Wintrolls: Does anyone actually use Windows Control Panel in category view?

When I find a piece of the Windows UI that is particularly awful, I
wonder how anyone can like it. When you open up Control Panels in
Windows XP, by default it is set to this awful Category View. This
breaks down the control panels into 9 different categories. The
problem is that the names are so vague, and who really wants to read
through and remember NINE different categories. This doesn't simplify
the job of finding the control panel, it makes it more difficult.

So ust answer the question before you start making your excuses. I bet
most Windows users just switch to classic view. I bet no one likes
Category view or considers it an advantage.

Of course you can just switch to Classic View, to just view a list of
them. But that's not the point. I want to know if anyone uses this
awful view. Mathematically speaking, if you want to break down 35
Control Panels into categories to make them easier to find, you should
use the square root and make 6 categories of 6 control panels, not 9
categories of 4 control panels. You are trying to balance two things:

Too many categories makes things unintuitive because when you say in
your mind "Where is the Quicktime control panel" you have to compare it
to too many categories, and no one wants to run thorugh 9 categories.

Too many items per category and you have to read too long through the
category to eliminate it.

Yet Apple as usual does things almost perfectly. Control Panels do all
different things, so there is no way to perfectly categorize them. But
Apple starts out with Hardware, which is easy to remember for mouse,
keyboard, sound, display, and printer. System also fits somethings
well, and Personal is more just user interface adjustments.

Once again Apple categories 1 Windows categories 0

.

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