You know what really grinds my gears? Microsoft's single sign-on.
Every single time I sign into my team's account,
it asks me, do you want to let your organization manage your device?
Do you want to sign in system-wide? No, I don't want to do either of those things.
And while I would, simply check, don't ask me again,
that's not an option. This, my friends, is the kind of obtuse nonsense
that makes me want to scream into a pillow, renounce technology altogether,
and adopt the simple ways of the Amish. But that would make it really hard to do my job.
So instead, we've decided to vent our rage in the best way we know how, by making a sequel.
That's right, it's TechGripes' part two electric boogaloo complete with an angry segue
to our sponsor. If you're a motherboard manufacturer
and you claim that you have tool-less M.2 SSD mounts,
that's super cool. But if I have to use a screwdriver
to remove a heat sink to get at your tool-less mounts,
that's not tool-less. There are at least two tools involved.
My screwdriver and the marketing genius who made that claim.
I gotta at least give them credit for the effort, though. When it comes to PCIe locks,
the industry doesn't even seem to care that they suck.
Modern graphics cards and CPU coolers are often huge,
which can make removing your GPU a legitimately risky operation.
See, sometimes the only nearby tool that can reach that release tab
is the aforementioned screwdriver. And if you happen to slip off the plastic tab,
which is super easy to do, you can gouge your motherboard.
My go-to trick then, at least until those little buttons
start being a standard feature, rather than a premium feature, is to use a pencil eraser.
It's less likely to slip, and if it does, hey, it's not gonna break your hardware, probably.
And how about case Windows? There's plenty of cases out there with glass panels
that show off your sick rig, but who is he who dares to dream of a PC tower
on the left of the monitor? And the funniest thing about this one
is that multiple attempts have been made, even by Intel, to standardize this kind of window
on the right side of the case witchcraft, and yet there are still very few options out there
for our sinister friends. NVIDIA has changed their model numbering over the years
to make it nearly impossible to compare the performance
of their desktop cards and their laptop ones, and even made it impossible to compare one laptop to another,
even if they have the same model, because performance varies wildly
with different power and cooling solutions. Ah!
Windows or Steam or someone other than me needs to stop letting developers
just profiles wherever the hell they want. All my games should go into a games folder,
but no, everyone's gonna put their own stuff wherever the hell they think it should go,
except for me, apparently, because I swear to God, Microsoft,
you need to stop automatically saving my shit to OneDrive.
Don't ever do it. My files are my files,
and it is incredibly important that I know where those files are.
Should they be backed up? Absolutely. But I'm not going to back them up
to your overpriced, hella slow, confusingly integrated stack of crap
that is a cloud service. Yes, of course, offer the service,
and of course we should encourage users to back their files up, but let me specify which folders are backed up
and don't trick me into putting them elsewhere.
Also, maybe actually back them up.
Now, one would think that they could use the tool called Windows Backup to back up their files,
only one problem. It does not back up Windows.
It uploads some files to OneDrive, and that isn't really a true backup.
OneDrive is a file sync. When you put files on OneDrive,
the original files are on Microsoft servers, and what you have on your device is a copy of those.
If you delete the files in your OneDrive accidentally or otherwise, they are deleted everywhere.
That is not how a backup works, so stop referring to it as a backup service.
Sure, for the average person, file sync is akin to backup
because you now have two copies of your data in two locations,
and you can access the files of the second location should you lose access to the first.
But a true backup will keep a copy of a system and files
as it was at a specific point in time. To its credit, OneDrive does provide
version history for documents, but when people's data is at stake in Microsoft,
you need to be clear that OneDrive is not
for backing up files or Windows, it is for synchronization.
So why do you call it Windows Backup?
And why is it on by default? And why do you never explain anything to the customers
about how the service functions, except for maybe how to pay for it, which you're very good at providing
ample information about. Plus, you do the intentionally confusing thing
of making the folder appear like a local folder rather than a clearly making it a sync folder
or a cloud folder. You make it purposefully confusing
and it is causing harm to your own customers. Let's get back to backups though.
Why can't you provide me an image creation option? Just let me clone my drive to an external disk
and then let me reinstall it when I need to. Why can't you at least provide one good local option
where I don't have to use a Microsoft account? No, instead I must install a third party software
because you have refused to provide a half decent option for simple backups.
And you had one. You technically still do.
In the control panel we have the now deprecated backup and restore Windows 7.
It works great when it's creating and backing up your files but it fails to restore my image
every time I've tried to use it. And if you can't get your files,
then they are not backed up. But let's zoom out here.
There's another problem with backup services. What the fuck do I do when I've backed up my data?
Almost all of these services provide a reassuring, your data is safe but do a poor job of instructing users
on how to actually restore that data. And as I said, data that you can't access isn't backed up.
I'm gonna be honest, I've made this exact mistake. I've put a new install of Windows
and realized that I can't access the files I thought I had saved. I think that every backup software should do something
to make you run through the process of restoring your files and using a rescue media at least once
or at least give a very demanding notice that I can click away through
and complain about in a future video but just put it there please.
If you are in search of actually good backup software, I will recommend Veeam, Macro Reflect
and your backup in that order. I personally use your backup,
but that's because it meets my needs. Check them out and see what they can do for you.
Now before my blood pressure gets too high, I'm gonna have a couple more gripes.
This version of the file picker, Gulag. File Explorer's unfathomably slow search, Gulag.
The way I can't think of another thing to complain about right now, straight to the Gulag.
I've really been enjoying my Switch 2 over the last couple of weeks.
Even after breaking my hand, but I've been getting more and more pissed off
about a few underhanded design decisions that Nintendo thought they could get away with.
First off, the dock. Well, the docking situation.
The new dock itself is fine. It's the fact that third-party docks
that worked with the OG no longer work because as the Verge put it in their investigation,
the new Switch is not behaving like a good USB citizen should.
Nintendo has purposefully made their universal serial
bus device less universal by adding extra encryption
to sell more of their $120 accessory.
Fuck, right off with that greedy shit. Should be like 50, 60 tops.
I order the Antac S3 Max for 42 Canadian buckaroos
that supposedly works for now, at least until Nintendo updates the firmware
to up incompatibility once again. And it's especially infuriating
because I can't get the Nintendo dock to work with any other USB-C power blocks in my house.
The dock requires more power this time around, but I tried some very nice PD blocks
that have variable voltages that go way above the requirement of the dock
and they would only charge the console. I would not get video out
until I use Nintendo's own USB block. And that's beside the fact
that it's always really scary plugging any non-Nintendo things into Nintendo things.
I remember the early Switch One horror stories. And that just exacerbates the bigger issue.
In general, the first-party accessory pricing is out of control.
The controllers are a clear step down versus their competition and cost just as much,
if not more. I wanna buy your shit, Nintendo.
I just know that these prices, this is fucking absurd.
Especially because it's become clear that Nintendo has done nothing
to address the Joy-Con drift issues. I guess I'll be rolling the dice
on third-party accessories once again. But third-party accessories are imperfect.
Take the Kill Switch 2 ecosystem, for example. It's really not ideal.
Fuck. Personally, I like the grips.
I don't have the Joy-Con self-removal issue. I like the case, I like the cover.
But the dock is unacceptably bad.
It's a markedly jankier experience than the Nintendo dock alone. My dock is behind my TV
and reaching back there with one hand is easy, but getting both back there fucking sucks.
The D-brand to switch connector is tighter than the dock-to-dock connector,
which means that every time you try and pull out the Switch 2, half of the docking solution comes with it
unless I hold it down. And that's if it fucking works in the first place.
I actually bought one and have stopped using it. Other than the Joy-Con grips, I actually like those.
They're pretty good for handheld play, except that in handheld play,
the motion clarity on the built-in screen, not so great.
I think that the online rage is a little overblown
with the hyper-fixation on some of the numbers that have come out from testing. When you're panning across a busy scene,
it's not nearly as clear as a 2025 display should be.
This would not have been an issue on an OLED console, which just makes me so mad they didn't have one at launch.
Even if that meant giving up variable refresh rate on a console where most of the games
are gonna be locked at 60 FPS anyway, because the dock can't do variable refresh rate.
The damn dock again. Ah! Also, the HDMI CC, where your device can communicate
with your TV in plugged-in accessories, seems to be inconsistent as all heck.
Sometimes turning on my switch turns on my TV and sound bar. Sometimes it doesn't.
Sometimes it can't figure out the IO. Unacceptable for a modern device.
My PS5 and my PS4, a 12-year-old device,
can turn on any device that's not on my PC. And that's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about a PC that's not on my PC. I'm talking about a PC that's not on my PC.
Everything changed to the correct settings every freaking time.
Figure it out, Nintendo. And brrr. Maybe the worst part.
These game prices are ridiculous. And I'm not talking just versus PC games,
but against other console sore fronts. Totally frustrating.
And not just the $80 games.
I wanna play the Xenoblade trilogy with the DLC. I have to spend like $200.
And that's the fucking sale price. But I wanna play the trash golf and tennis game
that nobody thinks is actually good. I'm stuck spending $60.
Maybe $55 if I'm willing to go for a used cartridge. But like the used market is absolutely fucking trash too.
Switch games are ridiculous. This whole thing is fucking ridiculous.
I have like a list of games that I missed on the Switch one that I really wanna collect.
But I'm losing confidence that I'm gonna ever own most of them. Also, get some damn meaty apps on your fucking console.
It's 2025, for fuck's sake. Just because I own a display,
that doesn't mean I love everything about them. For instance, have you ever struggled
with navigating through the OSD, found the setting you wanted to adjust
and then press the power button by mistake, or maybe a button that closes the OSD?
I sure have and it absolutely sucks. But hang on OSD because I'm not done with you yet.
Why is it that some companies make it a hassle to switch inputs when there's nothing connected?
I know HDMI one is empty. I don't care. I'm troubleshooting.
Let me select it. Why doesn't everyone have an option
to leave the OSD on screen instead of keeping it on a timer?
This is probably a me problem, but sometimes it goes away right when I'm done
referencing my notes to remember which exact setting I wanted to adjust.
I'm also annoyed by barrel plugs and external power bricks.
If you're gonna use them, that's fine. Some people prefer them even,
but please make the cable longer so the brick can easily sit on the floor
and not be stuck dangling from the back of my display.
I shouldn't be required to cable manage it to the underside of my desk with MCM from LTTstore.com.
I'm going to anyway because it looks great and it's a good product, but don't force my hand.
And speaking of cables, how about HDMI and DisplayPort? Why do we still have both?
I get the competition as a good thing, but they're both so similar now.
I love the daisy chaining capabilities of DP, but ERC and auto low latency mode
are really nice features for home theaters, especially now that recent versions on either side
have pretty high bandwidth limits with more on the way either combine your powers
or convince GPU manufacturers to please add more HDMI ports
for the rare occasion where I want to use HDMI 2.1 on more than one display.
I mean, hey, what if one of them is a TV and the other one is just a really high refresh rate monitor
that supports HDMI 2.1, but DisplayPort 1.4. Why can't I have both?
I don't want to spend even more money on a high-end ASUS GPU
just because it's got a second HDMI port. I really don't.
And on that subject, can someone implement a sort of HDMI signal interrupter?
Or if I'm ignorant, please help me in the comments because keeping a TV plugged in
as part of your multi-monitor setup can cause some serious annoyances
if the TV gets turned on for Netflix while I'm gaming on my PC.
It's so annoying that I just unplug the cable on either end when I'm done playing on the big screen
and I just don't want to do that anymore. For me, I'm going to be talking about my beloved Discord.
Man, you used to be so great. You were free to use amalgamation of RSS chat rooms
and voice calling with just a slight gaming flavor. It used to be so good.
But now, you are constantly shoving Nitro and your shop down my throat.
Those are permanently pinned at the top of the software
any time I go look at my DMs. Or when I use an emoji,
you are constantly reminding me how poor I am because I could use any emote from any server
if I just paid more. I can type as much as I want so long as it's less than 2000 characters.
You gotta pay for that too. You've gone from adding value to extracting convenience
and now Nitro sucks. And while we get update after update,
my problems never seem to get fixed. Every time I restart some systems, such as my work PC,
it asks me if I want to adjust my audio devices. Nope, keep them to what I said please.
I have no idea why you keep asking me,
especially after I hit the don't show me this again button.
As for the UI update, I actually don't personally hate it.
But some of the mobile experience is just downright awful.
I went to use an external link the other day and it asked if I was okay following it.
That's fair enough, keep users safe. What the hell is this interface?
I didn't even realize that I had to actually scroll down
because the scroll bar doesn't light up until I try to scroll.
But there's nothing slightly cut off in the window to indicate that there is more to view.
So why would I even bother trying that? But my biggest issue with Discord
is something that I don't actually expect them to fix because it's not really their fault.
Discord servers are a terrible way to store knowledge.
If you make a piece of software and you use Discord instead of a Git or a Wiki,
you're an idiot, plain and simple. So much knowledge is being lost in these Discord servers
that are unindexable, hard to use, and have communities that end up being the same three people
just answering the same 20 questions for every new user.
Discord is not documentation. And the more we migrate our communication
away from public forums, the worse we're gonna be in a few more years.
Okay, we probably went a little hard today, but can you blame us when you're having a bad day?
The last thing that you wanna deal with is some easily solved problem
that you've encountered a million times before.
I mean, maybe there's a good reason for some of it. I don't know, but what I do know
is there will always be something to complain about when it comes to technology
and I am always gonna segue to our sponsor.
Thanks for watching, guys. If you enjoyed this one, check out the last time we griped about tech.
Some stuff just, man, some days, man, some days.