Click the what now?
Don’t ask me why, but our internal network update announcements are still sent via email in the SNP format which is basically a screen-shot of an access form (old habits die hard…).
So, I went to open one today and realized I don’t have the SNP viewer. So, I go to MS.com to download it and install it.
If you have never used a Macintosh, then you really can’t appreciate the ease of Apple’s drag-the-app-folder-to-your-computer-and-you’re-done installation process. For some inane reason, installing an application on Windows requires at least a half-dozen clicks. If you’re lucky, the half dozen dialogue boxes use the same interface and you just whip through clicking all the [OK] buttons. But once in a while you get this:
Exit Setup? Oh, I guess it’s done. Cool. Oops. It canceled the installation? WTF? Ugh. Install again.
I think I did this twice before stopping to try and figure out this mysterious dialog box. I finally got it. It was almost as satisfying as finishing the NYT Crossword. It’s cute that MS developers put these brain teasers into their applications to keep us on our toes. You’d never see Apple being that creative, would you? ;o)
3 Comments
Best worst dialog box EVER!
SNP format?! Here’s yet another Microsoft proprietary file (this one based on the Microsoft Compound File Binary Format- CFBF) that proliferate like weeds throughout Windows/Vista. Microsoft has elevated such intentional system obfuscations and complexity to a fine art.
Here’s another idiotic example of Microsoft’s self-love of complexity: when a user has IE send an email including the currently viewed URL, IE actually includes a file attachment with a .url extension to the mail message instead of simply including the text in the message body. Our anti-spam system quarantines and deletes all of these stupid attachments (as recommended practice – even Microsoft warns that such attachments may potentially be used maliciously …)
Unfortunately most Microsoft shops buy into the fact that it is simply easier to give into Microsoft’s unified (and only) way of doing things, whether they like it or not. (Your basic Microsoft end-user doesn’t have a clue what is going on other than the fact if the computer system isn’t configured *exactly* how Microsoft intended then things tend not to work …).
LMFAO, thats hilarious, I remember the good old days of setup programs like that, I had to help many people install programs who could not figure out why it wouldn’t install.