User Accounts to Restrictive, wacky

September 23, 2009

This problem came to be because in the latest version of Windows mail, which
I do like, they do not permit you to use identities. Instead, they urge you
to set up different user accounts. So, I have a personal user account and a
professional user account.

Now, with Windows Vista home premium, the version I have, Microsoft has also
generously included Windows Speech Recognition. I actually like Windows
Speech Recognition. In fact, in my personal account, I have used it quite
frequently. But, I found that it does not seem to work with certain
products. So, I returned to my old favorite, Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking works with products that Windows Speech Recognition
simply will not work with. But, this problem seems to be common to both
Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Windows Speech Recognition. Both programs were
trained in my personal account. In fact, I'm using Dragon NaturallySpeaking
right now. Unfortunately, after several months, I needed to send an e-mail
from my professional account. You probably know where this is going.

I switched to my professional account, started my e-mail program, Windows
Mail, started my Dragon NaturallySpeaking and pointed to my user files.
Windows simply blocks me from using my personal account voice in my
professional account. When I select it, it says access denied.

You may think this is a minor inconvenience. But for me, I was able to
dictate this entire post out of my personal account while never touching the
keyboard. I know I can setup my professional e-mail account to use with my
personal account Windows Mail. But you know, when I could just use the
Outlook Express Identities, I didn't have this problem. And, trust me, this
is only symptomatic of some of the user account problems I run into.

For instance, my wife started deleting icons from her desktop. They were
icons for programs that she doesn't use and why should her desktop be
cluttered. Unfortunately, even though she's not an administrator, when I
came next to the computer, guess what? So, I had to rebuild my desktop
manually, a pain in the neck.

Every time of had to deal with one of these issues, it's taken more than an
hour to find a solution. They seem to be solvable problems for the most
part, but they also seem to be problems that shouldn't exist to begin with.
Like, here's another problem. Let's say that two or more people want to
work on the same document on the same computer but from different user
accounts. I know you're going to say that there is a public directory, but
if there are five users on the computer? Instead, I would like a way to
make certain directories available to certain people. And don't tell me
about passwords. Tell me how Microsoft intends to make my computer worked
better for me.

What is weird to me is that I didn't feel like I needed an IT degree to run
Windows 3.1.1 or Windows 98. I thought the interfaces were user-friendly.
Windows XP only felt slightly more complex from a user viewpoint. If you
wanted to do something with XP, it seemed like you were able to do it.
Windows Vista, on the other hand, seems to have been designed by people who
really want to retain control over your computer. So it seems like they
made things really hard for you to make them work the way you want them to
work. But some of it is just plain wrong. If I train my computer to
recognize my voice in Windows Speech Recognition in one account, I should be
able to switch accounts and still have the computer recognize my voice. The
questions should at least be options in the setup. However, Vista seems to
be a major step backwards in user friendliness.