Why Windows makes mobility so hard

Have you ever tried to move a Windows notebook between two networks?

Consider a Windows domain at work and a home network using a workgroup, or perhaps two branch offices that aren't in the same domain. When you boot up a notebook in one after being in the other, there are numerous settings you have to change in order get the notebook to join the network properly--and you have to do this every time you switch.

For an OS that has done a great deal of innovation with mobile computing, Windows is surprisingly insensitive to this need. The Mac OS, on the other hand, has had a feature that handles different location settings for years. OS 9 users with whom I've spoken rave about Location Manager, but Apple decided to scrap and redesign the feature in OS X as "Network Locations," and it's an integrated part of the Network Preferences pane. (If you like the old Location Manager, a third party has implemented a version of it for OS X called Location X.)

But what about Windows? When you think about it, the number of settings on a Windows notebook that might be different for two different locations is huge. You've got network settings, for both Microsoft networks and others like Novell. You've got network shares, including folders and printers and drive mappings, and the default printer. There are dial-up settings such as rules for dialing 9 to get an outside line. You may have different file extension mappings, different e-mail programs and accounts, and different bookmarks or favorites in your browser. Your locations may even be in different time zones.

I searched around and found exactly one tool for Windows that solves this problem, and it works well. NetSwitcher is a $14 shareware app that lets you save and easily restore Windows configuration information for any number of locations. You can make the settings in Windows and NetSwitcher will read them, or you can make the changes in NetSwitcher directly. Then you save the settings as a named location. It even saves Mozilla proxy settings. (Incidentally, the OS X Network Locations program doesn't seem to handle quite as much location-specific information as NetSwitcher does--not that the two products are competitors.)

Once your notebook is set up, if you shut down or reboot the computer, NetSwitcher presents a dialog asking which location settings should be in effect after the reboot. In fact, sometimes it's even simpler. You can explicitly change locations in the NetSwitcher program and in many cases--where Windows would force you to reboot--you merely need to log out and log back in. It's the perfect example of the sort of utility of a bygone era, like the original Norton Utilities, that added useful functions overlooked by operating system designers.

Speaking of Norton, Symantec used to have a product called Symantec Mobile Essentials that fit squarely in this niche, but they withdrew it some time ago (Yes, the product page is still up even though the product is no longer available). In fact, there is even a Flash demo for the product that still makes a great case for it. I remember the product, but I don't remember it being marketed all that aggressively. Perhaps it would have sold better if more people had heard of it.

At one level, I look at an operating system deficiency like this and I say that Microsoft should incorporate this capability as a Locations control panel or something like that. Or maybe they should just buy the NetSwitcher code (although I wouldn't expect them to keep the Mozilla settings). Would that be good, or would it be better to encourage third parties to make some of that money? Either way, if you are moving portable computers between network locations, until an alternative presents itself, you need to use NetSwitcher.

What workarounds have you come up with to deal with Windows' mobility shortcomings? TalkBack or send e-mail to us.