The recently used documents feature is a good thing. I like having it in apps. I also like having it available system wide. Unfortunately, it always seems like the file I used recently doesn't show up on my recently used documents. I got tired of wondering why some files didn't show up in the list and did some quick checking. Here's a list of what will and won't show up under XP's Recent Documents.
Bluetooth File Transfer Out | No |
Bluetooth File Transfer In | No |
Copy/Paste from Network Computer | No |
File save from Firefox | Yes |
File save from Internet Explorer | Yes |
Attachment save out of an Outlook email | No |
Copy from flash card to C: drive | No |
Copy/Paste from Network Computer | No |
Rename a file | No |
Open a text file in Lemmy | No |
Open a text file in Notepad | Yes |
Now certainly a random app's inability to add to the Recent Documents list isn't Microsoft's fault. They document the API to use.
The part that bothers me is that the rest of these tasks don't result in the file on the recent documents list either. I can't tell you how many times I've copied a file or saved an attachment and then went CRAP, where did I just put that. Why can't these show up on the list?
While we're at it, why can't recently changed files show up differently in the File Explorer for a configurable period of time. Download a file, open the folder, and then spend 30 seconds scanning the files trying to remember the name of the thing you just downloaded. Maybe I'll have to write my own Bluetooth file transfer client so I can populate that list myself.
If anyone reading is running Vista and can check to see if any of these behaviors work differently, I'd appreciate it.
2 comments:
This inconcistency is exactly why I disable Recent Documents completely. It was so broken that it was useless.
It just so happened that right after I read your post, I saw a Firefox extension posted on Lifehacker that lets you customize where all of your downloads go at least. That's a start down the right path.
I agree, Windows explorer needs to start showing last few actions somehow though.
This is mostly in response to Jason, but why does FF need an extension for that? Isn't that functionality already available under options, main, save downloads to... ? Am I missing something here?
--JOsh
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