Idle State

• Enter renames a file or folder rather than opening it. This is insane. 99% of the time I want to open something rather than rename it. Instinctively, I press Enter. Windows just does this right. Fortunately, I'm not alone with this and someone else has scratched that itch. You can find a great little solution at http://www.returnopen.com/
• Type-down when browsing a folder is actually a brilliant feature. I wish Windows did this. Type "C" and it takes you to the first item starting with "C". Type "Ca" and you get to the first item starting with "Ca". If you pause a moment, then starting typing something else "Ta" for instead, it will take you to the first item starting with "Ta". So far so good.

  My frustration, albeit minor, is that sometimes I want to move to the second item named "C". I should just be able to hit "C" again and be moved along to the next "C" item. Instead, I'm stuck hard and fast at the first "C" item. I've either got to revert to the mouse or type down more of the word. Inevitably, I get the timing wrong and end up somewhere else completely. Firefox, for instance, does this right.

• The Search Box in a Finder window should actually be a Filter Box instead of a completely new search. Almost all the time, I'm already in the folder where I want to be - I just want to filter what I'm looking at.

  The filter should filter on all visible columns - so, for instance, I could type "2008" and see all docs with a date of sometime in 2008. I'd also see any document with 2008 in the title, but I can live with that. That is, it should work the same way as any half decent email, database etc GUI works.

  I never use Spotlight/Search. It just wastes my time - too many results not confined to where I'm actually looking - and gives me those results too late anyway.

• Clicking on the Finder Icon in the Dock should bring up as many Finder windows as I want. Sure - first click should bring existing Finder windows into focus - as it does. After that, give me another Finder window. And another. And another.
• Here something that Windows does totally right. If I'm in an application Open/Save/Save As dialogue, I can rename, delete (actually - I can do any right click function! Not on the Mac though. Everything has to take twice as long.
• No copy and paste of locations. (And conversely, no "type down" or pasting a location). Again, XP is a winner.

These are some of the reasons why the Explorer interface in Windows - when it's not "Not Responding", sadly, is so much quicker and snappier to use than Finder.

Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year!