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Friday, January 16, 2009

Windows 7 ‘Fixes’ card reader eject issues.

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In Windows 7, users of in-built card readers for cameras, mobile phones etc., can expect less logging off to re-gain access to their reader after ‘Safely Removing’ their portable media.

clip_image002In older versions of Windows, when you ‘Safely Removed’ an SD card (for example) from your computer, you lost access to all ports in your card reader until you logged out and back in again. This was not only disruptive and inconvenient but also frustrating.

Now, with Windows 7, not only are the ports immediately accessible again but you can eject a single card and leave another of another type still fully functional.clip_image002[8]

Avoiding confusion, Windows Explorer also now only registers ports with a card actually present in the ‘My Computer’ drives listing. Gone are the days of opening every drive and being told there is no disk until you eventually find the card’s directory.

My Comp 1ed This is a prime example of how Microsoft is desperately trying to make Windows more user-friendly so as to compete with the ‘humanised’ approach of Linux. If Microsoft keeps on like this, Windows will stop losing small amounts of its market share to Ubuntu and will actually find current Windows users happy and willing to upgrade their systems to the upcoming OS.

4 responses:

Grabche said...

This was already possible. Left clicking on the safely remove icon allows you to eject only a single device. Additionally, if you open device manager, right click your computer name and click scan for hardware changes, it will allow you to regain the use of the card reader.

William PJ Kulich said...

The main improvement that I was focusing on in this article was the disk label being featured in the left-click feature - handy if you have two or more disks plugged in.

William PJ Kulich said...

wow - that wasn't written very well at all

Anonymous said...

The left click also removes the entire card-reader. But there is a way to remove the card only. Open "My Computer"/"Computer", right-click the card then choose "Eject" (not "Safely remove"). I am not 100% sure that this is absolutely safe but, for example, HP recommends this way of ejecting cards from built-in card-readers.

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