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    Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?

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    • scottalanmillerS
      scottalanmiller @WrCombs
      last edited by

      @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

      @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

      @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

      I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

      If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

      I will have to take your word for it for now, I have used Linux in the past ( for maybe less than a month before i reverted back to Windows which is where i stayed) but most if not all of what I do is Windows based.

      Windows people often say that, but the same is true here, but we found it more effective, to often manage Windows from Linux.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • DashrenderD
        Dashrender @scottalanmiller
        last edited by

        @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

        @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

        I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

        If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

        I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

        I'm sure it rarely if ever actually starts there. As already said - it was legacy, and never updated. They are finally getting around to updating most of the control panel applets - but we're still frequently stuck dealing with the old style for things like the java security admin, etc.

        scottalanmillerS bbigfordB 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • matteo nunziatiM
          matteo nunziati @scottalanmiller
          last edited by

          @scottalanmiller I've got just 1 conclusion: the pay for their estate. The smaller the cheapest.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ObsolesceO
            Obsolesce @scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

            So I've wondered this for a long time. When working on any other platform, and I have a management tool, I normally set it to full screen so that I can see as much as possible all at once. Say I'm working with user permissions or reading a log, I want to see a lot at once. It's critical to reading things and finding things quickly.

            But on Windows, so often their GUI elements have an enforced, and insanely tiny, size. Take the Data Properties dialogue on a file for example, or the Event Viewer. In these cases, nothing that I need to see or do every fits on the screen. For even the most trivial operation, I have to scroll and scroll. The Data Properties dialogue shows only three items on the screen at one time, no matter how big your screen is. It's so few, that it is hard to have your eyes track the scrolling rate as there isn't enough space to track the movement, and when used over a remote session, it is even worse.

            Why do the force us to use such horrible GUI elements, so much of Windows would be faster, more reliable, easier, and more attractive, if we could simply resize windows. I can do this with a web page, why not the Windows desktop? This seems like a very arbitrary crippling of the interface with no obvious benefits to Microsoft to make their systems so unfriendly.

            Ill keep this in mind for my apps

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • 1
              1337
              last edited by 1337

              It's because people don't have a clue what the dot pitch/dpi/ppi their screen have and don't know how they change windows dpi settings.

              And because people screw this up so bad you get websites that look like someone was visually impaired when they designed it while other looks fine.

              BTW, windows default dpi setting is 96 dpi or roughly a dot pitch of 0.27 mm. If you have a smaller dot pitch or the monitor further away you need to increase from 100%. If the screen elements are too small your settings are wrong, your viewing distance to far or you bought the wrong monitor.

              scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • scottalanmillerS
                scottalanmiller @1337
                last edited by

                @Pete-S said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                BTW, windows default dpi setting is 96 dpi or roughly a dot pitch of 0.27 mm. If you have a smaller dot pitch or the monitor further away you need to increase from 100%. If the screen elements are too small your settings are wrong, your viewing distance to far or you bought the wrong monitor.

                Scaling on Windows doesn't change the size of the GUI elements in question. They always display the same ridiculously small amount of settings regardless of the settings.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • scottalanmillerS
                  scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                  last edited by

                  @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                  @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                  @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                  I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

                  If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

                  I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

                  Because it's one of the few logical, and consistent potential reasonings. Why do you find it strange, when it's way more viable and logical than thinking Microsoft is just bad at what they do?

                  DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                    last edited by

                    @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                    @scottalanmiller said in [Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?]

                    I'm sure it rarely if ever actually starts there. As already said - it was legacy, and never updated. They are finally getting around to updating most of the control panel applets - but we're still frequently stuck dealing with the old style for things like the java security admin, etc.

                    No one claimed it started there. That it might have started with incompetence is fine, that it isn't seen as a priority to fix something so simple, but so universally important, is where they get some actual financial benefit in making GUI users pay a higher price to encourage people to see the CLI agenda as more important than it would be if the GUI was done better.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • A
                      Alex Sage
                      last edited by

                      The smallest bird is the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) of Cuba and the Isle of Youth. Males measure 57 mm (2.24 in) in total length, half of which is taken up by the bill and tail, and weigh 1.6 g (0.056 oz) Females are slightly larger.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • DashrenderD
                        Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                        last edited by

                        @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                        @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                        @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                        @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                        I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

                        If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

                        I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

                        Because it's one of the few logical, and consistent potential reasonings. Why do you find it strange, when it's way more viable and logical than thinking Microsoft is just bad at what they do?

                        Sure - they might just be bad at what they do. But that doesn't mean they are purposefully mocking people.

                        travisdh1T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • DustinB3403D
                          DustinB3403
                          last edited by

                          It could just be that Microsoft hired people who were decent at programming and had little to no aesthetic/design taste. .

                          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • travisdh1T
                            travisdh1 @Dashrender
                            last edited by

                            @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                            @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                            @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                            @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                            @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                            I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

                            If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

                            I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

                            Because it's one of the few logical, and consistent potential reasonings. Why do you find it strange, when it's way more viable and logical than thinking Microsoft is just bad at what they do?

                            Sure - they might just be bad at what they do. But that doesn't mean they are purposefully mocking people.

                            @scottalanmiller is giving them more credit than you are. He's assuming they are competent at least. Which one could only logically reason that they are having a good joke on us.

                            scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • scottalanmillerS
                              scottalanmiller @DustinB3403
                              last edited by

                              @DustinB3403 said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                              It could just be that Microsoft hired people who were decent at programming and had little to no aesthetic/design taste. .

                              I think it is pretty unreasonable to think that decades into Microsoft being one of the world's biggest dev companies that they didn't have UX specialists touching every single aspect of the GUI.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • scottalanmillerS
                                scottalanmiller @travisdh1
                                last edited by

                                @travisdh1 said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

                                If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

                                I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

                                Because it's one of the few logical, and consistent potential reasonings. Why do you find it strange, when it's way more viable and logical than thinking Microsoft is just bad at what they do?

                                Sure - they might just be bad at what they do. But that doesn't mean they are purposefully mocking people.

                                @scottalanmiller is giving them more credit than you are. He's assuming they are competent at least. Which one could only logically reason that they are having a good joke on us.

                                Exactly. I'm assuming that they are a big, well funded, highly competent software company that, while it can make mistakes from time to time, is generally logical, reasonable, and capable. Basically, all the assumptions someone would be required to make to use their products.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • matteo nunziatiM
                                  matteo nunziati
                                  last edited by

                                  @scottalanmiller with any devel tool and namely with more "modern" WPF it is trivial to make big controls which scale with window size or screen resolution.
                                  Simply a lot of SW is badly designed.

                                  scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • scottalanmillerS
                                    scottalanmiller @matteo nunziati
                                    last edited by

                                    @matteo-nunziati said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                    @scottalanmiller with any devel tool and namely with more "modern" WPF it is trivial to make big controls which scale with window size or screen resolution.
                                    Simply a lot of SW is badly designed.

                                    Yeah, most things by default don't have these kinds of problems.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • bbigfordB
                                      bbigford @Dashrender
                                      last edited by

                                      @Dashrender said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                      @scottalanmiller said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                      @WrCombs said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:

                                      I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.

                                      If you ever work with any other system, then work with Windows, it's shocking how silly and ridiculous it is. You can't "see" anything. It's like they wanted to mock people for choosing the GUI.

                                      I love how you frequently go to this - they must want to mock people..

                                      I'm sure it rarely if ever actually starts there. As already said - it was legacy, and never updated. They are finally getting around to updating most of the control panel applets - but we're still frequently stuck dealing with the old style for things like the java security admin, etc.

                                      But wouldn't that be hilarious if it were true?

                                      Internal MS plot to fuck with people: "Haha these idiots buying our operating system for the GUI... you know what would REALLY be funny? Release management tools that they can't see, so they have to squint their eyes and get really close to the screen. Their eyesight will get worse and they'll look even older while doing it with that stupid look on their face. HAH!!"

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