When in Visual Studio with a project open, if you opt to add a new item to the project, you are presented with the Add New Item dialog. This dialog box lists a bunch of different types of files you can create, as you might imagine. The problem I have with it is that it's not in alphabetical order. Well, actually, that's not the problem I really have, but it's part of what leads to the problem. The first thing I do when I get to this screen is start pressing keys to toggle thru items. If I'm wanting to create a web.config file, for instance, I start pressing w until I get there. How this dialog works, tho, is it remembers each keystroke and wants me to start typing out the full word. So, if I type ww, hoping to go to the second w* item, the dialog box thinks I'm looking for something that starts with ww. So, instead, I should be typing web c (for Web Configuration File) to finally get to the web.config file option. This drives me crazy.

Admittedly, this isn't the first time I've seen this type of list traversal, but it's most definitely not the most widely used method. The method in which I assumed is by far the most wildely used. Check Windows Explorer, for instance.

I imagine that I wouldn't have an issue if the list was in alphabetical order, so perhaps that's the answer. At least if it was in alphabetical order, I could look at the screen and deduce what's happening. Currently, it seems like it's messing up and doesn't know what to do.

One suggestion I have to resolve this would be to use some type of dynamic search capability like the Vista start menu. If I see what I'm typing and the non-matching results are disappearing, then I can better deduce how I should interact with the dialog. Personally, I think this method of interaction will drive a new wave of digging thru vast features.

Well, that's that. As far as I can tell there are 3 options: (1) provide an option as to how the list traversal works; (2) alphabetically order the list; and/or (3) implement a dynamic search. And, perhaps the right answer -- whatever that means -- is to do all 3.

I'm not sure if this one is a bug or a feature change. I'd like to think it's the former because it's very annoying, but who knows. I'm running Vista RC1 (build 5600), so we'll see when RC2 (or whatever the next publicized build is) comes out.

Here's the synopsis: When browsing directories in Windows Explorer, if you press the Back button, the first directory is selected instead of the one you were last on. This can be rather annoying if you're used to traversing directories with the arrow keys. For instance, let's say you're at the root of the C: drive. You arrow down to the C:\Users directory and press Enter. Now, press Alt+Left (or click the Back button). The first thing you'll notice is that the C:\Users directory is still highlighted, as you would expect; however, if you press the down arrow, you'll notice that focus is moved to the second directory, instead of the one below C:\Users. Maybe it's just me, but this is contrary to how it should work.

Resolved in Windows Vista official release.

This is a major aggravation for me. I see two "business"-use purposes for Live Local: (1) to obtain directions; and, (2) to look for places you might be interested in going. Sure, there are others, but these are the two that I think most people will be productively using the system for.

With that said, Live Local only really covers one of these fully -- obtaining directions. I am happy with its direction-giving, for the most part, but I am absolutely left to my own devices when it comes to the latter usage. Sure, if I know exactly what I'm looking for (i.e. fast food), I can do a quick search to find where the local McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Wendy's are, but what if I want to search for something a little more abstract. Let's just say furniture. Do a search for furniture stores and you'll get a good enough list of places. That's all fine and dandy if you know the places and what they're all about, but what happens when you've never heard of one? You'll want to visit their website to see what they're all about and what they might have to offer instead of wasting time and money (in gas) driving across town. Is it so much to ask that there be a link to a website so I can browse directly to it? I hate to say it, but Google Maps does it and I loved that feature. Now, I have to open a new window (read: tab) and search Live myself. That's just aggravating.

Ya know, in a world -- and especially a product -- more and more driven by the concepts of Web 2.0, you'd think that this type of thing would be a gimme. I'm not sure why it was left out. Hell, grasping a hold of the Web 2.0 concept a bit more, I'll even go as far as to say that I want to see ratings on the map results, as well. Show me an average rating of what people have said about the place. Let me give it my own rating, while we're at it. From there, if ratings are what I'm interested in, I can take a look at what people have said. I want to say that Yahoo does this. Wouldn't it be nice to bring both of these together into our product? Ok, that was rhetorical and I'm probably going a bit far, but you get the idea.

Windows Live Alerts help you keep up with forum replies, stocks, traffic, sports, and a quite a few other services. As you might imagine, when something changes in the source, you can be notified via email, IM, or phone. I don't have any complaints about the service, but I would like to suggest one addition: search-based alerts. Once again, this is something Google offers that I thought was pretty nice. Essentially, you'd sign up for an alert and would receive an email daily, weekly, or monthly with whatever new search results are added to the global search index.

Some might wonder how/why this is useful. Well, there were a few instances where I used it. First, I put my name in there. Initially, this was just to try out the service to see what it was like, but after a while, I found it helpful to see how/where references to me came up around the web. Some I knew about, but others I didn't. This allowed me to respond to someone's blog if they were commenting on something I said, for instance. The second use was to get alerts on a few of my favorite tools. At the time, Update Version (command-line .NET assembly version updater) and DotNetNuke (open source .NET portal) were two examples.

The concept is pretty simple. I don't know what it'd take to build that into Live Search, but it would definitely be a nice-to-have.

Windows Live Custom Domains is great. Before I started with Microsoft, I was using Google's offering. Of course, at the time, Live Domains wasn't available. Despite all that, one thing that I wish I could do in Live Domains that I can't is setup email forwarders. Probably ever email system that I've ever used allowed me to do this, so I'm hoping it can make it in there sometime.

While my post's title may not seem that way, I'm more of a "coder" than a "drag 'n dropper." Whenever I edit a user control or web page, I'm always in source view -- well, 98% of the time, anyway. With that, I'd love to see the ability to drag a control from the Solution Explorer to the code to have it instantiated. My main concern is when dragging user controls to HTML-based pages (i.e. master pages, web pages, and user controls); however, the concept works in just about any environment (i.e. drag server controls to HTML-based pages or drag any type of class to a code file). The concept of dragging any class file over to another seems pretty cool to me. The only problem is when people use stupid practices like including more than one class in a file. Even with that, tho, a simple context menu could solve the issue by allowing the user to specify which class to instantiate.