Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Your Computer Has Just Crashed

I'm up to the tenth day of Windows 7. Windows 7 is pretty good. There is one new feature that annoyed me a lot at first. Now it is beginning to entertain me. Which new feature? Show Desktop.

They've move the Show Desktop feature from near the left edge of the task bar to the extreme lower right-hand corner of the screen. I'm sure the acceptance of that change will be vitally linked to how each user deals with his computer.

I, for example, have a tendency to start typing in a window and finding that the mouse cursor is in my way. In fact, I am so accustomed to finding the cursor to be in my way that I automatically hurl the mouse off to the side so I can type without the distraction. I no longer even think about it ... as soon as I start to type, the mouse gets thrown out of the way.

In past operating systems, the mouse would end up in the extreme lower right-hand corner of the screen, where it would not cause anybody any trouble. In Windows 7, that is still partially the case. That is, it still ends up in the extreme lower right-hand corner of the screen. The difference is that it now causes me a lot of trouble.

Since the extreme lower right-hand corner of the screen has become the Show Desktop location for Windows 7, as soon as I start to type, my window disappears. In fact, all the windows disappear. My gut reaction (and I do mean my gut) is that all the windows have gone away, so the computer must have crashed. In fact, my stomach usually does a little bounce when this happens. The first time it happened, I was sure for probably 30 seconds that all my work for the past week had been deleted.

Nowadays, after about 900 milliseconds, I realize what has happened. It is getting to the point that I actually chuckle at my reaction. Then I nudge the mouse back up out of the corner and go on about my business.

I have experimented with turning off this feature. But I still find it useful to be able to make all the windows transparent. So I end up turning it back on again. Then I'll get snookered again, and the cycle continues.

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