XP was my idea: October 2011

Friday, October 14, 2011

The new Task Manager in Windows 8 is utterly horrible

Instead of improving upon the existing Task Manager in Windows like Windows Vista and Windows 7 did, Windows 8 attempts to re-invent, re-write, overhaul, re-imagine or {insert your favorite marketing buzzword here} the Task Manager. This approach is incredibly bad because it means all of functionality the Task Manager accumulated over the years from Windows NT 4.0 up to Windows 7 must be re-implemented. Did Microsoft do a good enough job? I think not. See for yourself.

Current list of issues with the Windows 8 Task Manager:

- Bug: Whatever columns you add to its various tabs, it resets/forgets them all the time!

- Design flaw: It is slow and unresponsive. It doesn't start instantly, especially when CPU consumption is high, and it takes a lot more memory, is overall far less responsive. Microsoft forgot what is the most important job of a Task Manager - to start as quickly as possible

- Bug: Last active tab is not remembered. The old Task Manager remembered the last active tab.

- The old Task Manager could be set to run at startup, minimized and hidden so it would start up in the notification area. The new Task manager requires UAC elevation and even if it is set from Task Scheduler to run as admin but minimized at startup, it does not minimize properly to the tray.

- Removed feature: There is no global status bar showing the total number of processes, CPU usage and physical memory and/or commit charge.

- Removed feature: See this image. Which document is which? The old Task Manager showed the application name from the Title bar. The new one gets its name from somewhere else. The document name is only shown in More Details view after expanding by clicking the arrow/triangle. Why do they want to make our lives more difficult? Suppose there are 10 windows of an app open and 1 of them stops responding. With the old Task Manager, it was one glance away. With the new one, I must expand the arrow of each window to see if the not responding document is under one of those. Poor usability. Documents names must be shown without making users expand and collapse every instance of the app. This also breaks keyboard usability. In the above screenshot, I could hit L to go through List1.txt, List2.txt, List3.txt. Not possible any more.

- Unnecessary requirement: New Task Manager requires UAC elevation if UAC level is set to highest. Old Task Manager ran just fine without elevation to show current user processes. Now, why it requires UAC elevation is none of my concern (It needs ETW trace data) but the fact that it does is extremely wrong design.

- Bug/keyboard usability issue: Ctrl+ '+' (Ctrl + plus key) key to auto-resize all columns to fit does not work on Processes, App History, Startup and Users tabs.

- Removed feature: The options for the Networking tab "Show cumulative data" and "Reset adapter history" are removed.

- Limitation: Any column cannot be the first column on Processes, App History, Startup and Users tab as it can be in Details and Services tab. This affects keyboard usability too.

- Removed feature: Selection of multiple applications on the Processes tab (formerly Applications tab) is not possible. In the old Task manager, I could use Ctrl and Shift keys just like Windows Explorer to select multiple applications and do group window management actions or group End Task them.

- Design flaw/regression: Naming and order of tabs is not the same. Confusing change. What was previously the 'Applications' tab is now the 'Processes' tab. Unfortunately, there was also a 'Processes' tab before which is now the 'Details' tab. Very confusing for those who have used the Task Manager for years. In old Task Manager, the order of tabs is Applications, Processes, Services, Performance, Networking and Users. In the new Task manager, it is Processes, Performance, App History, Startup, Users, Details and Services. The correct order should be Processes, Details, Services, Performance, App History (because this is a new tab), Startup (also a new tab), and Users as the last tab.

- Removed feature: Window management functions (Minimize, Maximize, Cascade, Tile Horizontally and Tile Vertically) on the Processes tab (formerly the Applications tab) and "Windows" menu are removed. Why are these important? Because in Windows 7, the Taskbar removed the ability to select multiple taskbar buttons using Ctrl+left click when buttons are ungrouped and therefore group actions on window buttons in the taskbar are no longer possible. The Task Manager's Applications tab offered an alternative and now they have taken that away as well.

I just don't see Microsoft fixing these (they are just not that good any more). They will pass them off as "by design”.

I don't say the new Task Manager's all bad. It has some really nifty features. The new Performance tab is simply awesome. But it shows how quality control no longer exists at Microsoft as it used to in the Windows 1.0-Windows XP days. You win some, but you lose some.

Yet somehow, they claim their goal was not to remove any functionality and that they didn't. It is silly to re-implement an application without actually providing every feature the old one did. The old Task manager was included up to Windows 8 Consumer Preview but removed in Windows 8 Release Preview! Disgusting. The fact that the design of Task Manager is not backward compatible is enough for me to skip this crap OS.

Got Windows 8/7/Vista annoyances?

I am good at usability testing of software and overall User Experience - having a great UX is essential to any piece of software. I imagine, plan and envision it - how to build a great user experience to achieve end-to-end scenarios. I'm a Windows enthusiast since the Windows 3.0 days but I have no official computer science training or qualification. My knowledge of Windows client is self-taught and unofficial. I make mistakes too but I know one thing by common sense: It is TOTALLY WRONG to abandon backward compatibility, drop functionality at random and break all usability like MS continually does. I am a critic of current Microsoft software and culture, because it compromises on existing features people use to give place to new ones. All concept of backward compatible UX is dead at Microsoft. I rebel against this but not necessarily to go against Microsoft or hate on them, but to bring them on the right path. Microsoft's technical prowess of writing stable, fast, secure and innovative software is still excellent but their understanding of usability and good user experience is disgraceful. The importance of a good user experience is underrated in software. I feel they have lost their way after Windows XP. We all know how Vista turned out and Windows 7 only succeeded because of customers' passion for Windows. As much as I still like Windows, the later versions just obstruct productivity, and to the average user, it is a constant process of re-learning for no reason.

So my programmer buddy, Ivo Beltchev created Classic Shell and I gave him feedback on the user experience. I help out in testing and giving ideas and feedback around UX of Classic Shell but I personally use Windows XP. If the user interface of Windows 7 or Windows Vista annoys you, try Classic Shell, the amazing FREE app that fixes dozens of these annoyances with the Start Menu, Explorer and Internet Explorer 9/10.

Want to fix Windows taskbar? 7 Taskbar Tweaker is the perfect utility for the job.

Want to find a decent alternative to the useless Windows Search? Try FileSearchEX (reasonably priced) or FileLocator Lite (free).

If you are struggling to make Windows 7 work the way you want, you may want to look at this eBook detailing the "To Work" options.

Office Ribbons driving you crazy and reducing productivity? Try Classic Menu for Office or UbitMenu.

Yes I know, it's a shame Microsoft software today requires third party fixes to complement and make it work properly. Don't tell me you have ignored the list of features removed in Windows Vista or in Windows 7. Were you foolish enough to believe from the reviews that Windows 7 was good and didn't make an objective comparison yourself? Were you foolish enough to dish out your hard earned cash and didn't miss any XP features in Windows 7? The software I listed above only fixes some of the usability issues and broken features but there are still many features Microsoft must fix themselves.

You may think why is XP still my idea and it is rather foolish to not "upgrade" to Windows 7. XP still rocks. XP is where the UX feels complete and well-rounded. Don't believe the fanboys who are blind, the shills who get paid to write favorable reviews, or the mainstream media which is clueless and just parrots what one "expert" shill says. In many areas, Windows 7 is a downgrade, not an upgrade and you will realize that from hands-on experience. XP hit the sweet spot for sufficiently powerful, customizable yet easy to use computing. I am a power user and if Windows 8 makes you feel that the OS is getting dumbed down to the point of uselessness, I feel pretty much the same about Windows 7, which is also extremely dumbed down from a power user's perspective. The geek in me refuses to accept Windows 7 as a viable replacement for the more-customizable Windows XP. As a power user I cannot make compromises about quality and Microsoft's commitment to quality is decreasing by the day.

I wrote hundreds of Wikipedia articles on Microsoft and Windows topics with over 5000+ contributions before realizing that Microsoft was cheating their users by removing features. I agree that software engineering is about tradeoffs but just deleting features people use and want is just ridiculous. It's all happening in the name of "simplifying" and "telemetry". I want Microsoft to acknowledge these issues which make Windows 7 unusable for serious work and fix them through hotfixes or service packs. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not all bad, there are hundred different things to like about them, but being good only in part doesn't make the sum of parts better. What matters is the overall experience which is still degraded and sub-standard compared to Windows XP. Why Windows 7 is so successful is because it is sufficiently decent, so it works for the average user who just needs to get this job done and doesn't need perfection. It would be unfair to say don't use Windows 7 at all. I also do use it once in a while because it does have hundreds of nice improvements but it won't touch my main PC. Windows XP may not be as strong on security by default as Windows 7 or Vista are, but XP can be secured properly and is more usable than "simplified" later versions.

I am ready to assist Microsoft in improving Windows client if a certain quality bar is set and agreed upon. I believe I have a unique understanding of how to design the perfect UX without introducing too much complexity while at the same time, keeping it powerful and customizable. My passion and loyalty to Microsoft for great products will always remain but not at the cost of any compromises in quality of the product.