http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6233
Summary: wincfg Applications tab gui layout is misleading Product: Wine Version: 0.9.15. Platform: PC OS/Version: Linux Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: enhancement Priority: P3 Component: wine-tools AssignedTo: wine-bugs@winehq.org ReportedBy: jrodman@winebugzilla.spamportal.net
Brief:
When using the winecfg application, the Applications Settings tab is somewhat misleading in that it contains two controls, suggesting a relationship between these two controls which is special.
As a remedy, I recommend moving the Windows Version control out of the Applications tab.
Detail:
More clearly, on this tab there are two items. First there is an applications settings list, which allows one to select Default Settings, or an alternately added Application, and buttons to manage the applications which are added to this list. Secondly, there is a "combo box" labelled Windows Version, which allows the user to select values such as Windows 2000, Windows ME, etc. The implication of this second control matches the documentation: it informs which of the many subtly different windows API implementations to conform to.
However, the implication of the first control is that it enables one to add applications which will be handled as if they were running under alternate versions of Windows. Because these two controls are presented on a single tab, an implied relationship is created suggesting that this is the only Application-specific settable value. It is quite possible that the documentation for this control explains it fully and completely (I haven't checked), but the barrier to understanding for me was so high, that I began to go look for command line options to pass to wine to set other values that I wished set in an application specific manner.
I believe the usability of winecfg would be improved without usability regressions (save the transition) if the Windows Version selector was placed in another tab, perhaps a new one. For the sake of argument, I believe a System & Libraries tab with two enclosed discrete boxes for the two types would not have cognitive confusion, although it might be too crowded.