Who Knew Windows Could Do That?

An Open Letter to Mr. Gates

Dear Bill,

Even with all its wonderful hidden tools, it seems every release of Windows lacks features that should have been part of the original. And things don't appear to be getting better. Exhibit A: Windows Me's bizarrely bloated Media Player (no "skin" in the world can make this monstrosity attractive, although Ctrl-2 helps). Exhibit B: its lame attempt at video editing. Here's my wish list of tools Windows has needed from Day One.

Renaming: What could be more basic for an operating system than to provide a way to globally rename large numbers of files and folders without having to use shareware or a DOS command line? Those of us who upgraded from older versions of Windows had all our old eight-letter file and folder names converted to ALL CAPS. A Microsoft rep told me this wasn't a problem because I can just rename each one. Oh, sure, rename each of my 20,000 files and folders one at a time. Right.

Folder creation: Every version of Windows since 95 has gone out of its way to provide context-driven shortcut menus and buttons for letting users map network drives--as if this is something we all do 20 times a day. We need an easier way to create new folders. Windows 2000 and Me finally let us customize the Explorer toolbar, but--incredibly--they don't provide a button for folder creation. Hello? Bill?

More keyboard shortcuts: In recent versions of Windows, you can add an 'Explorer Bar' panel that includes Search, Favorites, History, or a folder tree to the left side of a folder window. Most of these panels can be toggled with keyboard shortcuts. In fact, the Search panel actually has two: Ctrl-F and Ctrl-E. Yet the most useful panel of all--Folders--has no keyboard shortcut. It's time to fix this.

And while you're at it, how about keystrokes for minimizing and maximizing the current window? Windows 2 had these, but they seem to have gotten lost in the upgrade shuffle. Bring them back! Finally, probably no keyboard shortcut would be used more often than a simple way to mute the system's sound. Every remote control in my house has a mute key--why not my computer? And I should be able to get this function without having to buy a keyboard with built-in multimedia controls.

Better management of start-up applications: The Start, Programs, Startup menu deceptively lulls users into thinking that as long as they remove icons from the Startup folder, they can keep applications from launching when Windows starts. In reality, Windows must have a half-dozen places in which apps can hide their start-up commands, including multiple Registry locations and even win.ini. The System Configuration Utility in Win 98, 98 SE, and Me is a good start for tracking down and dealing with these settings, but it's intended only for short-term diagnostic purposes and isn't available in Windows 2000.

More automation: Finally, a personal request. Not everyone likes macros. I know I'm a geek that way, but I loved the way Windows 3.x's Recorder utility let me record a series of repetitive behaviors and reduce them to a single keystroke--without having to learn Visual Basic or purchase its associated software. Today's shareware far surpasses Recorder (my favorite is Macro Magic from Iolo Technologies), and Windows' Scheduled Task Wizard provides some automation. But with all of Windows' utilities, why can't macro recording be one of them?

Sincerely,

Scott Dunn