Windows 10 - First Impressions

[JorgeA]

 

 

 

One for the ages.

 

--JorgeA

 

 

Thanks, in case you haven't noticed already, I am wastingtimewithforums.

 

I suspected as much.

 

 

Anyway, that thread gets really funny now:

 

http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/There-is-no-escape-from-the-suck-train?page=5

 

Discussion shifted to whether W10 should count as an upgrade to W7 at all, given its suckness.

 

>By that metric, if MS re-releases DOS and renames command.com to Kernel32.exe with a really high version number, this thing would count as an update of Windows.

"Pro upgrade" poster: This is correct. It has nothing to do with the quality.

 

 

 

Wow, amazing. This really illustrates how too many of them think (if we can call it thinking).

 

Metro fans often accuse the other side of "hating" Metro just because it's new or different or unfamiliar. And you will always some people like that. Then Metro fans lump folks like us, who offer substantive critiques, into that group. It's a (poor) substitute for actually thinking and considering the other side's arguments.

 

But it's also the case that there will always be an element that does go all-in for something, simply because it's different from what came just before it. Mind you, I didn't even say that they support it because it's innovative, but merely because it's something other than what we currently have. (And then of course you have the novelty addicts, who like something precisely because it's new, whether or not it's actually better.)

 

Finally, there is (I suppose ) a substantive case to be made in favor of Metro. But in more than three years of following the discussion, IMO the arguments for are vastly outweighed by the arguments against.

 

--JorgeA

 

[NoelC]

 

The way the new OS is shaping up, I'd rather use Win8 than Win10. I can't believe I'm writing this, but in a couple of years I might actually buy a Windows 8.1 system (or license) to extend the time that I can keep working without either submitting to Win10 or taking the big plunge into Linux.

 

--JorgeA

 

 

I resemble that remark!  I'm certainly not going to let them "upgrade" my Win 8.1 setup.  If I do upgrade it'll be a full paid license (much as it will pain me to pay them for Win 10), just so at some future time when the suck factor grows untenable I will still have a license that works.  I'll have to archive a MyBook drive so I can directly restore my Win 8.1 system.

 

I've got Win 8.1 to where it just works now...  Doesn't even log so much as a warning regularly.  With Big Muscle's Aero Glass, it's even halfway pretty to use.

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

 

 

 

Don't worry, resizable Start menu will be available in Windows 10 RTM

Good, but are they going to let me delete the Metro Tiles from the right panel and replace them with links? Will the whole thing still be a single hideous color? Will I be able to hit Escape to close the Start Menu? Will hovering the mouse pointer over All Programs Apps once again expose the list of installed programs without clicking?

Inquiring minds want to know...

--JorgeA

You want too much....

The sad thing is that what I want, we already had prior to Windows 8.

--JorgeA

That was meant as sarcasm

 

 

Oops, sorry!

 

I agree with the sentiment BTW. As @NoelC pointed out about Aero Glass, it probably is too much to ask for all these features to be brought back.

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

 

He announces that W10 will be free for previous Windows users. They obviously expect a huge cheering from the audience at this point, Steve Jobs-style.. well...

 

 

Heh, one or two guys clapped, and one whistled.

 

Microsoft is the embodiment of SO many clichés...  "You Get What You Pay For" comes to mind.

 

-Noel

[Formfiller]

It gets even better at the Cortana introduction:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cOk5AeFyqo&t=24m40s

 

The "excitement" the audience has is almost painful to watch.

 

And here you almost feel sorry for the guy:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cOk5AeFyqo&t=26m57s

[Kelsenellenelvian]

It gets even better at the Cortana introduction:

The "excitement" the audience has is almost painful to watch.

And here you almost feel sorry for the guy:

Uggggg it's soooooo bad

[Formfiller]

The channel9 thread gets more bizarre by the minute:

 

http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/There-is-no-escape-from-the-suck-train?page=6

 

I had to put down a.. Windows 8 apologist (!) with a huge W8 bash-post. Yes, W8, not W10. Wow. They still exist.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Formfiller

[NoelC]

Bizarre is often fun. 

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

Upthread we were talking about Microsoft getting more and more aggressive, pushing Win10 on Windows 7 users. Well, this morning one of my Win7 systems told me it had some Windows Updates waiting to download. One of them, KB2952664, I had already hidden before and now it's popped up again with an April 7 release date. For the other update, KB2990214, clicking the link for more information takes you to the following page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-faq?ocid=client_wu.

 

Thinking that maybe I'd clicked on the wrong link, I clicked again, and I landed on the same page.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

UX pros weigh in on the problems with the current fashion for flatness:

 

Beyond Blue Links: Making Clickable Elements Recognizable

 

...the flat-design trend (a style of interface design which emphasizes two-dimensional flat illustrations and is well exemplified by iOS 7 and Windows 8 has some website designers taking the minimalist approach to the extreme. The idea behind flat design is to simplify the interface. However, stripping away too much undermines this objective by making the interaction more complex. A major issue with many flat designs is that one of the strongest clickability signifiers —the 3-dimensionality— is removed from the equation. Textures that users were long relied upon for cues are stripped away, making it difficult for users to determine what is clickable and what is not.

 

and:

 

Make buttons at least remotely resemble physical buttons. In order for an object to be recognizable, it must retain the right visual cues to trigger the right associations quickly and accurately. Retain the rectangular shape (preferably with rounded corners) if you renounce the 3-dimensionality. Interactive components in flat design should look clickable even without heavier effects such as shadows and gradients. (In one early study, clicks increased by 416% after changing from flat to 3-D buttons. While the effect is smaller now, it's still big.)

 

The whole article is well worth reading, a good resource to cite in discussions with flatlanders!

 

--JorgeA

 

[Formfiller]

Upthread we were talking about Microsoft getting more and more aggressive, pushing Win10 on Windows 7 users. Well, this morning one of my Win7 systems told me it had some Windows Updates waiting to download. One of them, KB2952664, I had already hidden before and now it's popped up again with an April 7 release date. For the other update, KB2990214, clicking the link for more information takes you to the following page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-faq?ocid=client_wu.

 

Thinking that maybe I'd clicked on the wrong link, I clicked again, and I landed on the same page.

 

--JorgeA

 

Just checked. Yes, this update gets displayed for me as well (as an optional). It does indeed lead to the Windows 10 page.

[jaclaz]

Sure, the Kb and URL is always the same, the "target" changes, see:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_update/how-kb2990214-was-deployed/8ce1a186-b3a1-45f2-9120-af7e0ece58bb

 

The nice part is that if you get here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46434

and from it attempt to go here normally looking for some details:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2990214

from (like myself) an Italian IP you land to the Italian page, I guess that all people traveling abroad will get to an often incomprehensible "foreign language" page, a nice added twist to the challenge.

 

BTW the provision to change location/language of the page, unlike in most other sites (where it is at the top right of the page) on this page it is left bottom (at the very bottom of a loooong page) and the caption (in Italian) is "Ciao da Seattle" then "Italia" and then a strange tiny symbol that at first looks seems halfway between a dragon, a butterfly or the symbol for "danger radioactive" but in reality once magnified to 300% appear as a "negative" (i.e. with land white and oceans black) representation of parts of America, Africa and Europe (sorry friends from Eastern Russia and Asia, most probably you do not exist  ) inside a white-bordered circle inside a black square.

 

I am attaching a screenshot of it because it is a good nth example of making a symbol that no one will ever be able to understand at a glance (which more or less should be the idea behind replacing text with a symbol).

 

I will also underline how in Italian, at the end of a page, "Ciao da Seattle. Italia" sounds a lot like a farewell/closing message.

 

jaclaz

Edited April 11, 2015 by jaclaz

[Formfiller]

Sure, the Kb and URL is always the same, the "target" changes, see:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_update/how-kb2990214-was-deployed/8ce1a186-b3a1-45f2-9120-af7e0ece58bb

 

 

 

Quote:

 

The KB2990214 is an update that enables users with Windows 7 or Windows 8x to upgrade to the Windows 10 Technical Preview.

 

It is only offered to users who have visited the Windows 10 Insider Preview website and selected the Get the Preview button. It was available starting on October 1, 2014 and was listed as an Important update.

 

That's a bunch of bul*****. I get this update and I haven't installed anything Windows 10 related on this W7 machine. I have downloaded the technical preview though to run it in a VM. But WU cannot know about this, since you don't sign up with your Microsoft account into W7.

[TELVM]

^ As a matter of fact it's a huge pile of hogwash, I'm also getting this 'update' even though I've NEVER downloaded any Tiles 10 related crap.

 

No trojan is going to attack my beloved Se7en and infect it with Tiles 10.

 

[NoelC]

That's a bunch of bul*****. I get this update and I haven't installed anything Windows 10 related on this W7 machine. I have downloaded the technical preview though to run it in a VM. But WU cannot know about this, since you don't sign up with your Microsoft account into W7.

 

You can't imagine that IE is in collusion with Windows Update to get your Windows 7 obliterated once and for all?     For what it's worth, I always do my interaction with the Insider program from inside a virtual machine.  I actually anticipated this.

 

I'm sure there are stated policies inside Microsoft all about how to survive the success that was Windows 7 (i.e., get anyone to abandon it for something else).  The direct path is to make a new OS that's even better.   But that's so HARD...  So...

 

How could they possibly be criticized for preparing you for a free update?  They're just striving to give you the "best Windows ever!"  What great folks they are!  Apologists are already seizing on that.  The old adage, "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" does not apply to a multi-billion dollar company.  They're very crafty.  And in this reality it doesn't matter how many children point out that the Emperor has no clothes.  If you ever wonder why Microsoft would want to accelerate the release schedule, think about this: 

 

The more time that goes by, the more the word will get out and the more folks will change Windows Update to ask before installing.

 

When I started, some years ago, eyeing every Windows Update with suspicion, people considered me paranoid.  It's long been time to watch out who has a foot in your software door, INCLUDING Microsoft.  The advice to change Windows Update to always ask you before installing anything has been in my books forever.

 

We all partnered with Microsoft when we allowed them a permanent foot in the door (Windows Update) doing exactly what we adamantly block every other source from doing (downloading and installing software on our computers).  We essentially said, "we trust you to do right by us". 

 

What's sad is that they actually WOULD be doing right by us IF ONLY Windows 10 actually did bring good things to the party.  Metro/Modern is a fine idea - universal apps that can be easily programmed and marketed - but the devil is in the details:  Nothing useful or even reasonable has been implemented in that environment.  NOTHING.  Not even by Microsoft.

 

Is it time to stop accepting ANY Windows Updates, assuming you have a system that does what you need and want and you either don't want to upgrade or want to wait until the value proposition becomes decidedly positive for YOU.

 

I'd wager that a grand majority of people still have Windows Update on full auto, and will wake up one day to find their system has been changed to Windows 10.

 

-Noel