ugly.
If I replace the MPEG-2 DVD codec with K-Lite Cinepack codec, the
interlacing issue goes away but it conflicts with Media Player's
translucent controls and delivers low frame rates with slow screen
paints that are especially noticeable when the entire screen on the
video moves. Windows Media Player Classic will work smoothly though
it forces Aero to shut down temporarily and it can only play one file
at a time making in impractical for full DVD movie playback. I'm not
sure if the slow playback has something to do with the inability of an
old codec to paint an Aero 3D screen efficiently or not but I wouldn't
have this problem if the built-in Microsoft DVD codec would
de-interlace the video properly.
Media Player screws up captured 1080i HDV playback by playing it in a
tiny window until you click on the movie to force it to play back at
50% size. While that's not a problem with a mouse, not sure how you
would deal with this on an HTPC. Not everyone will know they're
suppose to click on the movie to make it play back at 50% size.
1080i full screen playback in general is a problem even with content
captured digitally from OTA Over-the-air HDTV broadcasts. The exact
same hardware (NVIDIA GeForce 6200 or ATI 9600 Pro with a Pentium 4
2.4 GHz with hyperthreading) that works fine in Windows XP on HD
playback at full screen but NOT in Windows Vista. Even though this
isn't Microsoft software, it doesn't change the fact that I can't use
this server as an HTPC for my living room big screen HDTV.
Media Center crashes when library browsing some folders which is
totally unacceptable. This might be caused with a bad interaction
with the DivX and XVID CODECs from the K-Lite mega pack, but it
doesn't change the fact that I still need to be able to play those
videos.
Media Center can't play DVD folder rips on the Hard Disk Drive which
makes it worthless for DVD library playback. I can't believe this
isn't supported. What's the point of having an online DVD library?
[UPDATE 5:21 PM - The explaination I was given was that there are DRM
implications in playing back ripped DVDs. I guess this means Media
Center is crippled to the point of being useless until I can find a
hack to play ripped DVDs. I own the DVDs, I just don't want to have
to swap disks. This is like not being able to play ripped MP3s of CDs
you own. Last time I checked Zune lets you play MP3s.]
Movie Maker HDV preview is shifted downwards until you toggle
widescreen preview. Minor bug but I mentioned something about this in
my RC2 review.
Movie Maker only lets you retrieve entire HDV tape, not selections
like the old Movie Maker in Windows XP. These last two issues I
warned about in my RC2 review and they've not been fixed yet.
The "open with" feature is gone. When I use to right click on a data
file, you can click "open with" and choose a new program to open the
file or pick something on the list of applications you've used before.
That list of recent applications for opening data files is gone which
is very frustrating.
Power save settings are hidden in a deep mess. Tweaking the settings
don't always stick. Default hybrid sleep mode (explanation here) is
very annoying if system crashes because on the next reboot, it takes
minutes to reload a gigabyte from hard drive and it stays that way
until you shut down properly shut down Vista. I had to struggle with
the UI to turn off this feature and change the power button in the
start button to off mode and to get my settings to stick. The fact
that my main PC is crashing didn't help the situation, but it would be
nice if MS could ask if you want to boot normally instead of trying to
recover the previous state. For most desktops, going from 150 watts
idle to 145 watts in sleep mode just doesn't make any sense. I have
yet to find a Desktop PC that can go in to sleep state level 3 which
only uses a few watts of power.
Minor changes in hardware will sometimes prevent Vista from booting
up. So much for the great driver independent imaging model I'd been
hearing about though I haven't tested Vista deployment tools yet. I
had read that Vista was suppose to be able to adapt to different
hardware but maybe I just haven't found that feature yet.
IE7 embedded Windows Media Video playback won't support anamorphic
video and forces the video to play in 4:3 mode as oppose to widescreen
16:9 mode. I had complained about this to Microsoft two months ago
under Vista RC2. Example here.
While I've read from Jim Allchin that audio features have improved and
Polycom is telling me about the new multiple Mic feature that allows
you to pin point voice out of a noisy room, some things seem to be
missing that shouldn't be missing. Windows XP allowed you to set
separate Audio and Voice input/output preferences. That means voice
applications like Skype will use one set of speakers and microphone
while games will spit out sound from a different sound card. That
feature is now gone and you only get to set one set of record and
playback preferences. Maybe this is less confusing for beginner users
but it's an unacceptable dumbing down of Vista.
Start the snipping tool. Make a full screen capture. Save it as a PNG
file. Try to view the PNG in Internet Explorer. You can't!
Windows Picture Gallery can view the image. Firefox can view the
image. Pretty much anything else can. But IE can't! Even stranger:
open the PNG in Paint.Net. Without doing anything, resave it, still as
a PNG. This one, IE can open!
This isn't limited to IE7; IE6 can't open those images either.
Considering IE's spotty track record on PNGs I guess we shouldn't be
surprised there're some PNGs it can't handle. But I am surprised it's
another MS tool, one that's also included in Vista no less, that
creates such PNGs.
Why can’t it detect when I have a .com on the end of a domain in the
“Start Search” field - working much like CTRL+Enter does in IE or
Firefox?
If Windows is moving slowly, I can see the stop/refresh button in the
Windows Explorer jump. At least, the graphic inside the button starts
lower than normal - then jumps up to the proper (aligned, centered)
position.
Dragging object icons - strange transparency issue still exists. Looks
like hell.
For some reason, many dialogs/windows have a black line between the
glass and the top of the inner-portion of the window. If this is due
to me changing the size of my title bar - you’ve got a serious bug to
fix.
Why, if I change my Shell Dlg font in XP to Segoe UI, the default size
is 8pt - in Vista, it’s 9pt - and that REALLY screws things up. Is
there no way to set it to 8pt anywhere? Please make the hook?
Would somebody please smack the person who thought that white
Battery/Power and Volume icons were en vogue?
Why won’t you let me exit out of the location settings dialog if I
don’t want to enter an area code first? Even by confirming that I
don’t want to do it yet, you keep the window open. This might be tied
into how I found out - by trying to get a Business number within
Outlook. This may very well be Outlook’s fault, not your own (in which
case, that’s another red checkmark in the Outlook 2007 column).
I was able to get ReadyBoost working, I think. If there’s an easy way
to watch benchmarks, I’m not finding it. Tried looking for a
“Benchmarks” option in the Start Menu, but it’s just not obvious to
me. I found it once, but I’ll be damned if I can find it again. Tried
looking in the most logical places, too - including within the Task
Manager.
The ReadyBoost tab should display information like “You’ve sped up
your system by 10% by using ReadyBoost today.” Wouldn’t that be nice
to know? It’d also be nice if you could tell me the relative speed of
my current USB memory stick - so that I could find out if there were
faster ones available.
Why doesn’t ReadyBoost information show up in the System Properties?
Ya know, Control Panel | System? There, it still shows me running “1.0
GB of RAM” - but it’s not accounting for the flash RAM I’ve just
inserted.
System Information (if that’s Vista’s) is calling on a different point
size of a font. I believe it’s Segoe UI, but it’s awfully 9pt
Tahoma’ish to me.
The Event Viewer has tons of useful information. If only you’d stop
calling on Microsoft Sans Serif throughout, and remember the damn
window size every time I open/close the app. Tried looking for the
benchmarks / system resource view here, too - still can’t find it.
Sometimes when I’m fiddling with the Visual Appearance, I lose the
ability to turn on transparency. I have to reboot the system before
that feature works again (even so, I have to go in and re-toggle it a
few times to get it to work).
Why aren’t you doing this?
Thank you for pseudo-updating the default selection of backgrounds /
wallpapers. However, where’s the dual monitor support? Seriously, you
have nothing in here for dual monitors. What if I want one wallpaper
to be X and the other wallpaper to be Y? What if I want to stretch
wallpapers on both screens to each independent resolution? I have
1600×1200 on one monitor right now, 1680×1050 on another. Non-tiled
dual monitor wallpapers look like hell in this scenario. Fix it.
I love the “img15.jpg placeholder” wallpaper. I say it’s a keeper,
even if you make it hidden somewhere in the system where only the
geekiest geeks could find it. Sad thing is, the “img15.jpg
placeholder” was designed better than just about any other graphical
system element I’ve run across.
The Personalization dialog’s top nav section seems to have a
background color applied to it (that’s not matching the background
image). Same holds true for the System dialog (each found as a
subsection of ‘Control Panel’). Oh, and Power Options, apparently. Why
in some and not in others. At least if you’re gong to screw something
up, screw it up all over the place please?
Mobility Center is not customizable. Why can’t I save settings to
different profiles? Wouldn’t that make sense? Jeez, even my cell phone
has profiles contingent on setting.
You only have seven settings in the Windows Mobility Center - can’t
you just make up an 8th one, or are we really going to have to stare
at this glaring empty space in the lower right-hand corner? My
suggestion: do away with the separation lines altogether, flood the
entire area with white space, and for PETE’S SAKE round the corners
like you have the outside of the window!!!
What’s starting to drive me nuts is your inconsistent application of
internal window margins. For example, the distance between the top
border of an Explorer window and the first window element (the search
bar) is different than the distance between the top border of the
Windows Mobility Center and the first window element (in this case,
the panels). Open Notepad, and you’ll notice another distance
altogether. Who’s in charge of looking at this stuff!? You really
expect someone to fork over $100+ for this?
I don’t mind seeing the circled question mark icon in a window.
However, I DO mind that you keep putting it in different places.
Again, let’s compare and contrast the Windows Explorer window and a
Windows Mobility Center window.
Why can’t I easily switch to the Recording options in the new Volume
dialog? Seriously, why?
Why do the Volume dialog’s sliders have a boxy shadow behind them?
Looks horrible.
I made this point a couple of bugs ago, but it really deserves to be
called out here. Are things going to be curved or not? If you are
going to curve the edge of Windows elements, then curve all of them.
Not some of them - all of them. This would include every single
possible edge you find in the OS. Buttons, borders, backgrounds, etc.
In the new (file) Open dialog, why does the “File name” field sport a
different height than the “File type” field? Then, why are both of
them sporting different heights than the breadcrumb and search bars at
the top of the dialog. Gah!!! Do I need to buy someone a ruler… and
slap them on the wrist with it a few times?
Again, in this Frankenstein of a file Open dialog, I have one several
opportunities to press an upward/downward arrow. I press the one in
the Search box (it’s one width, producing a menu typical of what I
find throughout other programs). I press the one in the object area
(seeing the width of the arrow button is fatter, producing another
style of drop-down for object sorting and filtering). I press the one
for the Folders view (seeing that it’s now a circle button, and that
produces inconsistent padding both above and below it). I think you
just made Baby Jesus cry.
In the open dialog’s breadcrumb bar, sometimes the file name (or path)
gets cut off. No way of seeing what’s past a certain point. I don’t
see a handlebar to make that area wider, but it should either stretch
to a better length on its own or provide some kind of tooltip to show
me the truncated information.
Hey, would someone please fix the fact that the Task Manager’s
Applications Pane has a horizontal scroll bar that never goes away -
no matter what you do? It serves no purpose and has been annoying the
hell out of me since Windows 2000. WHY IS IT THERE?!
In the Task Manager, why can’t I right-click a column heading to add
other columns - I can do that in an Explorer window - why not here as
well? Did the Task Manager programmer not pay his Tribute to the king?
Why, in the Task Manager, when I hover over a truncated title, do I
not see a tooltip with the hidden information?
Who’s duck do I have to sick to make this easier to do?
I turned off the Security Center. Why is it still showing up in my
system tray?
Clicking the “Adjust indexing options” in the Performance Rating and
Tools dialog (subsection of ‘Control Panel’) does nothing.
On my laptop, the Power Options should automatically go into Power
Saver mode when I’m not plugged into AC power. Right now, I have to
toggle everything manually. Likewise, it should go High Performance
when I’m plugged into an external power source.
You have to figure out what else to do when it comes to needing more
information in a Control Panel option. For the first hour or so, I
didn’t even see the scroll bar in many panels. For example, Control
Panel | Power Options | System Settings is just tall enough to warrant
a vertical scrollbar. However, it’s pointless - there’s nothing else
to show down there but (admittedly properly measured) white space.
Why am I still seeing old Windows dialogs? Like, for the Screen Saver
option in the Control Panel. Shouldn’t that be a subsection of the
Personalization applet?
There we go! I found the “Performance Diagnostic Console” finally.
This is nice, but you wanna talk about scrollbar overkill? I’ve got
more scrollbars in this single window than I think actually exist.
Thus, creating what I like to call a “paradox.”
Reliability Monitor in the Performance Diagnostic Console is pretty
nice. A few controls and images are awfully old, but the tool itself
might prove useful in troubleshooting scenarios.
OMG. The Performance Monitor section of the Performance Diagnostic
Console is calling on the System (or Terminal) font?!
Why can’t I drag & drop the Resource Overview (in the Performance
Diagnostics section of the Performance Diagnostic Console) into the
Sidebar? Either all four, or each one individually?
This is weird. I’m looking at the Personalization dialog here. The
status bar is turned on, claiming… “2 items.” Really? I see more than
two items here, so what “2 items” is it referring to? Conversely, the
status bar claims to be seeing “0 items” in the System dialog of the
Control Panel. Who’s seeing what?
I know you said it wasn’t going to make it, but can someone please
tell me why I don’t have a slider control or pause button in the
Windows Explorer copy function?
Why, when resizing a dialog like “Problem Reports and Solutions,” do I
see white space appear in the window title area - specifically, on the
side that I’m moving back and forth? Other areas of the window are
being painted irregularly, too. Looks fine when I stop movement, but
the actual movement is jarring to the window elements (apparently). Do
you not expect anybody to resize - or do you expect them to excuse
this kind of UI quirk?
In the Start Menu, why does an empty folder cascade out to “(empty)”?
If you’re going to do that, at least shade “(empty)” a light gray
instead of black.
Can you please require people to reference the same 16×16 help icon
that I keep seeing everywhere? I’ve seen about three different
versions of it - one polished, one plain, another completely different
than these other two. Sounds like all of you need help with it.
The SendTo context menu seems to be calling on another kind of layout
(compressed, compared to the overly-spacious Windows default). So,
too, are the submenus of the Start Menu rightmost pane (Games,
Favorites, Computer, etc.). AGAIN, a completely different style is
being applied to the New context menu (Folder, Shortcut, etc.). Yet
another style is being applied to the Organize menu in the Windows
Explorer! IMHO, all menus should look and feel the same throughout the
entire OS. If you want a baseline, look no further than the submenus
of the Start Menu.
Why don’t I get a larger thumbnail preview of a document or image that
I have on my desktop? Seriously, why? Is 128 MB of video RAM not
enough?
Okay, now THIS is just funny (and sad at the same time). The Start
Menu: nice default view, the margins between each recently-opened
program shortcut seem fine - until you toggle the “All Programs”
feature. Now, the margins between each of the Start Menu items is
smaller. It’s noticeable. Small difference, but still quite
noticeable. Egad, if you can’t even get it right in the same area -
what hope does the rest of Windows have?
The separator bar between “All Programs” / “Back” changes widths by a
few pixels on each end when you toggle the view. Again, I don’t know
whether to laugh or to cry. I’ve been waiting seven years for THIS?!
Just read a post on Channel 9 referencing my original list of Vista
problems… “Wow, that’s the most annually retentive post I’ve ever
read… Can you imagine what this person does when they actually find a
problem as opposed to “OMFG BATMAN THAT BUTTON IS NOT PIXEL
ALIGNED!!!1!!” I responded: “Yeah, and it’s attitudes like this which
cause potentially ‘great’ products to come across as ‘okay.’ If that
kind of sloppiness is happening on the surface, I cringe when I think
about what’s going on underneath.”
The separator bar between the Start Menu Pin section and the list of
recently-opened programs has a different “vspace” than the separator
bar at the bottom of the Start Menu separating the “All Programs”
toggle with the list of recently-opened programs.
Why does the system tray battery icon have an abnormal left margin to
it? Breaks the flow here.
How come Firefox runs faster and better on Vista than IE7 does?
“Search the Index” option in the Start Menu’s “Start Search” field -
what Index? Who’s Index? What’s an Index?
To piggyback the prior issue, “Search the Internet” - is that Live’s
version of the Internet or Google’s? Can this be toggled to Google
easily? If so, where? If not, why not?
I hit it on my first list, but the Windows Calendar UI is amazingly
pathetic and inconsistent. First, why is the Search field formatted
differently than it is in the Windows Explorer? Second, why is the
Search field slapped up against the right border of the window!?
Third, why is the view button not working like the View button in the
Windows Explorer? Fourth, Why is the calendar formatted differently
than it is in the Windows Date & Settings applet? Fifth, why is the
“traditional” menu turned on in this program by default? Sixth, why is
there virtually no top margin to the area within the Calendars section
of the Navigation pane? Sixth, is there going to be a plan to better
integrate this within Outlook - so that the two could work seamlessly
between each other so that I don’t have to get an Exchance server just
to share information between myself and others - and so that I don’t
have to update two sets of Tasks and Appointments!? *sigh*
Why, and pardon me if this is wrong of me to ask, can’t I manage all
my Windows Live accounts from a Control Panel applet?
Man, there’s so much going on inside the Search Index window - it’s
like I’ve died and gone to short-attention span heaven. The only thing
that’s missing is (seriously) the kitchen sink.
The Search Index window’s “Add a title” field text seems to be
improperly aligned - as does its little magnifying glass graphic.
Why can’t I turn off the text and/or icons in the new Windows toolbar?
I hate seeing the double-arrows when there are more options. I can
make it with the icons, thank you very much.
The “in” field seems to be a different height than the “Add a title”
field (and I’m still not sure what “Add a title” even means).
Why can’t I choose what meta information displays in the Windows Vista
Preview Pane?
In Windows Explorer Views, I should never see a horizontal scrollbar.
Instead, you should follow Outlook’s lead (!) and automatically push
the information together into a single chunk rather than force me to
look to the right or left to get to the information I’ve asked to see.
And don’t tell me to maximize the window - that’s a cop out, and you
know it.
Who decided that the progress bar would be green? Why isn’t that
themable? I’d assume it’s a graphic - and if not, then why can’t I
make it some other color?
Whoa. The Windows Easy Transfer dialog to warn you that the firewall
is blocking the program from running appears to have fallen out of the
ugly tree and hit every branch on its way down. You look at it and
tell me why I’d even say such a thing. Seems that other Yes/No dialogs
have fallen out of the same tree in this tool as well.
Why is the Favorites folder icon the only folder icon that doesn’t
have a folder icon in it? It’s just this gigantic star. I think it’s
fine that way, but if you’re not going to have a folder image in the
Favorites folder icon, then get rid of the other special folders’
folder icons.
Where’s the “Export all possible Windows settings” feature? I think
it’s supposed to be there for documents, emails, photos, etc. - but
what about my generic windows settings?
