Windows Seven Annoyances

So I have Windows 7 in a virtual machine, totally legal, provided by the university through the MSDN Acadimec Alliance (the ugliest website I’ve seen in a while, and stupid too).

I can confess that the desktop has almost cought up with KDE and Gnome in terms of look and feel. The icons have the effect of a halo of sorts when hovered, very similar to that in early KDE 4.0.

But of course, it is also damn annoying. Please note that I have the Professinal edition, and as such expected less eye candy and more usefullness. Youth is foolishness, they say, and I was very young about this assumption.

1. Windows Explorer has reached a critical mess. It has a new concept of libraries, which is somewhat cool. You can put links to all folders with pictures into the Pictures library, and so on. I, however, still fail to see how are they different from normal folders. Or in what way could they be on par with Nepomuk. Now even if the libraries are not a radical new breakthrough in usabiliy, it wouldn’t bother me as much if there were a visible setting for the normal folder-tree. But it isn’t. Insted there’s a list of libraries again, and some other folders in the sidebar. Why these other folders don’t include the Home folder (C:\Users\Miha) is beyond me.
2. Every time a change folders, there’s a sound. Every time. And because I keep my files organized (see Libraries above), there’s a lot of that. I feel as if I just fulfilled an achievement by double-clicking a folder in the explorer. But it’s damn annoying. And there’s more: the same sound it heard when a webpage starts loading in IE. If it were at least when it finished loading, so I’d know to pay attention to it, but alas that’s too much. You hear a “bing” and then the page starts showing up.
3. Double-clicking everywhere. If the make the desktop look like KDE, they should make it feel like it too. The right mouse button is there for a reason, and 90% of the time you want to execute the file anyway.
4. The abundance of centers. There’s the Media center, Mobility center, even Ease of Access center. Didn’t notice that last one? Maybe that’s because it in Start => All Programs => Accessories =>Ease of Access => Ease of Access Center. How’s that for Ease of Access? Its description says “Makes your computer easier to use”. Why can’t it be easier to use by default? I clicked it and it didn’t install Kubuntu.
5. The Network and Sharing Center, in particular, is (even for Windows) exceptionally messed up. The network map looks nice, but rarely what you want.  There is a plethora of links to places you never want, and many an important thing is three dialogs deep (As in Setting => Configure => Advanced Configuration). There’s no way to connect to a WAP-Enterprise protected network (such as Eduroam), even though the hardware supports it. You need a special client. I suppose the visual map with the little house was a priority. And all this time I though Wifi is an annoyance on Linux. I should note here that connection troubleshooting works wonders. Sometimes. At least on my virtual machine.
6. Desktop Gadgets. There’s a whole nine of them to choose from, and no HotNewStuff to easily download more. Instead, the link to get more gadgets online opens a browser and sends you to a page with two more. Then at the bottom of that page is a link to the actual gallery.  There are many more of them, including a Daily Dilbert, but it’s no Comic Plasmoid.
7. No desktop cube effect. This may seem like pure candy, but is actually very useful for switching between windows, as you get a good look of them, and it doesn’t require the keyboard. They could at least put in the Window Showcase (I thing called Expose on Macs). I use both regularely and it would be hard to live without them.

You need a special client.