The most useless dialog in Windows?

It amuses me when people complain about things in Windows that are complete non-issues (like the Windows 3.x-era Fonts window from Windows Vista). But how about the real stupidity? Ladies and gentlemen, I present Exhibit A:

So what's wrong with this dialog, you ask? (Most likely because you've never tried to use it.)

It doesn't work. Almost ever.

In this case, I actually do know which application I need to run. But what the heck, let's let Windows do its magic and see what happens. And what happens, almost every single time, is this:

Absolutely freaking useless.

Discuss this Article 13

stimshady
on Jul 13, 2009
nice to see you using N'bin Paul ;)
techfan
on Jul 13, 2009
I hate this dialog! In all the times I've had this dialog pop up on me, it has never given me a useful bit of info when I've chosen the web option. The worst thing is when I click Okay mistake before selecting the second option, which lets you use a program to open the file with.
Grannyville
on Jul 13, 2009
I hate it even more when you get dialog boxes that use pictures/icons from the Windows 9x era
emuelle1
on Jul 13, 2009
Actually, the most useless dialogue in Windows is when a program crashes and it asks what you want to do. It has an option to "Check for a solution then close the program." Has anybody EVER gotten a solution? I haven't.
stimshady
on Jul 13, 2009
BSOD, whilst maybe not the most useless, is certainly the most infuriating!
Grannyville
on Jul 13, 2009
@emuelle1 I have actually been offered solutions from the Problem Reports and Solutions feature. which have fixed problems for me
rjohn05
on Jul 13, 2009
Hay Paul! For those of us who are graphics designers on the Windows platform, the poor fonts dialog is a BIG ISSUE.
Mark KB
on Jul 13, 2009
The main reason that website is so useless is that Microsoft relies on the developer to send in a form describing the extension: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/01/13/9311703.aspx Unfortunately, it appears most developers are lazy/think such a thing is a waste of time/money. (Note the description for PDFs, however... :) ) As an aside, you can turn that first dialog off using good ol' RegEdit, by navigating to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" and adding/editing the DWORD value "NoInternetOpenWith" - just set it to 1.
lotsamystuff
on Jul 13, 2009
"Hay Paul! For those of us who are graphics designers on the Windows platform..." Yes, all six of you.
Cfischer83
on Jul 13, 2009
100% agree with you, Paul. I hate this thing, it's never worked for me at any point I've ever had it come up.
Waethorn
on Jul 13, 2009
"Hay Paul! For those of us who are graphics designers on the Windows platform..." "Yes, all six of you." Wow! That's still double to number of worldwide Mac users!
wjglenn141
on Jul 13, 2009
In all these years, I've never once had it come up with a program for me. But, then I've never tested it with anything really obvious, like a PDF file or a DOC file. It would be sad if it couldn't even come up with a suggestion for Word for a DOC file.
adondai
on Jul 13, 2009
Look, come on Paul - you provide the best balanced Windows coverage on the web, but the arrogance post just annoyed me a lot... you're the bigest nit picker around, only a couple months ago you wrote a great long post about the inconsistency of the spelling of 'homegroup' in Win7 yet today you're sneering about other people's comments concerning the archaic and pointless font window?

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