I was playing with the Windows 7 beta today and made an interesting observation... Microsoft has made it easier to find where you remove programs!
First, a bit of background... In Windows XP and before, we used to have "Add/Remove Programs." Now that frustrated people, because they said "Who ever uses that to add a program?" Of course, the IT Pros out there said "Hey, that's where we can publish programs using Group Policy," which was followed by a collective "Huh?" from everyone else. ... So in Windows Vista, they renamed that to "Programs and Features." Now that made a lot of sense to me, but there was one problem -- people hate change. Everyone complained that they couldn't find where to uninstall programs. Some people suggested "Why don't you just call it "Uninstall Programs?" So what to do...
Windows Vista has chosen the proverbial last option -- all of the above. Below is a screenshot of what comes up when you type "programs" in the start menu. Note that there are THREE different links to the applet for removing programs, appropriately named "Add or remove programs" (old school), "Programs and Features" (for people who got used to Vista), and "Show which programs are installed on your computer" (for people who like really long descriptions for things). But wait -- that's not all. Type "uninstall" and you get even more ways to describe that same control panel applet: "Uninstall a program" (makes sense) and "Change or remove a program" (makes sense too!). Similar thing with Default Programs (blue arrows below).
At first, I was thinking "What a mess," but thinking more I guess I've decided that it makes a lot of sense to condition users to operate Windows the same way they operate Google -- by typing in what they need.
