On October 12th, Microsoft began rolling out Windows 10 build 10565 to the Fast ring. The newly released build includes new changes and improvements on the Start menu, desktop environment, Cortana, brand new apps, including the Messaging, Phone, and Skype video apps. Also, there are new enhancements for the Microsoft Edge web browser and a lot more.
Microsoft really seems to finally be putting some weight behind its own applications, updating them more often, and releasing impactful Windows updates more regularly.
I’m far, far from complaining. Nice.
It seems to me that Microsoft is not sure what to put into it’s new OS, so it’s using the users to figure out what new features are worthwhile.
I haven’t upgraded my Windows 7 machine to 10, and I’m not sure that I will.
My son however upgraded his laptop a few weeks ago and says 10’s better than Windows 8, so I suppose it depends what you’re comparing it to.
That is basically what is happening indeed. After the whole “Sinofsky did everything related to Windows 8 based on his gut feeling”-period they are now moving very strongly the opposite way. Microsoft is still leading and deciding but listening very strongly and also asking around to their “Insider” users.
I would say that “listening to your customers and doing what they ask” is the reason Microsoft is looked at differently lately.
I am exactly in the same situation.
But I must admit that, when I see my son’s laptop running W10…
W10 is what W8 should have been at start.
It is far better.
But I still have difficulties to find this interface useful. The same difficulties with GNOME 3.X.
As Roger Murtaugh said “I am too old for this sh***”.
😉
There’s an annoying bug in the current build where, when you hit the Windows key and start typing, the ‘search as you type’ feature doesn’t work, so you have to go into task manager and kill Cortana. Then it will work two or three times, and then the same thing happens. Not sure how to fix it permanently, unless you turn off Cortana completely. Hopefully, this gets fixed in this build.
So far, that is the only aggravating issue I’ve run across in Windows 10.
Edited 2015-10-14 04:09 UTC
I don’t suppose you have focus follows mouse enabled?
Using just the windows key, followed by typing, doesn’t work if you wait too long to start typing – specifically, whatever the focus delay timeout is.
Of course, doing Win+S happens to move the mouse to the start menu, so it stays in focus.
No, nothing like that. Start menu pops up, but when you start typing, nothing happens. Until you kill Cortana. It’s not just my issue either.. I learned about the killing Cortana fix from Google.
Edited 2015-10-14 21:51 UTC
Have they found a cure for the bad case of “the uglies” that windows 8 and 10 suffers from yet? =D
Nothing new to see.. move on there.
Seriously, (IMHO) I am not alone in hating all those tiles and huge amounts of whitespace on all system panels. Even on a 24in screen (1920×1200) some go beyond full screen (enough of this default to Full Screen everywhere ok). MS must have fired all their usabiliy people when they released Windows 7 because I can’t see any influence of them in anything since.
Again, just MHO.
Well, I did spend 18months working on Interface Usability in the early 1980’s so I might have more understanding of it thatn most but it appears tht nothing anyone says outside of a few cliques in Redmond will make any difference to what they foist on the unsuspecting world.
I have W10 running in a VM. That’s it. I will never install it on any bare metal or use it for real work. I have tried but it is just impossible for what I do.
My Dev system now runs Server 2012 with all sorts of customisations(Start menu, quick launch etc etc etc). It is usable but even there the ‘acres of whitespace’ are not that far away. Why, why oh Why?
If i could vote you up, i would. Great comment, thank you.
Huh, what are you doing with it that makes it act differently than windows 8.1, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, windows xp, etc?
It still puzzles me that “powerusers” complain about the newer windows versions, even including Windows 8.X. I can understand less technical users will find it annoying, but things like the start menu, what are you doing with it?
It might sound like a silly question, but i have yet to see anyone come with real arguments about why Windows 8 (and newer) is worse than windows 7 for work use as long as you ignore all the tablet touchy stuff. For what i do at least, there is no real difference between them, other than each new version feeling faster than the previous.
I wonder about the same thing. The only times I come into contact with the new “Modern UI” – stuff is when I visit the new control center or open my notifications, but since all of the applications I use (aside from Plex and Netflix) are old-style desktops-stuff there’s quite literally no reason why I would see this “Modern UI” even once on a daily basis.
The Netflix- and Plex-apps that I have installed are “Modern UI”, sure, but there it doesn’t matter since all the content being consumed is video anyways.
Well there is the whole “sending your data to MSFT to mine” thing” I find that worse on Windows 8 on up. That said at least with 8.x you CAN kill the store and refuse the telemetry updates, with Windows 10? Its all built in, ignores HOSTS file (so you have to block something like 3300 IP addresses at your router) and no matter what you set the privacy settings to? Its still going out, like it or not. Citations..
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-tol…
http://investmentwatchblog.com/a-traffic-analysis-of-windows-10-2/
None of that has anything to do with the UI, and that’s what the OP was complaining about.
That “feature” has been backported to Windows 7 via Windows Update as well. I don’t know if the full keylogging stuff has been, but at the very least the “can’t turn it off” telemetry is there. That along with the forced download of the full Windows 10 installation image is ruining 7 for me. I shouldn’t have to clean up after the fact, and I shouldn’t have my limited bandwidth impacted by Microsoft trying to shove an OS upgrade I didn’t ask for onto my system.
Over the past few years I had been coming around to the idea of a new Microsoft that was steadily improving and being more consumer friendly, but they are starting to backslide again.
The squared windows are hard on the eyes after an hour of use. The font rendering (and choice of font) is again both ugly and hard on the eyes.
Those are just two items on the top of my list. When you sit in front of a monitor, those two items alone play a HUGE part in the visual usability of an OS. As I have said before, it is like my days using Windows 3.0.
I am not alone on this one, I have had several people ask me about which computer to buy. I usually take a Mac and new Windows machine and sit them side by side, and then I ask them which of the two are easier on the eyes. Guess which one wins every single time?
The Mac does. But NOT because of the fonts. Windows uses subpixel rendering to effectively get 3x horizontal resolution on its glyphs, while Mac uses plain anti-aliasing. One the other hand the Mac uses a retina display (approx 2x pixel density) unless you found one of their cheap models.
The thing is, if you run Windows 10 on a retina monitor (4k at 24″ or 5k at 27″) then you get both 2x density and 3x resolution, making Windows fonts much much more crisp. I know that some people have stated they prefer plain anti-aliasing and I will take their word for it when we are talking about classic 96 dpi, but if you claim you can spot the individual color channels on a retina monitor I am calling you a liar.
I would honestly love to see this same Mac vs Windows comparison with added laptops running KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and Cinnamon/Mate.
Granted all UI preference is purely subjective, but it’d be awesome to see get a few hundred people to take a ‘what do you prefer for usage’. But I guess for a proper study, you’d have to get some people with a wide array of usage habits to test what is the most ‘usable’.
Personally, I love being able to hit a key, and have a launcher with a search function. Mac OS X needs two keys (command+space) I believe KDE hasn’t ‘fixed’ theirs to use only one key by default, and I know Gnome-shell and Windows 10 both just press the ‘Windows’ key to get the launcher.
Fun story about Windows 10’s performance. I recently upgraded my motherboard/cpu/ram to an i7-6700k and 32gb DDR4 memory. Previous parts were an AMD 8120FX and 32gb of DDR3. Windows 10… noticed no difference. Debian Stretch… wow, no comparison everything is damn near instant to load now. I’d put it up there with performance that my Zenbook UX501 with PCIE ssd has.
I would agree that the Mac hardware does provide an OS the opportunity for a better experience. With that, even when I run XP, 7 and 10 in a VM on the same host, 10 just is not easy on the eyes for me due to the two above areas.
…from Win 7 to Win 10. The upgrade was flawless, and when the system restarted, I found everything in its original place – only, it was a new operating system.
And like they say on Windows Central… Seems Faster.
Or more precisely, IS faster – in boot time, in opening apps, etc. So far so good, even if I will need some time to tell for sure. The most annoying thing I’ve found so far is that clicking on an empty spot on the desktop no longer dismisses the start menu…
And in terms of aesthetics, this new version of the OS continues a trend that effectively started with Windows 8 – after years of greyish copycat-fake3D controls, now MS has finally got its own peculiar design. My eyes say thank you! 😉
So they are still combining the upgrades of Edge with Windows ?
No, Edge is actually a store app that gets updated separately. Of course a new beta build of windows is a good time to include a new beta build of some apps.
And then there are apps (like Skype) that rely on some new OS-hooks and will require a certain underlying OS Update, although 99% of their functionality will work without that OS Update
I was thinking recently – I presume given the change with Windows 10 to their new Windows as a service model – that, giving MS the benefit of the doubt, all the Windows phoning home, telemetry, built-in spyware shenanigans is predominantly going to be for allowing MS via statistical modelling to continually craft and tweak their consumer OS – for the best/widest appeal ; rather than (just) giving NSA and GCHQ a back door into half our homes
I digress, all the up in arms, emotional reaction to the telemetry, is just that, we’re really only giving up an illusion of control – sure it’s possible to lead an untrackable (to your real identity) life online – but it would be annoyingly difficult to keep up long term.
and my point is Chrome has been hugely phoning home for years, and we don’t seem to care as much. Either we should – or we should only hold MS to similar standards/account