Windows 10 - First Impressions

[JorgeA]

@Formfiller, maybe you'll want to join in the Aero vs. Metro fun at the Microsoft Community Win10TP forum.

 

Check out this discussion there (among many others). My favorite post in that thread is on page 7:

 

Yes, we're still mired in the primitive splendor of Windows 3.1. A choice of a dozen or so colors in all their fully saturated and garish wonder, squared off corners in all the monochromatic, 100% opaque windows--just like Windows 3.1.

 

By all means, rounded corners (with customization like Linux! At least copy something better), washes, gradients, transparency, kill the primitive flat style that is no style at all. Restore the sophistication of Vista, XP and 7. My phone is not, nor will it ever be a cell phone. We need our operating system to look like it is running on a capable and sophisticated computer.

 

Just the default wallpaper compared to Linux distros shows the limited mindset of Microsoft. Time to wake up! You get one chance for a first look at the operating system to produce a "Wow!" and you give us a nearly monochrome blue screen with nonsensical black lines strewn across it? That's not design, it's travesty. The clock is running out on the Microsoft era but the trend can be reversed. That will not remain so for long. At best this is Windows 8.15. It is nowhere near enough to recapture what Microsoft has lost.

 

It's time for multiple GUIs and each with a wide range of customizations. It should be possible for users to actually create a GUI and with the ability for user GUIs to be downloaded and used by others. Microsoft's motto seems to be "You will do it our way and you will like it or else." But the true consequence will be whether Microsoft does or does not exist in five years.

 

The post that follows that one attempts to argue for the technical visual superiority of Win8/10, but the thing that stands out in my mind is that Win8 actually looks worse than Windows 3.x as 3.x already has 3D elements that 8/10 lacks. It was Windows 1 and 2 that were also completely flat, and -- despite the zillions of available colors -- Win8 looks washed out compared to the vibrant coloring in 3.x. See the two replies at the top of the following page.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

as always they are copying apple

and as always they are years behind

and as always they have no innovations

 

last time I was excited about Win OS, was when Windows 7 alpha build 6801 came out

and new taskbar was unlocked

 

after that everything they made was UNINTERESTING !

 

My take on it is similar but just a little bit different. To me, what they did with Windows 8 was outrageous, and what they're doing with Windows 10 is uninteresting.

 

Another angle on the "uninteresting" part is that I was, umm, uninterested in purchasing a PC with Windows 8 on it.   Only slightly more interested in getting Windows 10; that'll depend on what they do to fix the UI in the coming months.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Paul Thurrott has a somewhat cranky take on Windows 10:

 

Next Steps for Windows 10

The start of a Microsoft to-do list

 

But the thing is, while the big picture stuff is all there—the Start menu with tiles, the floating Modern mobile app windows and so on—it's the fit and finish stuff that's missing. That is, there are many other things that need to happen before this newly integrated user experience actually works properly for traditional PC users.

 

[...]

 

Stop eating up space on my taskbar

 

I understand why Microsoft added two new buttons to the taskbar—the Search and Task View buttons that appear to the right of the Start menu. But dear God, people. Don't make them permanent, something I am stuck with and cannot remove. I don't need or want to use either of those buttons, since I know how the keyboard works. Can I please remove them and gain back that valuable taskbar real estate?

 

These unremovable (and scarcely useful) Taskbar buttons for search and desktop switching are a popular target for complaints in the Windows Feedback app and the Win10 forums at Microsoft.

 

--JorgeA

 

Edited November 3, 2014 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Came across a very interesting (especially to @dencorso ) website proposing a number of UI changes for Windows 10.

 

The linked page is the most relevant for our purposes, so language should not be an issue.

 

Quick glossary for the numbered headings at the top of each image: nuvem = cloud; abas = tabs; pastas = folders.

 

I like most of his ideas, but to my mind nothing beats the floppy disk icon to represent "Save". It's also a nice reminder of where we came from. If they were to use a 5.25" floppy icon, I'd be even happier with that.

 

[source]

 

 

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

@Formfiller, maybe you'll want to join in the Aero vs. Metro fun at the Microsoft Community Win10TP forum.

 

 

Nah, I've done my duty on Channel9 already. There's only so much NuMicrosoft you can endure.

[NoelC]

While I agree that it's been a long time since I saved anything to a floppy disk, why bother to change the icon?  It just makes it difficult to find things that one was used to.  Was anything really wrong with the word "Save" (as in File - Save)?  Why is a ribbon better than menus?  Does anyone really, sincerely, think ribbons are better than menus?

 

There is nothing NEW about what's being done in Windows 10.  Rearranging the draperies is not useful; it's not needed.  Doing so is worse than doing nothing if there's no goal; no improvement.

 

Microsoft wants to do new things with the UI?  Fine -

 

Why can't we, even in 2014, rely on applications opening where we last left them (without 3rd party software)?  No wonder we don't have flying cars in the 21st century yet!  They would not stay where parked if Microsoft software ran in them.

 

Why can't the webcam be monitored for eye movement and used to enrich the mouse/keyboard experience?  

 

Why isn't there brain wave input?

 

Better speech recognition/control (I've tried voice input; it's primitive)?

 

Speaking of speech, why can't I have a new eMail read to me in a natural voice while I'm looking elsewhere?  I have to have an old app installed from the mid-1990s to vocalize text for me (e.g., for helping proofread).  It works but the voice is anything but natural, and I can't teach it to improve as well as need be.

 

Why are things becoming LESS consistent?  Microsoft invented themes.  They provided a whole theme realm, including online resources.  Now they don't adhere to a theme at all.  What utility do borderless windows without drop shadows provide (see Office or Visual Studio for examples)?  Why are menus written in all caps?

 

Why does Microsoft insist that avoiding doing anything done the past is the way to go, instead of building on it?  We've SEEN better already. 

 

Past versions of Windows focused on "Experience" and improving same.  Who said it has to go the other way?  Who said the best experience possible had been obtained and that it was not possible to make it any better.  Themers right here on this forum have been building better, more beautiful, more modern looking themes than anything out of Redmond.  They're online for all to see!

 

We can only conclude Microsoft is A. allergic to difficult work, and B. trying to destroy the computer industry so they can start over and make money doing what they've already done.  Except they're not capable of doing it even as well as before.

 

They're either trying to be massively manipulative or incredibly stupid.  Probably both.

 

We thought maybe Win 8 would be the end.  It almost was, though by bending over backward some of us were able to make it work.  Many others just kept Windows 7, because it REALLY works.  Win 10...  Less of the same?

 

-Noel

Edited November 4, 2014 by NoelC

[dencorso]

Came across a very interesting (especially to @dencorso ) website proposing a number of UI changes for Windows 10.

 

Pleased to see you can read Portuguese!

And yes, I do agree a diskette icon remains the most expressive and unambiguous representation of "save".

[JorgeA]

 

@Formfiller, maybe you'll want to join in the Aero vs. Metro fun at the Microsoft Community Win10TP forum.

 

 

Nah, I've done my duty on Channel9 already. There's only so much NuMicrosoft you can endure.

 

 

I can understand that.

 

All right then, just sit back and enjoy the show. Or the bloodbath   , if Microsoft doesn't complete the job of fixing the UI.

 

--JorgeA

Edited November 4, 2014 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Microsoft wants to do new things with the UI?  Fine -

 

Why can't we, even in 2014, rely on applications opening where we last left them (without 3rd party software)?  No wonder we don't have flying cars in the 21st century yet!  They would not stay where parked if Microsoft software ran in them.

 

Imagine that -- you park the car at the grocery store, and when you come out with your bags it's back in your garage.

 

What you describe is a great idea BTW, I didn't know there were applications that would (for example) help you to reopen Word back where you left off in the middle of a long document that you had been editing. What is a generic name for this type of third-party software, so that I can search for it on the Web?

 

Why does Microsoft insist that avoiding doing anything done the past is the way to go, instead of building on it?  We've SEEN better already.

 

Good question. I attribute this to what I call the cult of novelty -- liking new things simply because they're different rather than because they're better. We might even call it a fetish.

 

Win 10...  Less of the same?

 

While I hardly expect Microsoft to borrow that slogan , it's a very apt one!

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

Came across a very interesting (especially to @dencorso ) website proposing a number of UI changes for Windows 10.

 

Pleased to see you can read Portuguese!

And yes, I do agree a diskette icon remains the most expressive and unambiguous representation of "save".

 

 

(quick OT detour)

As a speaker of Spanish, I can read Portuguese fairly well.  Hearing it is a very different matter, though. 

 

I wonder if the difficulty runs in both directions? Somebody once told me that it's easier for Portuguese speakers to understand spoken Spanish, than for Spanish speakers to understand spoken Portuguese.

 

--JorgeA

[dencorso]

Probably it's somewhat easier for speakers of Portuguese to understand spoken Spanish, because Portuguese has more sounds (mainly vowels, but some consonants, too) than Spanish, so that almost all sounds from Spanish are readly recognizable to the ear of a speaker of Portuguese, but not vice versa. As for reading, I think it's the same in both directions.

[NoelC]

I don't have a 3rd party app that opens applications in the same places, though I have heard of video driver software (from nVidia I think) that will do that.

 

I do have a tool that opens File Explorer (folder) windows in the same places they were before.  I have several icons on the desktop that open to particular locations (e.g., C:\, D:\, etc.) that open to the same places on the screen each time as a result of this app.

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/free-developer-programs-projects/40916-shellfolderfix-manage-folder-window-positions-size.html

 

Note that on the above site he mentions something called "Window Manager" that presumably could do the job.

 

-Noel

Edited November 5, 2014 by NoelC

[JorgeA]

Just saw this funny-but-sad remark in Microsoft's Win10 forum:

 

Has the word behind the "P" in PC been relegated to history?

kinda, it was "PC" until Vista, then it was just "C"
from win 95 to XP we had "My Computer"
then in Vista it was just "Computer"
someone made the joke at the time that the next version would be "Microsoft's Computer"

 

What makes it funny is that there is an element of truth in it, as 1) users are corralled into the UI that Microsoft prefers and 2) we have to jump through hoops in order NOT to create a Microsoft account and sign in with it to our own computers.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Microsoft seems to be listening in at least some small ways:

 

Windows 10 build 9879 screenshots reveal new changes to the taskbar, File Explorer and more

 

One option which users have requested is the ability to hide the Search and Task View buttons on the taskbar. In build 9879, you now have that ability by right clicking the taskbar. The Home area in File Explorer has also seen some additional changes, now with the ability to pin things to the Home area.

 

The ability to unpin the Search and Task View buttons has been one of the most popuar requests in the Feedback App. And with good reason: there is no evident purpose to having dedicated buttons taking up valuable real estate on the Taskbar for functions that are rarely used.

 

Maybe Microsoft wanted them there in the early builds to showcase this functionality. But I can't tell what the Search button does that can't be done by the Start Menu Search, and meanwhile the button is taking up space. As for the ability to switch desktops: while this is undoubtedly a cool feature B) , I have yet to see an explanation for what practical, constructive purpose it could serve. Unless it is to hide what you're really doing at the office from the people who are paying your salary... in which case you shouldn't be getting paid by them anyway.

 

Maybe somebody here can make a practical case for multiple desktops on the same PC?

 

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Maybe somebody here can make a practical case for multiple desktops on the same PC?

I have NO idea how exactly multiple desktops are implemented in Windows 10, but I have used them for years in blackbox/bb4win.

I have 4 desktops, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and I can switch between them easily through a hot key.

Practical use depends greatly on the use someone makes of a computer.

I am particularly prone to make a mess of the desktop (in the sense that I tend to have any number of windows opened at the same time).

Right now I have running:

On Alpha:

an Excel workbook (almost full screen)

1 "Calculator" Window

1 7-zip window

In the background:

1 "Explorer" (it is not really MS Explorer, but it is the same "folder" view)

The Excel, Calculator an 7-zip tiled so that I can view and access all of them.

On Beta:

A word document (about halfscreen)

An Opera Window (about halfscreen) which I use to browse online for synonyms and dictionary/translations

The two apps are tiled so that I can view and access both of them.

On Delta:

An Opera window (fullscreen) where I am typing

In the back ground:

1 "Explorer" window (it is not really Explorer, but it is the same kind of "folder" view)

1 7-zip window

On Gamma:

1 Tiny Hexer window (about half screen).

1 Qemu Manager window (about 1/4 of the screen)

1 IMDISK control panel window (about 1/8 of the screen)

1 7-zip window (the remaining 1/8 of the screen)

In the background:

1 "Explorer" window (it is not really Explorer, but it is the same "folder" view)

 

Now you may like (or completely dislike) the idea of having switchable desktops (as a "replacement" for  minimizing windows to the taskbar and re-open other ones and/or use alt-tab switching or the like) but for me it is a handy way to keep things easily accessible and "organized". 

 

jaclaz

 

Edited November 11, 2014 by jaclaz