The worst 20 features in Windows history _it industry

From Windows 95 's Active Desktop to Vista UAC, a series of tools, technologies, and programs bundled in Windows have made us more and more overwhelmed.

In November 1985, Microsoft released its Windows 1.0, and since then, after 22 years, Windows has become the most widely used and complaining computing platform in the world, and what Windows features are most unacceptable to people? We have widely recruited PCWorld readers, PCW community netizens and pcworld editors, authors of the comments, the final selection of the following 20 of the worst features of Windows history.

DriveSpace

In those days when the price of a 500GB hard drive is 99 dollars, it's hard to imagine 1MB of usable disk space, and disk space compression is incredible. Microsoft's DoubleSpace, released in 1993 DOS6.0, became DriveSpace in Windows 95 because of a patent dispute with rival Stac Electronics, although it failed to double disk space But it can squeeze out more free disk space, but the compression is excessive, there is the error of information loss. Windows XP is the first version of Windows that does not have a bundled DriveSpace feature, but I'm sure a lot of people haven't noticed that.

Windows Movie Maker (Video editor)

Windows ME (fourth in the history of the most failed products) has brought Windows Movie Maker 1.0, a response from Microsoft to Apple's latest imovie video-editing device. You can say that it's naïve, as we said in our initial review, that it doesn't provide the title and other useful effect features, and that the video output can only be in a unique format. With Windows XP version 2.0, it is the first one to be appreciated, and it only appears in the home version of XP. Vista brings the movie Maker 6.0, our question is: 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 what happened?

Web TV for Windows

The new version of Windows always brings at least 1 deceptive features that will soon disappear. Windows 98 has a WebTV for Windows feature that must be used in conjunction with Microsoft's WebTV set-top boxes, allowing users to watch TV and TV programs via the tuner, and also enable interactive TV via Intel's Intercast service. We evaluated it as "slow and unstable, often interrupted by Windows 98 screen saver and often locked for no reason." Even more laughable, the software also has a security vulnerability that hackers can take over your PC through this vulnerability.

Shut Down (shutdown)

Many users are concerned about how long it takes windows to start, but we care about how long windows shuts down and often give up when we complete a task completely. Microsoft says the shutdown function works better in Vista, but we have some doubts about the multiple shutdown options listed under Vista.

Paint (Drawing)

Drawing is a program that was bundled from Windows 1.0 in 1985, and the paint program hasn't changed much over the years, until it remains in Windows Vista and doesn't know how many people are using it.

Windows Aero

Transparent window border so you can see what's underneath the window, the Aero user interface is one of the groundbreaking features of Microsoft's vaunted Windows Vista, which is really cool when it runs as an ad, but it puts too high a demand on PC hardware that if the PC's graphics performance doesn't meet the requirements, will not be able to enjoy this feature, Vista will automatically turn off the feature without telling you.

Active Desktop ( Active Desktop)

10 years ago, the creation of an Active Desktop file (Windows Desktop Update, which originated in IE 4.0, and later became a component of Win 98) was a novelty, and it was for this reason that people once regarded it as a fashion that swept the world in the middle of the last century. It can make the content of the Web page directly into your computer desktop, and can also be automatically updated at any time. Using the same principle to enhance the system features are Yahoo toolbar, Apple Dashboard, and Vista gadget. It is worth mentioning that, in that computer configuration is very poor, dial-up connection in the era of Internet, Active Desktop is a tool to improve the speed of Windows operation.

Windows XP Search Capabilities

Shockingly, Windows users waited for a long 25 until Windows Vista came in to use a good search function. It is important to note that the search function of Windows XP may be the worst of all versions, not only slow but also confusing interface. You're searching with the help of a "crap dog" that even Microsoft's own people hate, and PC World columnist Stephen Manes once worried that the botched "Microsoft Bob" will remain in the new Vista system, The publication of an article calling on Microsoft to lose this feature has been enthusiastically embraced by hundreds of readers.

12. Microsoft's network system

Never used a Windows 95 system with the original version of MSN? Let's assume that you've used it. In the former Web age of AOL, the Pre-web, MSN 1.0 is trying to provide online services through a win-95-style interface, which is what we call a "forum" in which Microsoft has loaded shortcuts to desktop folders, but overall it doesn't look like a great one. , the content is thin, the second, the speed is extremely slow (the maximum access speed is only 14.4kbs). This means that when it is released, it is outdated, forcing Microsoft to overhaul it to help provide better ISPs and Web services.

Windows Explorer (Resource Manager)

If the time goes back to the Windows 95, we'll be able to recreate the image of Windows File Manager in our minds and even think of Windows Explorer, even in the latest version of Vista, the lack of a file management tool that has the wildcard filter function , you can effectively reduce the number of file searches of a particular type, and Windows Explorer will not be absent when you print a list of files in a document. Because of this, vcom developed a third-party tool PowerDesk that offers a number of new features on the basis of Windows Explorer.

Windows USB

Today, we really can't imagine how bad it would be to leave USB. However, 10 years ago, it was a completely different situation, at that time, the use of USB is a very luxurious thing. Windows 95 first introduced the USB standard and then made some corrections to it, which led to the familiar Windows OSR2.1. When we developed some early USB peripherals by this standard, we found a series of problems that only work occasionally, sometimes not even recognize the PC, and, in bad cases, drag down the entire computer and you have to reload the system. Later, Win 98 also added support for USB, but still not satisfactory, the following scenes are fresh in the memory: once, Bill Gates on the stage to show the document, when the USB scanner inserted, his computer unexpectedly "strike"!

9. Windows genuine Value Added plan

Does Microsoft have the right to fight piracy? Of course! The Windows Genuine Value added program (Windows Genuine Advantage) allows users to download software at their official site, first must make a test, and if it thinks your Windows operating system is pirated, it will give you some warning tips, Microsoft's statistics show that millions of users will buy pirated software every year. Users can get the service through Microsoft's security upgrade package. Microsoft's WGA Department said all of their efforts were made to ensure that the software installed by users was not pirated.

8. End Task (ends)

To suspend a program, you can press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> three hotkeys at the same time, bring up Windows Task Manager, select the appropriate application and click "End Task". If there is no response, repeat the original action until the end is reached, or forced to give up. Why is such a basic operating system still full of anticipation in 2007? This question is really difficult to answer. In particular, the Apple Mac OS X operating system incorporates the equivalent features, using the "Force Exit" (Force Quit) feature to accomplish the goal each time.

7. User Access Control (UAC)

No one thinks UAC has a good reason, if the computer is doing something potentially threatening, it will determine if the computer user is trying to do this. UAC is still in the experimental phase, but its constantly popping windows still make the user very uncomfortable. We hope that one day Vista will make UAC more perfect and more likeable. For the current version, many users would rather risk being hacked to shut it down.

6. Windows Update (Windows upgrade)

You must have a lot of complaints about Windows XP software patches, but believe that all of you must be most dissatisfied with prompting you to reboot the machine after the upgrade is complete in Windows Update, and the prompts will pop up every 10 minutes until you follow the prompts. This hint is a very high-handed thing.

5. Messenger Service (messaging)

If you read an article about warning services in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, you will be appalled: If an ad opens in the Windows Message Service window of your computer, it may indicate that your system is not secure enough, Some advertisers are starting to use the service to post advertising messages over the Internet, a service that could also be exploited to walk the virus. Windows XP SP2 has shut down the service by default, and Vista has completely abandoned it.

4. Notifications (hint window)

You just installed a program! The network cable is not plugged in properly! Are there any icons used on your desktop? Windows often pops up some prompts to remind us of the information it thinks we should know. These balls are often popped out of the system tray, and a large part of that information is not alive and inaccurate, and many users are distracted by these extraneous cues as they work.

3. Internet Explorer 6 (IE6)

Since the mid 1990s, Microsoft and Netscape launched a browser war, the 2001 release of the IE6, seemingly "omnipotent", but after 5 years of verification, even like Firefox and Opera can have a lot of ways to make the browser better. At the same time IE6 constantly disclosed security vulnerabilities allow hackers to constantly attack the user's system, casual users can only continue to play patches, 2006 released IE7, compared to IE6 has greatly improved.

2. The Registry (registration form)

We've always had a puzzle. Why would you put so much important information about Windows configuration together in one file? Such a small problem could cause the entire PC system to crash. You can always carefully back up your registry, you can use the Registry Cleanup tool, you can carefully edit the registry, but you dare to edit the registry? Because you have no way of predicting the risk of doing so.

1. ActiveX controls

In fact, the ActiveX control technology that has been originating from Windows 3.0 OLE has 2 negative effects on users, and there is a security risk when people visit Web pages with built-in ActiveX applications. Because once you allow it to run on your machine, it is tantamount to agreeing that it will do whatever it wants in your system. But in fact, ActiveX has been working only in Windows with IE or compatible browsers, and most of the time, only Microsoft is using this technology to complete such as Windows Update, Windows Genuine Advantage and other active work.