back to article Windows 10 Creators Update preview: Lovin' for Edge and pen users, nowt much else

Microsoft has released a new preview of Windows 10's Fall Creators Update, showing off elements of its new Fluent Design System and introducing a host of features. At the Build developer event last month, the company announced the Fluent Design System as a move away from the flat design language which characterised the "Metro …

  1. frank ly

    Fall Creators Update

    Also known as the Lucifer Release.

    1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

      Re: Fall Creators Update

      Also known as the Lucifer Release.

      With the new theme, Darkness made visible.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fall Creators Update

      Just give us a fucking Windows 7 user interface you morons, instead of this broken abortion we have to suffer.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: Fall Creators Update

        I'm quite happy with the 'broken abortion' (how quaint), especially as I never used 7.

        I hear moans and whines but never any detail, not that it would bother me.

        It doesn't matter in M$ came out with a flawless, faultless O/S there would be a huge queue of people ready to diss it as it doesn't exactly fit like an old pair of slippers . Yeah ,like you buy a new car that is exactly the same as the old one?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          Here's some details:

          Flat (no 3D) UI style

          No transparency or other relational cues

          Horrible default color options

          Excessive amounts of empty space

          Touch sized objects in a desktop environment

          Poor organization in the start panel

          Missing features that were there for years

          Advertising in the OS

          Mixed UI styles depending on the framework used to build the program

          Two different control panels, with options spread across both of them

          There's also the perennial favorites of the ribbon and telemetry.

          I'll give you that there will always be someone who hates it, no matter how perfect, but this is far from perfect. It's still fundamentally a phone and tablet UI and it doesn't look or feel good on the desktops and laptops where it's actually being used.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Fall Creators Update

            1. Advertising in the OS

            2. Advertising in the OS

            3. Fucking advertising in the fucking OS

        2. the Jim bloke

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          I buy a new car expecting the control interface to be the same as what I have been trained on, and that the car will respond to MY control, not the manufacturer...

          Perhaps I am just not going to be buying a new car for the immediate future.

          1. CheesyTheClown

            Re: Fall Creators Update

            The quote "only the strong will survive" is actually a misquote regarding natural selection. Natural selection will select out those of a species least capable of adapting to the changes in their environment. One might suggest that as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              "One might suggest that as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo."

              The evolutionary error in your post is that Windows 10 is also part of the ecosystem, so the other possibility is that it will become extinct due to a lack of competitiveness.

              It's like this: take the edge of a wood surrounded by parkland. Pretty, isn't it? It is actually a battleground between trees and grass. Trees crap dead leaves or resin on the grass and deny it sunlight; grass removes surface water and slows tree growth.

              But there are other factors like climate. This affects the relative competitiveness of trees and grass. Hence savanna, pampas, and various types of rainforest.

              Sometimes adaptation isn't needed, you just wait for the climate to change. And the climate is made neither by ordinary users nor by Microsoft; they influence it but they don't make it.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              Killing and eating people just because they don't like a UI? And people think the flaming can get a bit harsh...

              1. bazza Silver badge

                Re: Fall Creators Update

                Killing and eating people just because they don't like a UI? And people think the flaming can get a bit harsh...

                Flame grilled commentard. Chewy, needs mustard, satisfaction stems mostly from having it served on one's own plate.

                1. Korev Silver badge
                  Coat

                  Re: Fall Creators Update

                  Flame grilled commentard. Chewy, needs mustard, satisfaction stems mostly from having it served on one's own plate.

                  Still a bit bitter though...

            3. nijam Silver badge

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              > ... as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo.

              ... as the world evolves, versions of Windows that users aren't comfortable with might be headed down the same road as the dodo.

            4. AJ MacLeod

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              People (paid by MS or just stupid? Maybe both) were saying exactly the same thing a few years ago about the fantastic new Windows 8.

              I hope they're not missing their world-changing brilliant new UI too much, now that's a minor footnote in the history of IT blunders... I expect they're too busy getting excited about the new design language in the "Fall Creators Update" to remember though.

            5. Number6

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              One might suggest that as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo.

              That only works if Windows 10 is the only way to survive. It may be that if enough people switch to alternatives, it'll be the ones who stuck with the evolutionary dead-end of Windows 10 that will go join the dodo. All it would take is for some of the major software houses to produce full-featured Linux versions of their packages and a lot of small business would seriously consider a switch. Windows still seems to be better for managing and controlling large numbers of devices centrally though, so one might expect large organisations to persist.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Fall Creators Update

                "All it would take is for some of the major software houses to produce full-featured Linux versions of their packages and a lot of small business would seriously consider a switch."

                What do you even need that still requires a local install? SAP, Oracle, Salesforce... all the business software is browser based and generally SaaS. There are a few outliers like Photoshop and IDEs, but they are working on it.

                Also, why go through the trouble of managing local fat OSs in the first place?

                I think the way that people go is to Google Chromebooks. That gives them enterprise support from a massive company (if they want it), a free OS, an OS which is easy to manage individually and as a fleet. I wouldn't be opposed to a Linux OS... but I think companies would more likely move to the next thing. The next thing is a laptop OS that works like a mobile OS.

                1. Number6

                  Re: Fall Creators Update

                  What do you even need that still requires a local install? SAP, Oracle, Salesforce... all the business software is browser based and generally SaaS. There are a few outliers like Photoshop and IDEs, but they are working on it.

                  The performance of some of this stuff is dire, especially if someone has failed to put in enough bandwidth and someone in the office decides to download some large files (or puts a bunch of stuff on to Google Drive or Dropbox and everyone else's machine decides to synchronise content). A lot of technical stuff is still local, electrical tools such as OrCAD/Altium/Allegro, plus the mechanical stuff (Solidworks/Pro-E) because it's highly graphical and a browser is not going to cut it.

                  I've worked in a place which used SalesForce and it was hilarious watching the panic when it went down for a day a while back. I've worked in places which use on-line stuff that is painfully slow. I much prefer to run stuff locally, where outages and security breaches are entirely of local making.

                  That's right, I have never really embraced the cloud. My software is owned by me, in that I can keep using it (without upgrades, admittedly) without having to pay anyone else any more money, unlike all this SaaS stuff.

            6. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Fall Creators Update

              "One might suggest that as the world evolves, people who can't figure out how to become comfortable with a new version of Windows after 10 years might be headed down the same road as the dodo."

              Yeah, that... or companies still riding high on the 1990s model of fat, proprietary, paid OSs are headed down the same road as the dodo.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          It doesn't matter in M$ came out with a flawless, faultless O/S there would be a huge queue of people ready to diss it as it doesn't exactly fit like an old pair of slippers

          That is not true. Not because there would not be people seeking to diss it, but because M$ has not managed to EVER make a flawless, faultless bit of software in its +40 years of existence. I suspect initially this was stumbled upon as an excellent tactic to keep flogging upgrades, but it soon became a cost saving habit as the cost of quality eats into profits and people bought it anyway.

          The likelihood of M$ ever making something that is even halfway decent is thus remote. M$ knows that its buyers are as gullible as out of work miners voting for Trump.

          1. Updraft102

            Re: Fall Creators Update

            "M$ knows that its buyers are as gullible as out of work miners voting for Trump."

            http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/11/another-promise-kept-first-coal-mine-opens-under-trump-administration/

            That's... not very gullible. Are you trying to say MS buyers are perceptive?

        4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          "Yeah ,like you buy a new car that is exactly the same as the old one?"

          As far as the controls go, yes. Don't you? My car has a steering wheel. What does yours have? Handle bars? Tiller? Pedal bar?

          1. Timmy B

            Re: Fall Creators Update

            "As far as the controls go, yes. Don't you? My car has a steering wheel. What does yours have? Handle bars? Tiller? Pedal bar?"

            And thus it is with Windows as a UI. You still have WIMP.

        5. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          Just get rid of the Microsoft billboard of flipping flashing tiles that are advertising Xbox, candy crush, Microsoft products and services I don't want, distracting flip animations, crap that doesn't uninstall, or worse still, silently reinstalls after you uninstall it.

          Windows 10 and metro is basically an advertisement platform.

        6. Number6

          Re: Fall Creators Update

          Yeah ,like you buy a new car that is exactly the same as the old one?

          I did once, upgraded because at the time the monthly payments required were cheaper than not doing so, assuming I wanted to keep owning a car. Old and new cars parked next to each other at handover, the sales chap said that at this point he was supposed to go over the controls on the new vehicle to make sure I knew where they all were. I just asked if they were all the same as the old one, he said yes and we agreed that he'd done the job.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fall Creators Update

        "Just give us a fucking Windows 7 user interface you morons"

        Yeah, that is what people want... probably won't get it though. Why? Desktop OS is a commodity. For the vast majority of people, it is a useless piece of software which you need to boot to run a browser (generally Chrome browser). Microsoft doesn't like that... that Windows has become that thing that makes it take longer for Chrome to boot. They are going to keep throwing stuff at people in hopes of stumbling across something which makes them realize they really need an old school fat OS... and that they want to pay for it.

  2. Avatar of They
    FAIL

    Just to be clear

    The update has a selling point that means you can pin websites to the start bar? And smoother scrolling between different monitor sizes to name a few of the ones listed.

    I can do that in Windows 7, I could do that in XP I think. Fairly sure I had smooth scrolling between laptop monitor and main desktop monitor. Seamless in fact.

    They do seem to be racing to reach first gear in a lot of ways.

    Still Linux support is nice.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Just to be clear

      You cannot believe how hard I facepalmed when the Win10 machine I was setting up for a friend refused to let me pin Chrome (used for addblock, I'd not want phishing attacks on them) bookmarks to the start menu.

      No problem, I can use the desktop. But the entire idea of the new start menu was for fancy options and live content and... oh, works fine only for Edge content. Yeah, I see their priorities there. But I'm not foisting it on others (gui change from windowed content the main thing "where is the X?" and "Oh, you have to grab it and throw/drag the window from the top... yeah it's a bit buggy at times").

      1. keith_w

        Re: Just to be clear

        Really? I had no problem pinning the other 2 browsers or any other program I use to the start menu. I would try with chrome, but I don't want it on any machine which I use, for various reasons including the fact that I consider it to be bigger spyware than Windows 10.

        1. AJ MacLeod

          Re: Just to be clear

          It wasn't Chrome that anyone had a problem pinning, it was bookmarks to particular sites.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Just to be clear

          Chrome spies on what you search. Possibly what sites you visit. I can turn it off or run a fork (Iron etc).

          10 spies on everything. I cannot turn it off, I can only choose a Linus option.

          I can live with one, the other I cannot (well, I can live with Linux, but others may not have that choice).

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows-as-a-service...

    ... or Windows-whack-a-mole?

    If they keep on moving stuff around slowly with every update, you'll always have to haunt where setting X is is the new Indian Summer Leap Year Luser Edition...

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Windows-as-a-service...

      Not enough upvotes for you.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Windows-as-a-service...

      Wait till SatNad monetizes Windows-as-a-service, and you need to buy a subscription to unlock 'freemium' features on Windows, to receive patches, drivers etc.

      It's like people have already forgotten what SatNad had done to the Solitaire game in Windows 10.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3180657/Microsoft-fire-Windows-10-users-playing-Solitaire-costs-10-year-unless-want-sit-video-ads.html

      That was a sneak preview of what is to come.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Windows-as-a-service...

        >That was a sneak preview of what is to come.

        Err that just confirmed that MS were still following Apple iOS.

        Years back 'free' app's on iOS generally had relatively discrete ad's in a static bar across the bottom of the screen.

        Then we got the full screen ad's which pop'd up between runs of games, but were easily dismissed. In the last year (since circa the launch of Mobile Strike?) the pop up ads now run for a minimum (not user controlled) time before they can be dismissed; which seems to be getting longer, plus they will change the location of the 'X' close button, between ad plays so that you have to look to find it.

        So for a sneak preview of what is over the horizon for Windows, just look at other more advanced platforms - remember one of the patented features of iOS is it's ad hooks.

        1. Not also known as SC

          Re: Windows-as-a-service...

          The difference though is that IOS is a mobile operating system. Windows 10 shouldn't be trying to be a mobile OS when installed on a PC. We're also talking about the OS pushing advertisements, not an app. I have a choice of installing free apps on my phone but if I buy a new PC then I have less to no choice about the OS. Remember Windows 10 is no longer free but costs real money.

          1. Roland6 Silver badge

            Re: Windows-as-a-service...

            >The difference though is that IOS is a mobile operating system.

            And Windows 10 isn't trying to be a mobile operating system with its tablet and phone platform variants?

            >We're also talking about the OS pushing advertisements, not an app.

            The AC explicitly exampled Solitaire, which is just an app bundled with the OS.

            But the differences are irrelevant, it is the direction of travel that is being discussed.

            iOS is an operating system and Apple has patents for the OS level integration of ad's. Yes presently the Apple hooks are only used by "non-OS" app's but there is nothing - other than market image and some degree of respect for their customers - that is preventing Apple shipping an ad pusher as part of the OS release. As has been noted MS follows Apple, albeit with a lot less finesse...

            >Remember Windows 10 is no longer free but costs real money.

            It never was 'free' - the 'free' giveaway was to selected existing Windows licence holders only.

      2. Timmy B

        Re: Windows-as-a-service...

        "Wait till SatNad monetizes Windows-as-a-service, ...."

        Automatically should be downvoted by everyone as you justify it with a Daily Fail article....

      3. ADRM

        Re: Windows-as-a-service...

        http://winaero.com/blog/windows-7-games-for-windows-10-anniversary-update-and-above/

        You can get the wonderful vibrant coloured Windows 7 free games to add to Windows 10. I have a test install on one PC and 10 is rock solid so far. I had to use Classic Shell for the classic start menu and a lot of registry hacks from tenforums.com tutorials to get it under control. A shoutout to tweakhound.com for the tutorial and tweaks which helped a lot. Uninstalled most of the apps, deleted crap from start menu I am never going to use and also used WinAero tweaker to turn off telemetry etc. Windows 7 which I love is on all of my PC's and just works although I tweak it to my liking. Tweaking 10 to my liking has taken copious amounts of reading and effort for a UI that looks worse than 7. Is 10 more secure than 7? Doubt it has the same core engine win32 and 10 has the new metro stuff too. Now M$ does not have a mobile phone how about a real desktop OS? Or is this what the Window 10 Workstation is at $300 + a copy. Probably a Windows 7 Ultimate OS with the 7 x out and 10 written in its place. Really should not have to spend about 5 days installing my programs and setting stuff up and fighting the OS to get Windows the way I would like it rather than M$ defaults.

        1. Danny 14

          Re: Windows-as-a-service...

          Every windows 10 update has been a complete fuck about with gpos. Each ipdate breaks something that worked in previous builds. Be it lock screens, start menu XML, default program assignments, per user apps. The list goes on.

          10 is a horrid experience every 6 months.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

    Otherwise known as Aero.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

      The Theme Formerly Known As Aero.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

        The Theme Formerly Known As Aero.and of no real interest. TFTFY

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

          If it makes that unusable flat 2D design more like the UI in Windows 7 then it is of interest.

          1. bombastic bob Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

            "If it makes that unusable flat 2D design more like the UI in Windows 7"

            that would be nice, of course, but the millennial CHILDREN running the show in the Halls of Redmond aren't about to let THAT happen... they *MUST* *CRAM* the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY up our collective orifices! For our own good!

            "The rest of us" indeed. Like in the article's title. Totally abandoned, as usual.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

          The Theme Formerly Known As Aero.and of no real interest. TFTFY

          No, that'd be TTFKAA (or TTTFKAAAONRI). Can't you spell, boy?

    2. Wensleydale Cheese
      Unhappy

      Re: a translucent background with blur, tinted overlay

      What is it with this blur thing anyway?

      I am short sighted but only need specs for distance.

      When text is deliberatelty blurred, my eyes try to compensate and it sodding well hurts.

      It isn't cool at all.

  5. JamesGKent

    Aero?

    Does anyone else see the remarkable similarity between this new "Acrylic material" and Aero?

    Seems like reinventing the wheel and claiming it's a brand new thing...

    1. 's water music
      Joke

      Re: Aero?

      Does anyone else see the remarkable similarity between this new "Acrylic material" and Aero?

      Seems like reinventing the wheel and claiming it's a brand new thing...

      I'm pretty sure the skeuomorphic inspiration for Aero was glass. This new approach is inspired by Acrylic. It isn't like they just re-patented 'Aero, with rounded corners'

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Aero?

        "Seems like reinventing the wheel and claiming it's a brand new thing..."

        Welcome to modern IT, haven't you seen the cloud, this wonderful new technology we've just invented and been using for the past 30 years+?

      2. Down not across
        Joke

        Re: Aero?

        I'm pretty sure the skeuomorphic inspiration for Aero was glass. This new approach is inspired by Acrylic.

        So it is more resistant to shattering when you punch it in anger and frustration?

    2. Alumoi Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Aero?

      Seems like reinventing the wheel and claiming it's a brand new thing...

      Wait a darn minute, I thought we were bashing Microsoft here, not Apple.

  6. ColonelClaw

    "I am not sure who would prefer the new version unless using touch control."

    Pretty much sums up how I feel about the entirety of Settings vs Control Panel. And it's been like this for what feels like the last 5 or six iterations.

    Please, Microsoft, make one set of system controls and make them not be shit.

    1. CheesyTheClown

      Hadn't thought much on it.

      I just press the Windows key and type. It's clear that the search engine comes from the makers of Bing... but unlike Bing, it often actually comes close. So, I don't think I've actually seen the settings interface. I just search for what I need and generally try to use Powershell for most everything.

      I will admit that display resolution should not be categorized as advanced settings.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hadn't thought much on it.

        It really is advanced settings. The standard setting would be "automatically max it out". I'd bet that the vast majority of users only need to change it when something goes wrong.

  7. a_yank_lurker

    One Feature I Want

    The only feature I want is to turn off Slurp's 'Spyware as a Service'. The others are meh and probably should be handled as optional programs or extensions.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: One Feature I Want

      Same here. I suspect when this lands for universal distribution it'll be the usual botched bloatware that deliberately resets all my settings back to Slurp's preferences, as well as installing a shitload of code and features that I didn't ask for, and won't use.

      Still, the good people at O&O will hopefully issue a prompt update for ShutUp10, and a quick download and run will fix as many privacy holes as possible.

    2. nijam Silver badge

      Re: One Feature I Want

      > ... Slurp's 'Spyware as a Service'

      You're looking at it from the wrong direction, it's really "users as a Service (to advertisers)".

  8. druck Silver badge
    FAIL

    Wrong Direction

    I thought for a moment he picture of the file type associations was moving from horrid metro look back to a usable control panel window, but oh horror the caption says the new way is on the left.

    1. Christian Berger

      Re: Wrong Direction

      I think that screenshot also shows many of the problems with metro nicely.

      The right one isn't particularly good, but at least you have a decent amount of information on your screen, as well as some aide to help you distinguish between mime types and protocols.

      Whereas the new look wastes lots of space and gives you no clue on what's going on. Does that column with the different "Internet Explorer" Logos have anything to do with what's on the left? How can I disable individual types?

  9. elDog

    I was given a blocking dialog box to ask if I wanted to look at Cretin's edition

    I have a fairly recent hi-res Windows 10 convertible (Lenovo Yoga 900). When I returned to my desk I was asked to preview the cretin's security features. It had stolen my desktop - no other interactions (3 finger salute) would work.

    There was a link in this notification that said "Learn more". Nothing else. I didn't want to "Learn more" since I was at work and had real stuff to do. Still, no other options.

    I gathered several co-workers around to marvel at how crappy this PC-DOS company had become. Took lots of suggestions on what key-strokes to try, what mouse clicks to click and where on the screen. Nothing worked.

    Finally, I realized I had applied the Display font-size option since normal fonts are tiny on a 3200x1800 13" display and I run at %175 of normal. The desktop robber was unable to deal with non-standard sizes. The TAB key took me to a hidden "Remind me later" button.

    I think this line of ThinkPads can now run Linux satisfactorily. FU, cretins!

    1. joed

      Re: I was given a blocking dialog box to ask if I wanted to look at Cretin's edition

      GUI scaling is f...ked up beyond unreal in Windows 10 (against hopes of believers). Helpful hand of MS likes to fiddle with this on users' behalf (and as usual without being asked to). End result is that while high DPI screen remains usable (but far from sharp), the stuff on lower res screen (of the multi display setup) can only be described as murky. And I not talking about some legacy apps (though rendering of MS' management consoles is downright despicable). It's the interface of Outlook 2016 that really puzzles me - gritty, dirty, blotchy space with smallish and blurry text. Or falling apart GUI in Lync, Skype (or whatever they'll call it tomorrow).The harder they try the worse it looks (downhill since Windows XP). WTF MS.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    These look like Windows Updates not "Creator Updates".

    Of course "Windows Updates" are really bug fixes/patches...

    I guess they're lumping everything together, what would accurately be call "everything customers aren't will to pay extra for" updates.

  11. JLV
    Trollface

    >myriad language settings in Windows 10 have found a UK setting somewhere

    and this is one of the things that I have less and less patience with on Windows: hunting down/figuring settings and configurations.

    Control Panel? Group Policy? right click on Computer? Charms? System Properties? Direct Registry tweak? Sacrifice chicken?

    Windows used to be easy for beginners. Now it's really only easy for people who either configure all the time or those who never bother to do it.

    Google up a Windows 8 Wifi setting howto and you may very well find that 8.1 does it differently, let alone 10.

    Getting to the point where Powershell is probably easier.

    Getting a consistent, unified, stable and predictable way to configure Windows would remove huge annoyances. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be consistent, unified....

    Of course, this being MS, it brings to mind https://xkcd.com/927/ and it would also be nice if they ended on the right side of https://xkcd.com/1778/ instead of on the left.

    1. joed

      Re: >myriad language settings in Windows 10 have found a UK setting somewhere

      They want you to just give up and accept default. Cortana will console you;)

  12. ecofeco Silver badge

    Windows as a service

    A few of us here said this was the direction they were going.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Windows as a service

      Something wrong with facts, downvote person?

  13. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Out of all the updates they've pushed out, the one that pisses me off the most is no longer being able to right click the start button to get to control panel. WTH? Stop messing with control panel, it belongs where it was, not in an app.

    1. sz54c8

      This will fix that for you ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdzZlTiSFyI&t=1s

  14. Wade Burchette

    Everything, except what we want

    I don't care about the new stuff because Microsoft is not giving us what we ask for. We want a logical start menu like in Windows 7 or earlier. We want the ribbon gone but good from everything. We want an option for Aero. We want a working pre-boot F8. We want all tracking of any kind for any reason gone forever. We want the ability to control which updates we get. We want the ability to control which drivers we install. We want your "apps" to stay uninstalled once we uninstall them. Correction: We don't want your apps to ever install.

    I personally want a proper backup program to return. I personally want a return to the Windows 7 style recovery console. I personally want Secure Boot permanently banned. I personally want Microsoft to require System Restore to be turned on by default. I personally want Windows to stop trying to be my friend and using non-professional terminology like "We're glad you're here."

    I am not pleased nor will I be. Ask 100 random people who use Windows 10 and 99 of them will hate it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Everything, except what we want

      It's hardly surprising, I foresaw this when SatNad was announced as the new CEO to take over Ballmer.

      What was SatNad's previous job at Microsoft? Enterprise cloud. I rest my case.

      It's also a PR-driven appointment: the shareholders thought that a jeans-wearing ethnic minority CEO will spruce up Microsoft's beleaguered corporate image. Don't forget the corporate logo change, and the setting up of a clique of fans and groupies, the 'Insiders'.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Linux bits? Exciting. The Edge Browser? REFUSE TO USE IT. Everything else? Meh!!

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "The Linux bits? Exciting. .... Everything else? Meh!!"

      So just get rid of the everything else.

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Linux bits?

      That goes back to before Windows 2000, except it was called Microsoft Services for Unix or something then.

      Today a VM on Windows makes more sense, or indeed just using Linux, and maybe WINE or a VM for Windows apps. Seems to me that Win7 was last version that could be customised without 3rd party software to be "sane", though file Explorer horrible compared to XP.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Linux bits?

        I assume they cannot "gather metadata to help improve our service" on a VM client... and that would also eat their other markets/products.

    3. Emmeran

      There isn't a browser out there worth using and there never really has been. I'm still startled to see all the browsers using a 1gb memory footprint these days.

      Hells Bells folks, I can install software.

  16. Mike Taylor

    Update for touch users...

    ...these mostly sound like updates for the surface phone doodah.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    What about the rest of us?

    Linux, BSD, Mac OS.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cortana and OneDrive?

    Utterly worthless for those who do not have a Microsoft account, and who do not intend to sign up for one.

    As a desktop Windows user, I have no wish to drink SatNad's Kool-Aid. In fact, I kind of miss Ballmer now.

    In fact, the prima facie evidence of Microsoft's retardation under SatNad would be Skype's latest revamp. Do you really need more proof?

    Admit it Microsoft, Edge a.k.a the polished turd of IE and Microsoft's mobile ambitions have failed. Adding touch-centric features does nothing in the grander scheme of things.

    1. keith_w

      Re: Cortana and OneDrive?

      Since any cloud drive requires that you sign up for a provider's account, those are also utterly worthless to you. If you don't want to sign up, then don't. But stop whining about not wanting to agree to the requirements of the provider to get something free.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Disappointing

    They've achieved nothing since Jobs died. Doomed.

    1. Wensleydale Cheese
      Unhappy

      Re: Disappointing

      "They've achieved nothing since Jobs died. Doomed."

      Who? Microsoft?

      Oh I see. No new ideas to nick.

  20. RNixon

    Alas, Edge is the only browser that doesn't suck on Windows with touch.

    I'd really like to have a browser choice for my small Windows tablet, but Chrome and Firefox both removed their touch UI options, and non-touch-UI-aware browsers are a pain to use on an 8" touchscreen.

    I don't use it on my desktop, but on my tablet Edge is about the only browser that's usable.

    (I do use the pen quite a bit, so the pen input updates will be nice, as will the new software keyboard.)

  21. Allan George Dyer
    Headmaster

    Clever stuff...

    "new dictation button on the touch keyboard, though this currently only works for US English and Chinese (Simplified)"

    So they can detect the script you would use to write down the the words you are speaking? That is amazing!

    (Traditional and Simplified are alternative scripts, used in Mainland China and Taiwan, respectively. Putonghua|Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese & others are spoken dialects of Chinese)

    1. Wensleydale Cheese

      Re: Clever stuff...

      "So they can detect the script you would use to write down the the words you are speaking? That is amazing!"

      It's quite easy according to the Microsoft world view.

      Everyone is monolingual. Buy another device if you want another language.

      Corollary: Unless you buy an Enterprise language, you are monolingual and will speak the language that we think you ought to, depending on geolocation.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows Mobile?

    "a feature presumably designed mainly for Windows 10 Mobile users."

    Who?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yet another bandwidth sucking Windows update just to shuffle a couple of icons around.

    1. AJ MacLeod

      Be fair now, it won't merely shuffle icons; it will also re-enable all the telemetry you've crippled, re-enable the Windows Application Experience / Customer Experience Program stuff you'd disabled, (re)install a pile of worse-than-useless apps, etc etc...

  24. Mage Silver badge
    FAIL

    Fail for content creators

    This has really nothing of value for people interested in working rather that fiddling with websites and games?

    "Pin websites on Taskbar" That's a feature????????

    Bah!

    Ability to have Icon for a specific web page is about 25 years old on Windows. Basically since pre-Win95 supported TCP-IP and a web browser.

    Stop trying to be cool and give back a version of windows with

    1) Privacy

    2) Proper customisation of desktop like we had from Win95 to Win7

    3) Decent WIMP GUI for people not using tablets, phones, wacom, touch etc. Available on various GUIs from 1976 till win 7.

    4) No Ribbon or flat, or menu items that hide because they are little used. The 3D effect on GUI elements added approximately Win3.11 is fine. No need for fancy effects or flat UNLESS people select them by customisation.

    MS has lost the plot. Probably around 2004 actually.

  25. Emmeran

    For those of you commenting who hate MSFT I have to ask why you even bother to read this or comment - just go back to quietly hurting small furry mammals until a topic comes up on which you can objectively comment.

    For those wishing things were the same as version X.xx the bad news is it will never be, but the good news is that if you take part in activities that accelerate the early-onset of dementia you can live in yesteryear full time again!!

    For the rest of us we'll grudgingly put up with "New & Improved" mania from our software, auto and these days even our fruit&veggie vendors.

    1. hplasm
      Gimp

      Windows 10 is for you if...

      ..."if you take part in activities that accelerate the early-onset of dementia ..."

  26. Korev Silver badge
    Joke

    There's also a new dictation button on the touch keyboard, though this currently only works for English (Simplified) and Chinese (Simplified).

    FTFY

  27. IGnatius T Foobar
    FAIL

    Microsoft FAIL

    So all these new features are for Windows Phone, and nothing for the 99.9999999% of Windows users who aren't running it on a phone. FAIL.

  28. Howard Hanek
    Happy

    Fluent Design System

    Created for the Affluent fixated upon turning their wealth into effluence. Fluency in marketing jargon does not guarantee usability or productivity, but it sounds 'sexy'.

  29. JJKing
    Coat

    Yes we can!

    No, that'd be TTFKAA (or TTTFKAAAONRI). Can't you spell, boy?

    Um, let me see. B........O........Y. Oooo, I dun g00d!

    Mines the one with the dickshuhairy in the pohcat

  30. Number6

    My Win10 machine keeps telling me it wants to schedule a reboot. Even when I've just done one. Given that it takes fifteen minutes before it becomes usable again, I am reluctant to sign up to its stupid game. I am giving serious thought to ripping out the hard drive for a fresh one and seeing if this machine will happily run Win7, then copy over the stuff I need.

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