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Editing notice:
Please don't edit and bump posts that are old, have no answers, low views, and are generally of low quality. Vote to close or delete, and/or flag them for moderator attention to have them removed. Source

We currently have:

If you're a frequent editor, you will probably have noticed this. Is Windows known under a different name in other places/languages?

It's not that this is a particularly urgent matter, but wouldn't it be possible to automatically fix these without the need to edit every single one?

Why?

  • It makes searching consistent, since our internal search isn't that great. E.g. Different results for "Windows 7" and "Window 7"
  • Manually looking through these posts might show low quality – we could use this as a starting point for more cleanups.

Actually, one could also fix

Am I being nit-picky or is this bugging others too? I just don't think it's very professional, and I always like our content to look more professional than on other sites. And this also includes the correct spelling of the worldwide number one operating system we all more or less use.

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  • Whoops, misunderstood. Not tags, just in the text. Hmm.
    – nhinkle Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2011 at 23:08
  • 1
    No, I'm actually talking about the raw text content, tags would be easy :)
    – slhck
    Commented Nov 13, 2011 at 23:10
  • 3
    Well, time to grab some spare keyboards - this is gonna mean lots of editing ;)
    – Simon Sheehan
    Commented Nov 13, 2011 at 23:14
  • The Microsoft Windows name and brand is internationally the same, just select some interesting looking language on the Windows site and see for yourself. People are just lazy or stupid. Win ?(XP|7|Vista) and Window ?(XP|7|Vista) would probably make good poor post indicators… We even have 14 questions containing Microsoft XP, 5 questions containing Microsoft Vista, 2 questions containing Microsoft 7
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 4:34
  • 1
    This reminds me of Can 'u' and 'i' part ways with Stack Exchange?. I'm wary of autofixes, especially for low-volume errors. Easily searchable mistakes even kind of make it easier for us to find posts in need of editing.
    – Pops
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 5:55
  • 1
    @Lord Definitely agree with you here. It's a perfect "low quality" indicator. I even think that posts should have a hidden "low-quality" flag when they have any of these. It's the same for "Problem" in titles: Allow usage, but flag them automatically. If we can manage to go through the first list ourselves, I'd prefer to do it manually and fix the rest of the post as well.
    – slhck
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 7:20
  • 2
    I revised a fair number of these, but got bored after a while. :)
    – Gareth
    Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 1:40
  • 1
    Cheers @Gareth! :)
    – studiohack Mod
    Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 7:54
  • Also quite a few X Windows (note that the search has false positives which mention X windows, as in windows on the X Window System).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 21:19
  • @DanielBeck Vista doesn’t have Windows in its name.
    – kinokijuf
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 20:47
  • @kinokijuf Nitpicker ;) Interesting though. But I still don't think a single use of "Microsoft Vista" (does this real name have a Microsoft prefix?) was created with that in mind.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 22:08
  • @DanielBeck No, the official name is Microsoft® Vista™.
    – kinokijuf
    Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 13:22

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

This is a recurring problem - we can stay on top of it by watching out for Window XP and Window 7 posts and correcting them by using our superhuman edit powers. Some of our top editors have searched for this once in a while and whittled down the list. Kudos!

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Searching

I know one thing about this, when searching for Information on the web about a specific issue, the first search is the whole real name of the OS (ex: Windows 7). But if you want to find 15 times as much information about the same problem, put common abbreviated terms for the OS in the same search (ex: win7).

Abrev. are endless in tech talk

Any site discussing computers in general the users apply so many abbreviated terms I dont know what they are talking about half the time (I hear a whooshing sound as it goes over my head). Myself I sometimes toss in one non-abbreviated , then continue to abbreviate after it is known. but only for users who might not know.

Anyone who has used those abbreviations endlessly in tech communications who has a big problem with using XP and Win7 abbreviations, has some 'splainin to do :-)

Only the experts in thier fields know the abbreviations used

One time I searched for the layers of abbreviated computer terms, but for medical, and noticed that a large percentage of computer abbreviations are some sort of biological function, disease, or medical operation :-) If they ever collided the 2 PHDs together neither would know what the other was talking about. If they ever perform a XP on my brain , I hope I get a second Wind :-)

It is not faster really

The abbreviations are not analysed against the total word count, we can write 3 pages of junk and abbreviate needlessly just because it is boring to write that so many times, not because it makes anything shorter, or is difficult to type it again. Just like a doctors Prescriptions :-) Could be the most important thing, but who can actually read them?

Branding and Selling

It is a "brand" , when talking on the web a person might say cola, soda, or Coke, Is it the phone company or ATT, do you call it a Klenex because it is faster than facial tissue, or because you do, or do Not want to sell the "brand". In some ways I dont respect the Brand, I would prefer to call it That stupid computer OS most of us are using :-) They dont deserve the advertising :-) If I use the word Orange, nobody expects me to say "Bahia Navel Orange Genetic variation 11847" It is "Just another operating system" which just leaves which one.

Abreviations came in that way, it is the way they go out

DNS, VNC, Defrag , HD , DHCP , SSD , VR , GPU , RAM , USB At some point we dont even think about the original whole word or meaning anymore. Data-In Data-out tech communications has tossed about abbreviations and branding so often it sticks, thats just the way you say it. Does it still qualify as communication? Only if the persons your talking to know what your talking about. The actual definitions for some things are not even in the manuels or the files, or the help or the support anymore. They became givens, even in voice communications we dont say "universal serial bus". Most of the abbreviations are brands or trademarked or patented terms brought to you by our sponcors :-) Lets see how many people can call a SSD "some raided nand memory chips" :-)

Conclusion

I suppose you were looking for an actual opinion? I dont have one, it is just how things have occured. On one side I do not expect anyone to type out Windows 7 on any computer related forum. On the other side it makes searching for win7 specific things much harder.

Hey We got Tags :-)

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  • 5
    You do realize that e.g. Google treats Win7 and Win 7 as Windows 7 synonyms? Search for one, search for all of them.
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 6:37
  • No I did not know , and it is different for me, To find anything on the web I have to apply at least minimum advanced options like allintext: otherwise i get more keyword spamming and bs. I just tested it again, Nope, not the same, But I am so glad you told me because I would have never known.
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 7:41
  • google.com/… and google.com/… Do you get the same results ?
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 7:55
  • Also try Googling for "Windowz 7" (the crackerz have lotz o' gud info. 2!); to search for both in a single operation, type this exact text (including the quotation marks) into Google: "(Windows 7|Windowz 7)"
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 10:16
  • lol, reminds me of how many times that search beast has corrected me wrongly , and I had to fight it to put in what I was actually searching for.
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 10:48
  • @Psycogeek Of course there are operators that disable synonym resolution. But what is the use case of requiring Win 7 instead of Windows 7 (other than proving a point on Meta.SU)?
    – Daniel Beck Mod
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:45
  • I said what i said, if your searching for people interested in grammer and spelling the brand right, you will get people who dont know squat :-) and Sales, If your searching for answers to problems , the people with the answers could frankly give a flying leap about how they spell the OS. Is that a little clearer? and the search results were different, it is all there,
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 11:13

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