>The Unsafe Removal dialog is not displayed in Windows Whistler because
testing has shown that this popup does not impact user behavior. That
is, it does not prevent end users from surprise removing hardware. End
user input has suggested that the Unsafe Removal dialog detracts from
the user experience.
I’m not sure I totally agree with Microsoft’s thinking. Another way of
wording this is “Because user’s find it annoying to be informed of data
loss, we have stopped informing them”. From a behavioral economics
viewpoint, perhaps you should cause a soft BSOD on unsafe device removal,
my guess is user behavior would change very effectively.
If there is no actual data loss when the device is removed, then the driver
should inform the OS things are ok. In this case, perhaps the driver should
also keep on responding to I/O requests, and return some sort of status
saying the request was only simulated. For example, you unplug your USB
camera. I could imagine the driver could keep returning the last frame
captured, with a STATUS_SIMULATED result code.
If there is real data loss, say somebody just unplugged a USB disk drive,
while write activity was happening, a dialog that says “You better plug
that device back in right now, and we’ll attempt to repair any damage that
was done” might be best. It may not fit the marketing image of making “user
friendly” computers, but it’s the reality of how things are. My experience
is: delayed or squelched delivery of bad news is generally not such a good
idea.
To remove the surprise removal popup is like making your car soundproof, so
you don’t have to listen to that annoying grinding sound when your brakes
need replacing. It’s a more pleasant user experience, but it’s NOT in the
user’s best interest to be shielded from information they should have.
I suppose the meta question is: why does the idea of a BSOD on unsafe
device removal get instantly discard by us developers. If our goal is to
change the behavior of users, to protect them from themselves, this seems
like a very effective strategy. The REAL engineering solution seems like:
there should be a software controlled physical lock, so the device simple
can’t be removed if it’s unsafe to do so. Cloths washing machines seemed to
have us pretty well trained to not open the top when they are spinning,
otherwise significant system shutdown occurs. Even cheap devices could have
an indicator light that basically means unplug this device with the light
on and expect your computer to BSOD. Users would learn real quick to
logically shutdown the device before pulling it out.
- Jan
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