Microsoft dumps Auto Play due to Conficker

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

I've always found Auto-Run to be one of the more annoying aspects of using Windows XP and beyond. (Yes Margaret I know it can be disabled! And yes I routinely do so!)

Microsoft accepts that this will affect ordinary computer users insofar as they will have to physically browse to a disk and start the program they want to load -- but that is perhaps not a bad thing

This is a very good thing, a basic understanding of path and of file location would empower a lot of the zombie clickers with some essential skills that would ease many of their current frustrations.

Your Average Joe (Senior member):

Anyone worth their computing salt should be able to manually disable the feature anyway !

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting Your Average Joe:
should be able to manually disable the feature anyway !

A well designed operating system SHOULD NOT require a regime of disabling unwanted auto-features aimed at the lowest common denominators. Second guessing auto-run schemes are not a feature they are an annoying flaw! Microsoft has realised the security implications and revised their code but one has to wonder what numb-skull figured such things would actually aid productivity.

Your Average Joe (Senior member):

Quoting Raindog:
aimed at the lowest common denominators.

The whole marketing world is aimed at the lowest common denominator !
Not all of us are as well educated in IT as you.

You, and others, seemed to have forgotten that at one stage in your lives, you all were not proficient in IT or anything else. MS is popular because they pander to the 'newbies'.

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting Your Average Joe:
The whole marketing world is aimed at the lowest common denominator !

Nonsense! Is Porsche and Ferrari aimed at the learner driver?


Quoting Your Average Joe:
You, and others, seemed to have forgotten

Please do not assume the level of knowledge or the capacity of memory retention of myself or others.

Quoting Your Average Joe:
MS is popular because they pander to the 'newbies'.

There are better ways to accommodate newbies than to dumb down an OS to a point of infuriation. Since XP MS has offered the OS equivalent of a bicycle with the training wheels welded on. It may help for the first few days but eventually what was an aid becomes a hindrance. Users should not need to disable a myriad of prompts and second guessing functions aimed at the lowest common denominator.

Your Average Joe (Senior member):

Quoting Raindog:
Nonsense! Is Porsche and Ferrari aimed at the learner driver?

Looking at niche markets again !
How about a metaphor like Ford and Holden for the majority of the population !

Quoting Raindog:
OS to a point of infuriation.

Infuriating to you maybe, but I love the way Media Center automatically plays DVD movies when I insert the disks in my HTPC.

So again Raindog, your views are the same as mine, that is, subjective !
So as you have fondly repeated ad nauseum, lets not assume to speak for the masses, shall we ?

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting Your Average Joe:
Looking at niche markets again !

No! I was referring to your reference "The whole marketing world is aimed at the lowest common denominator !" does the whole marketing world not include a variety of differing markets? No one size fits all.


Quoting Your Average Joe:
How about a metaphor like Ford and Holden for the majority of the population !

OK then,how about the local manufacturers. Do they market HSV and FPV at learner drivers? Do the local manufacturers insist everyone has an automatic transmission in the assumption everyone is too stupid to change gears?


Quoting Your Average Joe:
but I love the way Media Center automatically plays DVD movies when I insert the disks in my HTPC.

Well that's nice for you, meanwhile most of the productive world sits infuriated with another delay while they wait for Windows to mess around trying to guess the application for the Disk or memory stick they have just loaded.


Quoting Your Average Joe:
So again Raindog, your views are the same as mine,

No our views are very different!
I don't propose the view that it suits me so it must suit everybody.
I refuse to accept something as a feature unless it presents a benefit.
I don't accept that what ever a given manufacturer offers is right or best.
I refuse to accept mediocrity or being treated as being as stupid as the dumbest of possible users.


Quoting Your Average Joe:
lets not assume to speak for the masses, shall we ?

Who is assuming? Not me.

The Big Baboo (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting Your Average Joe:
Infuriating to you maybe, but I love the way Media Center automatically plays DVD movies when I insert the disks in my HTPC.

It won't play DVD's on mine anymore :( I managed to stuff that feature up big-time. However seeing as I only played them on there now and then it wasn't a great loss.

CBR1100XX (Advanced member):

Quoting Raindog:
Is Porsche and Ferrari aimed at the learner driver?

No ! But they make no claims to market for these learner's !
MS markets their OS (excepting server edtions) for everyone, from newbs to gurus. Thus hardly a valid metaphor !

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting CBR1100XX:
No ! But they make no claims to market for these learner's !

Exactly! Which somewhat flies in the face of any assumption that the whole marketing world is aimed at a lowest common denominator.


Quoting CBR1100XX:
MS markets their OS (excepting server edtions) for everyone, from newbs to gurus.

Yes and a camel is a horse designed by committee. MS offers a complicated plethora of versions and yet throughout the entire range there is no differentiation between newbie or guru. In short they have got it wrong. Why does every possible version of Windows require the enforced dumbing down?

AlRaj (New user):

I don't really want to buy into this argument about OS operator proficiency, but I believe that most users do not use the OS. The computer uses the OS. The average user is more interested in the applications loaded onto the machine. The OS is simply set and forget. I speak as a relative newbie myself.

What I would like to know is did MS disable autoplay in Vista? I have not been able to access the USB flash drive lately to get at the files other than dig down into disk management and open the drive through the context menu to gain entry. This seems a little extreme to me.

I cant search for the files as I don't always know what they are called.

The flash drive does not appear in the tree on the LH side of explorer.

Is there a simpler way to gain access other than disk management?

Raindog (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting AlRaj:
but I believe that most users do not use the OS. The computer uses the OS. The average user is more interested in the applications loaded onto the machine.

Strictly speaking you are correct, although an OS such as Windows ships as a conglomeration of OS, embedded an optional applications. With time and perseverance you could strip Windows to a bare OS, you'd end with something like Win PE.


Quoting AlRaj:
I have not been able to access the USB flash drive lately to get at the files other than dig down into disk management and open the drive through the context menu to gain entry.

And there in one you highlight the problem, viewing the contents of any drive should be a simple task. MS in their wisdom have added (not reduced) the numbers of clicks and keystrokes necessary to do this.


Quoting AlRaj:
This seems a little extreme to me.I cant search for the files as I don't always know what they are called.

How is a GUI going to improve this? How can you act on data on a drive if you cant readily identify it?
How has shuffling presentation of and access to folders like "My Documents" actually aided user understanding. My struggling newbies become empowered once path and directory structure are explained to them.


Quoting AlRaj:
The flash drive does not appear in the tree on the LH side of explorer.

It should, as should any connected drive.


Quoting AlRaj:
Is there a simpler way to gain access other than disk management?

Yes Explorer. And when you resolve and rectify why your USB is not being see you will likely experience a return of the annoying auto-run pop-ups.