Things that should have been better in Vista

I've been working with Vista x64 for about a month now and while my experience has been surprisingly positive, there are a few very simple things that could have and should have been much better.

1. Since Windows '95, Microsoft has earned a lot of bad publicity by making it way too easy for grandma to double click on things like README.txt.vbs when file extensions are hidden (which I believe was the default in 95,98,ME, NT4, 2k, and XP). With security supposedly being a top priority of Vista, this would have been such an easy change to make, but, by default, extensions are still hidden.
2. There are now dozens of available columns in windows explorer, but there still isn't a column for "extension." If I want to sort by extension to find *.PAT in a particular directory, I naturally look for *.PAT, not "AutoCAD Hatch Pattern Definition."
3. The smallest unit in Windows Explorer is still a kilobyte. I don't care how large hard drive capacities are now or how large they will be in the future - there should always be an option to show file sizes in bytes.
4. It's incredibly difficult to make "Remember Folder Settings" work. I like details view. For everything. Really. Don't try to outsmart me. Luckily, this article seems to have a fix which actually works.
5. Shift-RightClick / "Open Command Window Here" only works in explorer's right pane.
6. Windows Explorer's status bar no longer shows the total size of files in the current folder. It used to in 95,98,ME,NT4,2k and XP. Now it doesn't. To get the total file size, you have to ctrl-a to select all and then the status bar shows you the cumulative total size of the files.
7. In previous versions of windows you could log out with just the keyboard. CTRL-ALT-DEL followed by "L" would log you off. Vista has removed this functionality. CTRL-ALT-DEL gets you to a purely point and click page where you must then use your mouse to hit "log off."
   

Running history of new features in AutoCAD which failed to deliver

Ever since AutoCAD went to the one year releases, I've been pretty critical of how rushed all of the new features have been. This is a running list of all of the new heavily touted "bullet list" features which failed to deliver.

2005:

• New Feature: Hatch Gap Tolerances (HPGAPTOL)
  Incomplete implementation: Works in simple figures where users wouldn't need it to work, but simply doesn't work on figures where most users we would need such a feature to work. As of 2009, it is no better than it was in 2005.
  Result: Most customers can't use it which makes them revert to 2004 techniques.
  
  
• New Feature: Background mask property
  Incomplete implementation: Doesn't work when printers are set to "lines merge"
  Result: Many customers still have to use wipeouts, which do work with "lines merge." Again, this essentially forces many users to revert to 2004 techniques.
  
  
• New Feature: Sheet Sets
  Incomplete implementation: Publishing can be painfully slow when there are several page setups which refer to several plotters. Often, the publish dialog can take several minutes to appear. Also, DST files on networks are still known to cause performance issues.
  Result: This really is a useful feature, but incomplete aspects noted above weren't improved in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009.
  

2006:

• New Feature: Dynamic input
  Incomplete Implementation: Should have been more useful than it is. There are still issues with overlapping values and sluggish performance. Done right, it could have been as great as autosnap markers.
  Result: With each rollout, I field dozens of calls asking how to turn it off and revert to 2005 behavior.
  
  
• New Feature: CUI/Workspaces
  Incomplete implementation: Simply wasn't thought out very well from a workgroup point of view. The enterprise/main division is very cumbersome, not to mention enterprise partial and main partials, the fact that workspaces are stored in the CUI file, and many other overdesigned aspects. Visit this thread for user complaints on this feature. This wasn't just a case of users being resistant to change. The thread started over two years ago and it's still being posted to.
  
  Main, partial main, enterprise, partial enterprise? Hacked ICON.DLLs? Workspaces in main and enterprise but not partials? LIFO conflics? Can't edit workspaces when "automatically save changes to workspace is on? "Save current as" saves the current space as "start on"? Cumbersome ACLs for enterprise/partial? .. What a convoluted mess! Novice to semiexperienced users simply want this: How can I drag these three buttons from this toolbar to that toolbar like I did in 2005? That's it and that's all.
  
  FWIW, the CUI feature has always reminded me of the Simpsons episode when homer's long lost brother allows him to design a better car that "the people" would buy and they end up with this. (In case you don't remember, the car ended up with a sticker price of over $40,000 and the company went bankrupt).
  

2007:

• New Feature: Built-in PDF driver
  Incomplete Implementation: Didn't work well then and doesn't work well now. Huge margins, poorly translated lineweights, objects in paperspace layouts can appear on the wrong PDF page.
  Result: Many/most users resort to using a 3rd party PDF driver, just as they had to do in 2006.

• New Feature: xref palette
  Incomplete implementation: Simply selecting an image in the list creates excessive "image processing," even when the image is unloaded and/or on a frozen layer. Doesn't work when SDI is turned on (as some verticals still force).
  Result: Many users have to resort to the 2006 method of using CLASSICXREF.
  

2008:

• New feature: PUBLISHCOLLATE variable is supposed to allow users to send one multi-page print job (1) or several one page print jobs (0).
  Incomplete implementation: known to cause fatal errors
  Result: For many users, publishcollate must be left at 0 which completely disables the new feature and reverts to the behavior of the previous version.
  
  
• New Feature: annotative mtext
  Incomplete Implementation: Doesn't work with the lisp function (entmod) which means that many firms either can't use their existing customizations or can't use the new feature. Also, many annotative entities can't be manipulated until a drawing is audited. Many users simply couldn't live with the quirks, didn't have time to invest in developing in-house workarounds and gave up on the feature.
  Result: As stated, for firms who have existing customizations, the new feature can't be used and users must revert to 2007 and earlier techniques.
  
  
• New Feature: annotative scales -
  Incomplete Implementation: Generally caused tons of CAD debris that will have to be fought off for years to come - and that debris was only introduced in the short period between 2008 and 2008SP1.
  
  
• New Feature: mleader
  Incomplete Implementation: Extremely quirky, even in SP1. Sometimes when the text width is modified, its location pops to a random position. Also, you can't use a field within mleader text and have it justify to middle.
  Result: Many users had to pass on this feature until it was more completely implemented, which meant that they had to revert to the 2007 (and earlier) quickleader techniques.
  
  
• New Feature: multiline attributes
  Incomplete implementation: Arbitrary code can bleed through into the displayed value; attribute position can jump anound.
  Result: Many users gave up on the feature and had to revert to using single line attributes as they had to in 2007 and earlier.
  

2009:

• New Feature: Extended tooltips
  Incomplete implementation: Undoubtedly cause sluggish performance. There is no way to only turn off said verbose tool tips.
  Result: Tooltips must be turned off completely, which mimics a circa R12 environment.
  
  
• New Feature: Ribbon interface
  Incomplete implementation: The ribbon, its tabs, and panels have to be in the "main" CUI file.
  Result: A step back for people who had been using the dashboard.
  
  
• New feature: DST files are added to most recently used files list
  Incomplete implementation: After 9 sheet sets have been opened, only dst files will show up in the most recently used file list.
  Result: New feature leaves users worse off than with previous version
  
  
• New feature: Layer Manager Palette
  Incomplete implementation: Severe performance issues when leaving palette docked
  Result: Users do not realize any benefits from new feature. Palette must either be closed after each operation, or use classiclayer/LAYERDLGMODE=0. Each of these operations reverts to an environment similar to 2008 and earlier releases.