The Old New Thing

The default answer to every dialog box is "Cancel"

September 1, 2003 Sep 1, 2003 09/1/03

Raymond Chen

The problem with displaying UI is that people will take every opportunity to ignore it. This story of how people deal with virus warning dialogs (via Don Browning) is a template for how users treat any unexpected dialog: They try to get rid of it. We see this time and time again...

Lessons from the trenches

August 19, 2003 Aug 19, 2003 08/19/03

Raymond Chen

Lessons I learned from working in product support the past few days...

A day in the trenches

August 16, 2003 Aug 16, 2003 08/16/03

Raymond Chen

I got up at 5 this morning to spend the day at Product Support Services answering phones: today was the day the Blaster worm launched its second wave. And by a startling coincidence, the person at the station next to me was Michael Howard our Senior Security Program Manager and author of Writing...

More terse Q&A on Tweak UI 2.10

July 24, 2003 Jul 24, 2003 07/24/03

Raymond Chen

I'm going to try to alternate between programming entries (where I actually try to teach something) and random entries (where I get to spout off or go into storytelling mode). So here's another random entry. Why does Tweak UI put up a totally incomprehensible error message ("Cannot locate...

Tweak UI 2.10

July 21, 2003 Jul 21, 2003 07/21/03

Raymond Chen

What are you talking about? Tweak UI is part of the Windows XP PowerToys. It was recently updated to version 2.10. What OS is required? Windows XP Service Pack 1 (or higher) or Windows Server 2003 (all versions). Not supported: Windows XP RTM, Windows...