6 little things I don’t like about Windows Server 2008 / Vista
I’ve been using Windows Server 2008 since it was released in February. In general, Server 2008 is a huge improvement over 2003, however, there are a number of little things that annoy me, all of which are also found in Vista. I plan to talk later about my favorite features in Server 2008, but I’ll start with my pet peeves:
1. Folder icons have been turned sideways
I understand this was done to give a better visual indicator. But who stores real manila folders on their side? Defeats the metaphor if you ask me.
Folder icons are now sideways
2. Start menu scrolling is a pain
I don’t like having a fixed size start menu. Why should I have to scroll to see menu items? I would like to be able to re-size the menu, but this isn’t really possibly. You can make the menu bigger by bumping up the number of recent items, but you’ll still have to scroll. To adjust the Start menu size, right click on Start menu, choose Properties. Select the top Customize… button. In the Start menu size group, select the Number of recent programs to display option.
Start menu scrolling is a pain
3. Start menu icon only appears on mouse over
Not having icons on the Start menu for Document, Computer, Network, etc is just annoying. Icons are there for a visual depiction. Having icons apart from the actual item is distracting. They should either have an icon or not–don’t stick it in as an afterthought.
Start menu icon only appears on mouse over
4. Confusing verbs in the Network and Sharing Center
The Tasks in the Network and Sharing Center are about as confusing as it gets. If I want to set my IP address for my wireless adapter, which would I choose: Manage wireless networks, Set up a connection, or Manage network connection? Like a lot of Microsoft products, there are too many ways to do the same thing. So many similarly worded choices just add to the confusion.
Confusing verbs in the Network and Sharing Center
5. In Explorer, column resizer is too small
In Explorer windows, Vista/Server 2008 added the filter drop down. I love this feature but they managed to make resizing columns much more difficult. The resizer now has just a few pixels where it’s active. To top it off, when you click on the arrow for the filter, it pops down. Click it again, and it stays down. You can’t get it to go away. Drag the filter arrow and it takes the whole column, so you can re-order them. Why not just make the filter arrow part of the column resizer? It makes more sense than it does to re-order the columns and I bet it happens a lot more often.
In Explorer, column resizer is too small
6. Not having the “up one folder” button in Explorer.
There is a pretty good bread-crumb navigation in Explorer now. There is a back button. But, there is no “up one folder” button, like there used to be. I know, you can click on the actual item, but having to hunt visually is not nearly as effective as clicking a single button that is always there. At least the keyboard shortcut (backspace) is intact.
Missing the "up one folder" button
The old "UP" button - where did you go?
I have to totally agree with all this stuff. It drives me crazy. I don’t understand the need to change all the stuff that as been used for years. Plus removing stuff and not replacing it.
I am running Windows Server 2008 R2 under VMWare and the window scrolling is crashing the virtual machine every time.
Instead of navigating to a program through the start menu, I determined the location of the users Start menu definition from Start -> (Run) -> Regedit -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders – then have a look in the path given by the ‘Start Menu’ & ‘Programs’ keys.
This will give you the location of your programs folder definition. You will need to drop this path into an Explorer window since there are hidden folders. Then create a link on your desktop for convenience.
This will at least allow access to the programs without the Start menu scrolling crash issue.
You will also want to have a look under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs for the rest of your programs if they are not pointed to by the reg key.