Microsoft nudges Windows 10 21H1 toward commercial customers Microsoft has made the next version of Windows, known as 21H1, available to commercial customers ahead of its release to General Availability. The code's arrival is an indicator that the release, already lurking in the Windows Insider program, is just about ready. Although judging by the tumbleweed blowing through the Insider …
Still waiting for MSFT to finally do the right things:
* Kill the 'Settings' app disaster. It's been a half-aborted attempt at replacing the Configuration Panel, and unnecessarily splits configuration options between both, with worse ergonomics in the Settings app.
* Bring back Aero Glass and themes. I like Win7-style rounded corners, transparencies and semi-3D effects which allow me to see where f*ng window edges begin and end so that I am not clicking on the wrong window over and over because everything is grey lines on grey windows in a grey, dystopian UI with all the appeal of a Brutalist-style office building.
* Stop making Windows 10 into a terminal app for MSFT services. From hiding the 'create local account' option to stuffing the OS full with bloatware and ads for MSFT 'services', like OneDrive and more. Setting up Win10 feels like creating an Office356 account, which probably makes MSFT managers salivate, but sucks for those who just want to have an OS to run their apps.
Not holding my breath, of course.
For all that settings had a long and janky evolution, and starts slow, it's pretty good for most purposes now. Control panel was never really much better, it had just been evolving one agonizing screen at a time for a little longer, but I'd pull my hair out if I had to go back to Win7's control panel. And that's exactly what the other option is, because they don't see any pressing need to create a coherent and consistent settings panel, so you know nothing would be updated.
THe problem with settings are:
1) Ypu can access only one setting at a time
2) The UWP UI lacks many information previously available
3) Many settings previously available are no more, and if lucky they are still elsewhere, but you need now several steps to get at them. Very cumbersome when you're helping someone who doesn't know where they are.
4) The UWP UI has bad primitive controls only, and it's never clear what is a control and what is not
I do not understand why they removed truly tablet features that were available on Windows 8 and made using Windows in tablet mode very comfortable - but retained this UI that was bad in Windows 8 already, even in tablet mode.
You'll never get that, Microsoft is just doing what the majority of uses want, and stepping back in time is not something Joe Average wants.
I do agree with you about the settings app, how it took them so long to build such a badly designed Control Panel replacement boggles my mind. I do think part of the problem is the idea of retaining the Control Panel. Because if they didn't they wouldn't have been able to get away with this level of incompetence.
No, my bet is Microsoft is doing what the management wants to spend less money. They probably believe this ugly simplified UI can be developed by cheap programmers with little clues about complex UI development, and probably they did move development to cheap programmers.
After all the money comes now from different products, and if you give it away mostly for free you can't invest much resources. That's probably why every time they tried bigger changes the quality was abysmal, and now they just introduce minor changes
just doing what the majority of uses want,
Where are these 'straw man' "users" exactly?
It has been my general opinion (and observation) that Micros~1 went off of the customer dis-service "cliff of shame" like so many other techno-lemmings, FORCIBLY adopted the 2D FLATTY look [instead of giving us A CHOICE], removed features THEY didn't want US to have, created NEW features they wanted US to use INSTEAD, and tried to shove a poor attempt at "touch-friendly phone-like interface" down the throats of PC users that were perfectly happy with their keyboard+mouse interfaces (while Windows Phone collapsed under its own bloat, rendering the entire 'One Windows' concept COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS AND IRRELEVANT).
And they basically re-invented the wheel [poorly], rendering ALL previous Micros~1 wheels "obsolete" and executed DELIBERATE pressure (GWX) to PREVENT US FROM USING THE OLD VERSIONS, and _THEN_ (finally) MADE US TAKE IT WHETHER WE WANTED IT OR NOT, "for our own good", by dumping support (and convincing software makers to NOT support 7 any more) as if they were some kind of government bureaucracy in charge of how we MUST use OUR computers. And so on.
And from what I've seen, THIS is MUCH closer to "what the majority of users want" than what you said...
"Stepping back in time" - it would be good for us ALL. Let's step back to Windows 7's interface, and software that you OWN instead of RENT, _NO_ advertisements within the applications _OR_ the OS, and LOCAL logins instead of cloudy-track-you logins. and so forth.
My PC is *NOT* a phone, so why the "phone-like" interface?? And what _I_ do with it is *NOT* Micros~1's (or anyone ELSE's) business!!!
At least with this last update, it seems Micros~1 isn't cramming anything "new, shiny" at us. As someone else has mentioned, I hope they spend the next 2 years FIXING BUGS instead of CREATING NEW ONES within their FORCED UPDATES.
Totally agree. Windows is just so full if “we are doing it this way because it's better for us” things. For example clicking start to do a bing search (who in their right mind?) because you want to search for ‘CMD’ and not go to the command line prompt, of course you do.
Then random updates that push the user to connect their login to a Microsoft account. Why? It just creates more work for everybody.
And the latest printer debacle - where’s this supposed update that fixes it? I can’t find it. Why isn’t there a CLEAR option that says ‘uninstall this update and don’t install it again’ ?
That company has a track record of making unreliable software. It’s over bloated and under capable. It really is like The Emperor’s New Clothes. We all know it’s bad but we all live with it.
Have an upvote for telling the truth.
What Windows has needed for well over a decade is a setting that allows experts to not have to install all the cruft (aka bloatware) that many business users simply don't want or can't use because of security concerns. For example NOT installing On-Drive and having a setting somewhere that can be set that stops any user from installing and setting it up would be a start.
But... Sadly Redomd would never allow that. Their entire focus is to make everything migrate to their cloud whether you like it or not. Once that happens they really do that you by the short and curlies.
I'm so confused. Did you mean to type "Kardashian", as in those talentless famous-for-being-famous squillionaire-trailer-trash types, or Cardassian, as in those brutish and looming aliens from Deep Space Nine - known for being pitiless, sadistic, and totalitarian? Because unless there's a plotline somewhere that I've missed, there wasn't a whole lot of DS9 devoted to the Cardassian's underwear arrangements. Tighty-whities or thongs, or some weird alien alternative? *shudder*
time for all of us who've finally got some semblance of sanity out of windows 10 and learnt where the settings you need are hidden (and got the printers working again), to have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous designers hiding all the settings in different places and reseting your computer to m$ standard ah to sleep and perchance to dream of windows 7 and not to suffer an internet outage that renders your files unavailable because for some reason they're on onedrive now.
wheres the head banging against a wall icon?
PS Installing linux mint an another PC now.. :)
And time for Windows 11 with a far better GUI (reverting to the Win7 one would be a start) and a logical layout of various system controls and other features that in Win 10 have been scattered around with seeming abandon. Also time to bin cmd.exe altogether, make bash + utilities fully capable of controlling ALL aspects of windows functionality so windows can be controlled lights out via an ssh link without requiring bandwidth sucking remote desktop, and the convoluted powershell becoming legacy.
my windows systems (running 7) always seem to do their best when I include Cygwin to give me a bash shell and POSIX utilities to do those things that POSIX does best. Good example, searching windows header files for definitions and function names. 'find' and 'grep' are SO awesome together...
On the TIOBE index, Power[s]Hell is at number 46. Perl is at 17.
I looked at a comparison of bash vs Power[s]Hell commands and most of them weren't QUITE this bad, but the article basically said things like this:
In bash, you would use 'cp -R Tools ~/' but in PowerShell you'd say
Copy-Item -Path '.\Tools\' -Destination $env:USERPROFILE -Recurse
Yeah some improvement THAT is.
Users do not want whizzbangery, they want an OS that is stable and reliable and doesn't pull the rug from under their feet without warning.
Borkzilla still has not understood that people need an OS to run the programs they need to use, not to be bothered by an OS that wants the spotlight. The OS is supposed to be the background, near-invisible and unobtrusive.
not to be bothered by an OS that wants the spotlight
_SO_ many thumbs up you deserve for this
(it's like a program that significantly altered your autoexec.bat and config.sys files without your permission, back in the DOS days - the 'arrogance of the developer', as if HIS software is THE most important thing YOU have on YOUR computer...)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
