The Lady Programmer

Today, I decided to see how I can put back the old task manager that comes with every Windows XP system. I could not see the task manager each time I wanted to kill some process that hanged up on me.

So I searched for the Internet to find a solution, the first one that I’ve seen is the Remove Restrictions Tool (RRT). A good tool, but I need to pay for it. I don’t want to, since I can go around modifying the registry itself without getting a heart attack.

The next thing I did was to search Google to find out which part of the Windows registry I should look to. Google did not give me the results I was looking for.

Then I suddenly remembered Maddy, the guy behind Great Registry Hacks. Sometime last year, he was a constant EC dropper and visitor of my blogs, so I decided to search his blog. I decided to contact him after trying to search for that thing that I need to find.

Maddy was fast! He emailed me back with two solutions: a free software he wrote to enable/disable the task manager, and a direct hack to the Windows registry.

But it was not enough to make the task manager appear. His next suggestion was to install Process Explorer instead. It worked! Thanks to Maddy!

Process Explorer: a lightweight replacement to default Windows Task Manager

I’ve met Process Explorer in my previous work, so this software is not news to me. It just did not occur to me to use this instead of figuring out how to make the Task Manager work.

As I exchanged conversations with Maddy over YM, it looked like my Task Manager was corrupted. I tried to open the file then returned an error message indicating that the file cannot be found. (UPDATE: I got the Task Manager back after installing Process Manager then clicking “restore Process Manager” command on the menu.

Here’s the download link: download Process Manager from Microsoft.

If you need some help with the Windows registry, then go to Maddy’s Great Registry Hacks and ask him.

It turns out that not only Microsoft is having loads of rants about their operating system. But at least they are now on their way to Windows 7 after they had learned their lessons in launching their Windows Vista.

The same is true with Adobe. Adobe users had even launched their own gripe system. Web designer Erik Frick put up this simple Dear Adobe site for Adobe software users to list down their gripes on the software. The gripe system is not simply a list of complaints – other Adobe users can come to vote for or against the gripe that another person had listed.

Screaming by ralaenin (SXC)

What’s good about this gripe is that Adobe learned about this whole affair and listened. Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack participated in these gripes by responding to these.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? I have the same set of gripes with its users; here’s some that I like, most of these gripes came from the top 50 list:

• (Number 1) “Why does the Acrobat Reader take two minutes to launch, and require updates twice a month, just to display PDF pages?” # 289
• (Number 4) “Please create an installer that puts your software on my computer in less time than it takes to install an operating system.” # 403
• (Number 19) “Why does Photoshop cost as much as a pre-owned small car? Drop the price please!!” # 215
• (Number 33) “Please don’t copy Microsoft’s naming and bundling conventions. I want CS3 not CS3 pro, CS3 pro advantage, CS3 pro plus, CS3 no frills, CS3 pro max, CS3 pro extra pro max…” # 366
• (New) NO NEW FEATURES. That’s the last thing your bloated, convoluted, poorly-defined, and crash-prone products need. This is the design industry. Refine and simplify. # 644

Now this is the perfect opportunity to launch a gripe against Adobe, isn’t it?