Difference between revisions of "Annoyances of Windows Vista and Windows 7"

Revision as of 12:16, 15 June 2015

Some tips apply to all versions of Windows 2000 through to Windows 8.1 while some are specific or limited to specific versions. You can also find tips in Annoyances of Windows 2000/XP which are not necessarily limited to those versions. Tracking which specific feature has been removed is beyond the scope of these articles. It will be noted when testing is available.

Disable "Windows Has Blocked Some Startup Programs" Balloon

A program called MSCONFIG (msconfig.exe) has many capabilities including the ability to disable some of the unnecessary programs that automatically load on start-up. Disabling some of these TSR (Terminate-and-Stay-Resident) programs will help your computer boot faster and crash less, while disabling others can be problematic. Rather than using MSCONFIG you should attempt to remove the unwanted TSR from the Startup group or Run keys of the Windows registry.

If you use MSCONFIG to disable startup programs you will notice you get an annoying balloon message each time you login. The balloon popup message will say "Windows Has Blocked Some Startup Programs." You can disable the annoying balloon popup and continue to use the feature. Simply follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the MSCONFIG icon in the system tray (bottom right) - the place the balloon appears to pop up from.
2. Select "Run blocked program" and then "System Configuration Utility."
3. In the "System Configuration" dialog box select the checkbox that says "Don't show this message or start System Configuration when Windows starts."

• Microsoft Knowledge Base KB-930367

Get Windows 10 popup notification

A popup notification in the Windows taskbar installed by a misleading fraudulent update.

To remove the Get Windows 10 popup notification follow the instructions in KB3035583.

Are you sure you want to copy this file without its properties?

Trying to copy files from the system to removable media such as a USB flash drive and Microsoft prompts an annoying and reoccurring error message. The message is vague and misleading.

The NTFS file system is inappropriate for flash media. FAT32 is not capable of preserving the NTFS permissions of files being copied from the NTFS formatted hard drive to the FAT32 removable media. The permissions largely include file ownership and file permissions. These are not file "properties" but rather file "permissions."

Even when you select YES to the dialog and check the box for application of the selection to all files, it only applies to files of the specific type. For a different file type the dialog will present itself again. This makes a "fire and forget" unattended file copy process impossible.

Microsoft suggests formatting the removable media NTFS, which is ill-advised. Due to the additional read/write activity necessary for NTFS this would not be good for flash media. NTFS is also less portable. The best solution would be to have the ability to copy without the annoying prompts.

Workarounds / Solutions: (1) Using the command prompt and piping Y for yes. (2) Using third party copy software such as TeraCopy. (3) Getting angry and waiving your fist in the air while damning Microsoft.

Legacy Documentation: Old Annoyances Still Persist

Some well documented Windows Annoyances of the past still exist in current versions of the operating system and the resolution still applicable from the older guides. For example, some of the resolutions in our Annoyances of Windows 2000/XP still work in newer versions of Microsoft Windows. Some steps are slightly different but close enough to be of assistance when reviewing the legacy documentation. See all of our Windows Annoyances pages.