Windows 7 start menu

You wrote:

With the new computer systems, it’s great to have a million programs to choose from, but considering that 99.9% of people use the Internet and Word, it is absolutely ridiculous that they are so hard to find on the Start menu. Isn’t there any way to put them as the first options to replace the completely useless “sticky notes” and “snipping tool” so prominently on top?

This comment has been made in the past.  Please see this reply.  Thank you for writing.

Try reloading with “compatibility” button

Last week, a student was having difficulty viewing videos on one of the Libraries’ workstations.  (see post)  Our technical support staff has checked that particular workstation and was able to view videos from that website without any difficulty, by using Internet Explorer 9.  They suggest that if you notice that a website is loading slowly, it may be a good idea to reload it into compatibility view.  Click on the little icon, next to the reload icon at the top, right-hand corner of the screen.

If you continue to have problems with the Libraries’ workstations, please do not hesitate to visit the Reference Desk for help.

Frustration with Libraries’ workstations

You wrote:

Windows 7 on the library stations is particularly frustrating and limiting to use. Relegated to IE only, which seems to crash whenever I attempt to load anything other than the library website is challenging. Flash and other features either fail to load, or require administrative rights to enable.  This is a major challenge when attempting to complete coursework for online classes that has embedded video content. Attempting to install any other browser is also limited. It recently took IE longer to load the library webpage than it did for me to find Firefox online, and install it on the computer (though, of course, once I log out it is removed from the hard drive).

IE forces you to only use Windows products, seemingly, though as previous posts have highlighted, that’s only if you are able to find them.

The current condition of internet access at the library is frustrating. Either we take our chances with the spotty and frequently dropping wifi within the library on our own devices, or we’re relegated to slogging through cumbersome set-ups on restricted machines that lack even basic functionality.

The wifi has been so spotty that I’ve been trying to use the workstations, but with WIndows 7 configured as it is, it borders on useless for anything other than searching the library catalog, and you already have stations for that.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.  I am sorry to hear that you have been having problems using the Libraries’ workstations.  The next time you are having trouble with one of the Libraries’ workstations, please do not hesitate to ask for help at the Reference Desk.  If the reference service is unavailable, please send us an email, as you have done, including the following information in your message:

•  Library name
•  Workstation number
•  URL which crashed Internet Explorer (IE)
•  What were the attempted actions which required administrative permissions
•  URL of online course content which could not be accessed

These types of complaints are taken seriously and investigated but without the necessary information to troubleshoot, we can only ask for more detail.

Getting used to Windows 7 Start Menu

You wrote:

It’s great with the new system, but ridiculously hard to find ‘Word’ as there are so many options. Seeing as this is the program 98% of us use next to the Internet, this is a bit frustrating, to say the least.

Isn’t there any way you can have it amoung the top available options instead of fancy but useless things like ‘snipping tool’ and ‘sticky notes’? Thanks

Thank you for your suggestion.  I sympathize with your sentiment as I also am just starting to get used to working with Windows 7.  The good news is that once you become familiar with it, it is very easy to use.

Unlike previous versions of the Windows operating system, the newly designed start menu in Windows 7 is focused on searching for the target file, program, or folder.

So, in your case, by going into the search box of the start menu and starting to type “word”, MS Word 2010 appears almost instantaneously.

Thank you for writing to us.

Windows 7 Woes

You wrote:

Just wanted to put it out there that the Windows 7 computers are quite slow to log in. They also appear to open to a different search engine, and the different configuration, although made to be more efficient, is not all that helpful IMO. I would like to say that it will just take an adjustment period, but we have been using this in my department lab for 8 months already and it just is not that much superior.

Thanks for your comment. It is especially useful to get feedback on Windows 7 during this pilot phase, while we test it (with Internet Explorer 9) on select workstations. Sorry to hear that you are not a fan so far.  According to our Manager of Information Systems, the slow login is a known issue, and our systems technicians are actively working towards decreasing the wait time.  The default search engine on Internet Explorer 9 is Bing instead of Google, but feel free to ignore this and use your Internet search tool of choice.

It looks like we’ll all have adjust sooner or later, as our systems manager also points out that Windows 7 is basically a more secure operating system, and that Microsoft will be discontinuing support for Windows XP in the near future. If there are any fans of Windows 7 out there, or if anyone is noticing important glitches in the new configuration, we’d love to hear from you.