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Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions


xper

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Is there any reason whatsoever to think that Microsoft should pull back from their aggressive push to get people to "up"grade to Windows 10 just because it will start costing a fee to do so?

In short:  Does anyone really think they'll feel morally obligated to dial it back?

I'm not sure there's a legal reason to do so.  The precedent has already been set.

All they've done is redefine "normal" so that everyone now just expects their aggressive adware tactics now.  I mean, nowadays most folks just know that Windows Updates contain adware.  That's "normal".

I'm sure apologists and fanboys are preparing their canned responses already (e.g., "What?  Crying over Microsoft's advertising now?  Why didn't you upgrade for free when you had the chance?").

It's a sickening new reality.

-Noel

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Here's something new I learned about Windows 10: What’s New in Audio. Good to see some effort being devoted to solid, actual improvements, similar to WDDM 2.0/DirectX12 instead of silly features like Cortana and UWP apps, and the general crippling of UI choices.

Edited by xpclient
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5 hours ago, NoelC said:

For those who don't already have it bookmarked:

http://changewindows.org/overview

Click the vNext box for a bullet summary of what's coming out in the anniversary release of Win 10.

-Noel

I went through the entire vNext list, and outside Ubuntu (cygwin is a thing), NTFS improvements, and changes to OneCore (which I assume is their new metrofied name for Windows NT), none of these changes will benefit users like us. Almost all of the changes involve "apps" or other pointless things like redesigning "emojis".

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8 hours ago, NoelC said:

For those who don't already have it bookmarked:

http://changewindows.org/overview

Click the vNext box for a bullet summary of what's coming out in the anniversary release of Win 10.

-Noel

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The All Apps list and Most Used have been merged

Well, there goes another chunk of what for me is the most useful feature of the Vista/Win7 Start Menu: the "Recent Items" list. I go to it every day.

I'm aware that you can display "recent documents" or something in File Explorer, but to me that makes for a confusing, disjointed UX. When I go to File (or Windows) Explorer, it is to navigate around the directory structure Listing recent items there becomes simply one more irrelevant thing to click or scroll past before getting to what I really need when I go into Explorer.

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Scrollbars will now disappear in start as soon as you leave their active area

What enhancement to the user interface could this possibly represent? I prefer having the scrollbars show all the time, not disappear. Again, making the scrollbar come back becomes simply one more thing to do before I can get to what I really need to do. :angry:

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You can no longer disable Cortana from within her settings

Can you still disable it from somewhere else? (From within Windows 10, you smart-alecks... ;) )

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Right clicking the back-button will now show a dropdown with pages visited earlier

When closing Edge, you can now choose to clear the browsing data

You can now create a folder right from the favorites bar

You can now rename items from the favorites bar

You can now require a prompt to pop up before a download starts

You can now choose the location where a download should be stored

You can now set a default save location for downloads

OTOH, these do represent steps in the direction of making Edge a real browser.

--JorgeA

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On Monday, July 04, 2016 at 3:14 PM, NoelC said:

Am I the only one who hates that the direction of tech in the world is now defined by i d i o t s?

Not that I've never done anything idiotic.  But at least I try to think a little bit from time to time.  I actually LIKE learning new things.

Big click bait buttons, happy face icons, Fisher Price font sizes, oversimplified lumps of er, ah, stuff that are anything but transparent and actually do have nefarious payloads...  Sigh.  What i d i o t said that these things are better?

Arguably, this trend first popped up in XP, at least in a visual-design sense. I remember people back then complaining about the colorful "chiclet" window controls and the overall "Fisher-Price" look of the default theme.

Vista then turned things in the direction of elegance, while 7 toned the beauty down a bit. And then it all really started to fall apart with 8.

--JorgeA

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7 hours ago, rn10950 said:

NTFS improvements

"Improvements" seems a little strong a description for "You can now enable paths with more than 260 characters for NTFS".

Has this really been a problem?

Yes, I have encountered "path too long" messages - but only maybe twice or three times in my career, and as I recall they were because a deep subtree accidentally got copied to another deep path, then couldn't be deleted.

-Noel

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52 minutes ago, JorgeA said:

Arguably, this trend first popped up in XP, at least in a visual-design sense. I remember people back then complaining about the colorful "chiclet" window controls and the overall "Fisher-Price" look of the default theme.

Vista then turned things in the direction of elegance, while 7 toned the beauty down a bit. And then it all really started to fall apart with 8.

--JorgeA

At least with XP, Vista, and 7 you had the option to fall back to Classic if you didn't like the theme they provided. With 8 and 10, you're stuck with their ugly idea of how an OS should look.

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I never, ever used XP's "chicklet" mode myself.  It was only Classic mode with the Classic start menu.  I stayed with the Classic start menu in Vista, but migrated to Aero Glass right away, as it actually brought better things to usability, such as better differentiation of windows from one another (drop shadows, glass effects).

-Noel

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2 hours ago, NoelC said:

I never, ever used XP's "chicklet" mode myself.  It was only Classic mode with the Classic start menu.  I stayed with the Classic start menu in Vista, but migrated to Aero Glass right away, as it actually brought better things to usability, such as better differentiation of windows from one another (drop shadows, glass effects).

-Noel

    Same for me.  And then with Windows 7, when Microsoft removed the Classic style Start Menu, I went looking for, found, and started using Classic Shell.  It was just icing on the cake that it works in Windows 8 and Windows 10 too.  Funny how so many remember Classic Shell as the great Start Menu for Windows 8, when it was originally designed to replace Windows 7's downgrade!  The feature I missed the most is the ability to cascade folders/folder shortcuts from the Start Menu.  The fact that we can still cascade them from the Taskbar (where I resent the loss of space), indicates that the code is still present in Windows.  I also didn't like the small, boxed in, click-navigation All Programs menu.  If it weren't for those two shortcomings, I would have gladly used the built-in Start Menu over installing a 3rd-party replacement.

    I keep being reminded just how much of a compromise Windows 10's "Start Thing" is.  The Classic Start Menu (with the cascading menus) is almost perfectly optimized for a mouse.  If they made it detect intention and open instantly on horizontal motion instead of having a fixed delay on opening submenus, it would feel even more efficient and quick.  Meanwhile, a touchscreen benefits from the user being able to arbitrarily tap anywhere, while missing the ability to point and hover.  The Windows 8 Start Screen's All Apps view really took advantage of this and actually was a joy to use on a touchscreen (although I still think that having the Start Screen as a dual desktop was a horrible idea).

    But what do we have now?  A tiny All Programs window with oversized entries that both shows a fraction of what could be displayed before (for mouse), while yet on many devices being hard for large fingers to tap accurately on.  Either way, we have to endlessly scroll to see anything—much worse than the Classic Start Menu's condensed vertical menu, or the Start Screen's fullscreen expanded list of items.  It's so bad that I'd rather use the Classic Start Menu on touch and the Start Screen All Apps on mouse over the newfangled "Start Thing" in Windows 10!  Even with reversed roles, they are better than the compromise we have now.  No wonder Cortana is so integrated—the user needs the assistant just to help them do what they used to easily be able to do on their own (like quickly finding and opening a rarely used program), before the Start Menu changes were made!

Edited by Techie007
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For the record, there is no actual 260 characters path limit in NTFS (there is one in some Windows API calls), it depends on the actual program/tool in use of course, but SUBST or UNC names have always worked in those rare cases, NTFS in itself allows to up to around 32,767 characters.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx

Usual misinformation :( by the Windows 10 fans, and Just For NoelC's Interest (as Visualstudio user) interest:
https://visualstudio.uservoice.com/forums/121579-visual-studio-2015/suggestions/2156195-fix-260-character-file-name-length-limitation

an exceptionally lame (beside false) excuse.

And some good ol' (rare nowadays) Common Sense:
https://blog.codinghorror.com/filesystem-paths-how-long-is-too-long/

jaclaz


 

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5 hours ago, ralcool said:

I can't remember how I saw this link today, sometimes I can't even trace my own history....

http://blog.zorinaq.com/i-contribute-to-the-windows-kernel-we-are-slower-than-other-oper/

There it was.. and again from 2013

^ Very interesting read, thanks for sharing. respect-048.gif

Edited by TELVM
Pathetic interface
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Kind of off topic, but I think this sums up nuMS perfectly:

Microsoft invites ‘bae’ interns to ‘get lit’ on ‘lots of dranks,’ then apologizes — again

Quote

In the gamut of things Microsoft has had to apologize for lately, including a racist chatbot and sexy dancers, this might be one of the strangest: The company sent an email inviting interns to a party that begins: “Hey Bae Intern! <3’‘ and gets worse from there, offering “lots of dranks’‘ and the ability to “get lit on a Monday night.’‘

If that’s not alluring enough to the young folk, there’s also the promise of beer pong and “hella noms” (If you’re over 40, try www.urbandictionary.com to translate).

IJnH04W.png

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