Latest Vista Build Making Real Progress

feminazi writes "Computerworld's Scot Finnie has reviewed the newest Vista build and found some significant improvements over Beta 2, which he had previously criticized in pretty strong terms. There's improved performance, greatly reduced installation time, four network control panels and some wizards have all been combined into one nicely organized Network and Sharing Center. Microsoft is also reducing the number of annoying User Access Control (UAC) prompts. There are some minor improvements in the way Media Center handles windows, but it's still buggy."

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[in2mind]

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http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=printArticleBasic&articleId=9001888 [computerworld.com]

Re:In other news...

[permaculture]

Microsoft can't even stick to their own rules. Some windows you can to paste, some you can't, some will accept as well as or instead of . To search you go , or , or sometimes you have to right-click to get the context sensitive menu which includes the search option.

The command to create a new folder actually MOVES around the Explorer menu! And this is a GUI! Graphical User Interfaces are intuitive because you can remember the location of things. But not if the bastards move them about, like when the supermarkets rearrange their shelves. Microsoft took the best aspect of their software, and managed to use it to confuse their users and cripple their work.

Working with WinXP is like fighting a boxing match. Some days I set up a few PCs in a row, and you're constantly batting away message balloons. It's unnecessary and exhausting.

Stop changing things! I don't want a new OS, I want the current one to work properly.

Re:In other news...

[EvanED]

I read it as sarcasm against the newsworthyness of the story myself.

Re:In other news...

[drinkypoo]

Graphical User Interfaces are intuitive because you can remember the location of things.

1: No, they're not. GUIs are intuitive because the human brain was hard-wired to operate in a universe where there are blocks and shapes and stuff. DOS 5 had a GUI of sorts, that was every bit as intuitive as Windows or Mac could ever be.

Actually, GUIs aren't intuitive regardless. Sit the average person without any computer experience (an oxymoron today, but anyway) down in front of a computer with or without a GUI and they will be more or less equally confused. The only computers that are even close to intuitive are the turnkey devices like iPods, or the Mailstation e-mail appliance.

However, one thing we do know (from researching the subject) is that if things move around the GUI they become harder to find, whether we're talking text labels, images, or both, because you can no longer use "muscle memory" to locate them. Muscle memory is a very real phenomenon and is the primary reason why repetitive training of any kind is helpful. The brain likes to follow existing patterns that it already follows, which is also why habits are, well, habit-forming.

Folders and files, which move, aren't the sort of things they were talking about. Windows has at least three ways to make a command or folder always in the same location -- which is something most folk don't want, so it's not used very often.

I'm sorry, I don't understand this sentence. Three ways to make a command or folder always in the same location? Are you trying to say that there are three ways to make a command or folder that are always in their customary locations? It's not quite what you said and I only want to clarify, I am not trying to be a smartass (for once.)

Anyway I haven't had many problems with the muscle training issue on Windows. Where I do see the issue is on the Mac. They went from the very nice, simple, functional Dock on NeXTStep to the stupid, eye-candy, glitz-only Dock on OSX. The primary difference? The new one looks slick, and the old one's elements are always in the same damned place.