Update: Please visit the Windows UX Taskforce website to submit your entries.

Most of us who use Windows Vista have probably come across a couple of user-interface quirks during our times – some of which irritate you more than others, some are more obvious than others. With the development of Windows 7 speeding full-steam ahead, I thought this might be an opportunity as good as ever to make these problems known to Microsoft and hopefully get them all resolved.

Instead of going at it alone, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to harness the wisdom of the crowd. Therefore I’m asking you to submit any UI quirks you know of in Vista and I’ll help compile a list of them together, including but not limited to legacy icons, legacy styles and malformed layouts. Include with it a brief description of the problem (and possible alternative if appropriate).

I can’t promise you that all bugs will be fixed but I will push them to someone at Microsoft who has been said to “get things done”. Without a further ado, I’ll kick it off with a couple of examples.

1. Add Fonts Problem: Generally outdated. Uses Windows 3.1-era folder views. Cannot select individual font file – lists all fonts in folder.

Suggestions: Not only update styling, but add new functionality. Search. Font management – activate/deactivate. Export/backup functionality.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: Dialog removed in Windows 7

2. Previous Versions Problem: XP-style icon.

Suggestions: Update icon.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: Icon updated in Windows 7

3. Taskbar properties – Taskbar Problem: Taskbar preview image appears distorted.

Suggestions: Better preview image, use live view of actual taskbar.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

4. Taskbar properties – Notifications Area Problem: Taskbar preview image has incorrect “Sidebar” icon.

Suggestions: Update preview image.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: Tab removed in Windows 7

5. Favorite Links inconsistent

Submitted by dhan Submitted by dhan Problem: The order of Favorites links changes between Explorer and File operations dialgos. e.g. Notepad File>Open

Suggestions: The order should be maintained as set by user

Impact: Medium

Severity: Medium

Fixed: Apparently fixed

6. Theme Settings with wrong icon

Submitted by reactionary007 Submitted by reactionary007 Problem: Choosing “Windows Classic” in Theme settings shows a legacy Recycle Bin icon – facing wrong direction.

Suggestions: Update preview image.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: New method of changing themes

7. Safely Remove Hardware

Submitted by Nicholas Piasecki Submitted by Nicholas Piasecki Problem: Overly complex, hostile dialog is painful when your computer comes with one of those 6-in-1 card readers (as does mine), an external hard drive, and a USB thumb drive. Unchecking “display device components” leaves unhelpful, undistinguishable entries. Takes up to 3 clicks to eject a device, so most people just pull out their USB drive when das blinkenlights are off.

Suggestions: Show mounted thumb drives on my desktop, and allow me to right-click > eject them or drag them to the Recycle Bin.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

8. Aero Glass jaggy

Submitted by reactionary007 Submitted by reactionary007 Problem: The right most reflection in Aero Glass is jaggy

Suggestions: Update reflection bitmap

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

9. Object Types icon

Submitted by dhan Submitted by dhan Problem: Icons not properly sized in Objects Types dialog (security > Advanced > Owner > Edit > Other Users and Groups > Object Types. You see black and distorted outline around all User icons.

Suggestions: Update icons.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

10. Username/Password dialog

Submitted by Jason Cox Submitted by Jason Cox Problem: Dialog is using a Windows XP style

Suggestions: Update the dialog

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

11. Active/Inactive window borders

Submitted by Michael Ciarlo Submitted by Michael Ciarlo Problem: The active Window and Inactive Window on Windows Vista’s top-left AERO corners do not have the same roundness.

Suggestions: Correct roundness

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

12. Join Domain or Workgroup icon Problem: Dialog has Windows XP-style icon

Suggestions: Update icon

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

13. System Properties

Submitted by Michael Mc Submitted by Michael Mc Problem: Device Manager has Windows XP-style icon

Suggestions: Update icon

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

14. User Profiles

Submitted by Michael Mc Submitted by Michael Mc Problem: User Profiles has Windows XP-style icon

Suggestions: Update icon

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

15. Performance Options

Submitted by Michael Mc Submitted by Michael Mc Problem: Data Execution Prevention has Windows XP-style icon

Suggestions: Update icon

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

16. Character Map

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: “Advance View” on top of it’s own Status bar. Scrollbar missing style.

Suggestions: Update style

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

17. Wordpad

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: Windows 95 style?

Suggestions: Update style

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

18. On-Screen Keyboard

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: Oh-Screen Keyboard needs some design update. Some text are not properly aligned (see “esc” key, and F9,F10, F11, F12). Windows XP icon.

Suggestions: Update style, icon.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

19. Sticky Notes

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: Windows XP style colors and window control buttons.

Suggestions: Update style.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

20. Windows Journal

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: Windows Journal, has the “Page Width” drop down, miss aligned on the tool bar, it goes over a separator.

Suggestions: Correct control placement.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

21. Program and Features

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: Remove “Organize” button in “Program and Features” panel found in Control panel, their is no options in the menu, it’s useless.

Suggestions: Remove button

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

22. Phone and Modem options

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: In the Control Panel, the “Phone and Modem Option” Panel, is simply Windows 2000 look, it doesn’t even have Vista buttons.

Suggestions: Update style

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

23. Taskbar on left

Submitted by GBytes Submitted by GBytes Problem: When you move the Task Bar on the Left side of the screen, the Task Bar background should be flip (to have the black to “white” gradient facing the other way)

Suggestions: Gradient gloss should be on right.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

24. New Disk Volume wizard

Submitted by Michael Mc Submitted by Michael Mc Problem: New volume wizard is not a Windows Aero wizard, though it does have a more Vista-like image at the left.

Suggestions: Implement an Aero wizard.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

25. Active window

Submitted by Don Submitted by Don Problem: Using Windows Aero color scheme, the visual cues that indicate which window is active are too subtle.

Suggestions: Allow users to set properties of window items (e.g. Active Title Bar, Inactive Title Bar) when using Windows Aero color scheme.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

26. Network Map

Submitted by Anon Submitted by Anon Problem: There is a different Help icon in the Network Map from what is in every other window.

Suggestions: Correct icon.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

27. Add New Hardware

Submitted by Anon Submitted by Anon Problem: Add Hardware still use the old style.

Suggestions: Use Aero wizard style.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

28. Window Control tooltips

Submitted by Anon Submitted by Anon Problem: The tooltips for the min/max/close buttons are different from all the others.

Suggestions: Use Aero style tooltips.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

29. Desktop icons

Submitted by wojtekmaj Submitted by wojtekmaj Problem: Dragged Desktop icons has aliased text labels.

Suggestions: Anti-alias text labels.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

30. Menu Bar

Submitted by Antonio Submitted by Antonio Problem: The menus – shown by alt button – are highlighted in blue and don’t use the correct theme, which is grey and has rounded borders.

Suggestions: Consistent highlight style.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

31. Downloaded Program Files

Submitted by Mike Steel Submitted by Mike Steel Problem: Windows 95-style icons.

Suggestions: Update icon.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

32. Offline Web Pages

Submitted by Mike Steel Submitted by Mike Steel Problem: Windows 95-style icons.

Suggestions: Update icon.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

33. Computer

Submitted by Mike Steel Submitted by Mike Steel Problem: Should show percentage of free space on storage devices; for example “Windows Vista (c:) – 30,0 GB free of 60,0 GB (50%)”.

Suggestions: Add percentage to details.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

34. Edit Colors

Submitted by Nikolaus Submitted by Nikolaus Problem: From Windows 95.

Suggestions: Should be updated visually and also add support for HSL/HSV/etc color selections.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

35. Internet Explorer page properties

Submitted by Matt Sharpe Submitted by Matt Sharpe Problem: Icon in ‘Properties’ dialog of web page in Internet Explorer (File Menu -> Properties) is prehistoric.

Suggestions: Update icon. Background should also be white.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

36. Customize Notification Icons

Submitted by Joey Submitted by Joey Problem: List becomes overpopulated with legacy icons.

Suggestions: Needs a “Clear” button to empty out the older entries or the whole list all together

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

37. Advanced File Attributes

Submitted by Brian Shapiro Submitted by Brian Shapiro Problem: Advanced Attributes in the Properties dialog for files still has a Windows 98-era icon.

Suggestions: The best way to deal with this is by revamping the entire UI by which file properties are displayed–hopefully learning from media management programs; but otherwise, the icon just needs to be updated.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

38. MHTML files

Submitted by Brian Shapiro Submitted by Brian Shapiro Problem: The icon for MHTML files does not exist in Vista icon format; and the largest size is 32×32.

Suggestions: Update icon sizes.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

39. Grayed out text labels

Submitted by Brian Shapiro Submitted by Brian Shapiro Problem: Grayed out text labels are not anti-aliased.

Suggestions: Anti-alias grayed out text labels.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

40. Add Fonts

Submitted by Brian Shapiro Submitted by Brian Shapiro Problem: Installing 100’s of fonts which happen to have duplicate versions of Windows fonts – forces you to hit “Yes” over and over again.

Suggestions: Add “Yes to all” and “No to all” buttons

Impact: High

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

41. Legacy Open dialogs Problem: Some applications use legacy “Open file” dialogs.

Suggestions: Force all applications to use Aero style dialogs.

Impact: High

Severity: Medium

Fixed: No

42. Disk Properties

Submitted by ScottSo Submitted by ScottSo Problem: When you view the properties of any kind of storage drive, it shows remaining storage in a pie chart that looks like it was created in Excel 2000. The colors are ugly as sin and the pie chart isn’t used anywhere else in Vista.

Suggestions: Update pie chart colors/style or use variation of bar graph in Computer view.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

43. Folders List

Submitted by Ed Submitted by Ed Problem: When focus is in the Folders pane of Windows Explorer, pressing alt+spacebar to bring up the control menu flashes the control menu instead, making it inaccessible.

Suggestions: Correct behavior.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

44. Disk Quota Problem: Disk Quota tab has legacy and weird icon. Quota management console has Windows 95-styles and icons.

Suggestions: Update icon with more appropriate design. Update Quota console style.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

45. Common file dialogs

Submitted by Sven Groot Submitted by Sven Groot Problem: Inconsistent font in open/save file dialogs – common file dialogs. Bottom panel of open/save dialogs uses legacy fonts (MS San Serif) whilst top uses Segoe UI.

Suggestions: Correct behavior.

Impact: Medium

Severity: High

Fixed: No

46. Device Manager Batteries

Submitted by atte Submitted by atte Problem: Battery icons in Device Manager are outdated

Suggestions: Update icons.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

47. Help and Support

Submitted by Michael Submitted by Michael Problem: Not consistent with the Windows Vista AERO UI.

Suggestions: Follow Aero design guide.

Impact: Medium

Severity: Medium

Fixed: No

48. Inkball Problem: Legacy style – uses Luna styled toolbars and ‘blocks’.

Suggestions: Update to Aero Glass look and feel.

Impact: Low

Severity: Low

Fixed: No

Post your finds in the same format as above in the comments below. I will add them to the list once I screencap them and verify them, or you can also provide a screenshot yourself. Your turn.