quiet down the prompting

[justice]

I think almost a third of all the things I click on are unnessecary windows prompts, such as 'do you want to run this file' (yes i clicked on it), 'this file was downloaded off the net are you really sure', 'you logged in a website do you want firefox to save the password' (why is there no yes always), 4 prompts before any installation actually starts with useless text, licence agreements, language choices (can't they detect the language of my os).

I'm fed up with it. They get in the way of my work and distract me. In 5 years I won't be able to hold a single thought for longer than a few seconds. Any clever people about that can help with solutions?

[tide]

If you're worried about your memory in five years then be thankful for messages like "Are you sure you want to format Drive C:\?"

But seriously, many programs have options that you can set to remove those prompts and, otherwise, your fingers should learn to navigate through all the minor roadblocks so that it becomes automatic and really takes a negligible span of time. It's not like you could grow a beard or wax the car in that interval.

There are solutions however. You can use AutoHotKey or similar package to monitor those popup events and program it to dispatch them immediately.

[justice]

i realise computers are made so fragile that it requiress an increasingly silly amount of prompting to stop people from breaking it.

Maybe people should consider hiding such options under an administrator menu that can only be access using the user account password.
Come'on you shouldn't get asked are you sure you want to format c:, you should not be given the option in the firstplace surely?

/rant

[tsaint]

Isn't this what PTFB (Push the Freaking Button) was designed for? In casre it's of use to you ....http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23023-order,4/reviews.html
which is a link to the last freeware version dowload, rather than a review

[justice]

Nice one having a go with that.

[nudone]

i used to suffer from "repetitive dialogue stress" (or whatever you want to call it). but jgpaiva came to my assistance and saved my sanity with "DialogMove". http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3461.msg24183#msg24183

this app will move any small dialog window to your cursor position - this means they become almost invisible, at least, nowhere near as intrusive as normal dialogs. i find it the perfect solution because:

1) the dialog still appears - so you have the choice of clicking on the dialog button you need - something you can't do if you use an autoclicker util.

2) you don't have to move your mouse cursor - so you aren't disturbed, having to move back and forth across the screen just to close a dialog window (or if DialogMove doesn't put the dialog exactly under the cursor how you want you only have to move the cursor an inch or two).

i'd say, without doubt, it's the app that has saved my sanity more than anything else. whenever i have to use someone else's computer that doesn't use DialogMove, i feel i've gone back to the dark ages - it's like using a retarded machine.

i've found that the best settings for the 'Rules' of DialogMove are.

(Width < 500 AND Height < 400) OR (Width < 1920 AND Height < 200)

note: the figure "1920" should be changed to your screen width.

you can  also train it to ignore some windows you do or don't want moving.

you know, i think i will make a screencast for DialogMove because i think most people just don't understand it. it's one of these things that should be included with windows 7 - that's how obvious and natural it is when you use it. well, it should be part of all operating systems.

original DialogMove thread: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=3097.0

[nudone]

i've just given PTFB a quick go - doesn't appear to work on my system (vista).

PhilB66 mentioned ClickOFF in this thread recently: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17628.msg156967#msg156967

it works perfectly on my system (yep, vista).

[justice]

PTFB works ok on my vista machine, I set it up and the icon goes red to indicate that it's counting down to the point when its closing the dialogue box. But dialog move i guess I could use as well in addition, so thanks for that tip.