Submission details
"Installing Device Driver Software" For Simple Devices Like USB Flash Drive
When you connect a new USB Flash drive, the user shouldn't see a notification for "installing device driver software" - it should be obvious what it is. In my opinion, it looks too geeky when this message appears. Perhaps there should be a way to turn this off. I realize that this only appears the first time you connect a new USB Flash drive. But, if the user uses a lot of different (new) Flash drives, this message becomes annoying, unnecessary and silly.
This same simplified logic should apply to other simple devices like mice as well. For instance, when I use my portable mouse on new laptops, I am always greeted with this notification. I just tested this with my mouse on a new computer, and it produced one notification that said "Installing device driver software" and then another one called "USB Human Interface Device Device driver software installed successfully".
Low
Low
Not fixed
Discussion (6 comments)
I agree that not everything is a flash drive. While you and I know what a "USB Human Interface Device Device" is, a normal user does not. A normal user should be able to see this and understand what is happening (I work at a help desk and I get this question often from researchers who have students who bring in their own flash drives). Also, other OS's don't do this. For instance, when you connect a mouse or flash drive to the Mac OS, it does not go through a setup process because it is just a simple mouse. I believe Ubuntu and Mandriva Linux operate the same way.
Now, on the other hand, if the notifications appear for a printer or something that is not connected too often, then I completely agree to have this. But, why have two notifications just to connect a flash drive? If you say that a user should need to know that a flash drive has been successfully connected, Windows automatically shows the AutoPlay window and so this is indication enough.
Alright. Sorry for the comment above. I was being bugged by a friend.
I say as soon as you connect it for the first time, you should be able to name the drive, I have 4 Sony USB flash drives. I name then according to their size (SONY 1GB , SONY 2GB SONY 4GB AND SONY 8GB) because there are times i connect all at the same time and i want to know what size is whitch since i put certin files on one and some on another...
same goes for memory cards for cameras and PDAs
It sounds like you already do this, but in case you don't, you can rename the USB drives like you would a hard drive and this renamed drive will then appear with it's name each time you insert it (right click the drive in Explorer and then give it the name you want). If you want some useful additional functionality (like the ability to eject the drive with a keyboard - I'm a big keyboard guy :) ), try USB Safely Remove from http://safelyremove.com. It also allows you to eject things based on their name, instead of something like "E: drive", etc. I think this may need to be another suggestion :)
I agree with this. If you've custom-named your drives, the name will show up in the Autoplay dialog, allowing you to identify it immediately.
There's no way a mouse should be referred to as 'Human Interface Device'.
I think there should be a notification on screen when you connect a new device, even if it is something simple. However it could be worded more clearly, such as 'Connecting new storage device...' or 'Connecting new mouse...' etc. I do a lot of PC repair work so I found it useful to have an on-screen notification that the device you just connected is recognized by the OS.
.Chris wrote on August 17, 2008, 4:52am
silly? umm think again "USB Human Interface Device Device driver software"
its fine, it tells it like it is. dont like it dont look. Not everyone knows what to do and not everything is a flash drive!