Lack of 64-bit support.
Despite my irritation at Adobe Bridge’s behavior, I use it because it is so closely linked to Adobe apps. One other key aspect is that it recognizes Nikon RAW files, allowing me to view them. I can’t actually preview RAW images in Windows Explorer, because Nikon hasn’t seen fit to create a 64-bit Nikon RAW codec. What you can do is install the 32-bit codec, then run a 32-bit Windows Explorer window, then browse raw files. But seriously, who wants to keep track of different versions of the file browser? Just give us a 64-bit codec already.
Too Many Drivers!
On the other hand, sometimes you get too many drivers.
I have an HP PhotoSmart C309a Premium All-in-One printer. Right now, I can’t use it as a scanner, because there is no Windows 7 version of the network scanning driver. But Microsoft has included a printer driver for the C309a, so I can at least use it as a networked printer.
Well, to be accurate, Microsoft has included two drivers.
Which Driver Do I Choose?
One is labeled “HP81D40A (HP Photosmart C309a series).”
The other is called “Photosmart C309a series (HP).”
Which one should you choose?
Take a look at the column labeled “Address.” The first entry is http://192.168.0.3:3910. The other is just 192.168.0.2.
Picking the HTTP driver creates problems. I would consistently get aborted or incomplete prints and my print queue would get filled with incomplete print jobs. But none of those would generate a Windows error message – I had no idea that they failed, or that print jobs were stacking up in the queue. I would see tha partial printout, swear at the printer, and start another. But it’s the first driver in the list, so many people would just pick that one.
FAIL.
Once I uninstalled the HTTP driver, and installed the standard TCP/IP driver, everything printed normally. I’m sure there’s a logical reason to have separate HTTP and TCP/IP driver. I just wished that they both, you know, worked.
Okay, that’s enough of my annoyances for one day. Drop in the thread and post a few of your own.
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7 comments
Jason
August 31, 2009 at 11:54 am (UTC -7)
Well, your first annoyance is bad software engineering.. That “Application is not responding” stuff comes from when the program is looping and not responding to windows messages.
Basically, it’s processing and the programmers are not running the message pump. It’s just sloppiness. If they’d just pump messages every once in a while, it’d all work just fine and never grey out.
The Firefox thing, ya, that happens to me occasionally. It’s doing something in the background, or maybe a plugin is, and in that case it’s not responding to the close message. Very annoying.
tlmck
August 31, 2009 at 1:44 pm (UTC -7)
I have had the same issue with Firefox 3.5x running on the Win 7 RC. I also had trouble with it restarting after installing an add-on. It would just disappear and not come back. I could click the icon and bring it up again, but it would ask me to restart again… I finally gave up and reverted to 3.012, and now 3.013. No issues there.
3.5x does seem to work fine in Vista and Ubuntu.
Derek
August 31, 2009 at 5:24 pm (UTC -7)
Oh man, there are quite a few similar annoyances. Let’s see, just from today I have:
1) Any game that like to run an updater needs to run in Administrator mode. Why do I have to tell it every day this it is OK to run it in Administrator mode?
2) I keep several archive folders in my ‘work’ Outlook, one for each year. So I have a file for 2009, another for 2008, etc. They are each almost 2GB in size. But even though the 2008 and 2007 files haven’t changes in months, Outlook insists on ‘updating’ them every time I open Outlook. The date/time change and the contents are different (I did a hex compare once). So SyncToy inissts on backing up those files every day, seriously slowing things down.
3) Picasa allows you to edit pictures, but stores those edits in a location different from the original. So once I start using Picasa I ALWAYS have to use Picasa or I lose the edits.
4) My Facebook games stopped working in Firefox 2-3 days ago. Still work in Chrome and IE, but not FF. What’s up with that? And no, a reboot doesn’t fix it.
Mot Eugaet
September 1, 2009 at 8:42 am (UTC -7)
Some years ago I was burning some DVD’s and like a good boy I had Windows set to automatically download and install updates. I can’t remember if it was XP or Vista. Well … during the burn stage of one of my DVD’s, Windows said, Hi, I just downloaded updates and installed them, isn’t that great, and I am now going to reboot your system if you like it or not ( my version of the message, grrr). I tried to stop it and failed. I just sat there and cussed and fumed, trying to stop it from rebooting. Needless to say, I made a nice coaster, but fortunately, I saved the files and was able to attempt a new DVD. After that frustration, I now have it set to automatically download, but I will choose when to install.
YS
September 2, 2009 at 5:11 am (UTC -7)
Any program that steals focus from you. One of my top most pet peeves! Should not happen with recent OSes but somehow some programs manage to do that!
FH
September 2, 2009 at 6:44 am (UTC -7)
Good to see some meat on this blog’s bones, Loyd.
Peeves? Which one? How about SQLlite’s touchiness, need for frequent defrag and reindexing, propensity to totally clot unless you exclude most tables from your antivirus and its ability to totally freeze a one-core machine while consuming 8% of CPU. Pure magic.
Brandon Champion
September 4, 2009 at 1:46 pm (UTC -7)
I have an app at work that grinds away for an hour with the “App not responding” message… but it’s really working. The funny thing is, it has a progress bar, but it’s never updated. It’s gray until the app is done, then it’s solid blue for a second until it goes back to gray.
But what really bugs me is UAC in Vista when it doesn’t pop up immediately… you open something that should pop up a UAC box and instead, it slows the system down for 20-30 seconds… then finally shows up. The computer is in no way slow and CPU utilization is low, so I don’t know what the holdup is.