XP was my idea: The usability of 'Classic' reigns supreme

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The usability of 'Classic' reigns supreme

When I first tried Windows 7, not only was I shocked to see the Classic Start Menu gone but I was extremely saddened that this very interface was touted by Microsoft 15 years ago when they launched Windows 95. Today it is not a choice presented to users at all? (Remember the "Start me up" hoopla) Just because something is old does not make it useless or obsolete. The Classic Start Menu was a very carefully designed UI. The new Windows menu has obviously noticeable performance issues when several programs are installed. The taskbar is another example of Microsoft trying to reinvent something when it already served its purpose extremely well. In their attempt to produce a real superbar, they broke and removed several classic Taskbar features, omitting many user preferences.

And Windows Explorer? How a single application critical to the user's file management experience can be ruined to such an extent is beyond me. I think during the Longhorn days, they fooled around too much with Explorer and after the reset, they forgot to include large working parts of Explorer back. There are so many things wrong in Explorer that this alone makes Windows 7 or Windows Vista immediately worthless and impossibily difficult to use. Fortunately, what Microsoft broke, others have tried to resolve. There are 2 heavenly apps that fix Windows 7's horrid Taskbar, Start Menu and Windows Explorer.

7 Taskbar Tweaker which I already covered about a year ago is now updated to allow us to individually group or ungroup applications. It fixes most usability issues with the Windows Taskbar.

Finally, Classic Shell, ahh, Classic Shell is too good of an app to be given away for free!! It packs in tons of configurable features that Explorer broke or removed. It includes the best Classic Start Menu implementation anyone has ever produced, far superior to Microsoft's original one. And it fixes numerous problems in Windows Explorer. The Classic Explorer toolbar makes Explorer completely customizable and extensible.

Check out these two heavenly tools if you haven't yet. They are indispensable. Windows 7 is useless without them.

1 comment:

Unknown said...: I have managed to restore my Taskbar to XP style with "7 Taskbar Tweaks". That program should be part of Seven's Control Panel as an applet. The built in customization options that can be accessed by right-clicking on the taskbar are poor.

I disabled the Jump List (still accessible by shift-clicking), and the large tooltip that sometimes showed multiple windows and obstructed too much screen area, in addition to grouping.

There is nothing super about the Sueprbar. Pinned icons are analogous to icons on a toolbar such as the Quick Launch toolbar. But their appearance all over the taskbar rather than in group is confusing, and they take up more space. WinXP was not perfect. They introduced the "grouping" with XP, where multiple windows with similar titles appeared on a menu under a single button. But that function was easy to disable.

I noticed how Programs is the only item that does not get a "classic" flyout style menu under Seven. Games, Computer, Favorites, Desktop (if enabled on taskbar) all get responsive, conventional menus. But not programs, which are constrained to a small box within the start panel. That must be a "conspiracy" done on purpose.

I managed to restore a *working* Programs menu by repurposing the useless MSIE Favorites shell folder, which can be enabled on the Start panel. I changed the location of respective registry value under HKCU Shell Folders and User Shell Folders to point to "Start Menu\Programs" instead of "Favorites". Then I also copied all links from All Users' Start Menu into my own Start Menu. Then I archived the default All Users start links for future reference, and deleted them. The Favorites link cannot combine both these sources on the fly. I adjusted the permissions of %UserProfile%\Start Menu directory to allow it to be listed, while keeping the Hidden atribute.

This results in a menu item called Programs to be visible on the Start panel, which acts exactly like in classic mode. It supports dragging and renaming, and doesn't require any 3rd party components running. However, starting programs from this menu doesn't register them as recently run, and the main Start panel isn't populated with them.

The Classic "theme" GUI was also superior in speed and readability of a multi-leven "3D" structure. (i.e. Windows and buttons appearing raised or sunken relative to others.) This GUI theme should have been kept for use on performance oriented Server editions at the very least, and by extension alowed in Client mode.

The remains of the Classic theme on Seven / Server 2008 sucks! Large parts of the interface are not designed for this theme: the address bar of Explorer looks disabled when it is not, the folder icon in address bar is not correctly aligned, the start panel is featureless and ugly, many applications still use blurry Segoe UI font, for example Calculator. I may be nitpicking here, but the tabs on "tab control" has corners chopped off. Overall the experience is as if in an unpolished beta. The system really needs to be used under Glass with ClearType.

Video demonstrationg superior performance of the classic theme: youtube.com/watch?v=ay-gqx18UTM; November 2, 2014 at 11:04 AM

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.