Windows 10 - First Impressions

[NoelC]

Try just changing the "Configure Automatic Updates" setting in gpedit.msc to Disabled.  I'm not getting nagged and it only updates when I tell it to go check for updates.  I figure I'll hear about any important updates while browsing forums online.

 

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

 

How did you do that? Can you give a step-by-step for the part about using an old desk.cpl?

 

I have a dual-boot Win7 and Win10 system. Found the desk.cpl from Win7 and wanted to copy it over to the Win10 partition, but the OS isn't letting me change the name of the current desk.cpl so that I can drop in the one from Win7.

 

What do I need to do to accomplish that?

 

--JorgeA

 

I found a thread over at ThinkPad forums where somebody got the classic theme running in Windows 8. The download included a desk.cpl in the source folder, which I decided to try out in Windows 10, but I think that an old desk.cpl from NT4 or Win2k will work, from any directory.

 

 

Thanks, that was interesting. Neat idea, to graft a control panel element from one OS onto another.

 

I'll give this a shot when there's a good block of time.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

I'd try to use PC Hunter. It lets you delete anything in the file system or registry regardless of permissions, 10 is not in the list of supported OSes but since it supports 8.1, chances are it works on 10 too. I only ever used it on my Win7 x64 laptop so can't vouch for its efficiency on anything else though.

 

 

http://down.epoolsoft.com/pchunter/PCHunter_free.zip

 

 

Will give this a try!

 

--JorgeA

Edited July 5, 2015 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

UI design experts weigh in on the fashion for minimalist interfaces. Everything they say about Web pages is of course also applicable to operating systems:

 

The Roots of Minimalism in Web Design

 

Unfortunately, some designers misinterpret minimalism as a purely visual-design strategy. They cut or hide important elements in pursuit of a minimalist design for its own sake—not for the benefits that strategy might have for users. They’re missing the core philosophy and the historical context of minimalism, and they risk increasing complexity rather than reducing it.

 

Hidden in the middle of presenting the pro-minimalist viewpoint, there is this gem...

 

People do tend to respond better to aesthetically-pleasing interfaces.

 

...which argues against everything Microsoft has done with Windows 10.

 

Know that a minimalist visual design alone, without meaningful consideration of user tasks, will not result in a successful interface. The usability issues of Windows 8 provide an excellent cautionary tale.

 

That last link to their Windows 8 discussion is totally worth reading.

 

--JorgeA

 

[rn10950]

 

 

How did you do that? Can you give a step-by-step for the part about using an old desk.cpl?

 

I have a dual-boot Win7 and Win10 system. Found the desk.cpl from Win7 and wanted to copy it over to the Win10 partition, but the OS isn't letting me change the name of the current desk.cpl so that I can drop in the one from Win7.

 

What do I need to do to accomplish that?

 

--JorgeA

 

I found a thread over at ThinkPad forums where somebody got the classic theme running in Windows 8. The download included a desk.cpl in the source folder, which I decided to try out in Windows 10, but I think that an old desk.cpl from NT4 or Win2k will work, from any directory.

 

 

Thanks, that was interesting. Neat idea, to graft a control panel element from one OS onto another.

 

I'll give this a shot when there's a good block of time.

 

--JorgeA

 

 

You actually don't need to replace your current desk.cpl. The one I am using for this is in a folder on my desktop.

Edited July 5, 2015 by rn10950

[JorgeA]

Windows 10: Here’s what Microsoft should have done instead

 

Windows 10 is a well-meaning effort by Microsoft to mollify Windows 8 haters and coax Windows 7 loyalists to upgrade — all while stubbornly sticking to its goal of a single OS for every possible platform. And by framing the problem that way, Microsoft has given itself a nearly impossible task.

 

[...]

 

So why is it so hard to convince users to move to a brand-new, free, feature-packed, more efficient OS? Apple does it all the time. Simply put, because Microsoft didn’t build Windows 8 or Windows 10 for Windows users. It built them to further its own business strategy of using the power of the once-ubiquitous Windows platform to extend its dominance into the rapidly growing mobile space. The result is an OS whose features are now flipping and flopping with each new build — as Microsoft tries to fix problems of its own creation.

 

And of course, all this effort has so far completely failed to "extend [Microsoft's] dominance" into the mobile market. It's gotten nowhere there, while at the same time annoying its most loyal customers.

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

The eternal rumor: Will Microsoft dump Windows Mobile and go for Android?

 

This time, the rumor comes courtesy of Twitter user and known leaker MSNerd, who writes that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is discussing the option of dropping Windows Mobile altogether and instead licensing Android for use in smartphones and handsets.[...]

 

“Nadella and the SLT debating continuing Windows on phones and small tablets vs bundling Microsoft services on Android as the way forward,” MSNerd said. “Microsoft would push Google Play devices with Microsoft apps in exchange for Google providing first-class Maps, YouTube, Search on Windows.”

 

With its signature mobile platform mired around 2.6% of the market, it’s not surprising that MS would evaluate its long-term plans for the platform...

 

 

Maybe there is somebody in Redmond with two contiguous, firing brain cells after all. Given the company's consistent failure with anything that smacks of the Metro interface (think Zune, Windows Phone, Windows 8 -- only Xbox can lay a claim to success, and even it lags behind the Sony Playstation), it is simply common sense to cut your losses and focus on what you're good at.

 

Such a move would, of course, undermine the whole rationale of Windows 10: the fantasy of "One Windows" that works on any machine with a CPU. Maybe then we'd end up with a truly improved new Windows that starts off with the magnificent Windows 7 ship and sheds the Metro/Modern/Universal barnacles.

 

--JorgeA

 

[jaclaz]

You forgot Windows RT, the brand new, revolutionary environment that never was....

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

 

Know that a minimalist visual design alone, without meaningful consideration of user tasks, will not result in a successful interface. The usability issues of Windows 8 provide an excellent cautionary tale.

 

 

Microsoft has duped the press into talking about the substance of the design, when it's clearly just a stepping stone.

 

Throwing away everything done in the past can only mean one thing:  Microsoft is trying to reset the clock so they can start over and have another couple of decades of success like they had with Windows.

 

They just don't have the talent to do it right.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

As often happens, OT , but not much an article from 2001 (yes, 14 - fourteen - years ago) that with just replacing the name of a few new technologies that are currently hyped/marketed/pushed could be re-used fine:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html

... though the good MS guys would need to be really good to keep a straight face when they will say of the upcoming Windows 10 something along the lines of:

... and is designed to put users in control of their digital lives.

 

or:

... makes the technology in your life work together on your behalf and under your control.

 

 

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

Build 10162 downloaded overnight and I installed it this morning. Right away, a question and an issue.

 

First, the issue. Anybody who's on 10162 notice this in their Start Menu:

 

 

Two crapps seem to have installed incorrectly (the first two are identical) and they're showing up at the top of the menu listings under "&" (ampersand).

 

And then the question. See the following screenshot from Settings --> Privacy --> Other devices:

 

 

"Staples"? What's that??

 

Anybody have an idea what that means? Curiously, they explain what a self-explanatory term ("trusted device") is, but not what they mean by an unfamiliar, mysterious term ("Staples").

 

--JorgeA

 

[JorgeA]

As often happens, OT , but not much an article from 2001 (yes, 14 - fourteen - years ago) that with just replacing the name of a few new technologies that are currently hyped/marketed/pushed could be re-used fine:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html

... though the good MS guys would need to be really good to keep a straight face when they will say of the upcoming Windows 10 something along the lines of:

... and is designed to put users in control of their digital lives.

 

or:

... makes the technology in your life work together on your behalf and under your control.

 

 

jaclaz

 

That was a very interesting piece, and for even more reasons than you give. The following caught my eye:

 

These three facts (you are the new sys admin, computers are nowhere, the one computer is everywhere) should combine to improve the world of using computers as computers -- by making the boundaries of computers disappear, by making the computer be everywhere

 

This reminds me of the Microsoft vision video that some Win10 fanbois tout as the company's ultimate goal for Windows. The Desktop and indeed all traces of any interface would disappear; you would be interacting with the item you're touching, not just physically but also electronically.

 

Then there's this:

 

No, Microsoft, computers are not suddenly going to start reading our minds and doing what we want automatically just because everyone in the world has to have a Passport account.

 

They do seem to be making progress in that direction (at least in the second half of that sentence), what with their making it ever harder to AVOID signing into your own PC with a Microsoft Account.

 

As to the bit about putting "users in control of their digital lives," that line of propaganda would be more credible if they actually allowed users to customize the Desktop to their liking (think: Aero Glass) and if they allowed users to pick and choose the Windows Updates they want to install.

 

All in all, a fantastic and prescient article. We should go on the Insider forums and quote it all over the place there.   That is, until the Insider forum commissars take down the posts and send the perpetrators into digital exile.

 

--JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

Two crapps seem to have installed incorrectly (the first two are identical) and they're showing up at the top of the menu listings under "&" (ampersand).

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174037-broken-app-in-start-menu-after-upgrade-to-1015810159/

[JorgeA]

Thanks Trip, that did the trick.

 

Wonder how many millions out there will be faced with this and have no clue what to do about it. And even if they do, unless MSFT fixes it Real Soon it will be another mark against Windows 10 in the public eye.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Apple Watch sales plunge 90%

 

Apple has been selling fewer than 20,000 watches a day in the U.S. since the initial surge in April, and on some days fewer than 10,000, according to data from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Slice Intelligence.

 

That is a sharp decline from the week of the April 10 launch, when Apple sold about 1.5 million watches, or an average of about 200,000 a day, Slice estimates.

 

 

I guess that Apple is starting to run out of people with cash to burn who are willing to buy mildly interesting devices at wildly inflated prices...

 

The Apple Watch is the first completely new product the company has created and launched since the death of its visionary founder, Steve Jobs, in 2011. How well the watch fares may be one measure of how well Apple may be able to maintain the standards of excellence in innovation, marketing and production it achieved under Jobs. Investors are used to seeing new products, such as the iPhone and iPad, fly off the shelves as soon as they are launched.

 

The Apple Watch is also a foray into the world of so-called “wearable tech,” which is supposed to offer yet another big surge in product sales for Apple and its rivals in the years ahead. Once everyone has a smartphone, they are supposed to go out and get a smart watch, followed by smart eyeglasses, and so on. Or, at least, so goes the theory.

 

 

"Internet of Things" fans, take note!

 

--JorgeA