back to article Fixing Windows 10: New build tweaks Edge, sucks in Skype

Microsoft's latest preview release of Windows 10, build 10565, adds several features and refinements as the company works towards a major update for all users. The new build is available to anyone signed up for the Windows Insider preview scheme. Microsoft is now bundling three communications apps with Windows 10: Skype Video …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. GregC

    Users holding out for a fixed version of Windows 10 can plan to make the move when the features previewed here make it into the mainstream release.

    What about those of us that regard as fundamentally broken any version of an operating system that defaults to sending everything you do back to Redmond, automatically updates itself with no real override, and now looks like it will soon be putting ads 'Suggested Apps' in the Start menu?

    Rhetorical question really, I know the answer - we can go swivel... That's ok, I've already bought my last PC with a Windows licence.

    1. Wade Burchette

      I upgraded a Win8.1 machine to Win10 and it uninstalled classic shell without my permission. I wasn't happy. But I did re-install it and now that non-customizable, "app" pushing start menu is hidden.

  3. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Bundling messaging apps - blah blah, unfair, blah blah, competition regulator required, sob sob.

  4. smudge
    WTF?

    Default definition

    "...the last printer used is the default."

    As Douglas Adams, a devoted Apple fanboi, so nearly said: "This is obviously some strange usage of the word 'default' that I wasn't previously aware of."

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Default definition

      In the Redmond View of the 'Wrold' no one has more than one printer... ever....

      Then someone deep indside MS will decide that adding a second printer will require a CAL ($0.99 per page sent to the printer)

      then adding a User will require another CAL costing $5.99 per month

      Wanna add some non MS approved software (for example, Photoshop Elements) ? That will be $9.99/month

      etc etc etc

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Default definition @smudge

      You beat me to it. Which idiot(s) at M$ could possibly think this was a good idea?

      More change for the sake of change as has been the case since Windows 8, in fact.

      1. Immenseness
        Coat

        Re: Default definition @smudge

        I'm waiting for some bright spark to think it is a good idea to have a second default printer, followed by another enhancement where you can have as many default printers as you choose (more is better, right?).

        Lastly there will be an app to allow you to choose one of your default printers to use by default...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Default definition

      It would be time to have per-application default printers (so Lightroom for example defaults to my photo printer, while Word and Excel defaults to the laser one). Also, per-connection proxy settings, etc. etc.

      PC has far more connected options today than a few years ago.

      1. 9Rune5

        Re: Default definition

        Alternatively: Let the user indicate what sort of printout he envisioned... "A3, colour, stapled? Well, you only have access to one printer capable of that..." I should not have to worry too much about the specific capabilities of each device – just tell me where to fetch the printout. (distance to printer + printer queue length should factor into this as well)

        Assuming I want a printout. I rarely print these days. (and heck, if I do print, I am likely to want the next app to use the same printer as the previous one... But at the end of the working day I'd like to revert back to the system default I chose a year ago)

        1. Why Not?

          Re: Default definition

          Really like that, Windows knows all that information. Maybe some rules if the text is unreadable or the printout looks like it should be large it can prompt.

          Per application defaults would be good.

          I think if you are in a new location your default printer may need to temporarily change.as well.

      2. P. Lee

        Re: Default definition

        Hey Cortana

        I don't like tiles, full-screen menus, cloud, and telemetry.

        What os should I use?

    4. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Default definition

      Yes, its (ironically) nice to hear that Windows 10 is just as sh*t as all previous versions of wIndows when it comes to printing and localisation.

      Why haven't MS bundled Airprint/Cups printer support with Win8 and 10, it is one of the (many) things Apple got right with OSX and iOS. Also it isn't hard to add sensible localisation. I've been using "Connection Managers" since WfWg, which have allowed me to set up default WiFi, printers etc. for my various work locations. And simply export all these settings and put them onto another machine.

      It does look like MS in focusing on the UI have lost sight of what users really want to do with their smartphones/tablets/laptops/desktops.

  5. Kinetic
    Stop

    Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

    This isn't actually meant as a snarky remark (well any more than usual around here).

    What was the reason to go through the grief of upgrading? I have a working operating system that I'm perfectly fine with (7) ... I also have 8.1, which I've pretty much come to terms with (I'm ignoring all the unpleasant bits). I can browse, skype, develop, play games etc. All good.

    So .... 10 .... why? I know it's free as in beer, but it's not free from grief and re-training etc. I need a reason to make me actually want this thing. TIFCAM apps aint it, that's for damn sure.

    Probably the answer is - because Microsoft will stop selling 8, pull support for the others, and therefore generally shunt us into it regardless of us wanting it or not. I'm just hoping for a better answer...

    1. Chika

      Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

      Probably the answer is - because Microsoft will stop selling 8, pull support for the others, and therefore generally shunt us into it regardless of us wanting it or not. I'm just hoping for a better answer...

      You already had the answer to that much. Microsoft is using its "customers" as a free testing site - this much can be seen where some parts of the system are still incomplete and the rest of it is still unstable, while the carrot of a "free" version is being dangled in front of the noses of those who object to paying the best part of £200 for a licence for something that, at one time, was an inclusive part of the computer. The stick in all this? That could be considered to be the cut off date next year.

      I viewed a video a few days back made by somebody that used to work at Microsoft and the view he had of the company at that point confirmed a lot of my views about what the company has turned into. I've always had my doubts about Microsoft but I never totally wrote them off since they did come up with the occasional system that I liked. Windows 2000 was a good example, as was Windows 7.

      The problem is that Microsoft seem to have developed the same world view as a number of my own previous employers. Damn the quality, just do what needs to be done to boost the bottom line. Because of that, the chances of a "better answer" emerging is hardly likely to happen unless a serious change of that world view occurs. That's unlikely to happen unless the company effectively reinvents itself which, as you can imagine, is extremely expensive to do and because of the current world view is unlikely to happen unless W10 is a massive failure. The problem with that is that W10 is being taken up by too many people who see the "free t-shirt" banner and act accordingly.

    2. LucreLout
      Windows

      Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

      @Kinetic

      Probably the answer is - because Microsoft will stop selling 8, pull support for the others, and therefore generally shunt us into it regardless of us wanting it or not. I'm just hoping for a better answer...

      The only 'better' answer I can give you, having been running 10 for about a month now, is that it boots a lot faster than 7. I like it - but then I liked 7. 8 never existed for me.

      The main downside for me, having turned off the snooping, is that many of what I regard as routine settings have been viewed by MS as advanced, and hidden a little deeper than they once were. I'm sure I'll get used to navigating it in time.

      Ultimately, if faster boot time is the biggest selling point.... you could always migrate to an SSD. And while I'm comfortable with the idea of SaaS, I'm decidedly not happy about it applying to my OSes. Take note MS, a change in Windows licencing model is about the only thing that could bring about Linux on the desktop!

    3. dogged

      Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

      I really don't get the rhapsodizing about Windows 7.

      I'm using it at work now. Admittedly because of corporate dumbfuckery it's Win7 32bit but even so, it runs like a three legged dog with a weight tied to one paw.

      Once you get past the interface 8.n and 10 are so much quicker and less frustrating to use (seriously, killing a process in Task Manager on those actually kills the fucking task to name just one small example) that I've come to the conclusion that anyone who rejects them in favour of 7 just doesn't like doing their job and would rather dick around with pointless annoyances all day.

      1. GregC

        Re: I really don't get the rhapsodizing about Windows 7

        I wouldn't say anyone is rhapsodising about it, but my experience is very different to yours. On my 4 year old work laptop it runs just fine (64bit in my case however). On my 3 week old gaming machine it, unsurprisingly, absolutely flies.

        8.x and 10 may well be quicker, I'll happily take your word for it, but 7 never feels slow to me except for bootup on the work machine - and that's "go and get a cuppa" time anyway. All the other crap that comes with 8.1 (mostly UI hate in my case) and 10 (marginally less shit UI,all the privacy crap, forced updates...) far outweigh any small speed boost I might get, and I don't see any other real benefits (to me) to W10.

        1. ceebee

          Re: I really don't get the rhapsodizing about Windows 7

          It is not the startup time that aggravates me with Windows ..but the time it takes to shutdown ... with OSX or Linux it is seconds.... with Windows it seems to take minutes... and always has! It is 2015 why does an OS take 5 minutes to shutdown?

      2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

        So it is faster. Big Deal. The general feeling here is that because of the spying, forced updates etc etc it gets a thumbs down. (see Icon)

        What Microsoft giveth, MS taketh away.

        Now they are sending adverts to the Start Menu. How much more before even the most diehard MS Fanboi says 'enough already'.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Kinetic - Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?

      I know it's free as in beer...

      Well yes, provided you mean something like handing over your pint of real ale in exchange for a pint of warm lager.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    preview on mouseover in Edge?

    What hack[er] came up with that idea? The last think I want is to actually visit the site; how else is the preview going to be generated, when mousing over (?) the link to determine if I actually want to visit the site. Also, if it renders all of the ads at 1/5th scale, I'm sure the advertisers will respond accordingly.

    1. John P

      Re: preview on mouseover in Edge?

      The preview is when you hover over a tab, not a link.

      I remember when Opera had that feature back in the day, it's really useful if you're doing a lot of research on websites with extremely unhelpful titles.

      1. h4rm0ny

        Re: preview on mouseover in Edge?

        Metro IE does it even better - the tabs are neatly tucked out of the way until a right-click or a swipe brings them up into view as a little carousel of preview images. Extremely quick to use. Very intuitive.

        Edge is a significant step backwards in several ways. I particularly loathe the way when I open a new tab (which I have set to be blank by default) it moves the cursor into a near invisible search box in the middle of the page which I then have to grab the mouse, move it up to the top and click in the address bar before I can start typing my URL. Compounded by the fact that the address bar is white on a white background with almost no visible outline. I am unimpressed.

  7. 404

    I need a young priest and an old priest....

    ... KB3035583 won't stay dead... keeps turning up like a bad penny...

    I've had that KB reissued by Microsoft no less than tree times thus far and holy water in the cooling system has_no_effect...

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: I need a young priest and an old priest....

      Mutter the following incantations and it stops bothering you, you can let it download via Windows Update but it doesn't do anything...

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX]

      "DisableGwx"=dword:00000001

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]

      "DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001

      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade]

      "ReservationsAllowed"=dword:00000000

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: I need a young priest and an old priest....

        From another El Reg thread: http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html

      2. 404

        Re: I need a young priest and an old priest....

        Thank you!

        I lit some candles and waved a dead chicken in the general direction of Redmond just in case ;)

    2. Citizen99

      Re: I need a young priest and an old priest....

      Timely to read this today; only yesterday I was trying various posted procedures to get rid of (KB3035583) the 'Get W10' applet in W7, and it's 'Whack-a-Mole' :-(

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I want Cortana as much as I want a dose of Herpes.

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Warm Braw

    An option to book an Uber ride

    The way "free" Windows is going to pay for itself becomes clearer...

    1. Why Not?

      Re: An option to book an Uber ride

      You saying M$ want to take us for a ride?

      1. Warm Braw

        Re: An option to book an Uber ride

        Upvote for that.

        But seriously, though, folks, I think there is some corroboration of their possible strategy.

  11. David Austin

    Not bad

    The last two build feel more what the initial production version should have been.

    The only glaring issue that still seems to lurk around is Edge locking up 50% of the time if you try to directly run a program or open the downloads folder. Can't believe they let the RTM ship with that showstopper.

  12. theOtherJT Silver badge

    Perpetual development? You can keep it.

    So, this is that "Perpetual development" we keep hearing so much about.

    Possibly I'm showing my age here, but I'm pretty sure that in the past releasing things with lots of missing features and bugs in them and then patching them after the fact was called a "Beta" program, and not something to be done as a matter of course to all your paying customers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Perpetual development? You can keep it.

      Yes, in the old time when users were less stupid... then came Google (and its always on Beta) and Facebook...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Perpetual development? You can keep it.

      There is a whole generation of idiots who have been conditioned. They pre-buy (is that a thing?) things. That is they pay upfront for a promise and to be 'first'. When the thing arrives they a happy to then download big patches to fix their new thing. It is hip to give out all your private info to anyone who takes it. There was generation X and Y and now we have generation I for idiot. But rest assured that their kids will grow a pair and brain cells and not be as stupid as their parents, it will be a form a rebellion and I hope to be alive to see it go down.

  13. Zog_but_not_the_first
    FAIL

    Fixing Windows 10

    This is not the fix we're looking for.

  14. Florida1920
    Mushroom

    After >20 years

    I'm seriously beginning to HATE Microsoft. After inadvertently installing some "optional' updates to Win 7 recently, yesterday I couldn't install newer security updates without also installing Windows 10. No way. Performing all the necessary steps to avert that, in two stages, resulted in two, more than one-hour waits while Windows "configured" my system before it would finish rebooting. If you're running 7 or 8/8.1 be verrrrry careful which updates you allow.

    Dear Microsoft: Windows 7 SP1 is working fine here. Thanks but no thanks for offering to give me Windows 10. With all the wasted hours people have spent trying to dodge installing it, I'm thinking it's probably worth less than you're charging.

    1. theOtherJT Silver badge

      Re: After >20 years

      Oh, god, which ones now? Any chance of posting the KB numbers so I can blacklist them?

      1. Florida1920

        Re: After >20 years

        I started here: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/17/how-to-remove-windows-10-upgrade-updates-in-windows-7-and-8/

        and then did these Registry hacks: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-update/how-to-cancel-windows-10-upgrade-for-now/71a30488-8171-48fe-9a4d-728b4081bfd3?auth=1

        I haven't tried the Registry hacks mentioned above because so far, Windows Update is behaving as it should. Good luck!

  15. Pirate Dave Silver badge
    Pirate

    Cortana

    "Cortana apparently has new features..."

    I'm guessing "turning the fucking thing off" isn't one of them? Seriously, why does MS make that such a bitch to do? Why do we need voice search on a PC that doesn't even have a microphone?

  16. ToFab

    I once came to one of our office printers while it was in the middle of printing pages and pages of porn. We never checked to print queue to actually see who it was that had fun with the print key on his computer. We just assumed it was some guys sitting at home, connected to the office by VPN, not realizing that his computer was configured to use the office printer :-)

    Of course it begs the question: Why print those pictures in the first place. It's not like we are 10 years old and would be running down to our buddies houses shouting "Look boobs"

  17. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Various printers

    I only have one real printer.

    I also have two virtual printers, PDF and Fax. Which I use from time to time.

    I don't really want to produce a PDF when I'm trying to print a letter because some idiot in Mockrosoft has concluded that people who use a different printer once will want to use it next time too.

  18. Tromos

    "...huge A3 CAD drawing..."

    When it comes to CAD drawings, A3 would be considered small to tiny.

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: "...huge A3 CAD drawing..."

      Yup, some years ago I had to shrink some schematics down to fit A3 and it was only just readable. Now I try to fit on A3 pages and split up the design, which sounds obvious, but then with some packages you don't get that much on an A3 page at normal symbol size :(

  19. cambsukguy

    Quicker and smoother

    The production version I am running is zippy and smooth already, it will be interesting to see if is zippier and smoother.

    Perhaps the fingerprint hello thing will unlock the display in 10ms instead of the 50ms it seems to take now.

    Some improvements to Edge would be nice but speed isn't one of them, dragging a tab off to another display would be good and popups that appear on the display the browser is on rather than the one it started on would be cool.

    And, making Netflix not flicker when running on my telly would be especially nice, have to use Silverlight in Firefox instead of (presumably) HTML5 just for Netflix.

    1. Paul Shirley

      Re: Quicker and smoother

      "dragging a tab off to another display" like Firefox? Pretty useful with iPlayer, drag, maximise, carry on browsing on the main display while waiting for the rugby to kick off ;)

  20. CliveS
    Thumb Down

    Just forget it

    Until they restore OneDrive SmartFiles aka Placeholders they can just forgettrying to pimp Windows 10 on me. I don't care how quick it boots, or how slick the UI is (and I like 8.1 so I'm obviously not too fussy) but until it'll let me access all the files in my 1TB pf OneDrive space without trying to download the who lot to my T100 with a mere 32GB of local storage Windows 10 will be going nowhere near any of my kit.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like