SP1 - what's in and what's not

[Julian]

I was disconcerted to discover that there is nothing about Usability in the
"Notable Changes in..." SP1 document
(http://technet2.microsoft.com/windo...f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true)
(or the overview...)

Certainly Reliability/Performance features of SP1 should improve the "user
experience", and no doubt there is lots of Good Stuff generally (some
improvements to UAC perhaps and certainly anything that reduces power
consumption, increases security, etc.), but what about the bread-and-butter
issues arising from almost every interaction with the system?

I find the omission of any reference to improvements to the way the UI works
most alarming; does it mean that it is not considered important enough? [I
don't mean what goes on behind the scenes, I mean how information is
presented etc.: the "Time remaining" calculation is probably getting better
all the time - but why is the dialog there (and calculating) - when I have
Cancelled a file delete?]

Perhaps the issues below are addressed and the detail has been buried in
some other document I haven't found - if so please direct me to it.

My particular bete noire is Windows Explorer:

inconstant Folder Views,
the black-holes that are Folder Templates,
the lack of control of automatic folder type discovery,
absence of per window control of Preview,
lack of preview handlers for older MS products (Office),
accurate refresh of shortcuts to mapped (esp network) drives,
absence of a "New Folder" button

all of which (and more) are continually annoying and productivity sapping.

Please sir, may I some more control of my own system? Why shouldn't I have a
Slide Show button for a folder that contains images at root level just
because it is not of type "Pictures and Videos" (even if I select only
images)?

Numerous networking issues also seem to be lacking in prominence: there's
only one mention of IPv6 - but no mention of resolving the issues of IPv6
alonsgide IPv4 which seem to impact many users (especially those roaming on
wireless networks) and digging out the IP address in use for a network
adapter is just too tedious....

On the whole I like Vista, but the UI shortcomings are not mere quibbles to
me; if I am asked what I think of Vista the answer has been "It's pretty
good, BUT..." Speed increases, reliability enhancements, power reductions,
etc. are incremental improvements to be welcomed but I was hoping for a
step-change in usability that might eliminate that "BUT..."

If such issues are not going to be addressed I am going to be incredibly
disappointed...

Am I labouring under a false impression?

PS Brink - remember: I know all about the conspiracy now... <g>

 

[dubya]

Hello Julian,

Pretty much in agreement. Here's how to make explorer behave a bit more
like it should:

http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/km...-disable-automatic-folder-type-discovery.aspx

The command script works as advertised and causes no problems. I suppose I
should say, YMMV, but I think it's safe.

And here's a discussion of it with big pics as visual aids and a bit of
additional info:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70819-windows-explorer-folder-view-settings.html

Mike

I was disconcerted to discover that there is nothing about Usability in the
"Notable Changes in..." SP1 document
(http://technet2.microsoft.com/windo...f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true)
(or the overview...)

Certainly Reliability/Performance features of SP1 should improve the "user
experience", and no doubt there is lots of Good Stuff generally (some
improvements to UAC perhaps and certainly anything that reduces power
consumption, increases security, etc.), but what about the
bread-and-butter issues arising from almost every interaction with the
system?

I find the omission of any reference to improvements to the way the UI
works most alarming; does it mean that it is not considered important
enough? [I don't mean what goes on behind the scenes, I mean how
information is presented etc.: the "Time remaining" calculation is
probably getting better all the time - but why is the dialog there (and
calculating) - when I have Cancelled a file delete?]

Perhaps the issues below are addressed and the detail has been buried in
some other document I haven't found - if so please direct me to it.

My particular bete noire is Windows Explorer:

inconstant Folder Views,
the black-holes that are Folder Templates,
the lack of control of automatic folder type discovery,
absence of per window control of Preview,
lack of preview handlers for older MS products (Office),
accurate refresh of shortcuts to mapped (esp network) drives,
absence of a "New Folder" button

all of which (and more) are continually annoying and productivity sapping.

Please sir, may I some more control of my own system? Why shouldn't I have
a Slide Show button for a folder that contains images at root level just
because it is not of type "Pictures and Videos" (even if I select only
images)?

Numerous networking issues also seem to be lacking in prominence: there's
only one mention of IPv6 - but no mention of resolving the issues of IPv6
alonsgide IPv4 which seem to impact many users (especially those roaming
on wireless networks) and digging out the IP address in use for a network
adapter is just too tedious....

On the whole I like Vista, but the UI shortcomings are not mere quibbles
to me; if I am asked what I think of Vista the answer has been "It's
pretty good, BUT..." Speed increases, reliability enhancements, power
reductions, etc. are incremental improvements to be welcomed but I was
hoping for a step-change in usability that might eliminate that "BUT..."

If such issues are not going to be addressed I am going to be incredibly
disappointed...

Am I labouring under a false impression?

PS Brink - remember: I know all about the conspiracy now... <g>

 

[Julian]

Thanks for the input dubya -

I got Kristian (?) Kenny's stuff quite a while back and it was a help - I
agree - seems solid and safe.. I inspected the script before I ran it
though...!)

However, something (probably me) is still not right insofar as the "default"
Folder Template now seems to be Photos and Videos, which is annoying because
although Templates apply to everything, not everything can be Customised

Do <sigh()> <rage("why?")> <rant()> Loop Until haveComeHome(Cows) = True

I've exchanged a bit on this topic elsewhere and have a pending task to
reapply the fixes but haven't got round to it... and I don't know what Vista
thinks is "touching" folders in such a way as to require their settings to
be remembered (?SyncToy?) but it seems to have the memory of a goldfish
considering that I don't explicitly touch more than about a dozen folders a
day and it sure seems to forget them pretty quickly (OK, some are networked
drives or other non-native (e.g. an encrypted file mounted as a drive by
Steganos Safe) but that shouldn't matter - I'm looking at this as a dumb
user who doesn't care where the folders are... "oh sorry, your NAS is LINUX
based and isn't compatible..." "But it *looks* like everything else on my
desktop....!")

[Oh yes... long discussion with an MVP on the Folder thing led to a list of
the various constants for the Folder Templates, though darned if I can
remember who or where or what now... <g>]

But even if that was fixed, it still leaves all the other things (an
incomplete list at best)... and, alas, like tootheache, the longer even dull
pain persists the crankier one gets...

I have asked if it's possible to script Windows Explorer views in any way
but haven't had any luck in that direction either...!

Again, appreciate the input and it's nice to know I'm not alone...

--
Julian I-Do-Stuff

Some Vista stuff, but mostly just Stuff at http://berossus,blogspot.com

Hello Julian,

Pretty much in agreement. Here's how to make explorer behave a bit more
like it should:

http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/km...-disable-automatic-folder-type-discovery.aspx

The command script works as advertised and causes no problems. I suppose
I should say, YMMV, but I think it's safe.

And here's a discussion of it with big pics as visual aids and a bit of
additional info:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70819-windows-explorer-folder-view-settings.html

Mike

I was disconcerted to discover that there is nothing about Usability in
the "Notable Changes in..." SP1 document
(http://technet2.microsoft.com/windo...f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true)
(or the overview...)

Certainly Reliability/Performance features of SP1 should improve the
"user experience", and no doubt there is lots of Good Stuff generally
(some improvements to UAC perhaps and certainly anything that reduces
power consumption, increases security, etc.), but what about the
bread-and-butter issues arising from almost every interaction with the
system?

I find the omission of any reference to improvements to the way the UI
works most alarming; does it mean that it is not considered important
enough? [I don't mean what goes on behind the scenes, I mean how
information is presented etc.: the "Time remaining" calculation is
probably getting better all the time - but why is the dialog there (and
calculating) - when I have Cancelled a file delete?]

Perhaps the issues below are addressed and the detail has been buried in
some other document I haven't found - if so please direct me to it.

My particular bete noire is Windows Explorer:

inconstant Folder Views,
the black-holes that are Folder Templates,
the lack of control of automatic folder type discovery,
absence of per window control of Preview,
lack of preview handlers for older MS products (Office),
accurate refresh of shortcuts to mapped (esp network) drives,
absence of a "New Folder" button

all of which (and more) are continually annoying and productivity
sapping.

Please sir, may I some more control of my own system? Why shouldn't I
have a Slide Show button for a folder that contains images at root level
just because it is not of type "Pictures and Videos" (even if I select
only images)?

Numerous networking issues also seem to be lacking in prominence: there's
only one mention of IPv6 - but no mention of resolving the issues of IPv6
alonsgide IPv4 which seem to impact many users (especially those roaming
on wireless networks) and digging out the IP address in use for a network
adapter is just too tedious....

On the whole I like Vista, but the UI shortcomings are not mere quibbles
to me; if I am asked what I think of Vista the answer has been "It's
pretty good, BUT..." Speed increases, reliability enhancements, power
reductions, etc. are incremental improvements to be welcomed but I was
hoping for a step-change in usability that might eliminate that "BUT..."

If such issues are not going to be addressed I am going to be incredibly
disappointed...

Am I labouring under a false impression?

PS Brink - remember: I know all about the conspiracy now... <g>