Falconet: ALL of my site names and logon information is stored in the manager. No exceptions. Period. End of discussion. I have several hundred, and refrain from using the same password in different sites. It generates high security passwords on demand to your specifications. It is another (by type) application everyone should have.

It used to be a bunch of scribbled notes and multiple lists. Not efficient (and frequently illegible). And really hard to share with my wife. It is mostly an automatic process that happens when I enter a web site to which I am a member. New entries are propagated to all my computers. Why on earth would you suggest not using it? It is sort of like recommending no one use fire because blankets and bed companions exist. Hmm, I may have picked a bad example. Oh well.

I applaud your early entrance. You were clearly really interested in becoming part of the group and helping the world. I just wish I had had these things available when I was 14. Teletype was state of the art then. To give you a feel for things, I was one of the mob of people that wrote the IEEE 802 standards. I am that old. You have probably heard of them.

Regarding debris. Instead of insisting I have to be wrong (although I have explained above why you are wrong), there is an easy solution. Get a computer. Download and install a trial or free copy of Revo. You should probably go through setting options since you are likely to want to keep it.

Install the client package from here using Revo (you don't have to, but it gives you the full experience), and that is how I did it). Then uninstall it with Revo. The Revo interface is pretty simple and will not require special knowledge. Just click on the item you want to kill.

I would strongly suggest specifying the advanced scan. That is the only one I use and will provide you the same results I get.

After it finishes with the built in uninstaller, look at what the scans find. That is the crap you don't know you have left floating around in you machine.

If you read through Revo's help file (essentially the manual) it points out that it will get things even registry cleaners can not detect. And I believe them. They maintain the software and have moderately frequent updates provided to users. I trust them. I have never become aware of a problem being caused by them or needed to use the restore point they create before doing their work. And I have no financial interest in them. Just a very happy user.

I really dispute the use of the word easy. I have what I believe to be reasonable skills. No longer exceptional, but OK. The way to do things is simple for you because you know how to do it. Look above at the various schemes to get where you need to be. The labels and messages simply do not resonate with an average Windows user. Hitting it cold, there is simply (in my opinion) no rational way to execute an "easy" solution to start from scratch and have a fully functional application. And I really don't think I care anymore.

Re: password - yes, I knew that. I may have mentioned it.

Some of the replies in this thread are simultaneously helpful (as intended), being defensive, illustrating that even among users there is not a single path to a solution, and illustrating that the user interface is way broken.

Sgt. Joe - I was writing when you responded. I suggest you do what I have suggested with Revo and see how you feel about it.

By the way, I actually used BOINC for about an hour in 2008, before I permanently started using it in 2009. I joined the SETI@home projects, which is searching for aliens. AFAIK, I configured the software well, but, I didn't understand the concept and I thought that my computer was communicating to outer space and talking to whoever might be listening. I got scared and uninstalled it :D

The main point to note here is a simple set and forget installation which appears to be what the OP is complaining about is incredibly simple.

Specifying only one sub-project to the exclusion of others is a more complicated process as it well should be.

Keeping that in mind, direct the complaints accordingly. The average user who simply wants to contribute can do so easily. Those who wish to tweak can find ample support to do so although it may not be as "intuitive".

One of the problems here that gets repeated over and over is a knee-jerk reaction to criticism of WCG. Granted, many times people are frustrated when they come here and aren't always the most diplomatic, but even when they are, the tendency is to defend the status quo.

But we have seen with Sekerob's charts that participation in WCG has declined steadily almost from the beginning

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q210/Seker...mbersDevices.png~original

His chart goes back to 2009 when we had just over 100k active users or IOW, users who had returned work during the previous 30 day period. It stayed more or less constant through 2011 but we didn't grow at all.

Then from 2012 on, we saw a significant decline of about 40% that was only reversed by the computing for good project. IOW, paying people to join. So for as much as everyone here said how much they hated CfG and the XRP giveaway, it was the only thing that managed to breathe new life into WCG. There is a lesson there that no one seems to want to acknowledge.

So what should we conclude from this obvious stagnation of the project - a stagnation that can only be even partially reversed by paying people to join? Clearly WCG is doing something wrong and in all probability, a lot of things wrong.

The survey conducted over a year ago was, in theory, supposed to help ameliorate the problem. Unfortunately, WCG didn't see fit to ask for any input from the community in creating the survey. Sorry to be blunt, but how stupid was that? You want to improve a site to make it more accessible to the users but you don't ask for input on what should be included in the survey? Yeah. Brilliant move.

So now, after a lot of work revamping the web site and doing absolutely nothing about the forum, which by the way is the first place people will come when they have questions, we still have convoluted and impenetrable systems for newcomers and one that, as far as my own user experience goes, isn't any better than the previous one - just harder to navigate. Great job guys.

Maybe in another 10 years we'll have another survey that doesn't address any of the real issues and the staff will do more meaningless work on the web site. But personally, I wouldn't want to take any bets on WCG being around in another 10 years - not unless it decides to actually make its users priorities its own.

Dear World Community Grid administrators and member retention officers,

Kindly insert into the "Join Now" process, right at the very top where name/password/email is entered, a sentence along the line of: "Do a 5 minute video tour of the registration, research selection and installation process "Becoming a Member ".

When the video is watched by more, they'd learn e.g. that they can pre-select the sub-projects before proceeding to installation, one of the impervious processes after installation, joining members also not understanding that WCG is an 'Umbrella' project which is what has to be added to the client, not FightAIDS@Home etc.

Please don't put this on the ToDo list, action this now!

Thanks you for your undivided attention.