OSDev.org

Why is it that in Windows the desktop is considered the highest directory? If you actually go to the desktop directory from the harddrive, you can go up, up, and up until you get to the desktop again! Whats up with that?!?

one of the developers at microsoft decided to play a practical joke and make a paradox...course, then the developers thought that the users would like the hint of humor, and then they just haven't decided to fix the code when people disliked it..(what's weird is if you go up from my computer to the desktop, yet my computer isn't always in the desktop!)

Why is it that in Windows the desktop is considered the highest directory? If you actually go to the desktop directory from the harddrive, you can go up, up, and up until you get to the desktop again! Whats up with that?!? Confused Exclamation

'desktop' at the highest level, is the name windows uses to refer to your computer, everything in your computer (including all your hardware), is part of your 'desktop', anything that is not on your desktop, is elsewhere, and therefore, part of a different computer

the desktop at the lower level (under files and settings), is not the desktop, it is the settings for your background desktop window (and in its correct place under user settings)

piranha wrote:Why is it that in Windows the desktop is considered the highest directory? If you actually go to the desktop directory from the harddrive, you can go up, up, and up until you get to the desktop again! Whats up with that?!?

I doubt if you will find the word directory used in any Windows documentation aimed at a user with no idea how a computer works. It is replaced with the concept of folder, which is meant to be more intuitive. Admittedly folders can contain folders which can contain yet other folders, which is not exactly a common arrangement in a paper based filing system, but confusion can only arise if you try to map the notion of folders directly onto a tree structured directory system.

In case you haven't twigged, the icon labelled drive x: is the root directory.

mathematician wrote:I doubt if you will find the word directory used in any Windows documentation aimed at a user with no idea how a computer works. It is replaced with the concept of folder, which is meant to be more intuitive.

Microsoft, as far as I remember, introduced the name 'folder' in Win95. Before that they used to call them directories, e.g. the 'dir' command to get a directory listing. I remember a 16-bit window system for the PC called GeoWorks which always used to refer to directories as folders, long before Win95 came around.

Regards,
John.

The Highest Directory in Windows 9x+ should be:
C:\
In XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\Bill Gates\
(your name here)

In Linux it's harder!

My Computer is \dev0\media but Dev0 is a folder within itself (more of an alias\Shortcut) and it's like all devices are in \dev0\media\ but they are linked together in My Computer which is in \dev0\ ITS MORE CONFUSIN' THAN XP!

Which Linux Distro are you using?

I haven't understood a single post "Speewave" has made on this forum, He/she must be some sort of druggie

Thats good.

Also, I think that Linux is easier to understand then a paradox...

piranha wrote:Also, I think that Linux is easier to understand then a paradox...

Ever tried configuring your own kernel? I'd rather read a paradox. Takes less time.

This is a lie.

I configured my own kernel very quickly, correctly, easily, and it worked.
I just don't like Windows so maybe that influenced my opinion.

Speewave wrote:The Highest Directory in Windows 9x+ should be:
C:\
In XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\Bill Gates\
(your name here)

In Linux it's harder!

My Computer is \dev0\media but Dev0 is a folder within itself (more of an alias\Shortcut) and it's like all devices are in \dev0\media\ but they are linked together in My Computer which is in \dev0\ ITS MORE CONFUSIN' THAN XP!

Hehe, too much slivovitz?

The highest directory in winxp (as in Windows Explorer) is surely My Computer. You can't get any up from there. It's up as can you get
Win9x - I think the same, but dunno because I used Win95 in 1999 as a 6 year old child playing DooM II.

On Linux, I dont know.

Regards,
inflater