This is a random listing of poorly designed or annoying things I've run into in various versions of Microsoft Windows.
Yes, I know this list should be thousands of times longer, but I'm primarily just collecting the things I have encountered--and I've just begun.
In the tree view in IE's Organize Favorites window, the vertical lines that provided visual alignment are now gone. When you have several nested items open and scroll up and down, it's much harder to tell which folders are at the same level.
Research has shown that photographs of objects take the longest to recognize, and simple, schematic symbols are the quickest to recognize. So what did Microsoft do for Windows XP? They dropped the simple, schematic icons from before and replaced them with lower-contrast icons.
Additionally, in the various folder icons, the front of the folder is transparent. How was that supposed to be more recognizable?
Supposed smooth scrolling isn't smooth. In fact, usually, it's jumpier and harder to follow with your eyes than regular jump scrolling.
Internet Explorer's help window is always on top of other Internet Explorer windows, with no apparent way to turn it off. (XP)
In Windows XP, Window Explorer (in "open" mode) no longer shows the aggregate size of selected files. TBW:
In Windows WP, in the file search window, you can't just type in a directory name.
In Windows XP, the file search function now searches files within Zip files. However, there's no option to disable that new behavior.
In Windows XP, the file search function now searches files within Zip files. However, it shows only the parent directory pathname within the Zip file, instead of also showing the full pathname of the Zip file itself. TBW:
In a Windows Explorer window for a directory with a Zip file, the window's address field doesn't show the pathname of the Zip file before the directory pathname within the Zip file. (XP)
If you have a shortcut whose target file doesn't currently exist, when you open the shortcut properties windows, you can't even switch to other tabs to view the current settings. (XP?)
In Windows XP, all new Windows Explorer windows (and least in "open" mode), are exceedingly large. There doesn't seem to be any way to change the default size (e.g., they don't take the size of the last window you re-sized). TBW:
Many settings dialog windows are not resizable, for example:
In the file search window, the "look in" box doesn't show the full pathname you have selected.
In the file search window, you can't select multiple directories (folders) under which to search. If in a regular folder window you select multiple folders and then select the Search menu command, you get multiple search windows; you have to repeat your search once for each selected folder.
The "Save As" command defaults to the My Documents directory (folder) instead of to the directory from which the current document was loaded. For example, to open a document and save a modified version near the original version, you have to navigate from the My Documents directory back to wherever the document was located.