obtuse message? or obtuse user?

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Speaking, as we were in another thread, about the Helpfulness of
Microsoft stuff, I thought I'd bring up something that stares me in the
face when Win XP's leakiness forces me to reboot. 

 

Y'know how, if you live long enough, your Windows startup gets cluttered
with junk that slows the start process and generally ties up resources?

So you modify the Startup by unchecking (whoops, I mean de-selecting)
some of the extraneous bits in the System Configuration Utility

 

But next time you boot, you are faced with:

==================================================

System Configuration Utility

You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the
way Windows starts.

The System Configuration Utility is currently in Diagnostic or Selective
Startup mode, causing
this message to be displayed and the utility to run every time Windows
starts.

Choose the Normal Startup mode on the General tab to start Windows
normally and undo the 
changes you made using the System Configuration Utility.

[  ] Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility
when Windows starts

                                   [  OK  ]

 

 

Hmm.  Well, we can choose to "Choose the Normal Startup mode..." and
thereby throw away all our good work in unchecking all the frivolous
resource-wasting startups.

Hmm.  Not what we want.

 

We can check the little box in the alert, to make the alert stop
appearing, but does that mean Windows will continue to think something
is amiss... it just won't tell us any more?

 

Presumably, clicking this little checkbox in the alert message is how we
are supposed to confirm that we really want to keep the changes that we
made earlier in System Configuration Utility. So why not SAY SO?

As a user, I know what System Configuration Utility Looks like (I just
spent a half hour fiddling with it and Googling the cryptic entries to
see which ones can go), and this message is NOT IT!  
By saying "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration
Utility when Windows starts", you are just confusing me, because as far
as I'm concerned (based on the way things look... and I sure as heck
don't see the thing that I would recognize as System Configuration
Utility) the System Configuration Utility is not running right now.

 

Why not say something like:

 

You are seeing this message because you made some changes in System
Configuration Utility 
and you have just rebooted your computer.

If your changes did not work as you hoped, re-open the System
Configuration Utility and either 
adjust those changes (you will see this message again when you restart)
or 
choose the Normal Startup mode to undo the changes you made and to stop
this message from appearing.

Otherwise, leave the box unchecked and just click  [OK]. This message
will appear each time you reboot, 
until you are satisfied that the changes that you made are working
satisfactorily. 

When that felicitous moment arrives, select the check-box below to
confirm that you are satisfied 
with how your changes are working and want to keep them. 
Once you do that, this message will no longer appear until the next time
you make some changes.

[   ]  Accept the changes that you made to the System Configuration
Utility (this message will no longer appear when you restart).

 

 

Ok, so it's more words, and you could say it better. But doesn't it make
clearer the important aspects of what is happening and what your options
are?

 

Kevin

 


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