Is there a way to get it to stop automatically scanning every memory
card I stick in my USB reader? This is INCREDIBLY annoying - I use
WMP to watch my baby via an IP cam - having it up and running seems
to make it think it's ok to scan everything.

Please - provide a way to disable this. Besides the annoyance, it
also kicks the player out of skin mode which is even MORE annoying as
WELL as shutting down the video I am watching.

In general, this entire feature seems to have issues.

Regards,
Nick H

Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by Nick

Nick
Fri Apr 11 05:12:09 PDT 2008

On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:35:10 -0400, Nick Hustak
<nhustak@tangentnospamtech.com> wrote:

>Is there a way to get it to stop automatically scanning every memory
>card I stick in my USB reader? This is INCREDIBLY annoying - I use
>WMP to watch my baby via an IP cam - having it up and running seems
>to make it think it's ok to scan everything.
>
>Please - provide a way to disable this. Besides the annoyance, it
>also kicks the player out of skin mode which is even MORE annoying as
>WELL as shutting down the video I am watching.
>
>In general, this entire feature seems to have issues.
>
>Regards,
>Nick H

After doing some testing I figured out a couple of things.

Apparnetly hitting cancel when WMP attempts to sync is a no-no -
that's what stops whatever you are watching, pulls you out of skin
mode and throws you to the library.

That's just bad programming.

It would appear the only way to stop WMP from syncing is to allow it
to initial add the device to sync and then hit the properites window
and tell it not to sync. Standard programming - you don't lose your
state just because someone hit the cancel button on a dialog box.

The arrogant assumption that you might want to sync every device much
less that you are using WMP for everything is poor. There should be
a global flag to say 'don't try to sync anything'. This is also
pretty standard programming - you should never automatically do things
that can't be turned off unless it's something absolutely critical.
WMP is an entertainment tool - it's never cricital.

But of course, there's that desire to own the media market, now, isn't
there and that trump design.

Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by zachd

zachd
Tue Apr 22 18:20:58 PDT 2008


"Nick Hustak" <nhustak@tangentnospamtech.com> wrote in message
news:12luv393hen5qqtcl1kv4o96p9bv1eb3a0@4ax.com...
> Apparnetly hitting cancel when WMP attempts to sync is a no-no -
> that's what stops whatever you are watching, pulls you out of skin
> mode and throws you to the library.

> It would appear the only way to stop WMP from syncing is to allow it
> to initial add the device to sync and then hit the properites window
> and tell it not to sync. Standard programming - you don't lose your
> state just because someone hit the cancel button on a dialog box.

Unless you are changing states to handle some user-driven event, and a
novice user might not otherwise understand what has happened to the
just-inserted object.

Power users make up a tiny tiny percentage of the market. They're very
important (perhaps more important?), but it's critical to ensure you handle
the mom-and-pop-at-the-computer case.

> The arrogant assumption that you might want to sync every device much
> less that you are using WMP for everything is poor.

It's arguably not "arrogant" to have a device-aware application ask you what
you want to do with a device you just inserted. Generalize the problem and
you may see this better.

> There should be
> a global flag to say 'don't try to sync anything'.

No, because then Joe Confusedbycomputers clicks that by accident and his new
device is useless with the player and he gets to go call support or return
the device in question.

> This is also
> pretty standard programming - you should never automatically do things
> that can't be turned off unless it's something absolutely critical.

Handling AutoPlay and eventing is definitely one of the more interesting
challenges of the modern computing era, and there are a variety of valid
approaches.

Don't be blinded by the blinking lights in the player: the player needs to
be useful for the 90% of Windows users, so putting in power-user oriented
features only works if they don't compromise common "basic user" scenarios
such as this, sorry. =\

-Zach
--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by dagsverre

dagsverre
Sat Jun 07 08:20:43 PDT 2008

On 23 Apr, 03:20, "zachd [MSFT]"
<za...@nomailplz.online.microsoft.com> wrote:
> "Nick Hustak" <nhus...@tangentnospamtech.com> wrote in message
>
> news:12luv393hen5qqtcl1kv4o96p9bv1eb3a0@4ax.com...
>
> > Apparnetly hitting cancel when WMP attempts to sync is a no-no -
> > that's what stops whatever you are watching, pulls you out of skin
> > mode and throws you to the library.
> > It would appear the only way to stop WMP from syncing is to allow it
> > to initial add the device to sync and then hit the properites window
> > and tell it not to sync. =A0Standard programming - you don't lose your
> > state just because someone hit the cancel button on a dialog box.
>
> Unless you are changing states to handle some user-driven event, and a
> novice user might not otherwise understand what has happened to the
> just-inserted object.
>
> Power users make up a tiny tiny percentage of the market. =A0They're very
> important (perhaps more important?), but it's critical to ensure you handl=
e
> the mom-and-pop-at-the-computer case.
>
> > The arrogant assumption that you might want to sync every device much
> > less that you are using WMP for everything is poor.
>
> It's arguably not "arrogant" to have a device-aware application ask you wh=
at
> you want to do with a device you just inserted. Generalize the problem and=

> you may see this better.
>
> > =A0There should be
> > a global flag to say 'don't try to sync anything'.
>
> No, because then Joe Confusedbycomputers clicks that by accident and his n=
ew
> device is useless with the player and he gets to go call support or return=

> the device in question.
>
> > =A0This is also
> > pretty standard programming - you should never automatically do things
> > that can't be turned off unless it's something absolutely critical.
>
> Handling AutoPlay and eventing is definitely one of the more interesting
> challenges of the modern computing era, and there are a variety of valid
> approaches.
>
> Don't be blinded by the blinking lights in the player: the player needs to=

> be useful for the 90% of Windows users, so putting in power-user oriented
> features only works if they don't compromise common "basic user" scenarios=

> such as this, sorry. =3D\
>
> =A0-Zach
> --
> Speaking for myself only.
> Seehttp://zachd.com/pss/pss.htmlfor some helpful WMP info.
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights=
.

This problem affects me to.. its one of the reasons that makes me want
to switch mediaplayer..
I can't se the problem with adding a "global flag to say 'don't try to
sync anything'" under properties>devices..

I dont think "Joe Confusedbycomputers" will find it there.. and i dont
see why he should click it...





Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by zachd

zachd
Mon Jun 09 16:57:36 PDT 2008


<dagsverre@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:25824824-fc27-419b-a2ff-75ebe4223bb3@k30g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

> This problem affects me to.. its one of the reasons that makes me want
> to switch mediaplayer..
> I can't se the problem with adding a "global flag to say 'don't try to
> sync anything'" under properties>devices..

Unfortunately, since the player is already in your hands, this can only be a
suggestion for the future. It has indeed been passed along, but that
doesn't provide immense benefit to you now.

> I dont think "Joe Confusedbycomputers" will find it there.. and i dont
> see why he should click it...

What specific behavior are you trying to stop?

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.



Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by Andrew

Andrew
Thu Jul 17 06:49:01 PDT 2008

> It's arguably not "arrogant" to have a device-aware application ask you what
> you want to do with a device you just inserted. Generalize the problem and
> you may see this better.
>
> > There should be
> > a global flag to say 'don't try to sync anything'.
>
> No, because then Joe Confusedbycomputers clicks that by accident and his new
> device is useless with the player and he gets to go call support or return
> the device in question.

Zach,
I have to respectfully disagree with you and Microsoft on this. Asking to
sync with phones and portable music players is one thing, but to ask about
every single storage device (USB flash drives, memory cards, external hard
drives, etc) is a bit over-reaching.

It's trivial to have a stern warning pop up in a dialog box when the 'don't
try to sync anything' flag is checked. This way the average/power users have
their option, and Joe understands what's going on when he's clicking around.

Why does WMP11 have to try to assimilate all devices into its control,
anyway? What's wrong with a nice prominent sync button that the user can
CHOOSE to press if he has a device he wants to sync. Then WMP can
assimilate, and everyone else isn't annoyed. This helps with the "Joe
Confused" situation, as it won't be hard for him to see the button which
launches the pairing process.

I know Microsoft doesn't have much of a clue when it comes to getting the
needs of the user right the first time, and I've come to terms with that long
ago. Microsoft has traditionally made up for this by allowing the user to
finely tune nearly every aspect of software/OS operation. This doesn't seem
to be the case with WMP11, which is rather disappointing.


Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by zachd

zachd
Thu Jul 17 12:00:02 PDT 2008


I find it disappointing that you associate "focusing on getting sync right
to the point where one particular checkbox did not make the cut" as "not
much of a clue". I agree that it's awesome when you're able to do
everything under the sun the first time through in a code area. But this
particular "don't ask again" prompt while logical then really provokes the
need for another "reset all prompts" checkbox which you'll then need to add
Help about, etc etc etc blah blah blah. It's a logical enough base request
but the wrinkles in that are interesting.

It's a bigger issue than you give it credit for. The developers and
designers in question (not me) are smarter and nicer than you give them
credit for. =)

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


Re: Stop WMP 11 from attempt to sync memory cards by Andrew

Andrew
Fri Jul 18 07:03:02 PDT 2008

"zachd [MSFT]" wrote:

> But this
> particular "don't ask again" prompt while logical then really provokes the
> need for another "reset all prompts" checkbox which you'll then need to add
> Help about, etc etc etc blah blah blah. It's a logical enough base request
> but the wrinkles in that are interesting.

I think I see why you think this is complex and potentially problematic for
"Joe Knowsnothing", and I don't see much of a problem. I'm not talking about
a check box on the popup prompt. I can see why that would be too easy to
click and add complexity to reset. Something that significantly changes the
behavior of a program should not be placed as a side note in a prompt like
this. It actually took me a while to figure out why you thought this was so
complicated, since I hadn't even considered that as a solution.

I'm referring to an option in preferences. At a basic level (all I'm asking
for at this point), it could be an on/off check box: "[Do/Don't] try to sync
with new devices". At a more complex level, it could be a drop-down menu or
radio buttons "Try to sync with [All new devices/New PMP's only/No new
devices]". This way, the user knows he's digging around in preferences, and
it's still easy enough to reset.

This is not terribly complex. I'm no software engineer, but I fail to see
how it should be more complex than:

On detection of new device:
If (tryToSync == True) Then
Launch prompt
End If

Or, in the more complex version
On detection of new device:
If (tryToSync == all) Then
Launch prompt
Else if (tryToSync == mediaOnly) and (deviceType == mediaPlayer) Then
Launch prompt
End If

I don't know the best way to determine the device type, especially with the
explosion of PMPs on the market, but I'm sure there is a way. That would be
the only complex part of the second method.

I suppose one could put the option in the prompt, as long as the option is
also accessible through preferences. This makes things marginally easier for
the average to power user, but could still cause problems for "Joe
Knowsnothing"