A
Adam Albright
What's that old saying, hope springs enternal?
I guess the boys of Redmond never heard of that one. You see I've been
a long time Windows user. I go way back to the early versions and as
foolish as it is considering Windows has now been around in one form
or another for about 20 years, you would think Microsoft finally got
its act together. Keep dreaming.
I do a lot of video work. I'm constantly opening, changing and moving
files around, typically using Windows build-in Explorer. This piece of
junk has been broke from the beginning and has loads of bugs. It still
does. It seems Vista rather then fixing the old ones, added new ones.
This will drive you crazy!
Consider this absurd "file handling" stupidity, courtesy of Vista,
Business version.
1. I open a video file in Sony's Vegas. No problem.
2. I do some editing. No problem. I open a second application, do
some more tweaking of this file, close the file in this
application.
3. I decide to rename the file and save it from Vegas. BIG problem!
Vista says I don't have permission. Now stop laughing! Vista
already let me open, edit this file. That involves read, write and
execute permissions don't it?
Of course it does! So if I had permission or not, Vista let me.
Now I want to simply change the name of the file and Vista says I
can't. So now I got to stop working and try to do the Vista dance;
right click on the file, check permissions under the security tab,
fiddle around and sooner or later get permission to change the name
of the file.
4. You would think I'm ok now. Well no, not even close. I now wish to
rename the folder this file was in. That's on another drive.
What's funny is Vista let me operate on this file on this other
hard drive and never gave a peep until I wanted to change the
name. Now trying to change the folder name again I get another
warning from Vista saying I don't have permission to change the
name.
I scroll up to look at the security setting for the entire drive
which is labeled E. Under the security tab there is one User named
Eveybody. I didn't put it there, Vista did. It has everything
checked, so I should as a user with full administrative rights be
able to do anything to any file on this drive or so you would
think. I won't let me rename the folder.
5. I look at the folder in question it too has only the everybody
user and grayed out permissions. Again I try to change the name. I
get a you need to confirm this operation warning. I click on the
continue button. The entire screen now goes gray. I get the same
stupid you need permission error and it asks want to try again? I
click yes, and now we're in a endless loop with no clue what's
wrong.
This brings us full circle and illustrates how clueless Windows still
is as regards to what file may be "open" or not.
What's causing this mess is the old bug a boo that gnerally at any
time only one application can have a file open. This on the surface of
course makes sense. The last thing you want generally is to have two
application messing with the same file at the same time.
I had used a second application to work on the file I also worked on
in Vegas. Now here's where things get messy. I did what I needed, then
CLOSED the file in the second application, but DID NOT close the
application itself which remainded open.
This always has been a problem to brain dead Windows. It thinks
appliation B is still using the file and that is the reason I can't
change the folder name. So somewhere there is a memory page file in
that Windows was too dumb to flush which caused this. This problem has
been around for at least 10 years and Microsoft still hasn't fixed it.
The solution was to close the other application now I can rename the
folder.
Of course this is hardly a workable solution. Video editing is
complex. You constantly shift back and forth between various
application to do things to the same file. This is obviously true for
other tasks as well. Now it seems everytime I want to use the second
application I have to first shut it down before doing anything at the
system level like change folder name. That is not the sign of a smart
operating system.
I guess the boys of Redmond never heard of that one. You see I've been
a long time Windows user. I go way back to the early versions and as
foolish as it is considering Windows has now been around in one form
or another for about 20 years, you would think Microsoft finally got
its act together. Keep dreaming.
I do a lot of video work. I'm constantly opening, changing and moving
files around, typically using Windows build-in Explorer. This piece of
junk has been broke from the beginning and has loads of bugs. It still
does. It seems Vista rather then fixing the old ones, added new ones.
This will drive you crazy!
Consider this absurd "file handling" stupidity, courtesy of Vista,
Business version.
1. I open a video file in Sony's Vegas. No problem.
2. I do some editing. No problem. I open a second application, do
some more tweaking of this file, close the file in this
application.
3. I decide to rename the file and save it from Vegas. BIG problem!
Vista says I don't have permission. Now stop laughing! Vista
already let me open, edit this file. That involves read, write and
execute permissions don't it?
Of course it does! So if I had permission or not, Vista let me.
Now I want to simply change the name of the file and Vista says I
can't. So now I got to stop working and try to do the Vista dance;
right click on the file, check permissions under the security tab,
fiddle around and sooner or later get permission to change the name
of the file.
4. You would think I'm ok now. Well no, not even close. I now wish to
rename the folder this file was in. That's on another drive.
What's funny is Vista let me operate on this file on this other
hard drive and never gave a peep until I wanted to change the
name. Now trying to change the folder name again I get another
warning from Vista saying I don't have permission to change the
name.
I scroll up to look at the security setting for the entire drive
which is labeled E. Under the security tab there is one User named
Eveybody. I didn't put it there, Vista did. It has everything
checked, so I should as a user with full administrative rights be
able to do anything to any file on this drive or so you would
think. I won't let me rename the folder.
5. I look at the folder in question it too has only the everybody
user and grayed out permissions. Again I try to change the name. I
get a you need to confirm this operation warning. I click on the
continue button. The entire screen now goes gray. I get the same
stupid you need permission error and it asks want to try again? I
click yes, and now we're in a endless loop with no clue what's
wrong.
This brings us full circle and illustrates how clueless Windows still
is as regards to what file may be "open" or not.
What's causing this mess is the old bug a boo that gnerally at any
time only one application can have a file open. This on the surface of
course makes sense. The last thing you want generally is to have two
application messing with the same file at the same time.
I had used a second application to work on the file I also worked on
in Vegas. Now here's where things get messy. I did what I needed, then
CLOSED the file in the second application, but DID NOT close the
application itself which remainded open.
This always has been a problem to brain dead Windows. It thinks
appliation B is still using the file and that is the reason I can't
change the folder name. So somewhere there is a memory page file in
that Windows was too dumb to flush which caused this. This problem has
been around for at least 10 years and Microsoft still hasn't fixed it.
The solution was to close the other application now I can rename the
folder.
Of course this is hardly a workable solution. Video editing is
complex. You constantly shift back and forth between various
application to do things to the same file. This is obviously true for
other tasks as well. Now it seems everytime I want to use the second
application I have to first shut it down before doing anything at the
system level like change folder name. That is not the sign of a smart
operating system.