Vista Startup Sound to be Mandatory? 865
Toreo asesino writes "There has been lots of debate in the past few days over Microsoft's plan to make the startup sound in Windows Vista something that can't be specifically silenced by changing the sound settings in the control panel. Users would be able to avoid hearing it by manually turning down the speaker volume, but then they would have to turn that volume back up to hear anything else."
that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
It'll be:
"Hello, This is Bill Gates and I pronounce Windows as Windows."
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
"Hello, This is Bill Gates, and I pronounce Windows as..." followed by sounds of Bill Gates rolling around in a giant pile of cash.
or, for anyone who's played Paranoia
"Trust the Computer. The Computer is your Friend. Not trusting the Computer is Treason..."
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:4, Funny)
Nice sig, but when I type it I get (Score:5, Funny)
!!! possible candidates are:
- jen/girlfriend-1.1.3-r5 (masked by: ~taken)
- mary/girlfriend-1.1.3-r5 (masked by: ~uninterested)
- karen/girlfriend-1.1.3-r5 (masked by: ~uninterested)
!!! Error calculating dependencies. Please correct.
Re:"Your copy of Windows is genuine/pirate" (Score:5, Funny)
The "Your copy of Windows is pirate" would just make people laugh and brag about it. What they really need is a "Hello. I'm watching GAY PORN! MEN HAVING SEX WITH MEN! IN THE BUTT!" sound played extremely loud. They could blackmail people into actually buying legit copies, especially if they syngergized by incorporating text-to-speech technology with the search history saving functionality of Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Genuine Advantage Automatic Updater and used the startup sounds to effectively communicate interesting search histories to anyone in the room. "Hello. I'm a pirated copy of Windows Vista. I was used to search WebMD for 'penile discharge' last night. Please contact Microsoft Legal Department in order to have your startup sound changed."
Hmm, I'm tempted to write a little proof of concept program for my own pirated copy just to see how it works... The hard part would be getting it to find the juicy stuff on its own.
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Funny)
Yew got a purdy mouth. Who said siddown? Ahm'a make yew squeal like the wheels on mah chair... Ah! Luv! Dis! Cumpany!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:4, Funny)
Subliminal Advertising (Score:3, Funny)
I'll take a stab here and say that it will contain a subliminal message...
After a while they will begin leasing out the SubLim ad slot to Microsoft Prefered Partners via the windows update function every tuesday.
[/tinfoil hat]
Place a curse on Microsoft [i-curse.com]
Re:that's only the half of it (Score:5, Insightful)
If people knew what was in them they might object.
Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for MS (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a typical case of product-focused vs. user-focused thinking.
Has it occured to anyone that a user might just wake up early morning and wants to turn on his/her computer without waking up sleeping family members?
For this very reason one of the first setup steps I always do on a new machine is to turn off the startup sign.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Skip the window... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Funny)
Most Airlines frown upon things being thrown out the window in mid flight....
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Funny)
Fun prank: change your air-traveler friend's Windows starup sound
Laptop:"This laptop will expode in 10, 9, 8 ..."
Federal Air Marshall:"Sir! Turn that off NOW or I WILL SHOOT!"
Hapless Prankee:"Uh, I can't! It's Windows!"
Hee hee!
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Interesting)
TIME: Post-9/11.
Location: Major Metropolitan airport
Me: I just purchased a new LT that was about 3 days new to me. Being on the road I didn't have much time to 'play' with it. I arrive at the airport, get my tickets and proceed to my terminal. I'm early. I decide to sit and have a look-see at what was preinstalled on my LT. I sit next to the check-in counter. I open windows explorer. yadda yadda yadda, I open the windows folder and find an executable named 'clock.avi.' I double-click it.
The face of a clock take up most of the screen. It begins to Beep. LOUDLY. The clock is counting down. From 10.
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, and remember that the best way to accelerate your Vista-based system is 9.8 m/s^2!
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no idea why no other brands do this, but having an actual volume control is extremely useful. I hardly ever touch windows' horrible software volume control and just leave it at maximum.
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Informative)
But then again, with OSX it isn't possible to disable the startup sound either (or so I've heard) so if people would make a fuss about this, then why not continue at apple?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I rarely shut down my MacBook Pro or the Powerbook I used before that - I just put it to sleep by closing the lid and open the lid the next time I want to use it.
I only have to restart because of the occasional system software update that requires a restart. Otherwise I'm golden.
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Insightful)
But Apple can do no wrong here on /., so the point is moot.
There. I fixed it for you.
Look, this is either an idiotic thing that should be an option controllable by the user or it's not, and whichever it is, it is regardless of how many times somebody might reboot their computer.
It never ceases to amaze me how many excuses people here can come up with for why their double standards aren't double standards. I expect no less than 5-6 more in reply to this post.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Insightful)
Intel may have fixed that (Score:4, Funny)
A computer feature that actually works? All the time?
Oh, well, there's a pretty good chance that Apple's switching to Intel CPUs and the associated hardware architecture will fix that and you'll get to enjoy the pleasure of full reboots a lot more often just as we fortunate PC owners do
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:5, Insightful)
I do it because having some corny sound play every time I reboot is just too much to bear.
What really bugs me is that Scoble says he can "see both sides" of the issue. What kind of workplace culture does Microsoft have, where they'd even consider imposing such an obnoxious feature?
This isn't going to happen, of course. The "you have got to be kidding" emails must be already pouring in. But the fact that this is an issue says nasty things about the Redmond mentality.
Re:Horrible idea, but thats par for the course for (Score:4, Insightful)
What really bugs me is that Scoble says he can "see both sides" of the issue. What kind of workplace culture does Microsoft have, where they'd even consider imposing such an obnoxious feature?
I'll guarantee they've contracted work to some "user experience" guru who says some crap about how sound is a more primal sense than sight, and that to properly brand Windows you have to associate it with a sound, and that this sound must always be associated with Windows.
Of course, what they haven't thought of is that you don't want to associate your OS with a reboot these days. So this might backfire on them.
Their operating system, their choice. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
How to turn it off.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How to turn it off.. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I imagine it'll involve subtly hacking a grafted-on Windows 2000 version of NTOSKRNL.DLL while fending off the frothing-at-the-mouth system-file protection and changing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SystemEnhan
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How to turn it off.. (Score:5, Informative)
In some cases, the fix is to simply delete the dllcache version - if what you're trying to do is delete the file. But there's also an added level of hackery for a subset of these protected files, because they're also redundantly backed up in a
So for files that are protected with this extra level, no, it's not really possible to change them via hex editor. I know that there used to be hacks in 2000 to disable WFP. I also know that in 2002, Microsoft did not have the expertise, in house, to answer a developer support question on WFP behavior (for a developer of BACKUP software - ie. "what happens if I restore the system to a previous version via backup software? - answer: nasty stuff. Which is why imaging software became a very popular way of backup and restore windows desktops).
No - I know that guys like Marc Russinovich probably have a much better understanding of how WFP works. But this is my understanding after having to deal with it. Frankly, in the past few years, when I've had to remove spyware and malware from systems, there's an eerie resemblance in self-protection techniques between WFP and malware.
Re:How to turn it off.. (Score:4, Informative)
Step 1: cacls {TheFile}
Winlogon doesn't run as Administrator and so won't be able to load the file. WFP doesn't run as Administrator and so won't be able to replace the file.
Copying the Mac again... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:5, Funny)
I see you are new to Microsoft products. Your sig seems to state otherwise, but since you still seem to believe that your computer should work for you, rather than for Microsoft, you obviously have yet to experience any Microsoft product in action.
I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who has to experience Windows for the first time, especially if they are used to any other OS...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:4, Informative)
Only if you haven't muted audio. If you mute the audio output and then reboot (or shutdown and then power on), you won't hear the power-on chime.
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's similar to Vista then? You need to mute the computer in order to not hear the chine, and then un-mute it again?
I don't know about rest of you guys, but I find the Mac startup-chime _annoying_. And the user should be able to disable with zero hassle, and in such way that it does not affect rest of the system!
Mac has a "nice" startup sound (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft's startup sounds have a length half as long as a standard symphony performance. The way Microsoft works, anything "unique" to them is going to be over the top and annoying to boot.
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:5, Informative)
Turn down your sound (in the OS X volume control), or mute your speakers.
Restart.
Tada! No startup sound.
There are also applications and Applescripts that will do it automatically for you:
http://alphaomega.software.free.fr/startupchimest
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2003
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16780 [macupdate.com]
By the way, the Apple startup sound is more akin to the PC Bios Boot-Beep. It's a hardware test, and it will play a different sound if there is a video card failure or ram failure, something which prevents the system from reaching the GUI.
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Although if it's the POST beep equivalent, that's another matter, I suppose...
Re:Copying the Mac again... (Score:5, Informative)
It follows the software volume setting from when you turned off your Mac.
You can also mute it by holding F3 while booting your Mac, which on any Apple keyboard has the "mute speaker" icon, which is also how you mute the speaker in software.
There are also many free utilities that can disable it for you.
I suppose using Google to search for "mac startup sound mute" and hitting I'm feeling lucky was too hard. The result is pretty clear....
http://homepage.mac.com/geerlingguy/mac_support/m
What in the world? (Score:5, Insightful)
Broadcasters will object (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They already did. You turn off the speakers. Or, if your speakers don't have an independent power switch (say they're built into your monitor), then just mute the sound in windows. I don't know about Vista, but XP stays muted after you reboot.
I really don't see this as a big deal. I normally only turn on my speakers after my computer has booted, so I rarely, if ever, hear a startup sound. I can see it annoying notebook users, since they often
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know about Vista, but XP stays muted after you reboot.
Until they decide that the branding is so important that they have to override the volume setting to play the sound. I can hear the meeting somewhere in the bowels of Microsoft... "Since we don't know what volume level it should be if the user mutes the sound, we'll just play at at maximum volume, no matter what the volume setting is." (I can't wait for the first hearing impairment lawsuit for someone getting blasted with that sound while wea
Re:Broadcasters will object (Score:4, Informative)
The sound can't be disabled because that's the whole point of having the automation software in the first place.
Any bleeps or bloops or Windows logo noises will get picked up and passed along with the program material and broadcast to the five people still listening to broadcast radio. Who the hell wants to hear Windows sound effects on their radio? All that stuff has to be turned off or killed or deleted or something, leaving a pure program audio feed on the line-out.
The same goes for offline audio workstations, such as one I have in my home. The boot noise is not so much an issue for me, but I can't have sound effect-equipped dialog boxes ruining my work. Right now, this is easy to deal with in XP.
If Vista makes this impossible, then they've just closed the upgrade door on themselves. What I do now in XP, I can also do in linux and I will make that move if I have to do that to get the recordings I need. Honestly, XP Pro works so well for me right now, I can't see any reason to move to Vista.
Bottom line (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bottom line (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, from a software design point of view, that's not necessarily the correct answer. If you make everything configurable that every user would possibly want to change, then you're looking at a UI that's going to be almost impossible to navigate, at least when you're talking about an OS the size of Vista. That said, I think this is a case where it should be something the user can change.
Re:Bottom line (Score:5, Informative)
Just . . . don't . . . get . . . it (Score:4, Insightful)
At least the article references Ze...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This month's maximumPC which I just received today has a review of various PVR software suites for a media center PC.
Windows Media Center gets low marks for being very content-provider specific, as opposed to user-focused. For example, they've added in (presumably at the content providers' request) the functionality to have some programs *cough*thesopranos*cough* automatically deleted after 2 weeks. Why? Well it doesn't serve the user. And then, there's DRM, watermarked WMV, nonstandard formats, etc.
On
um, I dont think so (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps... (Score:5, Funny)
It's my computer, let me silence it (Score:5, Insightful)
And Xbox or Playstation are not good excuses, those are for a different market. There's also a number of people out there using mod chips to regain control of those things if they don't like some decisions from the manufacturer. Just because my Xbox makes a startup noise doesn't mean that I want it to. And just because some Engineer at Microsoft or Sony decided their toy for kids should make a startup noise does not mean I want to hear it on my laptop, tower, or anything at the office in the morning.
Vista startup sound clip ought to be... (Score:5, Funny)
I still hold out hope...
Yes Steve a registry setting please...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\ShutTheFuckUp
make sure that dword is set to 1
Don't do this (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine being in a large university class with 100 or 200 students and half of them boot their laptops at the beginning of the class. The sound will be played 50-100 times, how much more annoying can it get!
Let me guess... (Score:5, Funny)
Horrible idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Unbelievably dumb. A massive triumph of marketing people over reality. How can this can be presented as a 'I see both sides of this fascinating argument' in the article? The argument that lots of other systems do this too is irrelevant; currently, you don't have to do this in Windows - why start making this mistake now?
Uh, Macs? (Score:5, Insightful)
"BAHHHH."
Re:Uh, Macs? (Score:5, Informative)
Mac Startup sound is hardly heard (Score:4, Interesting)
1st reason, if you mute the sound, the startup chime is also muted.
2nd reason, sleep actually works very well on Mac models, and most Mac laptop users don't shut their machines down often. This of course is not true of 100% of the population, but it is true of a very large portion. As one example the Macbook has a bug where if you shut it down and close the lid, it crashes and doesn't shut down. While this is a known issue, very few Macbook users report it or complain about it.
I have only shut down my Macbook once, and that was to upgrade the RAM, since then it has been sleep only when it was not in use.
Re:Uh, Macs? (Score:4, Informative)
What you don't know... (Score:3, Funny)
It'd be pure microsoft...
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
This article has to be a joke (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose the system will REQUIRE the sound file, and it must be a signed/DRMed WMA10 file too, right? And ONLY Microsoft-signed sounds (e.g., Vista Plus! pack or whatever comes out alongside the OS next year) will be "allowed" to replace the default sound?
Meh. I won't be affected. When I have to run Windows (for legacy hardware not supported by Linux) it's Win98SE or Win2K, and I can customize SuSE and kubuntu linux to my heart's content. Fuck Windows Vista and the DRM fest and locked-down GUI that will come with it. Monad, you say? I already have that; it's called bash.
reason 78 I won't be using Vista (Score:5, Funny)
Reason #2. It's been delayed 5 times and still won't die
Reason #3: Fundamentally no better than XP
Reason #4: Still no shell
Reason #5: Or compiler
Reason #6: Takes more space then it really ought to
Reason #7: New added value bonus DRM compliance goodies!
...
Reason #76: It takes more memory than a weather simulation of Earth just to show the desktop
Reason #77: "Ultimate Edition"
Reason #78: Annoying Startup Sounds
Tom
Re:reason 79 (Score:3, Funny)
Reason #79: Just to make #78 clear, if I want my computer to make a funny sound every time I reboot, I'll lick my finger and rub it across the screen, and if the squeaky sound doesn't amuse me enough, I'll shove it up Steve Ballmer's ass.
The reasoning behind this is pathetic. (Score:5, Funny)
OMG..they have a branded starup sound! Can we have a startup sound too! Please!
"A spiritual side of the branding experience. A short, brief, positive confirmation that your machine is now concious and ready to react."
Spiritual side? WTF does that mean? Do we get Kool-aid if we format the drive?
"The startup sound is designed to help you calibrate or fix something that got out of wack when you startup your machine. Let's say you muted your machine, and you don't hear your startup sound, you know you aren't ready to listen to stuff."
Maybe the power LED being off, the dial at 0 or the red 'no' symbol on the speaker icon might give it away after you hear absoulutely nothing coming from the speakers?
Of course there are the foot pedal mouse and coffee holder ROM drive crowd to think about. Maybe they can get an offical Vista helemt with a send in postcard.
"The Xbox has a hard-wired startup sound. "
Which makes sense. Your siting down to game and the sound system has a mojor role in that experience. It also happens as soon as the machine starts. You know exactly when it's going to happen. It's basically a "hey..it's this loud right now..get your volume set..we're getting ready to game". Not blast you out if you forget where your settings were the previous time and you walked away during boot up.
People get paid to "think" this crap up. It's amazing.
Not thinking of mobile users (Score:5, Interesting)
It all just begs the question "why?" was the code that they have to turn off the start up sound now SO BADLY WRITTEN that they decided not to migrate it? C'mon guys. And also:
They've been working on this project as the "#1" priority in their group (past updates, etc.) for over half a decade now. I'd REALLY like to think that they'd have most of this kind of stuff decided already. Did somebody buy everyone in the Windows dev team an Xbox and then an XBox 360? Is that why its taken them 60 months to put together about as much of a feature upgrade as the OS X dev team usually puts together every 18 months? What have they been waiting for? Are they tailor-making Vista technologies to run Duke Nukem Forever? Is that the reason for the delay? Because I really can't find much of a better rationale anywhere else... other than maybe they've cut so many features of Vista in the past few years that no one left working on the project has any idea what code they're actually supposed to be writing.
Oy.
Tim
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is Windows turning to and why? (Score:5, Insightful)
OSX: built around experience, this OS is made to be simple to use, easy to market, look shiny and tie well with its accompanied Apple hardware. Apple's credo is that they are amazing as hell, and their users will be wowed at whatever they throw at them. As such, OSX provides features such as mandatory startup sounds, mandatory "hardware", mandatory skin and other mandatory "tuned to be kewl" stuff. They have some success, but their market share is still decreasing (currently at meager 2%) because they don't realize that unlike iPod, a PC is (yet) not just another consumer device.
Unix / BSD / Linux: it's made for professionals, for tinkerers and and people who like control over their machines. Those OS have their share of attempts at eye candy, but the main point of the OS is the ability to go down to the bone and tune it just like you like it, without excess fat and trash around. It doesn't have much adoption with casual folks as a desktop OS because the distros are rarely consistent, require low level knowledge of the underlying system to get the maximum out of it and hardware software doesn't target it a lot.
Windows: is sitting in the perfect spot. It's easy to use, has a lot of software written for it, works on commodity hardware, and is practical for business, entertainment and more. It's not perfect, and in fact was quite flaky when the consumer branch was based around the 9x core (for legacy reasons). These guys however get a lot of criticism that they are not enough like Apple and not enough like Unix. Windows has no cult status among its users, while *nix and Apple does.
I have no idea whether it's a complex or lack of confidence in their own strategy, but sometime around XP, Microsoft decided they wanna be more like OSX and Unix, which are dwarfed by Windows on the market of desktop OS. They are just doing it, for no apparent reason, they are not losing market to their competitors on the desktop market, but feel the urge to copy them and be "more like them".
XP and Vista are trying hard to build a branded experience much like OSX, while other projects like Channel 9, the new power shell, and tons of other admin-related utilities and technologies are targeted to the Unix crowd and appearing more opened.
Some of this has positive effects on the users of Windows, but some of it, is just plain stupid (like the glassy look of aero.. it's not easier to use at all, it's one of those gadgets you show off in the PC shops, like OSX's scaling icons on the dock bar). Their desire to preserve their "perfect" branding by locking and hardcoding everything in place is just a symptom of this much deeper problem.
I wish Microsoft would just accept its position in the market, keep the right balance between flexible and preconfigured, and swallow the criticisms, which will come no matter what, versus try and copy whatever fads come along.
Re:What is Windows turning to and why? (Score:4, Insightful)
OS X's market share is not decreasing, and the number of users is increasing a lot.
OS X does have things like the fancy dock animations, but unlike similar things in Windows, they don't get in your way, and they are actually nice.
Windows isn't more flexible than OS X in most ways. Yes, it has built in theme support. Essentially, I can change Windows XP from horrid, gaudy, bright purple and green to icky silver and green. Woohoo. None of that makes the interface any better, functionally.
OS X's interface isn't just better because you can look at it without going blind, it is far more intuitive and easy to use. And it includes support for the Klingon Language.
pirated version? (Score:5, Funny)
Bummer... (Score:5, Funny)
My current system at work, which I built around an MSI Athlon 64+ motherboard, is housed in a case that looks like a Soviet-era toaster: dull silver-grey plastic and louvers on the front that look like they belong on the hood of a tractor. I festooned the case with hammer-and-sickle symbols and the letters "CCCP" in red type bordered in yellow. That computer's name is "katyusha".
Its startup sound is the Red Army Chorus singing the Soviet National Anthem. Just one verse, though. It annoys my employer to no end, but he'll be the first one up against the wall when the Revolution happens. Fucking capitalist pig dog.
What really annoys me is the faux "click" sound of an unaltered XP install, the one that's bound to Windows Explorer "Start Navigation" events. It's never in sync with the mouse click. Second most annoying is the crumpled paper sound when the "Recycle Bin" is emptied (are those bits really recycled? Hmmm?). I turn those off immediately after an install.
Somewhat less annoying (but all too common) are users that bind the sound of a toilet flushing to the "Empty Recycle Bin" event. Invariably, they're the sort of person for whom a fart joke is the pinnacle of humor. But they bitch like hell when you bind the sound of a lusty wet ripping flatus to each mouse click. "My computer's been hacked!" they complain. "I was humiliated in front of a client!"
How d'you like me now, bitch?
k.
Oh quit complaining... (Score:3, Funny)
... you'll always be able to disable the sound by changing your master boot record.
Different approaches to startup sounds (Score:3, Interesting)
It's striking how different this proposal sounds to how the Mac startup chime works.
Scoble dances around giving a full description, and it sounds like things are still being fleshed out, but the clear implication is that the plan here is to play some kind of music at either the login screen or (presumably if auto-login is turned on) when the current user gets to a working desktop. Implicitly, this is going to take a while, so they encouraging you to go for a walk and come back when the chime plays.
With a Mac, on the other hand, you get a polyphonic startup chime right when the machine is turned on. This fills a couple of functions, including welcoming the user to start working on the computer soon, and proving that the machine passed POST tests. Next the hardware is initialized, and system services start loading. Up until 10.3/Panther, the user would be presented with a series of frequently-vaguely-understood system services one by one as they loaded, but with 10.4/Tiger, the whole startup process was re-thought and replaced with launchd [arstechnica.com], which in turn made it possible to boot the system boot much faster (don't load unneeded services, delay non-critical ones until later, run as many of the others in parallel, etc) so that now you just have a sham progress bar [daringfireball.net] as the system boots as fast as possible up to the login screen or desktop.
What is the better use of resources: figuring out how to make the system boot so fast that you don't have time to get that cup of coffee, or hiring 70s rockers to compose a melody to play once you've finished brewing another pot? Hmm.....
And before you say that Microsoft doesn't have as much control over the hardware, that's baloney. Be didn't have control over the hardware, and they had a hell of a lot less resources than Microsoft, and yet they still figured out how to get BeOS to cold boot to a functional desktop in 15 seconds or so. No OS shipping today that I'm aware of -- Windows, OSX, Linux, etc -- manages to do that as well as BeOS did a decade ago, and the hardware has only gotten better in that time. Why not? It's obviously doable. Figuring out how to get computers to do that again would be wonderful.
Sounds == Annoying (Score:4, Interesting)
When will people understand that sounds can be annoying?
Sounds on web-pages are annoying, sounds when you start your computer or just use it normally are annoying, even in games sounds can be annoying, most of the time you just don't want to hear a sound, either because you don't want to make any noises or because you're listening to music.
When is the last time that you were listening to music and some awefull piece of music emanating from your speakers 3 times louder than the music you were listening to all of this because someone on myspace tought it was cool to put music on their main page?
My point is, make this a commandement : Thou shalt not make any sounds unless necessary. I mean really necessary, what's the point of having your computer make some pseudo-zen chime when it gets started up?
Oh well, it gives you a couple of coolness points if your start up sound sounds like "SEGAAA!!!"
Volume (Score:5, Interesting)
At least the systems sounds can be shut off.
Please Microsoft, copy Apple's Sounds control panel which has a separate volume setting for system sounds.
Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Apple (Score:4, Funny)
See the difference?
Kind Regards
Prats (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Schools, Colleges, Universities
2) Offices
3) Libraries
4) Home use at night
5) Conferences
6) Broadcast applications
7) Confined areas (trains, planes, wifi hotspots, cafes)
8) With an amplifier
Apart from the obvious waste of MY money that I gave MS with my purchases, which they have spent to hire someone to make a sound that I don't want and will never want to hear (no matter what MS say), this is a mind-trick.
Soon, the execs will "realise" that their customers have concerns and provide an off switch, thus putting into people's minds that they "listen to their customers". They were thinking that all along, it's just another way for people to continue talking about Vista that they will "remedy" by the time it comes out. It stops people thinking "But is it secure, is it easy to use, is it cheap, is it compatible?" and instead make them think "Well, they solved the worst problem, that stupid startup sound can be turned off". I don't want an "experience" with an OS. I would want to get some work done. I don't want it all to be integrated and matching - I would want it to boot fast, get on the Internet securely and not get in my way.
I turn off ALL sounds, no matter what the OS. And I usually have my speakers off except when I'm anticipating an IM and have turned its notification sound on, or when I choose to have sound (DVD's, MP3's etc.).
This is what used to wind me up about Windows - I have little to no control over the OS without bundling it full of freeware to do the job. I don't WANT Adobe Acrobat pre-loading at startup - I use it on less than 5% of my boots. In order to GET ASKED whether I want it to happen or not I have to install things like Startup Monitor from www.mlin.net. And still Adobe insists on re-trying every time I update it. I don't WANT it to, ever, at all, in any way, but there's no option for that.
I don't WANT program X to access the Internet - at all, ever, under any circumstances. It might be a game that has absolutely no need to, or that I only use on the LAN, or it might be trying to act as a server all the time, thus giving me an instant security hole. But it's going to take until Vista for me to get a choice of whether or not I will allow it unless I install ZoneAlarm or something similar (which I've been using for this purpose for many years now).
I don't WANT program X to install itself under some silly subdirectory - I really don't. Program Files is possibly the worst organised folder on any Windows drive because everything that ends up there chooses it's own structure - by company name, by product name, by some weird abbreviation - I don't WANT that. I CAN and WILL choose where this stuff goes, given half a chance. I have systems that differ from the software authors idea for a good place... I have categories - Audio/Video, Internet, Games, Graphics, Hardware, Utilities, all of which I have a perfectly clear idea of what should be where - I can organise my start menu in this way but rarely do you get a choice of where a game sticks its icons. Even rarer is the program that lets you CHOOSE where you install on the hard drive.
I also WANT to be able to move any folder without breaking anything and having to regedit to fix it (if its possible to move it at all). I don't WANT My Documents or My Music or My Pictures or anything My, I have a perfectly well organised file structure myself and don't want every program creating a "My" directory and putting its stuff in there.
I don't WANT to have to use five-thousand user-land applications that all put an icon in my system tray that I cannot remove without breaking stuff, cannot hide without a load of freeware and do not ever WANT just to use a poxy mouse or a hotkey or a wifi card. I don't WANT stuff to Auto-Update without my say-so, no matter how important someone else deems it is - I will choose WHEN and WHAT updates I install after carefully readi
Re:I hope this debate is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I hope this debate is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just a marketing exercise.
Quite smart, really - you generate a lot of hype about something absolutely trivial and get the user community, blogs, forums etc all hyped up. Then you implement the trivially pointless feature you've managed to convince people to really want, and proudly announce that you're responsive to your customers needs.
Then you can get quietly back to locking them out from their own data with proprietary formats and DRM.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh FFS (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless, of course, they tag it for WFP [microsoft.com]. That means, whenever you change it, Windows promptly changes it back and then displays a dialog telling you off for being such a naughty boy. In current versions of Windows, it's possible to disable WFP, but there's no particular reason why that should remain true.
They're currently talking about whether or not to do something like this.