The thing with "proper testing" is that unlike Macs for example Windows runs on thousands and thousands of different hardware and software (drivers especially) combinations. Proper testing on all of them is possible only theoretically.
So MS figured out what they think is a way to get proper, real data from real computers to aid with troubleshooting and debugging (to which they added another level of data to aid their bottom line :D). They called it telemetry and we all know how people reacted to it.
Thing is if you want *your* system to be more reliable you have to send some reliability data to MS. Don't expect any magic though. There's a chance you have a uniquely non-standard setup.
Sure, then you get thousands and thousands of different update configurations. How does it help with testing when you have for example 200 updates available for an OS and everybody has a different combination applied? How do you make sure that every future update works for your combination?
Well, five minutes on the internet would have let them find the "lose wifi on wake from sleep" bug that has driven me nuts. Another five minutes on the internet could have told them that the anniversary edition update brought it back and the workaround that solved it previously no longer works. I am sure they much have had thousands of feedback comments on it as well, and I personally sent several. They dont need "more data", they just need to resolve known issues.
I hope you realize that's not how software development and debugging is done. Googling for a generic error that may or may not be a Windows issue or a driver issue. And I hope you realize that the people affected by this are a small fraction of the total number of Windows users. Everybody thinks their bug is critical because it shows up on the first page of Google but it's not.
To prove a point, I searched for "Windows is great" and found plenty of happy people.
And reintroducing bugs is exceptionally common in software development. It's down to reusing old code. If you tell me what you do for a living I can find a problem that affects lots of people. And I'm pretty sure your work doesn't cover 80% of a market.
Anyway, how many such serious/obvious problems did you have with updates in the past 2 years? No software is perfect and if 1 or 2 bugs is all that you've encountered when updating such a complex piece of software like Windows, with all its dependencies on other software and drivers I'd say it's not that bad, is it?
It's no different than any other OS, even those that run in very standardized configurations.
Same here - motherboard integrated realtek audio required a driver reinstall to work. The same driver that was already installed worked; so I'm guessing it was a config corruption issue.
It's not the first time I've had issues with updates, but it's pretty rare all around, IMHO. I can remember maybe a handful of cases the past decade or so - not too bad, right?
I've come across a reproducible wifi bug in the Creators Update across different hardware: failure to "reconnect' when resuming from sleep, even though the connection shows you are connected to the wireless network, there is botched network connectivity; some works, some doesn't.
Going back to sleep and resuming, or disconnecting and reconnecting, solves the problem in each case. Driver updates didn't fix the issue. All laptops with this issue had various Intel controllers, 7260's, 8260's, N's, AC's...could be an Intel issue, but it didn't happen before creators update.
Only issue I ran into with CU was on an HP laptop I was working with... Synaptics fingerprint reader stopped working. Since HP is terrible about releasing even semi-current drivers, I grabbed a "Lenovo" driver for the Synaptics reader, and it works great. No issues with audio or wifi on any tested device thankfully. Even on my desktop which has a SB Zx, Creative's latest drivers are shockingly still working.
Audio issues seem to mostly be resolved via driver updates... the wifi issue some people are seeing on Intel controllers I hope will be solved by a driver update or OS patch in the near future as well.
Don't worry, things will change now that MS is planning to distribute Linux images in their store. Finally, the year of Linux might be upon us and it will be MS's doing :D.
When you used to say "on desktop" it usually meant "on client devices" (basically desktop PCs and laptops). Today you're in the mobile age. Phones, tablets, even the device definition is blurred. Some phones and tablets are more or less fully fledged PCs right now). So it's hard not to consider the "overall" ecosystem now.
One way of thinking about it could be the amount of value created per platform (as GDP type value). While there's probably more mobile client devices around than desktops/laptops, I bet the large majority of value comes from the latter, and always will.
While I was impressed by the Stream 7 and other $100 Windows devices, I do wish we had some higher-priced options. I'd love a 7" tablet with OLED, Gorilla Glass, and 4 GB of RAM.
I know Linux is still basically a rounding error worth of installed systems, but since Windows 8 was released, the number numbers have show very slow, but steady increases. The fact that it's consistently above 2% now is pretty cool, but for those of us using it, I wouldn't bother celebrating yet. It's got a long way to go before it becomes a significant factor.
"The fact that it's consistently above 2% now is pretty cool"
Probably the result of Chinese and Russian governments not wanting to use Windows or MacOS and switching to their domestically cooked distros of Linux.
People grow up gaming on Windows and along the way pick up some other software which they learn and become dependent on and when they are engineers, doctors, lawyers or housewives or jobless or whatever keep on playing games and software. There is nothing that Linux does not do better than Windows except gaming. That is the whole idea of Windows and as long as Windows is a good platform for gaming the same story repeats itself ad infinitum. Unless of course Linux starts paying more attention to gaming and there is a Linux version of popular games on the market. Another thing that that plays a part in the popularity of Windows albeit not as much as the above is what the late Dennis Ritchie described as its "feeling of Snappiness". The apps do not load any faster on Windows than on Linux and Linux even loads them faster most of the time but the Windows feels snappy, so people feel that are doing something more or their time is not being wasted whereas in reality the time that Windows wastes for its users is almost equal or even more than the time that people spend time actually doing something on Windows.
I now dual boot Windows 10 and Mint Linux. Linux definitely boots up faster for me. It's to the point where the only time I boot Windows is to play a game that's not available on Linux. l could even use Linux for work, if my company would let me, since all the tools I use are available for both OSes.
So with this next major update will they finally stop this insane automatic download and install of garbage apps? Just had to refresh a pc that would no longer join my domain and watched in horror as windows automatically downloaded and installed 10+ apps. Eclipse manager, pandora, adobe express, on and on the apps kept coming. Why oh why do they do this?
What brand computer? Was this configured by the manufacturer to do this? I've never seen this on a clean install of Windows 10. (Just one... to four... data point(s), though!)
I have seen this on a clean Windows install, last weekend I installed Windows 10 Pro v1703 (Creator's update) on a NUC, latest iso at that time, and it tried to install all kinds of apps from the Play Store. I don't think Intel could configure this if I brought my own iso, download from Microsoft's website. Maybe hardware manufacturers also have the capability to mark apps as "updates" even when you're using your own install media (kind of like drivers?), but I think this was Microsoft's doing.
At first I thought this was some leftover from using the same account on a branded laptop earlier, those apps got tied to my account library and Windows 10 tries to install all of the apps in the library when you set things up. But on the other hand, I haven't setup a branded machine running the factory image since Windows 7... And also, the UWP apps that I actively have installed on other machines, didn't get installed automatically.
So unless my girlfriend is installing those apps behind my back, Microsoft is pushing those apps on us.
It's actually something MS included as "a feature". The content delivery manager with the pre-installed apps option. You can disable this in registry or local policy.
As far as I know it comes in the Pro versions although some older MSDN Windows Enterprise ISOs came with it enables. I guess MS received enough feedback from enterprises to cut the crap so now they just try it on regular customers.
I would love it if all my apps could be fetched through the store. The problem is most of them are NOT UWP, and created by small developers (utilities and such). Hopefully MS has made it really easy to get apps into the store, because otherwise most of my apps will never be there.
I probable have 4-5 programmes beyond Chrome and Office, all but one open source, and none came through the app store. The App Store itself is mainly full of junk.
Yeah I know it is. I just wish it weren't. :) I actually find Chocolatey to be pretty useful for open source stuff, although I worry a lot about someone uploading a trojan package since it's much newer and less popular than Ubuntu repository for instance.
The Linux subsystem is truly amazing stuff, and I already find it useful. Unfortunately there is no GPU-acceleration which is a buzzkill for me. Trying to learn machine learning techniques on Windows is really painful since the library support is not so great.
I really hope they follow through Fluent design language,Wide Color gamut, and HDR support. I really don't want my 2017 computer run a UI which looks horrible
I see no point in messing with Linux inside of Windows when I can simply use Linux atop bare metal and get the distro I want the way I prefer to use it. As well, I don't have to deal with always-on, Google-levels-of-creepy Cortana lurking and listening or non-removable OneDrive. The visual activity history is nice, but I'd hope it can be totally disabled. Knowing how MS works these days, probably not and it's likely part of their data mining efforts as they play catchup with Alphabet and others.
"Creators Update actually shipped the first steps towards a high color aware OS, although it is limited to certain hardware configurations at the moment. That shouldn’t be a huge issue though, since there aren’t a lot of HDR monitors on the market yet."
Monitor manufacturers have really, really dropped the ball. Most new 4K TVs come with 10-bit 4:4:4 4K HDR support or at least 10-14-bit 4:2:0 HDR support. DisplayPort 1.3/1.44 has been a total failure compared to HDMI 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 is going to leapfrog DP once again with features and product support.
I would like it to be viable to get uwp apps from other stores than the windows store. Sure a lot of programs are not suitable for uwp but if they are I would like to use them. I just don't want to deal with a single gatekeeper that can deny apps from landing in the store they don't like. Emulators are a good example of that.
I used the Windows app store once. I logged in with my email account, that has a 100 charatcher long password (it's so long because I use lastpass, so I thought why not?). By doing so windows now demanded I enter my 100 charatcher password in at login, whereas before I didn't use a password and of course I couldn't use lastpass at the login screen on my windows machine so I had to use my phone. It sure did make me feel like an idiot but there are lots of use out there imo. So, since I like the idea of a long password, I just don't use the app store. There maybe a very simple solution, like just making a separate email for logging in or an option in windows. But I never gave one crap about the windows app store, I was just new to windows 10 and thought it would be cool to download a free car racing game. /end of boring story.
That really sucks and it really shouldn't have to work like that. I did remove my login password and used a local account, you may look into that, as it's not tied to your MS account.
Yeah, when you login to the App Store you're using you're 'Microsoft account', which then becomes your Windows user account. It's vaguely useful if you have multiple machines and Office 365, but not for a lot else. It's also the same as/can be used as a hotmail account, I think.
There are alternatives that replace the password section once you set up your account with password, although they are less secure. In Windows 10 you can set up a pincode, an image "password" on which you have to draw a chosen pattern or you can set up a biometric verification with Windows Hello (facial recognition or fingerprint matching).
To be clear, your password remains the same as before, it's just for the login procedure and for entering administrative rights that the above methods replace your password.
This has been around since Windows 8.
Ionestly, I set my desktop up to not require a password, it's not going anywhere. And I also have a Windows 10 HTPC, having to enter a password there would be incredibly annoying. But my laptop needs to be protected of course.
What I want are Microsoft products that actually work to the point where I spend more time being productive than fighting the tools themselves. Case in point, Outlook not only crashes randomly, but I'll go into various states of uselessness. Try quick reply from the preview pane? Ha, I'll be typing but my text will not appear. Pop out the reply from the preview pane and the text I was typing magically appears! Want to view a calendar? Ha, it'll randomly display a blank white screen. Outlook will also screw up the scroll bars in calendar view so that they bars themselves will move but the actual content will not. This is even worse when view more than one calendar. It feels like I'm running head first repeatedly into a brick wall using Outlook. It is actually more productive for me to use my phone for quick emails and view calendar items than Outlook now.
Excel is just slow. I swear for basic calculations an older 1 Ghz box from ~17 years ago running Office 98 felt faster than Excel does now on a modern quad core 3.0 Ghz system. Oh, and the new function Excel is introducing don't necessarily adhere conventional syntax used previously in Excel.
Word has this chronic disease that it can't handle white space in an intelligent fashion. Delete a block of text? Guess what, that block of text's formatting will live on in the white space around it make any attempt to type a new block of text in its place a formatting nightmare. There is a reason why I've adapted to doing quick typing in NotePad and then pasting it in when it comes time to formatting. Outlook to a lesser extent has this same problem. Spreading like herpes.
PowerPoint has regressed by wanting to alter my monitor arrangement every time I attempt a slide show. It says it remembers my settings so that I don't have to rearrange everything after a presentation (or before or during) but I've seen more honest used car salesmen.
Dynamics integration in Outlook is painful to use due to its backwards interface. The web version isn't any better.
Windows 10 also like to reboot at the most inopportune time for me: generally when I'm doing work. Also it likes to lie to me sometime when I would like to reboot later if I put my laptop to sleep. So if I want to delay the reboot by four hours and I put my laptop to sleep overnight for ~8 hours, it'll ask me again when I wake it up but then realize that I woke it up after the initial 4 hour mark and reboot anyway. Nothing like waking up to a reboot punching you in the face in the morning.
I bought a second-hand Lenovo that came with windows 8 pre-installed and got the free upgrade to 10. I decided, stupidly, to roll it back to 8. While rolling back there was an error and I was left with no functioning OS. A family member of mine is an accountant who did use excel exclusively but it would randomly freeze when more than one excel tab was open. They use Zoho now and a chromebook even though Zoho, being completely online, isn't ideal due to slows downs every now and again.
"How about the ability to NOT install certain updates." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That is not allowed as that would give the END USER control over their own security and future
I am posting this comment with WINDOWS XP-SP2 without ANY Microsoft security updates!
I am not worried about Wannacry or any other malware destroying this box or the software it contains because I understand the security issues and have secured this system from malware and Spyware created by Microsoft as well as the NSA and other criminals
In addition, Microsoft appears to be using malware in Spyware Platform 10 that was originally created by myself and others not related to Microsoft
Hiding my proprietary technology in Microsoft DRM is not allowed under my license or contract agreements and makes Microsoft Licenses NULL AND VOID!
Therefore, I will continue to use END USER supplied security instead of being locked into a backdoored system that cannot be secured by design
I haven't had a bluescreen of death on XP in over 10 years now and can easily mitigate the security problems created by Microsoft and the Tech Laws that were created to control everything by a few scumbags at our expense
Microsoft Windows 10 is probably the only piece of software "built" by one of the richest companies in the world that has about 1,000,000,000 testers around the world, testing it in all sorts of scenarios and under all kinds of imaginable conditions. It is a wonder why it is still such a lousy piece of software.
Can't tell if you're being sarcastic here... English isn't my native language, so I could be missing the point of your post.
If end user control of security is such a big concern for you, why stick with Windows XP and not just run a Linux distro which seems to be exactly what you want. Sticking to an old OS because you want to stay in control doesn't make sense when there are plenty of modern alternatives where you're still in control, they're just not Windows.
Or is that what you're referring to in a convoluted way?
Well, one thing you can count on is that they will break something with each update and never bother to correct what the update broke. Another thing you can count on is that you will lose more privacy and control over the OS. For instance, I had the "lose wifi on wake from sleep" bug initially, but had gotten rid of it with the known workaround to disable the wifi power saving option in device manager. Of course, MS could have fixed that with any one of their many updates, but never did. Well, since the anniversary edition update, it is back, and the workaround no longer solves it. Thanks microsoft. Worse yet, it is apparently a known issue that MS is aware of, but they wont bother to fix it this time either. At least I managed to disable the extremely annoying Cortana before the last update made that much more difficult. Words cannot describe how much I hate Win 10. I only leave it on my computer because I game occasionally and also share it with my wife, who would not be comfortable with linux. For my personal laptop that no one else uses, I have changed over to linux for almost everything.
MS is going to appstore your ass. They are going to walled garden you until they're making the same money on you that apple is. Fuck freedom. Fuck running what software you like. MS will embrace, extend, extinguish your asses. You will bow to microsofts will, for they deserve $50 on every new laptop purchased forever, because, well, they're just that fucking worthy. Seriously, have you seen how much better Word and Excel have gotten over the last 15 years? Bow the fuck down!
"Fluent Design is not going to be just a Fall Creators Update feature either. This is just the first wave of an overhaul which will be ongoing for some time." So that's code for "Don't expect Fall Creators (or any subsequent) release to have a fully consistent UI before we change it yet again"?
Macpoedel "Can't tell if you're being sarcastic here...
If end user control of security is such a big concern for you, why stick with Windows XP and not just run a Linux distro which seems to be exactly what you want. Sticking to an old OS because you want to stay in control doesn't make sense when there are plenty of modern alternatives where you're still in control, they're just not Windows." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Because End User Control of security is a Big Concern for me and I CAN control the security on XP but not on Spyware Platform 7 / 8 or 10
I use Linux Live when it's needed but I also need Windows for running whatever Windows Software "I CHOOSE", not what Microsoft chooses for me
The half hearted support for HDR and wide gamut is really disappointing, and a reason for people to use OSX. I just don't understand why the desktop and the most Microsoft application have not already been made ICC profile aware, when the company is selling some wide gamut displays which highlight this shortcoming.
Brett Are you aware of any laptop lcd panels that are adobeRGB and 10 bit. I've search for 15" and above but could not find any. I believe for a large gamut display to display sRGB without posterisation it should be either true 10 bit or pseudo 10 bit (8 bit with with frc). In any case, is there any consumer GPU with true 10 bit output.
"Windows has never had a color management system to speak of"
The current color management system dates back to Windows Vista and Microsoft imaging applications did a good job, with some exceptions including Internet Explorer/Edge. Win10 even does a reasonable job by default, with default monitor profiles loaded automatically.
It's hard to give Windows credit for color management when all of the burden is put on the developer to do all the work. That's the case right now with wide color and HDR too but doesn't appear to be the long term goal.
"Possibly some of the biggest news about Windows actually got announced on April 20, when Microsoft committed to biannual updates for their operating system."
I think one remaining issue with using Windows is the complexity of licensing in business use. Buying individual license for personal usage is simple enough, but licensing models for server versions are still a dark art.
If I were a manager making decision on whether we should use Windows or Linux as a OS under our application platform, I'd be worried that costs are very opaque and I have hard time understanding the licensing. Now, obviously one doesn't just do a decision like that and .net being open sourced and usable on linux these caveats have reduced somewhat, but the underlying issue is still there.
I suppose MS thinks that azure solves this by providing a simple monthly rolling cost that abstracts everything into a one monthly bill...
You are forgetting enterprise. The thing windows does very well is scale. For example, If you want to deploy an app to 5000 PCs you can click a few buttons and it is done.
If you want to block behaviour, you can do it using GPOs.
Someone said MS have to do better testing... They can not even fix such commonly used thing as Alt+Tab for a decade! You just opened some window, then switched to another, and another, then tried to return back to the first with Alt+Tab and ....you find previously opened windows in the list behind many many other windows' opened a century ago.
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Gothmoth - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
they should do proper testing of updates... one of the last updates messes with my audio system. :-(close - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
The thing with "proper testing" is that unlike Macs for example Windows runs on thousands and thousands of different hardware and software (drivers especially) combinations. Proper testing on all of them is possible only theoretically.So MS figured out what they think is a way to get proper, real data from real computers to aid with troubleshooting and debugging (to which they added another level of data to aid their bottom line :D). They called it telemetry and we all know how people reacted to it.
Thing is if you want *your* system to be more reliable you have to send some reliability data to MS. Don't expect any magic though. There's a chance you have a uniquely non-standard setup.
raiden1213 - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
How about the ability to NOT install certain updates. You know, like back in the windows 7 and 8 days?Forced updates are never a good idea for an operating system that runs on "Thousands and Thousands of different hardware"
close - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Sure, then you get thousands and thousands of different update configurations. How does it help with testing when you have for example 200 updates available for an OS and everybody has a different combination applied? How do you make sure that every future update works for your combination?sallgeud - Monday, May 22, 2017 - link
That's how you end up with WannaCrypt, fool.mominusa - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Well, five minutes on the internet would have let them find the "lose wifi on wake from sleep" bug that has driven me nuts. Another five minutes on the internet could have told them that the anniversary edition update brought it back and the workaround that solved it previously no longer works. I am sure they much have had thousands of feedback comments on it as well, and I personally sent several. They dont need "more data", they just need to resolve known issues.close - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
I hope you realize that's not how software development and debugging is done. Googling for a generic error that may or may not be a Windows issue or a driver issue. And I hope you realize that the people affected by this are a small fraction of the total number of Windows users. Everybody thinks their bug is critical because it shows up on the first page of Google but it's not.To prove a point, I searched for "Windows is great" and found plenty of happy people.
And reintroducing bugs is exceptionally common in software development. It's down to reusing old code. If you tell me what you do for a living I can find a problem that affects lots of people. And I'm pretty sure your work doesn't cover 80% of a market.
close - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Anyway, how many such serious/obvious problems did you have with updates in the past 2 years? No software is perfect and if 1 or 2 bugs is all that you've encountered when updating such a complex piece of software like Windows, with all its dependencies on other software and drivers I'd say it's not that bad, is it?It's no different than any other OS, even those that run in very standardized configurations.
emn13 - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
Same here - motherboard integrated realtek audio required a driver reinstall to work. The same driver that was already installed worked; so I'm guessing it was a config corruption issue.It's not the first time I've had issues with updates, but it's pretty rare all around, IMHO. I can remember maybe a handful of cases the past decade or so - not too bad, right?
Samus - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
I've come across a reproducible wifi bug in the Creators Update across different hardware: failure to "reconnect' when resuming from sleep, even though the connection shows you are connected to the wireless network, there is botched network connectivity; some works, some doesn't.Going back to sleep and resuming, or disconnecting and reconnecting, solves the problem in each case. Driver updates didn't fix the issue. All laptops with this issue had various Intel controllers, 7260's, 8260's, N's, AC's...could be an Intel issue, but it didn't happen before creators update.
Alexvrb - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
Only issue I ran into with CU was on an HP laptop I was working with... Synaptics fingerprint reader stopped working. Since HP is terrible about releasing even semi-current drivers, I grabbed a "Lenovo" driver for the Synaptics reader, and it works great. No issues with audio or wifi on any tested device thankfully. Even on my desktop which has a SB Zx, Creative's latest drivers are shockingly still working.Audio issues seem to mostly be resolved via driver updates... the wifi issue some people are seeing on Intel controllers I hope will be solved by a driver update or OS patch in the near future as well.
jardows2 - Monday, May 22, 2017 - link
Disable WMM Power save support in your AP. That'll fix your problem.Gothmoth - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
"Windows is not the dominant platform it once was"you mean on the desktop or overall?
i would like to know what OS should have threatened the windows dominance?
linux is still creeping around 2-4% on the desktop... OSX sure has not made a big jump.
so what has diminished the windows dominance on the desktop?
Gothmoth - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-ma...that is pretty much the same as every marketshare analysis says.
nathanddrews - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
That moment when Windows 8.1 has more share than Linux and MacOS combined...close - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
Don't worry, things will change now that MS is planning to distribute Linux images in their store. Finally, the year of Linux might be upon us and it will be MS's doing :D.StevoLincolnite - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
That's the spirit! Never loose faith that Linux might have some market relevancy one day.close - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Every next year is the year of Linux. You should know that by now :).mkozakewich - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
Linux is useless for people who aren't familiar with the command line. Because of that, I expect it'll never become much more popular than it is now.close - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
When you used to say "on desktop" it usually meant "on client devices" (basically desktop PCs and laptops). Today you're in the mobile age. Phones, tablets, even the device definition is blurred. Some phones and tablets are more or less fully fledged PCs right now). So it's hard not to consider the "overall" ecosystem now.Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
One way of thinking about it could be the amount of value created per platform (as GDP type value). While there's probably more mobile client devices around than desktops/laptops, I bet the large majority of value comes from the latter, and always will.mkozakewich - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
While I was impressed by the Stream 7 and other $100 Windows devices, I do wish we had some higher-priced options. I'd love a 7" tablet with OLED, Gorilla Glass, and 4 GB of RAM.BrokenCrayons - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I know Linux is still basically a rounding error worth of installed systems, but since Windows 8 was released, the number numbers have show very slow, but steady increases. The fact that it's consistently above 2% now is pretty cool, but for those of us using it, I wouldn't bother celebrating yet. It's got a long way to go before it becomes a significant factor.peevee - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
"The fact that it's consistently above 2% now is pretty cool"Probably the result of Chinese and Russian governments not wanting to use Windows or MacOS and switching to their domestically cooked distros of Linux.
Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Is that a thing? After all, the Russian government was hit by WannaCry.versesuvius - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
People grow up gaming on Windows and along the way pick up some other software which they learn and become dependent on and when they are engineers, doctors, lawyers or housewives or jobless or whatever keep on playing games and software. There is nothing that Linux does not do better than Windows except gaming. That is the whole idea of Windows and as long as Windows is a good platform for gaming the same story repeats itself ad infinitum. Unless of course Linux starts paying more attention to gaming and there is a Linux version of popular games on the market. Another thing that that plays a part in the popularity of Windows albeit not as much as the above is what the late Dennis Ritchie described as its "feeling of Snappiness". The apps do not load any faster on Windows than on Linux and Linux even loads them faster most of the time but the Windows feels snappy, so people feel that are doing something more or their time is not being wasted whereas in reality the time that Windows wastes for its users is almost equal or even more than the time that people spend time actually doing something on Windows.sadsteve - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
I now dual boot Windows 10 and Mint Linux. Linux definitely boots up faster for me. It's to the point where the only time I boot Windows is to play a game that's not available on Linux. l could even use Linux for work, if my company would let me, since all the tools I use are available for both OSes.anactoraaron - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
So with this next major update will they finally stop this insane automatic download and install of garbage apps? Just had to refresh a pc that would no longer join my domain and watched in horror as windows automatically downloaded and installed 10+ apps. Eclipse manager, pandora, adobe express, on and on the apps kept coming. Why oh why do they do this?neogodless - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
What brand computer? Was this configured by the manufacturer to do this? I've never seen this on a clean install of Windows 10. (Just one... to four... data point(s), though!)Macpoedel - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
I have seen this on a clean Windows install, last weekend I installed Windows 10 Pro v1703 (Creator's update) on a NUC, latest iso at that time, and it tried to install all kinds of apps from the Play Store. I don't think Intel could configure this if I brought my own iso, download from Microsoft's website. Maybe hardware manufacturers also have the capability to mark apps as "updates" even when you're using your own install media (kind of like drivers?), but I think this was Microsoft's doing.At first I thought this was some leftover from using the same account on a branded laptop earlier, those apps got tied to my account library and Windows 10 tries to install all of the apps in the library when you set things up. But on the other hand, I haven't setup a branded machine running the factory image since Windows 7... And also, the UWP apps that I actively have installed on other machines, didn't get installed automatically.
So unless my girlfriend is installing those apps behind my back, Microsoft is pushing those apps on us.
close - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I'd guess you're not using Enterprise. The "test this app" experience might be MS's way of steering businesses towards Enterprise rather than Pro.Sivar - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I suspect the downloads are done by some third-party software.SaolDan - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I second thisclose - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
It's actually something MS included as "a feature". The content delivery manager with the pre-installed apps option. You can disable this in registry or local policy.As far as I know it comes in the Pro versions although some older MSDN Windows Enterprise ISOs came with it enables. I guess MS received enough feedback from enterprises to cut the crap so now they just try it on regular customers.
blakflag - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I would love it if all my apps could be fetched through the store. The problem is most of them are NOT UWP, and created by small developers (utilities and such). Hopefully MS has made it really easy to get apps into the store, because otherwise most of my apps will never be there.Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
I probable have 4-5 programmes beyond Chrome and Office, all but one open source, and none came through the app store. The App Store itself is mainly full of junk.blakflag - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
Yeah I know it is. I just wish it weren't. :) I actually find Chocolatey to be pretty useful for open source stuff, although I worry a lot about someone uploading a trojan package since it's much newer and less popular than Ubuntu repository for instance.blakflag - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
The Linux subsystem is truly amazing stuff, and I already find it useful. Unfortunately there is no GPU-acceleration which is a buzzkill for me. Trying to learn machine learning techniques on Windows is really painful since the library support is not so great.Eden-K121D - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I really hope they follow through Fluent design language,Wide Color gamut, and HDR support.I really don't want my 2017 computer run a UI which looks horrible
BrokenCrayons - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I see no point in messing with Linux inside of Windows when I can simply use Linux atop bare metal and get the distro I want the way I prefer to use it. As well, I don't have to deal with always-on, Google-levels-of-creepy Cortana lurking and listening or non-removable OneDrive. The visual activity history is nice, but I'd hope it can be totally disabled. Knowing how MS works these days, probably not and it's likely part of their data mining efforts as they play catchup with Alphabet and others.nathanddrews - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
"Creators Update actually shipped the first steps towards a high color aware OS, although it is limited to certain hardware configurations at the moment. That shouldn’t be a huge issue though, since there aren’t a lot of HDR monitors on the market yet."Monitor manufacturers have really, really dropped the ball. Most new 4K TVs come with 10-bit 4:4:4 4K HDR support or at least 10-14-bit 4:2:0 HDR support. DisplayPort 1.3/1.44 has been a total failure compared to HDMI 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 is going to leapfrog DP once again with features and product support.
etamin - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
so still no adobeRGB support ffsqlum - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I would like it to be viable to get uwp apps from other stores than the windows store. Sure a lot of programs are not suitable for uwp but if they are I would like to use them. I just don't want to deal with a single gatekeeper that can deny apps from landing in the store they don't like. Emulators are a good example of that.ahamling27 - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
Windows App Store does need a ton of work. It's the part of Windows 10 I try to stay away from the most.dumbnub - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I used the Windows app store once. I logged in with my email account, that has a 100 charatcher long password (it's so long because I use lastpass, so I thought why not?). By doing so windows now demanded I enter my 100 charatcher password in at login, whereas before I didn't use a password and of course I couldn't use lastpass at the login screen on my windows machine so I had to use my phone. It sure did make me feel like an idiot but there are lots of use out there imo. So, since I like the idea of a long password, I just don't use the app store. There maybe a very simple solution, like just making a separate email for logging in or an option in windows. But I never gave one crap about the windows app store, I was just new to windows 10 and thought it would be cool to download a free car racing game. /end of boring story.ahamling27 - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
That really sucks and it really shouldn't have to work like that. I did remove my login password and used a local account, you may look into that, as it's not tied to your MS account.Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Yeah, when you login to the App Store you're using you're 'Microsoft account', which then becomes your Windows user account. It's vaguely useful if you have multiple machines and Office 365, but not for a lot else. It's also the same as/can be used as a hotmail account, I think.Macpoedel - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
There are alternatives that replace the password section once you set up your account with password, although they are less secure. In Windows 10 you can set up a pincode, an image "password" on which you have to draw a chosen pattern or you can set up a biometric verification with Windows Hello (facial recognition or fingerprint matching).To be clear, your password remains the same as before, it's just for the login procedure and for entering administrative rights that the above methods replace your password.
This has been around since Windows 8.
Ionestly, I set my desktop up to not require a password, it's not going anywhere. And I also have a Windows 10 HTPC, having to enter a password there would be incredibly annoying. But my laptop needs to be protected of course.
Kevin G - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
What I want are Microsoft products that actually work to the point where I spend more time being productive than fighting the tools themselves. Case in point, Outlook not only crashes randomly, but I'll go into various states of uselessness. Try quick reply from the preview pane? Ha, I'll be typing but my text will not appear. Pop out the reply from the preview pane and the text I was typing magically appears! Want to view a calendar? Ha, it'll randomly display a blank white screen. Outlook will also screw up the scroll bars in calendar view so that they bars themselves will move but the actual content will not. This is even worse when view more than one calendar. It feels like I'm running head first repeatedly into a brick wall using Outlook. It is actually more productive for me to use my phone for quick emails and view calendar items than Outlook now.Excel is just slow. I swear for basic calculations an older 1 Ghz box from ~17 years ago running Office 98 felt faster than Excel does now on a modern quad core 3.0 Ghz system. Oh, and the new function Excel is introducing don't necessarily adhere conventional syntax used previously in Excel.
Word has this chronic disease that it can't handle white space in an intelligent fashion. Delete a block of text? Guess what, that block of text's formatting will live on in the white space around it make any attempt to type a new block of text in its place a formatting nightmare. There is a reason why I've adapted to doing quick typing in NotePad and then pasting it in when it comes time to formatting. Outlook to a lesser extent has this same problem. Spreading like herpes.
PowerPoint has regressed by wanting to alter my monitor arrangement every time I attempt a slide show. It says it remembers my settings so that I don't have to rearrange everything after a presentation (or before or during) but I've seen more honest used car salesmen.
Dynamics integration in Outlook is painful to use due to its backwards interface. The web version isn't any better.
Windows 10 also like to reboot at the most inopportune time for me: generally when I'm doing work. Also it likes to lie to me sometime when I would like to reboot later if I put my laptop to sleep. So if I want to delay the reboot by four hours and I put my laptop to sleep overnight for ~8 hours, it'll ask me again when I wake it up but then realize that I woke it up after the initial 4 hour mark and reboot anyway. Nothing like waking up to a reboot punching you in the face in the morning.
dumbnub - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
I bought a second-hand Lenovo that came with windows 8 pre-installed and got the free upgrade to 10. I decided, stupidly, to roll it back to 8. While rolling back there was an error and I was left with no functioning OS. A family member of mine is an accountant who did use excel exclusively but it would randomly freeze when more than one excel tab was open. They use Zoho now and a chromebook even though Zoho, being completely online, isn't ideal due to slows downs every now and again.mkozakewich - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
Office is a completely different product and they've coded all the controls from scratch. It's really terrible and barely functions.Bullwinkle J Moose - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
"How about the ability to NOT install certain updates."------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is not allowed as that would give the END USER control over their own security and future
I am posting this comment with WINDOWS XP-SP2 without ANY Microsoft security updates!
I am not worried about Wannacry or any other malware destroying this box or the software it contains because I understand the security issues and have secured this system from malware and Spyware created by Microsoft as well as the NSA and other criminals
In addition, Microsoft appears to be using malware in Spyware Platform 10 that was originally created by myself and others not related to Microsoft
Hiding my proprietary technology in Microsoft DRM is not allowed under my license or contract agreements and makes Microsoft Licenses NULL AND VOID!
Therefore, I will continue to use END USER supplied security instead of being locked into a backdoored system that cannot be secured by design
I haven't had a bluescreen of death on XP in over 10 years now and can easily mitigate the security problems created by Microsoft and the Tech Laws that were created to control everything by a few scumbags at our expense
This is a Control Issue!
Deal with it
versesuvius - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
Microsoft Windows 10 is probably the only piece of software "built" by one of the richest companies in the world that has about 1,000,000,000 testers around the world, testing it in all sorts of scenarios and under all kinds of imaginable conditions. It is a wonder why it is still such a lousy piece of software.Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Is it though? Really? I have no problem with Windows 10, nor does anyone I know.Macpoedel - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Can't tell if you're being sarcastic here... English isn't my native language, so I could be missing the point of your post.If end user control of security is such a big concern for you, why stick with Windows XP and not just run a Linux distro which seems to be exactly what you want. Sticking to an old OS because you want to stay in control doesn't make sense when there are plenty of modern alternatives where you're still in control, they're just not Windows.
Or is that what you're referring to in a convoluted way?
nonameo - Friday, May 19, 2017 - link
LOL. I see this book all over the place in thrift stores. One of the most common books.mominusa - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Well, one thing you can count on is that they will break something with each update and never bother to correct what the update broke. Another thing you can count on is that you will lose more privacy and control over the OS. For instance, I had the "lose wifi on wake from sleep" bug initially, but had gotten rid of it with the known workaround to disable the wifi power saving option in device manager. Of course, MS could have fixed that with any one of their many updates, but never did. Well, since the anniversary edition update, it is back, and the workaround no longer solves it. Thanks microsoft. Worse yet, it is apparently a known issue that MS is aware of, but they wont bother to fix it this time either. At least I managed to disable the extremely annoying Cortana before the last update made that much more difficult. Words cannot describe how much I hate Win 10. I only leave it on my computer because I game occasionally and also share it with my wife, who would not be comfortable with linux. For my personal laptop that no one else uses, I have changed over to linux for almost everything.RichardHeartonYouTube - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
MS is going to appstore your ass. They are going to walled garden you until they're making the same money on you that apple is. Fuck freedom. Fuck running what software you like. MS will embrace, extend, extinguish your asses. You will bow to microsofts will, for they deserve $50 on every new laptop purchased forever, because, well, they're just that fucking worthy. Seriously, have you seen how much better Word and Excel have gotten over the last 15 years? Bow the fuck down!Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Do you still live in 1997?mkozakewich - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
He said 15 years! So 2002.name99 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
"Fluent Design is not going to be just a Fall Creators Update feature either. This is just the first wave of an overhaul which will be ongoing for some time."So that's code for "Don't expect Fall Creators (or any subsequent) release to have a fully consistent UI before we change it yet again"?
Meteor2 - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Lol :-)Gigaplex - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
Pretty much. I don't think I've ever used a version of Windows that had a fully consistent UI, and it only gets worse with each new release.mkozakewich - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
You can still find parts here and there with Windows 3.1 dialog boxes.Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Macpoedel"Can't tell if you're being sarcastic here...
If end user control of security is such a big concern for you, why stick with Windows XP and not just run a Linux distro which seems to be exactly what you want. Sticking to an old OS because you want to stay in control doesn't make sense when there are plenty of modern alternatives where you're still in control, they're just not Windows."
----------------------------------------------------------------
Because End User Control of security is a Big Concern for me and I CAN control the security on XP but not on Spyware Platform 7 / 8 or 10
I use Linux Live when it's needed but I also need Windows for running whatever Windows Software "I CHOOSE", not what Microsoft chooses for me
Bullwinkle J Moose - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Meteor2"Do you still live in 1997?"
----------------------------------
Do you still live in 1984?
Eiffel - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
The half hearted support for HDR and wide gamut is really disappointing, and a reason for people to use OSX. I just don't understand why the desktop and the most Microsoft application have not already been made ICC profile aware, when the company is selling some wide gamut displays which highlight this shortcoming.III-V - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
"What To Expect When You're Expecting Windows"LOL
drajitshnew - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
BrettAre you aware of any laptop lcd panels that are adobeRGB and 10 bit.
I've search for 15" and above but could not find any. I believe for a large gamut display to display sRGB without posterisation it should be either true 10 bit or pseudo 10 bit (8 bit with with frc).
In any case, is there any consumer GPU with true 10 bit output.
Brett Howse - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
Not aware of any and AMD and Nvidia force you to use workstation class GPUs to enable 10-bitKevin G - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
Not sure that is true anymore (it certainly was in the past). This have changed with 10 bit and HDR becoming consumer technologies now.CSMR - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
"Windows has never had a color management system to speak of"The current color management system dates back to Windows Vista and Microsoft imaging applications did a good job, with some exceptions including Internet Explorer/Edge. Win10 even does a reasonable job by default, with default monitor profiles loaded automatically.
Brett Howse - Saturday, May 20, 2017 - link
It's hard to give Windows credit for color management when all of the burden is put on the developer to do all the work. That's the case right now with wide color and HDR too but doesn't appear to be the long term goal.ironwing - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
"Possibly some of the biggest news about Windows actually got announced on April 20, when Microsoft committed to biannual updates for their operating system."Should be "semiannual".
Brett Howse - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
Definition of semi-annual: occurring every six months or twice a year
Definition of biannual
: occurring twice a year
ironwing - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
Oops, I was reading biennial. My bad, carry on.sorten - Sunday, May 21, 2017 - link
When I saw the Google IO live coverage I was wondering if you were going to mention Build from the previous week.zepi - Monday, May 22, 2017 - link
I think one remaining issue with using Windows is the complexity of licensing in business use. Buying individual license for personal usage is simple enough, but licensing models for server versions are still a dark art.If I were a manager making decision on whether we should use Windows or Linux as a OS under our application platform, I'd be worried that costs are very opaque and I have hard time understanding the licensing. Now, obviously one doesn't just do a decision like that and .net being open sourced and usable on linux these caveats have reduced somewhat, but the underlying issue is still there.
I suppose MS thinks that azure solves this by providing a simple monthly rolling cost that abstracts everything into a one monthly bill...
doggface - Monday, May 22, 2017 - link
You are forgetting enterprise.The thing windows does very well is scale. For example, If you want to deploy an app to 5000 PCs you can click a few buttons and it is done.
If you want to block behaviour, you can do it using GPOs.
No other platform has that control.
doggface - Monday, May 22, 2017 - link
I think we can all agree you have control issues.SanX - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
Someone said MS have to do better testing... They can not even fix such commonly used thing as Alt+Tab for a decade! You just opened some window, then switched to another, and another, then tried to return back to the first with Alt+Tab and ....you find previously opened windows in the list behind many many other windows' opened a century ago.takeship - Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - link
So does anyone know if Steam / Origin / UPlay / Battle.net will be supported on Windows 10 S?ahtoh - Saturday, May 27, 2017 - link
nothing about dpi awareness?TUSHARSHARMA - Saturday, June 17, 2017 - link
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