Komputer Kvetching

Windows 7 took many pages out of the Mac OS handbook, most of which are for the better. A notable exception is the whole "downloads" idea. When I find some file on the web that I want a copy of, I used to enjoy clicking on its link and having a dialog box ask me where on my computer I want it saved. This way the PC is structured like a big filing cabinet, the C drive, with lots of smaller and smaller file folders that aren't conceptually different except that they are stored in other folders that are stored in other folders that are stored in . . . that are stored in C. Now, however, when I click on a file online it is automatically stored in the downloads folder, which is who-knows-where. I can access the folder from the desktop, but now I have this extra folder whose location within my overall filing cabinet is unclear. Worse, Microsoft also took Mac's terrible idea of making a list of downloads which is clearable but which is independent of the actual downloads folder. I just clarified for myself that the downloaded files are not deleted when the list is cleared. What is not certain is whether I have copied the files I have downloaded to folders that are filed the way I like them, and thus whether I can delete them off the dumb nebulous downloads folder. Arrgh.