I love that VS2008 has finally hit the street, but I can't stand the new Akamai MSDN Download Manager that they've decided to use to distribute it.

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It's so poorly done from a UX perspective and security perspective I just can't get over it.

 

Here's a few different situations that I've already run across...

#1 Closing Internet Explorer while Downloading

Download Manager (DLM): Do you want to stop downloading?

Me: No

DLM: Well, I’ll close anyway

DLM: Now I’ll Restart

DLM: Oops! Your download is corrupt

DLM: Did you want to start downloading again?

Me: Yes.  And thanks for wasting my bandwidth!  Grrr!

 

#2: Play "Where's the Download Manager"?

Alt+Tab to the desktop.

Now Alt+Tab and try and find the download manager again – it doesn’t even appear in the app list!

 

#3: Try to Save the File

DLM: Select the save location for the iso file.

Me: “My Documents” (the default)

DLM: Sorry you don’t have permissions. Contact your network administrator

DLM: How about I save in temp files for you.  Do you want to open the folder?

Me: No.  You dumb piece of ....   I want to put in My Documents!

DLM: OK, but I'm going to ignore you and I'm going to hide now... (see #2 above).

 

By the way, if you try to find the file via Windows Explorer then you'll be plum out of luck.  You need to do the following to find it:

  • Start Windows Explorer as Admin and go to:
  • C:\Users\<<YOU>>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Virtualized\C\Users\<<YOU>>\Documents

What a corker!  Did anyone actually test this thing?!!!

 

#4: Pop-Up Blocker left On

You go to the MSDN download page and forget that your IE Pop-up blocker is on.

Click the download link.

If you're eyes are quick you may see the IE Yellow bar appear or a fraction of a second.

The page refreshes almost immediately, the bar disappears so you've got no time to respond.  If you're eyes aren't quick it just looks like the page posted back without doing anything.

You'll need to either turn off the pop up blocker or use ctrl+click on the file link next time.

 

Hmm.  Not the best piece of software in the world.