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Comment by itopaloglu83 | Hacker News Reader

I'm sorry but I need to see it to believe it. Otherwise who can explain, how the Windows Explorer struggles to list 20 files.

How is it even possible to spend 4-5 seconds to show a list of files in a local freaking folder?

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I find that this happens when you enter folders that have media files like audio files, video files and so on. One way to fix it is to enter one such folder, then remove all columns (like file name, date modified - those columns) and remove all the columns that are media metadata columns. Things like track length, artist, contributing artist or whatever else, then click in the File explorer menu on the 3 dots icon (**) and select View tab, then click 'Apply to folders'. This will apply the column and view settings that you just applied to all such folders.

Now all folders with media files open immediately. Also if you want no wait for video files folders, right click in the folder and select 'View -> Details or View -> List or some other option where it doesn't create thumbnails and it'll load even quicker.

> remove all columns (like file name, date modified - those columns) and remove all the columns that are media metadata columns.

Surely you don't mean remove all columns, and if you did you wouldn't have to also specify removing media metadata columns?

Sorry I messed up how I wrote that. I meant to only remove metadata columns, not all columns.

I feel like most interns would be smart enough to know that you should lazy load these metrics. It's incredible that MS put this into production.

It's not just media files. I'm forced to use Windows 11 on my work PC, and I had to disable the new shell extensions to make the file explorer usable again. It's noticeably faster without the new UI.

Looking up media details is of course one of the main reasons. Thank you for sharing this information. However, all the folders are already configured as general folders and this one specifically has a bunch of PDF files.

When such basic tasks are failing spectacularly, nobody can have any confidence that complex things can be achieved reliably. Instead of spying on their users and trying to squeeze more and more money from them, they should first focus on making a great product and work on making it better, not researching ways to enshitify things.

It's less work at this point to just wipe the drive and install linux.

This was never a problem in older Windows versions.

> remove all columns (like file name, date modified - those columns) and remove all the columns that are media metadata columns [...] click in the File explorer menu on the 3 dots icon (*) and select View tab, then click 'Apply to folders' [...] click in the folder and select 'View -> Details or View -> List or some other option

I'm sorry, this is very funny to me in the context of the person upthread arguing about how great "agentic OSes" are. Some people seem to believe that we're living in the future, but I'm pretty sure we're still stuck in Windows '95.

The Windows computer I have to use at work takes over 15 seconds to start the new calculator app. The old calculator launched instantly.

I've seen that too. I discovered Calculator was doing a DNS lookup for some reason, and that slow DNS resolution was the cause...

That's a why, but it raises more questions than it does answers.

Arithmetic may have updated.

Nah, analytics. Some PM needs to know which operands are most used so they can optimize the calculator layout to improve the UX. And for the least used operands, they'll take a pragmatic stance and remove them to clean up the interface.

The fact these people are probably making 300k/year is seriously starting to piss me off.

This sounds wildly optimistic. I buy the metrics compilation, but I'll be damned if there's any PM at Microsoft (or Apple or Google for that matter) who's interested in '[optimizing] the calculator layout to improve the UX.'

I need that Drake meme here, where he's negative about the idea "Optimize the calculator layout to improve the UX" and very enthusiastic about the idea "Find ways to get incremental revenue from users of Calculator with ads or selling of data"

Now with new Plus++

Have we considered math results in the context of GDPR? Maybe it needs a cookie configuration dialogue.

An LLM writes and compiles a new calculator app from scratch every time you open it.

Obliterating the performance of a calculator wasn't enough, they actually managed to introduce some all new usability regressions as well. They decided to localize inputs so now periods don't work depending on your locale. Copying numbers also includes the formatted and localized output as well instead of the raw value. Parsers are going to love those commas.

We're reaching Microslop levels we never thought possible. I actually think Claude Code would have done a better job.

Be grateful we are talking about a desktop OS where you are free to not use the built-in apps and even install an arbitrary calculator of your choosing. Unlike dozens of built-in "Apps" on mobile platforms that just exist and you can either use them all as provided, or switch to (Apple or Android).

I'm recommending your for a mid-level management role at my employer right now.

Right now my start menu randomly crashes. Like all I see is a black box with no icons. I'm impressed with how even basic functionalities break pretty often

Reminds me of the new task manager not responding. Like really?

Well honestly, that's the easiest problem to fix: just install any of the dozens of excellent and stable third party file managers. I for instance am (or was, while I still used Windows) a fan of Total Commander (actually, when I started using it, it was called Windows Commander). As a bonus, you'll be spared the useless UI and usability changes inflicted upon you with every new Windows version.

If you're going to replace tools as fundamental as the file manager, you may as well switch to a stable and fast operating system like most Linux distributions or Mac.

Yeah, that's what I did, eventually, but some people still need some software that only runs under Windows, or want to play games without messing around with Proton etc. etc.

Maybe there's an LLM learning about sorting from first principles every time you click to change the sort column.

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