My dislikes, based on a one-month history with Windows7. I am sure I will find work-arrounds for some of these, and have already eliminated many from the list by reading most of this thread. Much of this is repetitive, but it helps my blood pressure to verbalize.
I dont like that my expectations for W7 were raised by largely unjustified praise from the Media who probably use Macs.
I didnt like the loss of Quick Launch, but it was not hard to replace (and rebuild). I did like the new style start menu, with search built in.
I am not a fan of Aero, but I am giving it a try, maybe it will grow on me. I realize I can turn it off, but if the masses like a feature, it is likely that feature will be the only choice in future versions. Adapt or die.
I dont like that I can no longer use SendTo to launch documents with a non-preferred app. (Yes, I know how to train "Open with", but I liked SendTo.)
I dont like that I have had to edit the registry more in the first month using W7 than I did in years using XP and Vista.
It irritates me that I still have to go find a third-party, real text editor outside Windows that allows dragging a string of text to a new location in the file, much less to another application via the taskbar.
It irritates me that I have to go to a third-party utility like KatMouse to get the mouse scroll to work where it is hovering on a non-selected window or frame. I also wish that the Snip tool could be set to work like MWSnap to be a very fast take-a-pic for visual documentation of reminders.
I dislike the fact that more and more aspects of Windows7 ignores my setting for the mouse pointer to "SnapTo" the default button.
I dont like that Explorer has been crippled with no user-settable toolbar, and no way (that I can find) to have one button that is always RIGHT THERE to take me to my favorite "Home" folder. It is hugely irritating that Explorer "forgets" my preferences in folder appearance settings, and has completely eliminated the setting for unsorted free-style icon layout (like a mini-desktop). It is mildly irritating that I cannot set my preferred background color/image for the folders as I desire.
I do not care for Libraries, but they would not bother me, except that they try to force the programmers-world-view on me--I want my information organized in a way that I use it, not in the way that is most convenient for the computer. I do NOT want all my docs, videos, audio, pics in little individual square piles. I want things arranged such as, Personal\Humor\Dilbert\ THEN perhaps, docs, video, audio, pics. In another path, Business\CurrentYear\Taxes\FilingForms\Audits. In only a very few cases will all the files of specific type be clustered together, they will be organized the way they would be if they were in a file cabinet--things that I access together will be stored together, not stored on shelves for blue books, red books and green books.
But more than anything else, I dont like that in W7, "search", one of the most basic utilities of the digital world, takes a full semester to learn how to use, and there is no textbook for the class. I guess F1 is the best they could do. I liked the Vista search (After I got it setup), where it searched filenames, then gave a one-click choice to search inside files. I dont like the fact that I have to type in filter parameters rather than have buttons for--name:, contents:, folder:, type:, ext:, author:, accessed: -- only Date Modified and Size are there by default. Please, let me select my own filter buttons.
Enough--my blood pressure is down at least 5 points.
I do like this thread, both the complaints, and the helpful ones who point out the fixes and the work arounds. Feel free to point out where I have stupidly overlooked a simple fix to my dislikes. I will wade through a pile of abuse to find a pony.
