Thirty-eight years of evolution, yet Windows still can't tell you what program is using the USB device you tried to eject. amirite?

Or what program has taken over your sound output and you have no sound until you restart. Hint: it's skype.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Nope it's Teams... Just kidding Teams bypasses system sound settings.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I mean its only relatively recently we've been able to identify which browser tab is producing the screaming Orgasm thats waking the neighbours dogs.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Seriously, Windows be like "There's a program using this file...but I'm not telling you."

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) has been built-in for ages. CPU tab, type the drive letter into the "search handles" field, and there's your list. Process Monitor / ProcMon has a similar function, but doesn't come preinstalled with Windows. Still, it would be nice if the dialog would include that information.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Resmon.exe is also hidden away and you wouldn't know of its existence unless someone showed you it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It also can't update itself properly, and when it fails it also can't tell you why it failed.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

dude if you read any of the official Windows documentation (the MSI docs are a good example) you'll *very* quickly realise that the entire OS is held together with duct tape and a prayer

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Windows can't even tell that you're using your machine and wouldn't like to shut down to perform a time consuming, and possibly unwanted upgrade. They're doing quite well at losing yet another de facto monopoly.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Never have this issue if you dont activate windows ;)

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Not always. For a while, I had a toxic upgrade that would alt tab me in the middle of a game and hide the [x] button, instead forcing me to hunt down the "close" option.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I've never had it do that to me ever over two decades and several computer changes. The many remarks about it still just confuse me.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Windows update used to re-enable itself constantly and do stuff whenever it felt like. Doesn't happen much to me anymore but 🤷‍♂️

by Anonymous 2 years ago

>The many remarks about it still just confuse me. Just because something didn't happen to you does not mean it never happened. There was a period in early W10 where the computer had a default setting to restart and apply updates during off hours if the computer had not been shut off in a while. For a brief period it was whenever you were idol for a bit, but later it would ask for ideal hours and give a warning. It was so hated that it barely exists anymore. People weren't cracking endless jokes about it for nothing.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I had a year or two, where it would pop up asking me when I would like to update, but no matter what I clicked it instantly started updating and rebooting. Oh, and if I didn't click anything, it started after about 5 minutes anyway. It was an interesting time attending online meetings.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

In my 40s, I've been using computers since before Windows and I get your confusion, but it's happened to me exactly once. I work from home on a work provided PC. No warning. 20 minutes before a meeting my PC went down for an upgrade. It took almost 3 hours. I sat there taking pictures to prove to my team the nonsense was happening. Maddening yet, saved me a boring meeting :p

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Oh it can tell, it just doesn't care

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Every Windows version is just more lipstick on a pig. It's been that way since the beginning. Not that some core things don't change, but mostly it's just feature bloat on feature bloat.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

More like lipstick on pig carcass. I can spell out the exact name of the app I'm searching for, and it'll go "Did you know that Edge is the Microsoft recommended browser?"

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Windows search has sucked balls since Win7. Comically bad.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Or what program is preventing shutdown. Also two of the most annoying things in computing: "Learn more" and "Something went wrong" The only thing Microsoft has done since windows 7 is become a cancer on the computing industry. No respect whatsoever for how the user wants to use their own computer. I wish so much they had been broken up in 90's

by Anonymous 2 years ago

??? Windows 8 and up literally show a list of apps that are stalling/preventing shutdown with a "shut down anyway" button to force it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Well on Windows 10, all I get is a generic exe icon with no name. I'm supposed to assume what the app name is. I've seen it on multiple machines.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I've never seen that before and I've even worked deskside IT support on a campus with about 10000 machines.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I think I've seen that list fail to populate before, but I'm not sure. I know I've once pressed the button to cancel shutdown so I can close the programs myself, but then it forced shutdown anyways, possibly because I barely clicked too late

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You safely eject the USB by pulling it out of the USB port without warning like the rest of us.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Power toys added a function just for that haha, f**ing finally

by Anonymous 2 years ago

3 million years of evolution, and OP still ejects their USB devices instead of just pulling then out like our ancestors intended.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And proper menu based ‘shutdown" always, always waits until you get up and go to leave to say ‘are ya sure somethings doing something…' YES DAMN IT.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I've had many moments where Windows arbitrarily declares that a file is being used by something else, even when it is not.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Process Explorer can. Just search for handles to your USB drive letter...

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Nor can Windows tell you which program is accessing a file you're trying to rename or move.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

wait people actually use "safely remove hardware"? haha losers

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Windows Police! You're under arrest!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

is this related to the hardware abstraction layer that tried to handle the problem of IRQ's after win95's plug and play gambit failed. Cause that tracks kinda

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Not related. The plug and play system is still in place. There have been multiple different hardware abstraction layers used since win 95. Also, computers have more irqs now.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Or what an error code means. I understand an error code being useful to tech support, but for the average consumer it'd be a little more helpful to see "you're running out of ram" rather than "you've encountered error 8x067t(738HYBANANARAMA739"

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Or give you the actual reason why you just got a BSOD. Error codes and BS. Just tell me what went wrong or which driver is the problem. JFC

by Anonymous 2 years ago

25years of USB and I still can't tell you that I ever tried to eject a USB device before unplugging it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

There's still really no 100% reliable way to tell what the battery level on an Xbox controller connected to a Windows PC. The Xbox Game Bar always says critical battery. The Bluetooth window shows a battery level that is often wrong or always 100%. When you plug the controller via USB, you lose all ability to see any battery level at all. People make apps that try to fix this, and they're all trash.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Apple pretty clearly tells you what program is using the USB device. And has for some time.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

ProcExp from Sysinternals can. That's my usual go to, though these days it seems like endpoint security software has an issue with it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago