Trying too hard to be helpful

Computers and other gadgets are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more user friendly, but sometimes they can go too far and in trying to be helpful they can have the opposite effect.

A good example was when I was checking for updates to windows on a laptop. There were several because it had not been updated for some time. Several small updates downloaded and installed OK, but a big one would not install. Windows simply displayed a message that had two options: cancel or retry after plugging the laptop into a power supply.

Now it might be considered helpful pointing out that the laptop was running on its battery because it could expire half way through the update, leaving Windows in an unstable state, but it wasn't. The laptop had a seven hour battery life and I was about two hours into it. I had to cancel the update because I didn't have the power supply with me. If windows Update had been less clever and less helpful it would have completed the update.

That is just one example and there are many more. I have just spent a couple of days setting up a new MacBook - it always seems to take a couple of days to configure a new computer and get all the software installed that I use.

A feature of OS X and Safari is that it always starts up with the last web page you viewed. It is trying to be helpful, but it has the opposite effect. When I have finished web browsing I close the Safari window. When I next start Safari, it opens the last page visited. But I've finished with that page and I don't want to read it again! What I want is to search Google, but despite setting it as the default start page, Safari opens the last page visited. By trying too hard to be helpful, it is unhelpful.

Back in Windows, I installed Copernic Desktop Search. This is a great search tool that is in some ways better than Windows built in search. When you install it, it indexes the files on the disk drive and stores the results in a database. It's then possible to find files almost instantaneously. I installed Copernic and it said to wait while it indexed the contents of the disk. I waited and waited and waited. After half an hour I thought something must be wrong, so I went through all the menus and dialogs and found an indexing status report. It turned out that indexing hadn't even started because the laptop was running on batteries. I wasted half an hour waiting for it. Couldn't it have said? Of course, it was trying to be helpful and not run the battery down, but surely that's my choice.

Computers are getting more intelligent, but they aren't always helpful.