Mike Schaeffer's Blog

June 27, 2006

I took a look around my computer for information on the "DCOM Server Process Launcher" referred to in this post.
Fortunately, Microsoft's services control panel has a place to put descriptive text. The description for the "DCOM Server Process Launcher" reads "Provides Launch Functionality for DCOM Services". Seriously.

Why even bother trying? A Microsoft PM documented this description feature. A programmer coded it. A tester tested it. A writer wrote the text. Another writer documented the feature. Translators translated it into 60 different languages. All so that Windows could show a description that is exactly as useless as the name of the service.

The smallest disk Dell sells on their cheapest laptop is 40GB. Is it really too much to ask for the description to include text closer to this?

Launches Distributed COM (DCOM) processes, and it.s required for a number of other services and processes to function correctly including the Windows Firewall.

http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=1124

For bonus points, the service description would also be available from the fault notification dialog box, possibly with hyperlinks to the appropriate developer information on MSDN (which could also be stored locally). The whole key here: trust the user of your product and enable them to use it efficiently.

Tags:tech