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Admin
But why do the stupid links break in the first place?!
Admin
Another early article topic? Is @PaulaBean becoming sentient?
Because they are checkedwhich is a bit surprising because you’d expect Windows to mount the network drives before running the shortcut cleaner... (Maybe they are mounted from a batch file which is started too late in the boot process)
Admin
No - just back to 'normal'.
#2, #3 and #4 have been somewhat broken recently.
Admin
"Culture of Success" sounds toxic. Toxic culture I tell ya'!
Never get that around here.
Admin
This somehow reminds me of recent links from DailyWTF to Discourse...
Admin
The links break because you use your corporate laptop away from the corporate network. Windows logs the fact that it found a broken link and the next time it runs Maintenance...away goes your shortcut.
I had this happen to me just last month. Couldn't figure out why shortcuts were vanishing. Google provided the reason and the solution: disable the damn Windows Maintenance Process.
Thanks, Microsoft, for being so helpful...by default...with no way to disable the "feature". I guess you never stopped to think that I might have put those shortcuts there because I wanted them there, and that maybe just once in a while, I would use a portable device on a different network.
Admin
no way to disable it apart from disabling it?
Admin
Right. Too early for me.
The disable is hidden behind a locked door, marked "Beware of Leopard!"
Admin
The sensible way to deal with this would be to do some sort of desktop cleanup, possibly via a wizard, which could put the shortcuts in a separate folder instead of removing them entirely
Admin
Admin
Too bad the article doesn't mention the WTF riddled way a mega corporate has to go through before making that decision.
Admin
If it's dead at the time of use, then offer to delete it.
The user can then choose whether to kill it or to phone tech support and ask why the link to the central network database doesn't work from their hotel room in Kerblekistan.
Admin
You forget that users are stupid.
Windows does offer to delete dead shortcuts when you click on them. And people are accepting it without knowing what the heck they are doing. Then, they are complaining their beloved shortcut has disappeared and they don't know how to create it again. (In fact, a user just called me for this exact reason at this very moment.)
Ok, on second thought, they may not be stupid, but they simply does not care.
Admin
What's the advantage vs just creating the topic when the article goes live?
Admin
those of us that have the articles category watched can get in early and have fun in comments. much like in old site we could if we subscribed to the RSS
Admin
FTFY
Microsoft either needs to hire some decent HFE/UI designers or fire the ones they have, because significantly changing the behavior and UI of an OS with every release, is like redesigning a tool...people expect it to work a certain way, and that behavior shouldn't be changed unlwithout a very good reason...
Admin
I've absolutely no idea.
Ask Alex? It's TDWTF code, not DC code.
Admin
No, just regularly ask the user if they want to run it. Every 60 days sounds like an acceptable time frame
Admin
But wait until the full strength kool-aid arrives: Culture for success.
Admin
Reminds me of a vaguely similar story when we were acquired.
One of the major items on the 'forbidden software list' was the type of software we make. Common reaction on the workfloor - "Do you realize what you've bought?".
On the upside, I've never seen that one enforced.
Admin
We already have local admin rights because we're an IT shop playing with Visual Studio and ASP.Net websites, but we still had a similar WTF just a few days ago, when an admin published a Group Policy that set the UAC to "disabled" on all machines company-wide. Thanks to those local admin rights, I set it back to my usual setting ("paranoid") before we even got the company-wide e-mail telling us it was official.
Too bad the GPO is still in effect and re-disables it every some time... I'll have to find a way to re-enable it programmatically in a scheduled task.
Admin
What are these guys, rookies? In this day and age, isn't this pretty much the first thing to do when dealing with a problem you haven't seen before?
Admin
So, the real WTF is that the big company allowed their users to have admin control over their own boxes, but the tiny startup was the one with the draconian policies?
Admin
Isn't that a Mac OSX version? Clearly using a mac to disable windows features is the way to go for a unified Operating System!
Filed Under: Using Discourse to post things to Discourse also is a "great" way to post things to discourse
Admin
I like microsoft's #1 workaround from the link in the article:
Admin
The Jeff™ way of doing things?
Admin
Don't be silly. Jeff doesn't remove broken things, just threads complaining about them
Admin
It's discoverable; just keep deleting shit until your shit works.
Admin
I think I see where this is going:
... Method 3: Divide the number of desired shortcuts by 4, and round down to the nearest whole number. Purchase this number of computers. Place 4 shortcuts on each computer.Method 4: Turn off your computer. Do not attempt to turn back on.
Method 5: Shoot yourself in the face.
Admin
I HATE the System Maintenance troubleshooter. I have to deal with this exact stupidity at least weekly. Who thought it was a good idea to check the icons before network connections even have a chance to be established? Bad Microsoft! No!
Admin
Remember XP? "You have unused icons on your desktop."
Admin
The only sensible way is the way I experience it being handled by Windows:
If the link points to a not-yet-mounted net drive, search all hard drives, removable drives, etc. for a similarly-named file, and be so helpful to redirect the link to that file, without bothering the user with just another alert window.
Admin
Dropping file symbols on a link to a program isn't "use" of that link. Otherwise, the desktop cleanup wizard wouldn't ask regularly if that unused link should be deleted.
Admin
The simplest and least riddled way would be, in the days of old, when Windows XP was shoved down the throat of the faithful Windows 98 users, most software wouldn't run without power user or admin privileges. So they decided for the only low-cost solution they could think of. And when they switched to Window 7, they simply continued ye olde policie.
Admin
It's worse than that.
We had that problem crop up shortly after deploying Win7 stations to one of our departments. Turns out they have a half dozen shortcuts that point to the network. Even changing them to UNC start paths didn't solve the problem, since the local admin account that did the automated cleanup didn't have rights on the domain network share and thus read the shortcuts as broken. Thank you Microsoft for being SO helpful!
Solution? Drop all the network shortcuts into a folder on the desktop.
They still complained that the extra double-click on that folder to access the shortcuts was a waste of their time and an inconvenience. :facepalm:
I'm actually surprised not to have this reported to us yet, as we've had remote mobile users running Win7 long before this department that ran into the problem got their machines.
Admin
Admit it--you're still bitter about the game-y looking jelly blue UI.
Admin
The silver theme was pretty.
Admin
Okay, here's the real reason. The shortcut cleaner (henceforth, the shortcut destructinator) runs before any user logs in. Windows can't map network drives before a user logs in. Network drives are mapped when you log in, and each user can have their own network drives.
Indeed, that is the question. Which genius at Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to have the shortcut destructinator run before the users log in?
Admin
This might belong in the stupid ideas thread but ... Could you outsmart the tool by making the links on the desktop link to links in a not self-cleaning folder?
Admin
I believe if you use that suffix twice, as in "destructinatorinator" it works better.
Admin
Nope. Windows won't create a shortcut to a shortcut; it'll create a shortcut to what the shortcut points to. It's actually halfway smart because moving, deleting, or renaming the first shortcut won't break the second one.
What I think you can do is create internet shortcuts (.url) instead of normal shortcuts (.lnk). The simple way to do this is to create them using the New -> Shortcut wizard and then for the shortcut link, instead of
\\initrode1\shared\orI:\shared\, you'd typefile://initrode1/shared/orfile://i:/shared/.Unfortunately, you'll get the default globe internet shortcut icon instead of the correct icon for what you're linking to, so you'll have to go to the Properties and change the icon if you want that to be correct.
Admin
Admin
Sounds like windows is doing this the right way. Yes the desktop can have shortcuts, but shortcuts to network paths/resources do not belong here.
What bastard admin puts shortcuts on the desktop? This means to get access to them i have to minimize all applications... or use the 'minimize all' button Microsoft had to implement because people put paths/folders on the desktop. Have the admins not found the start button yet? It's a handy menu that is always available at a click of a button and overlaid on top of applications only when you need it. Now, if only this start menu thing has a roaming profile?
Admin
Sounds like you're claiming our users are Doing It Wrong™, which I consider a compliment to my users. ;-)
Admin
Nobody forces users to use the - in your opinion awful - desktop shortcuts.
Anyone who gives enough of a damn about having to minimize windows to reach those icons is probably someone who knows how to make shortcuts more convenient for themselves, for example by adding the folders to the explorer's jumplist.
Admin
What it really means is a culture where failure is not tolerated. Since failure happens anyway, it is hidden and success is feigned. Without failure, nothing is ever learned, nothing gets better and failures continue.
It's Worse Than Failure.
Admin
Agreed.
At least with Windows 7, it doesn't matter. You can have as many windows open as you want. Your desktop shortcuts are ONE CLICK away, on the task bar, here: [image]
So why make the desktop conveniently accessible and then take away the conveniences you put there?
Admin
Admin
But it's not convenient. If you 'minimize all' application windows to see the desktop, now open say a (shortcut to) .txt file on the desktop, it's not possible to 'restore all windows'. Where am i going to paste this text from the text file? I have to click open each app or do the whole 'hover over the icon and use aeropeek'
Admin
It's almost like MS built in multiple ways of performing tasks with the idea that different users might have different preferences on how they accomplish those tasks. Pffft, idiots.