Windows Start Button

[Fritzo]

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?"

It's officially called the Start button. If they don't know what it's called, they're computer illiterate. It's something all techs deal with. Be glad they don't turn off the power every time you tell them to hit the Start button.

 

[PliotronX]

It's officially called the Start button. If they don't know what it's called, they're computer illiterate. It's something all techs deal with. Be glad they don't turn off the power every time you tell them to hit the Start button.

 

[TheSlamma]

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.

These are the same people who can't even set the time on a microwave or freak out when a display panel pops up with a message TELLING THEM EXACTLY WHAT TO DO.

 

[PliotronX]

These are the same people who can't even set the time on a microwave or freak out when a display panel pops up with a message TELLING THEM EXACTLY WHAT TO DO.

And yet these are the same people that happily fall for anything that says "click here to update" unabated and end up being Cryptowalled with no backup.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

At least the people you have to explain this to speak english.

Try it with parents who don't and you have to mince words around to try and say words you don't know how to say natively.

 

[Exterous]

We have a software tool for the area I support that is two clicks away from our organization's home page and it continues to astonish me how many people do not know how to get to our homepage

- Windows Explorer. (<blank stare>)

I find they often default to Internet Explorer when you say Windows Explorer

Win 8? My kid had to show me.

We're not surprised - everyone knows you are old :awe:

 

[Exterous]

At least the people you have to explain this to speak english.

There are still some quirks there. I went round and round with a British guy trying to give him a password with a # in it before Twitter was popular because I was taught growing up that it was the pound sign

 

[chitwood]

Ask them to look for the windows key on their keyboard, instead.

I've gotten deer in headlights from this as well, for some there is simply no hope

This one just happened this week:
me: ok, click on the 'summary' tab
*user double clicks the tab*
me: ok, now click 'lauch console'
*user double clicks that too, PC slows to a crawl while it attempts to launch two instances of the console simultaneously*
user: this PC is so slow, can I get a new one?
me: diaf

 

[Thump553]

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.

Look at it from those of us that are older users-we have already gone through what seems like a dozen different ways to reach the same result. Most, if not all of the changes are changes to justify the cost of an update, and not needed by the vast majority of us. A classic example to me is word processing programs. One of the basic and critically important programs to the vast number of people that use computers. The first fully developed major WP program was WordPerfect-great but you had to memorize dozens and dozens of shortcall combos to do anything. Microsoft came along with MS Word, a substantial improvement with its tabs and dropdown menus as an alternative to shortcuts. Then MS came out with "upgrade" after "upgrade" of MS Word, mostly adding so-called features few will use. Worse still, they completely redesign the basic layout for no sensible reason whatsoever, other than to promote these new so-called features. Worst still, switch to some other brand of the same type of software and the layout, key commands, procedures are all different-for two basic reasons (1) to show why brand X software is so much better and (2) to avoid the current vast abuse of copywrit litigation.

The best analogy I can think of is, back in the days of typewriters the manufacturers decided to completely redo the keyboard layout every couple of years.

So when dealing with your older users, please remember that constantly running in the background of their minds are the thoughts "this is BS" and "this is change for change's sake."

And the less you work with this stuff on a daily basis, the less interest you have in learning the how-to procedures and more interest in getting it to produce results. That, in a nutshell, is how and why Apple took substandard locked hardware and made it into the most profitable and valuable company in the world. A huge number of people just don't want to go through the continual BS.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[TheSlamma]

And yet these are the same people that happily fall for anything that says "click here to update" unabated and end up being Cryptowalled with no backup.

It's so odd you said that, I am doing a remote restore from June 1st right now cause someone crytowalled their entire My documents and then waited till last night to let us know.

 

[PliotronX]

It's so odd you said that, I am doing a remote restore from June 1st right now cause someone crytowalled their entire My documents and then waited till last night to let us know.

Ooo, I feel ya. That could be nasty if they have any mapped network drives. We had a guy damage shared company files with his infection and then try to throw the cleaning crew under the bus "they must be fiddling with my computer!!" when in fact he was clicking on things he shouldn't have.

 

[Jeff7]

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.

Some of us might not go out often enough to know where we're going.


I know the streets from here to where I work, and to a few other places I frequent. If I stray, I can easily get lost in the city I've lived in for..........good god, 10 years now. (I still need to register myself over in the "Dumbphone users" thread.)

 

[highland145]

We're not surprised - everyone knows you are old :awe:

Show some respect, boy. Toss this depends in the trash while you're at it.

 

[Protoman25]

I'm the IT guy where I work and I had a woman run up to me today asking if we changed Excel cause her Excel looks different and she can't make changes to her document.

She had Word open.

I don't understand how some people have jobs if they can barely use or understand the machine they are working with.

 

[Red Squirrel]

lol that's too frighteningly accurate.

You get there, and the computer is off. "The internet does not work" turns out to be a loose power cable. I don't understand people sometimes.

 

[lxskllr]

So when dealing with your older users, please remember that constantly running in the background of their minds are the thoughts "this is BS" and "this is change for change's sake."

That's a cop out. If you use a computer for work, you should know how your tool works. Willful stupidity is disgraceful, and wouldn't be acceptable in any other facet of life, but for some reason is for computers.

I'm an older user, and I can switch from any version of Windows to any desktop on GNU/Linux to Android. I have my preferences, but I can figure anything out given a short amount of time. Whatever way I figure out may not be the most efficient on that particular platform, but I can get around, and get work done.

 

[poofyhairguy]

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.

Hence why iPhones and iPads are so popular.

 

[WHAMPOM]

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?"

Shades of the "any key". Or son of the any key! And what is wrong with using the "WIN" key on the keyboard?

 

[Jeff7]

We have a software tool for the area I support that is two clicks away from our organization's home page and it continues to astonish me how many people do not know how to get to our homepage.

Workaround.

It often pains me.
Click, click, click, click, scroll, click, scroll, click....

My version: A single keyboard shortcut. Done.

I find they often default to Internet Explorer when you say Windows Explorer

"My Computer" - they do at least know that though.

 

[TwiceOver]

I never knew what to call the Office Ribbon circle button in Office 2007.