Most popular submissions in 'Usability' of all time
"Hide known file extensions" is still enabled by default.
This should not even be an option anymore. And in an age where 95% of all computer infections are due to social engineering, this is a completely unacceptable security vulnerability. I'm getting tired of removing "familyreunion.jpg.exe" (more...)
Either remove this security vulnerability by having full file names always displayed, or remove the type-by-name mentality that has been plaguing us for almost 30 years.
High
High
Not fixed
Control Panel Icon Naming
So, you're in Control Panel and you want to change how you computer Indexes files. You click "Indexing Options". Why is there a need for the "Options" part on the end, we know it's options, we're in Control Panel. Same (more...)
Drop the "Settings", "Options" and "Properties".
Low
Low
Not fixed
'File in use' dialog missing information and options
When trying to delete a file, if it's opened, the dialog won't show any information of which process/application is using the file nor any option to close the application so the user has to search the program that sometimes it is not an easy (more...)
Windows should (al least) indicate basic information of which process or application is using the file.
Further options to:
- Pass the focus to that application
- Close the program is using the file
- Force the program is using (more...)
Medium
Medium
Not fixed
Slideshow Experience is sloppy
Almost everytime I start a slideshow, I get visual glitches when the desktop fades out. For an unknown reason, the taskbar is in front of the fade out and only hides randomly, mostly after the fade out.
Experience on multi monitor sucks too: It (more...)
Make the experience glitch free. Optimize for multimonitor support. Make the animations much smoother and add hover transitions to the slideshow controls. A progress bar would also make the experience better instead of the static loading graphics.
Medium
Medium
Not fixed
File operations halting on errors
When performing operations over multiple files, if one file needs some kind of confirmation, the whole batch is paused until the user responds. If the operation is large and the user is away from the keyboard, a *lot* of time will be lost.
(more...)
Continue operating on the other files. Present the user a list with the questions and errors. If the user decides to cancel, rollback the whole batch (that's what Transactional NTFS is for, right?).
Medium
High
Not fixed
Extra border around IE7’s content
There is a 3px Win95-style border inside of Internet Explorer’s content area. That does make it look odd and more important prevents the scroll bar from being at the border of the screen when the window is maximized (Fitt’s Law). On the lower right (more...)
Remove the extra border like on Windows Explorer.
Low
Medium
Not fixed
Increase the Driver Selection list box size.
The driver selection list box has been the same size since windows 98. It's very frustrating when you want to see a list of drivers available. Surely it could make better use of the window space. It's understandable that the window may need (more...)
Re-arrange the text to give the list boxes more window height and utilize the wasted spaces. Allow the window to be resized and resize the list boxes accordingly to display the most information possible.
Low
Medium
Fixed
USB/Flash drives do not have "percentage used" color overlay
My USB is FAT32, and is shown in Computer. If i right click, and click view as portable device, it comes up in an anoying window, which DOES show an overlay. First, the "portable device" concept is useless, and second, why does it show the overlay?
Centralize portable devices into Computer, and let USB drives have remaining space overlay
Low
Low
Not fixed
Network Folder / UPNP - totally not user friendly
UPNP was a great choice, but Vista's support for it needs a lot of work. If this is one of the technologies you are going to use to compete with iTunes, it should be "spit shine" polished. But it's not even close. The main problems (more...)
- Clean up the Network Folder interface
- Improve Help docs
- Make UPNP more reliable between computers on wireless networks
- Improve UPNP discovery, it's in bad shape.
- integrate Zune networking for those that go that (more...)
Medium
High
Not fixed
FTP and Overwriting Files
When prompted to overwrite a file using the FTP integration in Explorer, nine times out of 10 the progress dialog is showing over the prompt to overwrite.
Show the prompt to overwrite over the progress dialog, always.
Medium
Low
Not fixed
Remote Desktop Drag and Drop
To transfer a file from a remote session locally, I have to either cut and paste (which works about 1 out of 5 times) or open windows explorer on the remote box, hope it linked up my local drive, and copy the file there.
Figure out drag and drop, even virtualization products have figured out this elusive UI plus.
Low
Medium
Not fixed
Windows Photo Gallery, cant resize pictures
With Windows Photo Gallery, you cannot resize pictures; you can crop them but not just scale them down or up.
You can't do it in WIndows Live either.
UPDATE* You can in Windows Live Photo Gallery but it is hidden and (more...)
Add this feature
Low
Low
Not fixed
Color Management for Explorer
With the advent of higher quality displays capable of showing a wider color gamut,
color management is becoming more important.
Currently Vista doesn't implement this on explorer.
I have noticed that Windows Picture Viewer (more...)
Implement Color management in the Explorer shell.
High
High
Not fixed
(repost) Sound Panel is hard to change volume.
Sorry for the repost, but I forgot the picture and more details.
The sound panel requires too many clicks to change the volume for the recording and playback channels. To change the volume of my microphone I have to perform.
- 2 (more...)
Make it much easier to change volume.
High
High
Not fixed
Font Details
File Properties for OTF or TTF files doesn't show relevant information under Details, such as Font Family Name and Font Subfamily Name. These are accessible through a www.microsoft.com/typography download, 'Font properties extension'. However, (more...)
At least add Font Family Name and Font Subfamily Name to the Details tab of Properties. Give the user the ability to add these columns when viewing the Fonts folder in Windows Explorer.
Low
Low
Not fixed