As I’m getting accustomed to the BETA2 release of Vista, I can only think of one thing.
I hate dialogs.
I especially hate the big, black, screen-blanking, in-your-face annoyance of a security system that Microsoft felt compelled to put in place.
I can see where they are coming from (Unix!), but it just doesn’t work. The idea of least administrative access is that admins can use lower accounts and bolt up to more access when required.
It seems Microsoft think everyone should still be an administrator, and that whenever people want to do a somple task like delete a desktop shortcut, all hell should break loose!
Oh, don’t get me started on the shortcuts. I think I counted about 8 (yes, eight!) confirmation shortcuts:
1) This is a file. Are you sure to want to do this?
2) Oh, hang on – this is a shortcut. It bears no problem on a program, but I’d better ask again.
3) You do know that you are only deleting a shortcut, don’t you?
4) Hmm, you’ll need to be an administrator – you are sure, right?
5) Because even though it’s just a shortcut on your desktop, I’ve assimilated it into the SYSTEM account. That alright?
6) Big black screen! ALLOW or DENY! Stop if you’re scarred!
7) Okay, now you’ve let me. You okay with this, big guy?
8) Right, I’ll do it!
OK – maybe I’m exaggerating by one or two.
Internet Explorer falls foul to this when activeX kicks in for the installer. A big black screen appears BEFORE you know what program wants to be installed:
1) BIG BLACK SCREEN: Whoa! Something’s installing – it could be ANYTHING. Allow or deny?
2) (Assuming you’ve allowed) Would you like to install flash?
I can see where this is coming from – but users don’t read popups like this. The bods at MS know this, yet they’ve strung a series of dialog boxes for the simple jobs! I’d say that too much security isn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately, this isn’t security – it’s a menace.