Friday, December 08, 2006

New and Improved!

In the last two weeks, Microsoft have upgraded the two most-used tools on my PC: Internet Explorer and Media Player. And, of course, they've managed to destroy both of them.

(Please, no comments about how I should use your browser/player of choice. The simple fact is, the pre-installed tools are free and convenient, and 98% of websites are designed for IE. So, it would take an awful lot to persuade me to switch, especially since my home PC is now 7 years old, and in its last few months of life. And, of course, I can't make the switch with my work PC.)

Anyway, the new Internet Explorer includes the wonderful tabbed browsing feature, which is really quite nice. However, it has also vastly upped its processor demands, which means that it can't scroll properly on my PC, especially when using the wheel mouse. Given the choice, guess which I would rather have working?

And the new Media Player is particularly good. The old version had a lovely feature where it minimised to it's own toolbar on the taskbar, including basic player functions. The new version has a similar feature, with a new and snazzy black look (which of course doesn't match the rest of the desktop, but never mind), but they've deleted the ability to choose your playlist from the minimised taskbar. That, of course, being one of the features I used most often, and probably my #1 like about the product.

Good work, there!

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