NoelC Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Everyone who had anything to do with the Windows 8 pre-releases told them. But on another level... What's all this BS implication where the shills are proclaiming Windows 10 is "embracing" a PC resurgence? What about Windows 10 embraces a PC any more than WIndows 8? The only two things I can remotely associate with this concept are...Metro/Modern Apps can be run in windows on the desktop. But how does running a useless web page-like (but less functional) App help a computer user? The return of the Previous Versions feature - though without the UI that was removed in Win 8.1 for setting up the System Image backups that make it actually useful. Is there something more I'm not sensing? Windows 10 is really just Windows 8.2 as far as I can see, but with more things screwed up. -Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 (edited) I think the two main examples that are given to support the idea that Win10 is more desktop- (that is, PC-)friendly than Win8 are (1) the boot to desktop instead of to the Start Screen, and (2) the revived Start Menu, half-a$$ed though it may be. Of course, against those obvious changes we have to weigh a bunch of more subtle changes in the opposite direction. For example (and I've been meaning to mention this), there's the new way that Windows Updates are handled in build 9926 of the Technical Preview, where you can't know what an update is about until after you agree to both download and install it. [sarcasm]What a brilliant concept -- what could possibly go wrong with that??[/sarcasm] To me, that's additional evidence that Microsoft is making a play for the know-nothing crowd who doesn't care what goes into their computers and is content to let "the experts" have their way with them. That is, until their black boxes suddenly stop working, which given MSFT's recent record is bound to happen soon enough. --JorgeA Edited March 1, 2015 by JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 (edited) I could boot Win 8.1 to the desktop directly, using only Microsoft-supplied options. Resurrecting something that resembles a Start Menu isn't really useful. Pretty much everyone agrees that the myriad start menu replacements are better. The most important cue, in my mind, that takes Windows 10 in exactly the opposite direction is EVEN WITH Big Muscle's Aero Glass tool, the elegance and usability of the desktop is REDUCED. Flat, non-delineated buttons on the Taskbar? Apps that don't have the same chrome as applications? Going through some motions for press releases all the while making the desktop harder to use in actuality doesn't "embracing" make. I *hate* this modern marketing-driven BS where "perception is reality", and if you say something enough times shallow people start to believe it. I'm basically going on "how good can it be made by tweaking and augmentation" when I compare versions vs. "what does it look like out of the box". I sound confrontational here, but it's not to you Jorge. I know your heart is in the right place. -Noel Edited March 1, 2015 by NoelC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Windows 10 is really just Windows 8.2 as far as I can see, but with more things screwed up. exactlythey just wanted to distance themself from bad image of "8"just like "7" did from vista 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 IE in Windows 10 is annoying. It seems the default action of things typed into the address bar is to search for that in bing.... even if I type a url in there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 IE in Windows 10 is annoying. It seems the default action of things typed into the address bar is to search for that in bing.... even if I type a url in there... I have the same experience. Incidentally, that led me to poke around a bit: have you noticed how hard it is now to change that default search provider? If and when you finally get to the iegallery, there's a p*ss-poor selection of alternative search providers -- no Ixquick, no StartPage, no DuckDuckGo. Now here's the kicker: if your homepage is Ixquick and you're there and you click on "Add to IE", then Ixquick gives you a direct link to the IE Gallery page to make Ixquick your default search engine. But if you go yourself to the IE Gallery page, there is no way to select Ixquick, and a search for it turns up no results. Way to go, Microsoft. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I sound confrontational here, but it's not to you Jorge. I know your heart is in the right place. I know you do. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 One more tidbit from that Windows Weekly 396: Mary Jo: This is somewhat related indirectly to the Google news about them disclosing patches this week. Microsoft announced early this week that they are no longer going to make available what they call the advance security notifications service publically for free to administrators. So what this was, it’s a 10-year old service. It is very closely aligned with patch Tuesday. Remember how Microsoft used to post up… these are the kinds of vulnerabilities that we’re going to patch next week when it’s patch Tuesday? That was what the advance notifications service was. Well, they decided they’re not doing that anymore. And the only people that are going to get those advance warnings now are paying Microsoft premier customers, which are the really big enterprise shops. And some of the security companies that work hand in hand with Microsoft around patching. Everybody else, it’s just going to be a surprise now what happens on patch Tuesday. And the reason Microsoft decided to do away with this is because they claimed not many people were taking advantage of it. Administrators were just dealing with patch Tuesday announcements as they happened on patch Tuesday. And they didn’t really need the advance notification. That’s their story; they’re sticking to it. This week was the first patch Tuesday where there was an advance notifications service bulletin ahead of time. And Microsoft has said, hey if you’re an administrator, you can use this thing called My Security Bulletins Dashboard and that’s where you’re going to see what we’re going to be patching. Well patches came out on Tuesday and for quite a while the advance, sorry the Security Bulletins Dashboard was completely blank. So I had people on Twitter saying to me, hey the patches are out but my dashboard is blank. What did they patch? What am I getting? I need to know this right now. So yea, the first patch Tuesday without ANS was not a banner patch Tuesday. But I think Microsoft has decided no more ANS warnings are going to be publically available. This ties in with what we were saying before about not being able, in Windows 10, to get the details about an update until you agree to download and install it. Apparently they've decided that less information is better. "Ignorance is Bliss." NOT. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Windows 8.x still nowhere near as popular as Windows XP Windows 8.1 went from 10.04 percent share to 10.49 percent, and Windows 8 went from 3.79 percent to 3.55 percent. In total 8.x gained 0.21 percentage points. Windows 7 refuses to yield any ground and in February gained 0.07 percentage points, going from 55.92 percent to 55.99 percent. It remains by far and away the dominant operating system, and it’s Windows 7 users that Microsoft will need to target with Windows 10 as I suspect a large portion won’t upgrade to the new OS even if it is free. Windows XP remains impressively resilient, and actually gains a modicum of usage share this month going from 18.93 percent to 19.15 percent. In other words, XP went up just as much as Windows 8/8.1. Here's the graph (hover over Operating Systems and then click on "Desktop Trend by Version"). --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Well, maybe there is another aspect to be taken into account. IF I was (which I am not, thank goodness) a Windows 8.x user I would be so terrified by the risk of getting by mistake some malware/virus rectius latish Windows Update file that I would anyway browse the Internet on XP ... , or, given the recent issue with update messing with fonts in XP, possibly Windows 2k . jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelC Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) Oh, come now, Windows 8 isn't all THAT much worse than its predecessors (they were pretty bad too). A true Master Of The High Tech Universe tames the latest version into submission. Hyah! Bow down before me, Windows 8.1! -Noel Edited March 3, 2015 by NoelC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Leaked screenshots from the latest TP build suggest that standard Desktop icons have now been given the flatness treatment. See, in particular, the Network and Control Panel icons. I have not seen such crude, simplistic graphics in Windows since 2.0. Win10 is shaping up to be the most visually repulsive version of Windows in more than a quarter-century. --JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bphlpt Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 This pretty much sums up the awfulness - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 4bit graphic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicAndre1981 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I have not seen such crude, simplistic graphics in Windows since 2.0. Win10 is shaping up to be the most visually repulsive version of Windows in more than a quarter-century. the icons look like the video driver crashed and show up in 16 colors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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