Complaint for: WinLive PhotoGallery + Office PictureManager + other recent
Microsoft products which exhibit similar nerve-breaking behavior + one Color
problem with existing/older Windows features:

WHY DOES IT (e.g. WL PhotoGallery) DISREGARD SYSTEM-WIDE COLOR SCHEME!?!
I've been doing computers for @least 20 years, my permanent colorscheme is
dark or totally Black, black
background (desktop/app. window/etc), etc. I am a degreed (MSEE) engineer
so not stupid, there's a reason many professionals, unlike home/children
users set as many Windows elements to Black as possible.
What is this fad with Microsoft in recent applications who refuse to read
System color settings and instead insist on White background. I am so hurt
by WinLive PhotoGallery's persistent white background, that annoys my eyes
to the point, it will be uninstalled. Same deal with MS Office Picture
manager which I hoped to use instead - white background & no way to
customize. Look Microsoft, is it logical for
you to make 2 products one of which defies another, it'd be no surprise for
2 different companies, but you also make Windows; so what are Windows
CLASSIC color controls for? To be overidden by some
"dominator" applications like PhotoGallery?

So may we ask to please add an option to either set background color (BEST),
or add a "Black" theme (but why bother, it's easier to give customers an
option for manually setting backgroudn color), or just adhere to Windows
colorscheme for God's sake Windows is also made by Microsoft.
Who is watching images or movies with intensely white background? MORONS
WHO DON"T REALIZE THEY WILL NEED an EYE DOCTOR IN !) YEARS.
I am an engineer and also a former developer, I spend enormous time with
computers, and may I claim the fact that I know what I am doing in terms of
display settings & colors. Been doing it long enough and
my 28-year old eyes are in perfect shape despite so much compyters, that
most Developers get glasses by 40!

I've been holding "steam" for years but I am fed up. I will now post this
complaint all over MS Newsgroups and email to your offices. The deal with
applications disregarding system wide color scheme is puzzling system that
color scheme is user-defined in Windows - which is also made by Microsoft.
SO your right hand doesn't know what left does??
Many professional people sit in dark rooms, with stealth black LCD's, and
blue lighting, in my case in neighboring a UNIX lab (but I control Windows
PC's) and an application like WindowsLive Photogallery
which likes ot open images by default in a crazy aspect ratio, filling the
rest of display with disgusting white filler.
Do you ever get headaches at work? maybe too much white on your display,
ever wondered?

***********************************
THIS BUG's BEEN BUGGING US SINCE 2003!!!

If a Black color scheme is selected in Windows-->Classic-->Advanced, then a
very disstressing behavior occurs
Set desktop & window backrgound to Black, font to Silver - my favorite,
allowing to spend countless hours on the computer, yet maintaining eye
HEALTH. Do the same with White background, white other... a headache will
develop.
Now goto Win Explorer or Win Mail, and sort files/emails/items by any column
(e.g. by date). Instead of clear view (you'd expect in Classic Windows),
you will see Whitish background + light text on it,
totally unreadable & horrible. Impossible to focus on work. The only way
to never see that mess, is it is to NEVER have "details" view turned on in
WinExplorer, as of Winmail I am forced to narrow Date
column to zero as that is the column by which usually emails are arranged.
As you can guess it appears mutilated if you arrange by date.

COLOR BUG CONTINUED from previous msg:
It's one bug, but everything else is gorgeous in Windows Black color scheme,
I've been tolerating this since 2003, but only now decided to message
Microsoft.
Many people know it & simply avoid "Details" view in WinExplorer, but it's
not a solution. I used to use Details view all the time in WindowsME & NT,
not anymore, can't..
What happened here is that sorted-by column background color is "hardwired",
not customizable in Appearance-->Advanced. It uses some sort of algorithm
which fails when user selects Black background.
And in case you wonder, Black is what you should try unless you want brain
cancer due to 10-hour work day on a computer.

By the way, please keep Windows-->Appearance-->Advanced-->Classic option
forever, WinXP/Vista (and Windows7?) do not have nearly as much color
control as Classic, and if one day these customization options are gone, I
will also be gone... to another OperatingSystem (we all kno what it is).
Colors customization is critical to me, as I spend hours on computers):

This should be posted to Microsoft, not the users that use news groups for
assistance.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
ALWAYS post your Outlook version.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, Mark Levitski asked:

| Complaint for: WinLive PhotoGallery + Office PictureManager + other
| recent Microsoft products which exhibit similar nerve-breaking
| behavior + one Color problem with existing/older Windows features:
|
<SNIP>