What don't you like about Windows 7?

musiclover7 · 11 Jan 2010

Not everyone can be pleased. I use XP and 7 side by side every day. There is never a single function on my xp Laptop (That I have to use for work as it is joined to company domain and vpn) that I miss on my Windows 7 Desktop. Not one. Both are Dual core system boasting at least 2 gb of RAM. My Laptop is way more clunky, but of course it is running the company's somewhat bloated image. Still, I miss a considerable amount of the 7 functions, not the least of which is that if the laptop was running 7, it would be network-able with my home network, without having to break it from it's current domain. As it stands, if I want to get a file from this old XP laptop to any of the other networked computers in my house, the only way to accomplish it is with a jump drive, or to email the file to myself..

I run just as many apps on the 7 computer as I do on the xp laptop, and it is far more responsive. Some morning, I wonder if the xp laptop is going to make it out of sleep mode.. It seems to take it a good 10-15 minutes before it starts to have any snap. The 7 computer is never anything but snappy..

So far, the compatibility trouble-shooter has worked fairly well getting legacy applications to run with one big exception. I have a piece of $1400.00 medical software that will only run in XP. Reason. It requires a usb dongle, that the company decided not to create vista/7 drivers for, unless you paid $3-400 to upgrade to the next version. I get around this, by running an xp virtual machine in my 7 computer, and it runs flawless.
To be quite honest, I have actually come to prefer this method rather than run it native on 7. It feels cleaner..

Haters may want to give this a try. Install 7, and install XP as a virtual machine in 7. Then, use both side by side for a while. So far, I have yet to hear a compelling argument against 7 and I have been following this here thread for what feels like almost a year..

musiclover7 · 11 Jan 2010

cbleman said:

hdmi - Very well said!
My rant:
The more I use Win 7, the more I run into things that frustrated me in Vista. The operating system is more stable than I remember, but a lot of the functionality I had/used in XP has been taken out. From the drift of things I have read in these threads, these functions/options/menus/utilities aren’t coming back. This thread is about what you don’t like, and the specifics of my previous statement have been addressed in this thread and others. A lot of things are small/minor. …Like the Up Arrow in Windows Explorer for example. I have been using bread crumbs for quite a while, and still miss it. Some (other) things impact my productivity heavily, and are a major grievance to me. Functions, and utilities I had in XP have been stripped out of Vista and Seven, and (like I said before) don’t look like they are coming back. I have heard Microsoft is slowly discontinuing support for XP. I believe Microsoft is making a big mistake doing that. A lot of people like XP, and are staying with it. It’s a comfortable, reliable work horse. Some things that were easy in XP have been made into a PIA, or are missing altogether in Vista/7. Don’t get me wrong… I really like a lot of the features in Win 7. It is (In my opinion) worth the horrible learning curve to get to know it. The graphics are better, the boot time quicker, and there are a bunch of new toys and added functionality XP/Vista did not have. For (Guessing here) 80 percent of the people who use it, Windows, 7 is going to be just wonderful for them. My Operating System however? I think not. Either Microsoft isn’t really listening, or (I believe) they just don’t care. Do I believe Microsoft should cater to 20 to 25 percent of their users? That’s a resounding YES! I have heard in these threads that not enough people actually use the functions/menus/utilities that were stripped, based on research. There is NO doubt in my mind that the numbers Microsoft has, are extremely accurate. What about the thousands \ millions who do/did use those Functions/menus/utilities however? Is it so hard to leave them in? They were there already! I don’t want anything new added… I want things that were stripped out, put back! The missing right click options in Slideshow for example. I sure did enjoy being able to send a photo to an editor from slide show, editing it, then continuing with slideshow. I also used to be able to select a photo and start slideshow from there. It seems to start at the beginning every time (Or am I missing something.)
Does all the new “stuff” in Win 7 work the way I want it to, or the way I feel it should? NO. Some of my questions still have not been answered. For instance; there is a new MP3 tag editor in Win 7 (Love it!), but I cannot access one of the fields I really need to edit. I need access to the Artist field. Album Artist and Artist are not the same. Some of the hardware I use relies on the Artist field, and sometimes Artist, and Album Artist differ. Is there a way to do this? I’m not the only one who has asked that, and so far, I cannot find an answer to that question. (If someone knows the answer, and can point me to it I would appreciate it.)
I understand also, that Microsoft is still working on a number of post release “fixes”. I'm waiting to see if any of my old functionality is restored. By the way; user registry hacks, work a rounds, and third party software are not repairs.

I do intend to keep 1 Win 7 machine running to keep abreast of development, and (Believe it or not) some activities are actually faster and easier in 7. My new Vista Laptop is probably going back to XP Pro. I have heard that the manufacturer does not support XP drivers for some of the newer hardware, and it will “Void my warranty”. If the stupid thing has much trouble, I’ll put 7 on it, and research manufacturers who do support XP. I’m not asking to return to the Stone Age. I just want my functionality back! Sometimes newer IS better. I don’t even mind relearning a different way to do things all that much (Although I do still miss that arrow!). When you cannot even accomplish the same tasks anymore, using the same (but different) software, SOMETHINGS WRONG!
The examples I have used are only a couple of the frustrations I have. C’mon Microsoft, How about a little give?

Discussion anyone? :)

You allude to some MAJOR missing functionality, but the things you site are pretty minor. I would have thought it would be the other way around, you would site the major, and allude to the minor...

Mp3 tag editor ? seems to have been addressed by another in the thread. I can agree with you on the up arrow. There should be a way to put it back, and I am waiting for someone to release a hack that will. Still, the address bar at the top works pretty good for my purposes. A couple clicks can always get me where I need to go. There was just something mighty intuitive about the up arrow function that I rather miss at times, and the address bar is not quite the same.

I do not use slide show in 7, so I cannot speak to the missing right click menu. Rather, I am a pretty strict picasa user for photo organization and basics, and if I ever need to engage in serious editing (2 times a year) I use photoshop. When it comes to photo-organizing, editing, etc on any serious level, I would not recommend staying with the bundled software in 7, not when there are companies out there that specialize in precisely this, that create vastly superior software which is in many cases free.. You are just better off.. My guess, is slide show in 7, was not created for users who even have a decent grasp on the fact that they have a right mouse button, much less what it does..

cbleman · 12 Jan 2010

Dzomlija said:

Please see the following attachment:

Attachment 46978

As can be seen clearly, the "Album Artist" and "Contributing Artist" field are indeed different. It's the "Contributing Artist" field that you are looking for to represent the Artist. I know this, becaue a utility that I created back in the day of XP (MP3 Media Properties Explorer), correctly writes the ID3v2 Artist tag. In Vista and Seven, this is displayed as "Contributing Artist".

Surely it could have taken you less time to figure that out than it did to rant about it?

cbleman said:

I do intend to keep 1 Win 7 machine running to keep abreast of development, and (Believe it or not) some activities are actually faster and easier in 7. My new Vista Laptop is probably going back to XP Pro. I have heard that the manufacturer does not support XP drivers for some of the newer hardware, and it will “Void my warranty”. If the stupid thing has much trouble, I’ll put 7 on it, and research manufacturers who do support XP. I’m not asking to return to the Stone Age. I just want my functionality back! Sometimes newer IS better. I don’t even mind relearning a different way to do things all that much (Although I do still miss that arrow!). When you cannot even accomplish the same tasks anymore, using the same (but different) software, SOMETHINGS WRONG!

cbleman said:

The examples I have used are only a couple of the frustrations I have. C’mon Microsoft, How about a little give?

Discussion anyone? :)

I am sure you will discover that seven is by far the superior operating system. You just need to give yourself a little more time to figure that out. I haven't personally used XP in 3 years (not counting the computers at work), and I stopped using Vista about 3 days after I tried Windows 7 BETA Build 7000.

But as for you not being able to accomplish the same tasks anymore, I do not believe that this is a problem with the new OS. Yes, Seven is different, and you have set yourself up to fail but not adapting to the changes. C'mon, give yourself a little credit here, and you'll eventually wonder how you ever got anything done on XP without 3rd-party utilities...

I wasn't looking for "Album Artist" or "Contributing Artist" Simply "Artist". I had NO idea that "Contributing Artist" saves to the "Artist" field. I have all three of those fields in my tags; each of them a different field. How exactly would one figure out that the "Contributing Artist" field saves to the "Artist" field? I haven't played with this info yet. Thanks for the heads up. truly. If my hardware and software didn't rely on that field, I would just get used to using a different field. My entire library of thousands of songs is indexed by "Artist". It would take considerable work to populate another field properly.
As far as the third party options; I use em, I just don't want to pay third parties to do what was native in XP.
Time I have plenty of, and I don't mind being educated. I plan to continue to use 7. Win 7 is NOT bad at all. in fact I readily admit it does some things better than, or is not available at all in XP. It's just what is missing that bothers me. Do you know of a way to send the picture I'm viewing in slideshow to an editor, from slideshow, without leaving slideshow? I know the new OS is different. I can't find a way to do this at all in 7, and that's something I don't like. Thank you for the heads up on the Tag issue. I'll have to wait a few days to play with it. I apreciate your input.

cbleman · 12 Jan 2010

musiclover7 said:

You allude to some MAJOR missing functionality, but the things you site are pretty minor. I would have thought it would be the other way around, you would site the major, and allude to the minor...

Mp3 tag editor ? seems to have been addressed by another in the thread. I can agree with you on the up arrow. There should be a way to put it back, and I am waiting for someone to release a hack that will. Still, the address bar at the top works pretty good for my purposes. A couple clicks can always get me where I need to go. There was just something mighty intuitive about the up arrow function that I rather miss at times, and the address bar is not quite the same.

I do not use slide show in 7, so I cannot speak to the missing right click menu. Rather, I am a pretty strict picasa user for photo organization and basics, and if I ever need to engage in serious editing (2 times a year) I use photoshop. When it comes to photo-organizing, editing, etc on any serious level, I would not recommend staying with the bundled software in 7, not when there are companies out there that specialize in precisely this, that create vastly superior software which is in many cases free.. You are just better off.. My guess, is slide show in 7, was not created for users who even have a decent grasp on the fact that they have a right mouse button, much less what it does..

I like viewing the pictures full screen without any headers, or controls showing. Personal preference I guess. It helps me pick out flaws without distractions. Photo shop does not do this for me. I do however send the pictures to Photo Shop for editing. To each their own I guess. I'm still wondering WHY MS stripped the ability to do this. I also like the ability to click through the photos that don't need editing without opening and closing windows. I find it takes very little effort to do this in Slideshow. Speaking as a long time Vista avoider, (Hate is such a strong word.) the loss of small things like this is why I never went back. What's small for some people is a major issue for others.
I agree with you about Bread Crumbs. It is a pretty nice feature once you get used to it. It's also nice to hear someone else say they they miss the arrow. Can I do without it? Yup! It sure was usefull to me also though. I would like to see it back.

hdmi · 12 Jan 2010

I like Windows 7 although I'll have to admit I criticised it nevertheless, and yes, I am aware of the fact nothing nor anyone can be perfect. That includes me, but it also includes Windows.

Breadcrumbs versus up arrow is not the main issue. It's the fact so many people dislike Live mail while Outlook Express is gone. It's the fact you have to either search the internet or become a clearvoyant to find out that there is indeed a shortcut for Show Desktop in "C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" and that you can indeed put it between the Start orb and Pinned programs on your Taskbar, by copying it to a new Directory first, then pinning that directory to your taskbar as a Toolbar, then dragging that toolbar very Fast. However: if you drag it too slow it won't go there, because the new "Snap" feature will not trigger unless you do it fast enough, meaning you have to unpin all of the pinned programs and re-pin them if you happen to be a person who can't drag fast enough. Nobody can be perfect, remember? No offense, but that is not exactly what I'd call "easier to use". I hope you'll see my point after all.

musiclover7 · 12 Jan 2010

I have no idea about the missing right click functionality in Slideshow. I fear you may be out of luck with that one. Picasa is a free organizer with minimal but somewhat powerful editing functionality, that also contains the ability to view photos via slideshow. One option may be to "Star" the photos there while you view in slideshow. Doing so puts them automatically on Picasa's Selection list, or held photos. From there, you can then edit them or transfer to a new folder for editing with another app etc.. About the best I can offer. I believe the contributing artist field in Windows 7 is in fact the artist field that you are used to. For any kind of bulk mp3 tag editing, I use tagscanner: The Ultimate TagScanner: Download

It is free, has a bit of a learning curve, but once you know a few of the basics, it really makes editing lots of files much easier. I have been working through my audio-book collection which contains over 12,000 individual mp3 files using it, and have found it invaluable. Basically, 7's tag editor functionality, while a very cool idea and useful if you want to view info on a given file on the fly and change, does not help too much where bulk editing is concerned. I own a 30gb Zune that I purchased refurbished for $65. The zune software is not really great, and chokes a great deal if tags are not properly set. Tagscanner is a much needed companion to any Zune owner, or another app like it. The zune software lacks, but it is the only way of getting music, movies, audiobooks into your zune. Once they are there, the player is really a huge score, especially for the prices they tend to run at now..

Good luck to you!!

valtonray · 12 Jan 2010

well one of my complaints is now void. i can get tinker for windows 7 for free. woohoo, once again productivity goes out the window to make room for mindless addiction.

cbleman · 12 Jan 2010

musiclover7 said:

I have no idea about the missing right click functionality in Slideshow. I fear you may be out of luck with that one. Picasa is a free organizer with minimal but somewhat powerful editing functionality, that also contains the ability to view photos via slideshow. One option may be to "Star" the photos there while you view in slideshow. Doing so puts them automatically on Picasa's Selection list, or held photos. From there, you can then edit them or transfer to a new folder for editing with another app etc.. About the best I can offer. I believe the contributing artist field in Windows 7 is in fact the artist field that you are used to. For any kind of bulk mp3 tag editing, I use tagscanner: The Ultimate TagScanner: Download

It is free, has a bit of a learning curve, but once you know a few of the basics, it really makes editing lots of files much easier. I have been working through my audio-book collection which contains over 12,000 individual mp3 files using it, and have found it invaluable. Basically, 7's tag editor functionality, while a very cool idea and useful if you want to view info on a given file on the fly and change, does not help too much where bulk editing is concerned. I own a 30gb Zune that I purchased refurbished for $65. The zune software is not really great, and chokes a great deal if tags are not properly set. Tagscanner is a much needed companion to any Zune owner, or another app like it. The zune software lacks, but it is the only way of getting music, movies, audiobooks into your zune. Once they are there, the player is really a huge score, especially for the prices they tend to run at now..

Good luck to you!!

Thanks for the heads up. I found a link that is suposed to add the up arrow, and other classic functions back into Windows 7, on a thread in this forum. It's late here. I'll try to install it to tomorrow evening, and let you know how it works. If you want to investigate it yourself, the link is below
Welcome to Classic Shell

Edit: I know I'm whistleing in the dark asking MS to put functions back. The point I'm trying to make is; tools I use that were native to the OS, are now gone. I have to replace them with 3rd party software. Grrrrr. MS has a big promo campain out right now saying they listened to the users, and gave them what they wanted. hehehehe riiiight.... Although most have good things to say about 7, people I talk with feel the same way; but we must be a minority. Quite a few (Like me), are coming directly from XP. The link above (I feel) should not be needed. I apreciate the input on good third party software that works, very much! It looks like I'm going to need it.
Thanks again
smee

Barman58 · 13 Jan 2010

The developer of Classic Shell is actually a member of SevenForums

further information is available here ....

ANN: Classic Shell - start menu and other features

pezzonovante · 14 Jan 2010

Breadcrumbs are the greatest thing since sliced "bread" in my opinion

. It has saved me zillions of clicks in the last three years.