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AnchorDesk

David Coursey
And today, Microsoft is still driving me nuts (Part Two)

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Monday, May 7, 2001
TalkBack!Add your opinion
Yesterday, I shared 11 of my top Microsoft gripes, and I've been reading yours on TalkBack. All are little things that Microsoft has done, hasn't done, or didn't mean to do that make life a little more difficult than it needs to be.

Today, I'll add another 10 items to my list and tomorrow will present the best of your TalkBacks and my responses. (And in case you missed the first 11, you can find them here.)

So, without further ado:

David Coursey's Top Microsoft Gripes, Part Two

  1. This is another uninstaller gripe: Don't you just love the message that tells you the uninstall is completed but not all the files could be removed, so you need to find and remove them yourself? Where? Which files?

  2. Likewise the uninstall message that asks if you want to remove shared code, tells you that the uninstaller thinks the shared code can be removed but warns you it might not be safe to do so. Then it asks if you want to make the decision. How, I wonder, is the average user supposed to intelligently make this call?

  3. Applications that work with Windows 98 and Millennium Edition but not with Windows 2000. Typically, this means games and multimedia. XP is supposed to fix this, but the beta has yet to prove it.

  4. Wouldn't it be great if all those files you find on your PC with names like uffyiufp.dll showed in the directory what they did and what applications they worked with? It would help with all those manual uninstalls, for one thing.

    I AM ALSO INCLUDING some gripes that get at the heart of how Microsoft does things and how they make money. These include:

  5. Quality is not Job No. 1 at Microsoft and it shows. This seems to be getting better, but there's a lot to be done. How else to explain an operating system that doesn't meet the most basic requirement: It just runs and doesn't crash. Windows XP is supposed to be an example of improvement in this area. But Microsoft has never been as hot on getting things right as they are on adding lots of new things before the old ones are fixed.

  6. Upgrade mania! Because Microsoft makes its money from upgrades, it has to get them out the door fast, ready or not (Windows Me being an example of the latter), and has to add lots of seemingly compelling new features to get people to buy. This is changing, which is why you see Microsoft heading into "software as a service" so they don't have to convince people to buy so many upgrades.

  7. Microsoft doesn't play well with others and hasn't been a gracious winner. The antitrust case is the best example, but so is the fact that whole industries always have to keep looking over their shoulders. Not because Microsoft might have a better idea, but because any idea Microsoft has can stop a small competitor cold. It would be nice for Microsoft to tell people what businesses it wants to play in and, more importantly, where it will look to others to lead the innovation.

  8. Feature bloat. At one level, this is understandable--not everyone uses the same features--but wouldn't it be great to have a set of bare-bones applications that really worked? Most business users would be perfectly well served by a Works-like product, except that Works is intentionally crippled to keep it out of corporate accounts.

  9. Feature bloat is used to justify prices that go down only when you factor in inflation. Microsoft apps tend to cost pretty much the same thing year by year. The idea that software goes down in price isn't true so much as Microsoft gives you more each time for the same amount of money. Of course, a dollar in 1985 was worth a good bit more than a dollar in 2001.

  10. I have written about Microsoft's authorization scheme--designed to prevent piracy--and how it negatively affects some home users. I am opposed to stealing software, but people should be able to make as many copies as they like so long as they are only using one at a time. Microsoft is now getting very serious about small-scale piracy--as it has every right to--but this will change some things for legit users.

I feel much better now. And you'll feel better if you share your complaints in TalkBack.

OK, what have I missed? What are your favorite Microsoft gripes? TalkBack to me!

AnchorDesk on radio and television: David is now getting up bright and early to visit with Brian Cooley every morning at 7:45 a.m. PT on CNET Radio (910AM in the San Francisco Bay Area and at www.cnetradio.com online). He is also co-host of an hour-long program every Friday at noon PT on CNET Radio. You can also catch David on CNET's News.com TV program, which airs twice every weekend on CNBC (see airtimes) or by going to the special CNET TV page featuring his most recent appearances and a link to the Friday radio program.

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