Windows Start Button

[AznAnarchy99]

Am I getting old? I tell people to click the "Start" button all the time at work and people have no idea what I'm talking about. They're like "the little circle thingy in the corner?"

 

[TheSlamma]

No, others are just getting stupid.

 

[SamQuint]

I say the same thing. People have no idea how to use proper computer terms. I even think Windows calls it the orb. They wouldn't know what you were saying even if you used the proper term.

I still tell people click on Start and go to "My Computer". They always tell me "I don't have a My Computer". /facepalm Yeah they dropped the MY in Windows 7 but I know damn well you have been using computers since Windows 95.

 

[utahraptor]

Try getting someone to join a gotomeeting. "It says to enter my name, what should I do?" "It says click show my screen to show the screen, should I click it?"

 

[maddogchen]

yeah you are.. All the youngins have macbooks.

 

[Jeff7]

Instructions or terms people have trouble with:
- Double click. ("Left or right button?")
- Right click. ("Just once?")
- Address bar. ("Is that something in the Internet window?")
- Taskbar. (<blank stare>)
- System tray. (<nervous stare>)
- Windows Explorer. (<blank stare>)
- Internet Explorer. ("Internet Explorer? Oh, you mean The Internet?")

No, others are just getting stupid.

Set an otherwise adequately-intelligent person in front of a computer and some act like every incorrect mouse click will cause a child to be dumped into an industrial blender.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It does not help that MS keeps changing stuff for no reason, but yeah, people should still know those basic terms.

 

[highland145]

It does not help that MS keeps changing stuff for no reason, but yeah, people should still know those basic terms.

Win 8? My kid had to show me.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

No, other people are idiots. Tell them to hover the mouse over it but not click.

Ooooh looky...."Start" is the tooltip text.

 

[TheSlamma]

No, other people are idiots. Tell them to hover the mouse over it but not click.

Ooooh looky...."Start" is the tooltip text.

Word

 

[natto fire]

To be fair, you should be weaning them towards using keyboard shortcuts. Ask them to look for the windows key on their keyboard, instead.

 

[RaistlinZ]

There hasn't been an actual button that says "Start" since Windows XP.

So yes, you are old.

 

[DesiPower]

If you hover over it, it does say "Start"

 

[Jeff7]

Win 8? My kid had to show me.

Yeah, I'll have to grant some leeway on that one. My brief encounters with Windows 8 made me think of something a fastidious kid cut out of construction paper. More colored rectangles! Less functionality! Make the computer look like an enormous phone!

WinXP: One of their greatest things ever made.
Win7: A few things are different, but it does a lot of stuff better than WinXP did.
Win8: "Financial injection is required."
Win10: "Goddammit why haven't we fully gone to subscription-based software yet? The shareholders demand funds."



A mildly interesting side note: That little "Please register and get a free and possibly-acceptable Windows 10!" system tray icon comes courtesy of a small executable file that was delivered in a Windows Update. That program crashed and popped up an error on my tablet yesterday.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Win 8? My kid had to show me.

Ugh I hate win8. I've had to deal with it only a couple times, and really can't stand it. I try to keep an open mind and not just jump on a hate bandwagon when I use something new for the first time even though most people hate it, but I really hate it. It just goes against what I've been wired to do for all these years. Typical experience:

"Need to check add remove programs, I'll open control panel"
click start... "damnit!"
Ok I'll just go to run and type control panel I think that works, click start "damnit!"
"ok where's My Computer I'll just type it in the address bar, weird there's no My Computer how the hell do you get to the C drive then? I need to check something after, I'll open My Documents and browse from there that will do I guess"

Win8 always screws with my mind like that. Imagine if a city decided to block a bunch of random streets to make you go around a couple blocks to get to a place you could just get directly to before. That's basically win8 in a nut shell. Oh, and add a secret laneway that you need to drive through to get to certain places too. That's the charms bar. Oh, and you have to go through that laneway while backing up, just, because. That's trying to use the charms bar while RDPed into a system. :awe:

What were we talking about again? Never get me started with win8, I fly off on a tangent. :biggrin:

 

[cubby1223]

I had it again with Windows 8 earlier today. I'm still not sure what I do to trigger this, I'm trying to use the touchpad like normally, and at completely random times I'm taken away from the desktop and brought to a random Metro app. No clue how I triggered it. I tried to repeat the motions I made, but never could reproduce it on purpose.


Back to the main topic of this thread, the thing that irritates me is when I need someone to go on a website. You tell someone what website to go to, but they never type it into the address bar, always type it into whatever search bar is most convenient. Then you have to play that game of 50-questions figuring out what search engine they are looking at, because they never have a clue, and which specific result to click on to get to the website you need them to be on... which they would have been at already if they knew what the address bar is.

 

[blankslate]

I had it again with Windows 8 earlier today. I'm still not sure what I do to trigger this, I'm trying to use the touchpad like normally, and at completely random times I'm taken away from the desktop and brought to a random Metro app. No clue how I triggered it. I tried to repeat the motions I made, but never could reproduce it on purpose.


Back to the main topic of this thread, the thing that irritates me is when I need someone to go on a website. You tell someone what website to go to, but they never type it into the address bar, always type it into whatever search bar is most convenient. Then you have to play that game of 50-questions figuring out what search engine they are looking at, because they never have a clue, and which specific result to click on to get to the website you need them to be on... which they would have been at already if they knew what the address bar is.

Ctrl + L usually brings the cursor to the address bar of browsers.

Other than that I understand how frustrating trying to describe how to find and move files in Windows Explorer to a non-techie over the phone... I don't see how call-in tech support do it...


....

 

[cubby1223]

Ctrl + L usually brings the cursor to the address bar of browsers.

Other than that I understand how frustrating trying to describe how to find and move files in Windows Explorer to a non-techie over the phone... I don't see how call-in tech support do it...


....

I'm usually trying to get through the initial steps so I can just remotely control the system. Then they always get to the point in the setup when the software asks for their name, "Do I have to enter my name?" Everyone asks if they have to, if I just say "yes" then they have to know exactly why before they will type anything in. By this point I'm usually screaming at them "You have to put something in the field, mash the keyboard for all I care, just PUT SOMETHING, _ANYTHING_, IN THE FIELD AND CLICK 'OK' ALREADY!!! THIS PROCESS SHOULD TAKE 10 SECONDS, WHY ARE WE ON MINUTE #5???"

 

[irishScott]

It's no different than people who never memorize street names and rely totally on landmarks. Try to give them directions and they don't know the streets half a mile away from their house. But they'll sure as shit recognize that stop sign half-covered by a tree with the white scratch over the S! And God forbid you ask them for directions, it's like getting directions around The Magic Kingdom.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Back to the main topic of this thread, the thing that irritates me is when I need someone to go on a website. You tell someone what website to go to, but they never type it into the address bar, always type it into whatever search bar is most convenient. Then you have to play that game of 50-questions figuring out what search engine they are looking at, because they never have a clue, and which specific result to click on to get to the website you need them to be on... which they would have been at already if they knew what the address bar is.

ROTFL! Too true!

 

[Jeff7]

There hasn't been an actual button that says "Start" since Windows XP.

So yes, you are old.

It does on my Win7 systems.

Though I do have an instinctive tendency to immediately begin customizing and tweaking new OS installs.

 

[xSauronx]

If you hover over it, it does say "Start"

honestly, as much as i like windows 7, and even more so windows 8.1 .... computers just still are not easy enough for a lot of people. im an IT guy and sometimes i really hate the usability level of some things, just because its so poorly conceived.

i also hate having users who are typically 40+ or 50+
it is a freaking nightmare to teach these people how to do anything.

 

[edro]

If you hover over it, it does say "Start"

:awe::thumbsup:

 

[Puppies04]

Am I getting old? I tell people to click the "Start" button all the time at work and people have no idea what I'm talking about. They're like "the little circle thingy in the corner?"

I know exactly what you mean. I told someone to send a telegram the other day and they just looked at me like I was talking double dutch!

What is wrong with people these days.

 

[PliotronX]

The kicker is when you try to adapt by adding "at the bottom left of the screen" and you get someone trying to "think different" and have their taskbar to the side or top.