defencebyte Computer Optimizer

I imagine by now that some vendors are trying to squeeeeze any revenue out of their old remaining products without investing anything in them, perhaps the original programmers have moved on, and the vendor has no idea how to understand or improve their property anymore.

Regardless, I offer what I can of feedback and recommendations, the usual:
– make all screens resizable,
– make all results searchable, sortable, selectable,
– make export log reports, including dry-runs without taking action so we can preview who will happen,
– eliminate ‘dancing baloney’ entertainment interfaces,
– uses standard menus – File, Edit, Properties, Print, Tools, Help, and so on,
– always report what is going on, and don’t have long dormant delays when loading or starting any task,
– allow complete controls and settings, savable for re-use on the next upgrade or install,
– make restore points and verify,
– make backup resources and verify,
– make all resources available outside the program, such as driver backups usable by the Windows Device Manager Update Driver tool,
– make fonts recallable, and fit regardless of system settings,
– use high-contrast presentations, and do not treat everything as a game,
– install complete in one directory only, don’t scatter ‘babies’ all over the drive,
– offer auto-install or auto-update of missing C++, VBA, DX, Java, and other Windows support resources,
– play nice, don’t reboot or close other programs,
– make the initial install completely functional at least once even if a trail, then back off some features if it’s not fully licensed,
– never completely expire, always offer some functions,
– never demand licenses before installing,
– never delete old versions before installation, instead install as a second version, then allow uninstall of either version,
– don’t make us test drivers turn over too much information, like phone numbers or credit cards,
– don’t make licensing too arduous or complicated, we don’t want to marry the company just to test one program,
– install on ANY version of Windows, even if separate support is needed or some features are text instead of GUI.

Others have additional, I probably have hundreds of more tips for programmers.

The user interface is 80% of the work – the functional programming itself may be an incredible challenge to get right for all versions of Windows and troubleshoot into reliability and self-healing, but they must consider that only 20% complete at that point, the remaining 80% programming must be done to refine the user interface to make the end user just ‘get it’ in first blush.

It’s complicated to make things look simple.

Read ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ book by Steve Krug, 2000.

I’ve been doing this since the first PC ( actually long before that ), and IBM originally had a software programmer’s manual on this to tell people how to format their programs for submission to IBM – these standards never expire, they are needed all the more as our patience wears thin, and we can’t tolerate self-indulgent basement-boy-programmers-on-contract who just want to whack out a fancy-dancy interface and get back to their gaming.

I hesitate to paste this write-up into every review, but some vendors act like the industry is 2 weeks old, as if they had no idea there is already great stuff out there, great FREE stuff, that they are competing with.

I imagine there are so many new and naive customers every day, that newbies who don’t know how to cross-shop yet, and they just whip out a credit card and buy stuff and move on, not knowing there’s so much better stuff out there.

I’ll try to be patient, I’ll try to be kind, but I will share what I discover, and hope everyone takes advantage of my experiences, not juet end users and consumers, but programmers, too.

C’mon, programmers, get proud, and make us thrilled to have the privilege of experiencing your best work.

Please!

Thanks for letting us explore this and share.
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