The PC Report

I was flicking back through our Windows 7 review that we posted last week and I noticed the lack of negatives we mentioned in our review. Maybe it was because we were so focused on all the great new things and features available in the operating system that we completely overlooked some of the things we found annoying or bad in the new OS.

So, I decided to compile a list of things I find dodgy, annoying or missing in Microsoft’s upcoming operating system:

I’ll start off with some visual annoyances. One thing I have noticed about the Show Desktop button on the taskbar is that when you click it to go to the desktop, some programs will flash in the taskbar. I’m not really sure why this happens, but to stop the flashing you have to go into the application and then minimise it again.

Also, sidebar gadgets, while moveable all over the screen, still lock in annoying places. I wanted my gadgets to be closer together, but Windows locks them too far apart for my liking. They should have added a free move button

Here is something that is a huge mess: the Control Panel. While it never really has been great for navigation, the version in Windows 7 is still a mess. Choosing to display all items means that you can barely find what you are looking for, and choosing category mode often means you have to search through multiple categories to find what you’re looking for. At least you can use the search feature.

While it’s good that Microsoft is thinking of user safety, User Account Control is annoying on the safest mode, useless on any other mode. Why bother putting it in if I’m going to turn it off because it’s useless on the default mode?

Microsoft also hasn’t really perfected the WEI that we first saw in Windows Vista. The Windows Experience Index hard drive score is still making my whole system get marked down. While I understand that a 7200 RPM drive isn’t exactly high-end, neither is my 3GB of DDR2 RAM which is getting a 7.4

Why they cannot add RAR management like they have Zip management still baffles me, when other developers can incorporate the source code into their programs. And surely they can put in ISO mounting into their own shell as well so I don’t have to install my own ISO mounting program.

They also removed web filtering from parental controls and force you to use Windows Live instead – they claim it’s so they can keep up-to-date but it looks more like a cheap way to make more people get Windows Live IDs.

Last on my list are the annoying “Do you want to scan and fix?” boxes that come up when I plug in some devices, like my PSP. Then when I do click Scan and fix, and unplug it and plug it back in again, the same dialogue box comes up again. Annoying!