05 May 2006

Annoying Error Message Pop Ups

If you own a Windows based computer, you have seen them. Somehow, some way, the computer decides that something has gone wrong and up pops an error message, demanding your attention.

Some of these error messages are actually helpful. If you have a word processing program running when you shut down, for example, the error message asks you if you really want to shut down even though you will lose your data. These error messages give you a choice. Stop what you set out to do, or go forward. I like these pop ups.

But, I despise the error messages that give you no choice. The come onto your screen and won't permit you to do anything else until you hit OK. The error messages themselves are generally too cryptic for a lay person to understand. The OK button does not actually cause you to participate meaningfully in directing the computer, when you hit OK, you are simply ratifying the fact that the computer won't let you do anything else until you click on it.

This serves no humanly clear purpose except to aggravate you, yet they are everywhere in Windows based systems. Anyone who can explain this for me is welcome to do so in the comments.

1 comment:

fedup said...

The reason for these popups is usually caused by a problem in the tcp/ip protocol stack. Its sometimes called a stack dump or protcol dump. The reason you are given no choice is there is nothing you can do to rectify it. It can be very frustrating!