Pictured is a section of the toolbar in
pcAnywhere, the Windows remote-control application. The buttons, left to
right, are:
- Send ctrl-alt-delete
- Reboot remote system
- Disconnect pcAnywhere
Hm! One of these things is not like the others…
Since you have to click the left one to login to Windows when you first
connect to the remote system, and the right one when you are done with
whatever you were doing remotely, it’s only a matter of time before you
miss. pcAnywhere’s interface is broken in a lot of places, but none
quite so bad as putting a rarely-used destructive option right between
two regularly-used mostly-innocuous ones.
I’m doubly impressed by the way they gave the least destructive button
(disconnect, which doesn’t have any effect on the remote system) that
big dangerous X.
4 responses to “pcAnywhere usecrime”
Why not Windows Terminal Services or VNC?
It looks to me like the third one *should* be “Shut down remote system” based on the first and second ones. Does closing the pcAnywhere window disconnect? If so, is there a difference between disconnecting by closing the window and disconnecting with the toolbar button?
No particular justification to change enterprise-wide. A toolbar certainly isn’t sufficient. :-) (And VNC doesn’t do file transfers.)
i never liked pcanywhere and used to use ice-ten. hmm, i’m going to take another look at pcanywhere when i go to work next week. i never noticed this silliness.
since we’re talking about the wrong buttons being next to one another…. outlook put “delete” next to “send/receive”?! looks like some passive/aggressive designing to me.