How Do Windows Users Put Up With This Crap? #1: RealOne

So here I am using Widnows for a reasonably valid reason. I have a notepad window open, a Command Prompt window (ie, a DOS box, except it isn't really), and a PuTTY window. That's it -- no browser, no media player, nuttin.

I'm typing along, and up pops a helpful window. If I knew how, I'd take a screenshot of it, but I don't.

MediaType Helper

RealOne Player is currently not your default player for audio, video or other media types. Click 'Ok' to correct this.

The following types are affected:

-----------------------------------------

Audio Playlist

[More Options] [Ok]

Things to note at first glance: I didn't ask RealOne to do anything; by its own admission it's not the default media player, and I wasn't playing media anyway; it shouldn't be running at all. It is so sure of itself that that it tells me how to 'correct' a problem, not how to make a change if I want to. And, there's no 'cancel' button.

No cancel button? But what if I don't want it to be the default? Surely that's a reasonable possibility, right? Well, maybe it's hiding in the 'more options'?

Nope; when one clicks on 'more options', the only new options are 'Hide Options' and 'Remind Me Later'.

The closest one can come to telling this piece of software that it's wrong and to go away and to leave you alone is to affirmatively agree with its worldview and to ask it to bother you again later?

How (why) do people put UP with this shit?

Update: Over the next hour of using Windows, the same oh-so-helpful window appeared no less than 6 times.

2003-06-24 22:28:00 | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | Computers::Windows::Crap

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Comments

Phil Ringnalda

Well, in that case it’s Real that’s the root of the evil, and Windows is just enabling it. Real’s as pushy as a popup-spewing website that does all it can to keep you from navigating away, but it can be tamed: there should be a Real icon in the system tray (lower right corner, by the clock), and right-clicking it should give you a chance to dig through it’s preferences, telling it not to maintain file associations that don’t exist, not to check for updates constantly, and if you’re really lucky, not to automatically start when Windows starts (sort of vague, but I’m not willing to install it just to find out the details, I’m afraid).

2003-06-24 23:56:00

tamaracks

RealPlayer usually has something running in the system tray that can be closed, which I would think would stop the messages, at least until you reboot. I agree, it’s a stupid program.

2003-06-25 14:03:00

Gnomon

How do people put up with it? As a phone-service tech for a large unnamed American broadband ISP, I can confidently report that most people don’t put up with it - they simply don’t know where to complain, and in most cases don’t even know what to complain about. “These pop-ups are incredibly irritating”, they exclaim, but no one - no one - differentiates between advertising pop-ups, Windows Messenger pop-ups, adware pop-ups, Internet Explorer pop-ups and program alert pop-ups. They are all dismissed with the same level of irritation (lots) and thought (none).

Why do people put up with it? Because most people (a) don’t know any better, and (b) would rather deal with irritation in the manner to which they have become accustomed rather than venture into the uncomfortable wilds of “figuring things out”.

The unfortunate reality of the matter is that the vast majority of computer users are so afraid of screwing up their machines that once they have discovered a setup that works, they will move heaven and earth to keep things that way… even when an extremely minor change could vastly improve their computing experience. You wouldn’t believe how many people even refuse to run more than one program at once, or never even considered the possibility.

2003-06-26 13:23:00

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