Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?
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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.
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because, legacy.
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@scottalanmiller Because someone put the programming code in to make all those fixed sizes instead of the default years ago and now nobody remembers where the code for it resides. So until it get replaced, we get poo management windows.
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they still want windows to look good at 800x600
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@Donahue said in Why are Windows Management GUI Elements So Tiny?:
they still want windows to look good at 800x600
"Good"
But forced small doesn't help small screens.
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I was actually just talking about this with some coworkers of mine.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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@scottalanmiller I've got just 1 conclusion: the pay for their estate. The smaller the cheapest.
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@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
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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.
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@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.
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@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?
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@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.
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@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.
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It could just be that Microsoft hired people who were decent at programming and had little to no aesthetic/design taste. .
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@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.
