Windows 10 - First Impressions

[NoelC]

That reminds me...  Windows Internet Explorer with one small tweak in a custom style sheet:

 

Note specifically the darkened scroll bar thumbs.

 

1.  Make a text file, call it something like "CustomIE.css"

 

2.  Put the following one line in it:

 

html {scrollbar-base-color: darkgray;}

 

3.  Save it somewhere that's going to stay around.

 

4.  In IE, choose the Gear icon, Internet Options, and press the [ Accessibility ] button, and set the Style sheet to your new file.

 

 

You can see that this could offer other possibilities.  It's not a whole LOT of customizability, but I find this one little tweak makes IE more usable.

 

-Noel

 

 

 

 

[win2kreviver]

I have been using Edge and found it is very lacking in supporting websites such as msfn.org.  It freezes, hiccups and is almost impossible to use.  On some sites it gives acceptable performance such as msn.  I have really tested it against Chrome and IE and on speed it is as slow as molasses in January compared overall to them.  For page rendering it is not good.  I really cannot say any positives about it, but I may be influenced by my former use of IE.  I have not used it since 2005 as a primary browser, the only use I gave it is to get updates and even then I was using IE tab in FF.  I think as it stands 10240 is not ready for distribution without third party help as Noel and others state and prove categorically.  I think Edge as it is now is a total fail.  Harsh words, but I will stand by them.

[dencorso]

Microsoft lost a ton of money in the second quarter...

[JorgeA]

I have been using Edge and found it is very lacking in supporting websites such as msfn.org. It freezes, hiccups and is almost impossible to use. On some sites it gives acceptable performance such as msn. I have really tested it against Chrome and IE and on speed it is as slow as molasses in January compared overall to them. For page rendering it is not good. I really cannot say any positives about it, but I may be influenced by my former use of IE. I have not used it since 2005 as a primary browser, the only use I gave it is to get updates and even then I was using IE tab in FF. I think as it stands 10240 is not ready for distribution without third party help as Noel and others state and prove categorically. I think Edge as it is now is a total fail. Harsh words, but I will stand by them.

 

Edge had better work OK on MSN! If not on Microsoft's own sites, then where would it ever work??

 

I'll have to try visiting MSFN via Edge and see how it performs. Thanks for the rundown on this browser.

 

--JorgeA

Edited July 22, 2015 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Microsoft lost a ton of money in the second quarter...

 

The key sentence:

 

The company also saw declining sales in notable product lines, including Windows licenses, Windows Phone and Lumia handsets.

 

So, they continue to fail in the very market segment (phones) for which they've wrecked the Windows UI.

 

Seems to me the sensible thing to do is to euthanize the crippled horse of mobile already and put an end to the pain, then allow Windows to start healing.

 

Another interesting point: the CNN piece describes Microsoft's strategy thus --

 

...Microsoft products like Windows and Office need to work on any device -- even if it was made by Apple or runs Google's Android software. And it means giving a lot of stuff away for free.

 

Once people get hooked on the latest Windows-related products, Microsoft hopes people will buy new PCs to "light up" all of Windows' features, according to Gartner research analyst Steve Kleynhans. And more PCs then means more licensing revenue for Microsoft.

 

A parallel idea was expressed recently on The Verge:

 

Let's look at this problem from a totally different angle. Windows 10 is coming out at the end of the month, and Microsoft is mounting a huge campaign to give it away for free to lots of people running older versions. This is unprecedented for Microsoft, which usually makes money selling new software, but the company's taking the hit in order to rapidly expand the installed base of Windows 10. Why? Because Windows 10 apps run on a variety of devices including phones, and Microsoft is hoping that developers will flock to a big new market for apps on Windows 10 desktops, thus bringing tons of new apps to Windows Phone.

 

The author's assessment?

 

This will almost certainly fail.

 

What developer is going to spend the time writing a dedicated app for Windows PCs in the faint hope that Microsoft will figure out phones, when they can just write a great web app and cover both Windows and Mac users? What insane person has the courage to install, say, an American Airlines app on their Windows PC?

 

Creating apps and cloud services (Office 365, etc.) that will run on Android isn't going to convince people to buy Windows 10 devices -- it's going to encourage them to stay on Android. The path to increasing the sales of Windows devices isn't there.

 

Apps have become nearly irrelevant on desktops because the web experience is close to perfect, while apps are vitally important on phones because the web experience is dismal. Windows 10 looks like it's going to be a big step forward for Microsoft, but it won't be able to bridge that gap. I'm not sure anything can.

 

And yet, Nadella & Co. are busy trying to turn our PCs into big smartphones full of "apps."

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

That reminds me...  Windows Internet Explorer with one small tweak in a custom style sheet:

 

Note specifically the darkened scroll bar thumbs.

 

1.  Make a text file, call it something like "CustomIE.css"

 

2.  Put the following one line in it:

 

html {scrollbar-base-color: darkgray;}

 

3.  Save it somewhere that's going to stay around.

 

4.  In IE, choose the Gear icon, Internet Options, and press the [ Accessibility ] button, and set the Style sheet to your new file.

 

 

You can see that this could offer other possibilities.  It's not a whole LOT of customizability, but I find this one little tweak makes IE more usable.

 

-Noel

 

I can attest to the fact that this works. Tried it on a Win7 system running IE11, and the scrollbar is much easier to spot now.

 

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Still in "other" news, but still much related, it is likely that the ads that may (please read as will) be delivered through Windows 10 (if they will be actually delivered as "actual pop-ups" or similar, or if they will only be sneakily served as "live tiles" or they will merely be some additional ads/banners inside the browser is yet to be found out of course) or more generally in Microsoft ecosystem will be responsibility of (guess who?, putting a spoiler just to give you a couple seconds thinking at which company you would personally choose to manage it):

 

 

AOL:

http://adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/aol-to-absorb-microsofts-display-ad-business-along-with-500-plus-employees-bing-to-power-all-aol-search/

 

 

 

'nuf said.

 

And a interesting article about what happened in the past (in a nutshell, MS almost made it, but actually they failed at it):

http://adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/how-microsoft-almost-won-digital-advertising/

We almost had it.

 

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Today's news: 

 

There is now no such thing as RTM

 

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/4797/no-rtm-for-windows-10-microsoft-says

 

-Noel

[dencorso]

With Windows 10, nothing is ever really "done."

Very true. But, then again, quite a lot has been undone, already!    

[NoelC]

The news I've heard is that if you don't remain an insider, your activation will expire "eventually" - unless you upgraded from a legitimate Win 7 or 8 license to begin with.

 

Treating your best customers with contempt is the way of the world in 2015.

 

-Noel

[JorgeA]

 

With Windows 10, nothing is ever really "done."

Very true. But, then again, quite a lot has been undone, already!

 

 

 

Another thing that was undone in Win10:

 

Windows 10 won't let you sync installed apps or Start layouts across devices

 

Details:

 

In Windows 8/8.1 you could personalize your Start Screen with your tiles just how you like them and then sync your settings across all of your Windows 8.x devices. For users with multiple devices on one Microsoft account this could create a seamless transition from device to device. On the other hand it could create awkward rearrangements if your devices were different sizes. In Windows 10 there won’t be the option at all however so each screen will have to be individually customized.

 

You know Windows 10 is bad when it manages to cramp the style of both Win7 and Win8 users.

 

As one commenter put it,

 

I do not understand taking this feature away. Isn't a mantra of Windows 10 "sync across all your devices? This is going backwards. Keep it as an option

 

--JorgeA

Edited July 23, 2015 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

The news I've heard is that if you don't remain an insider, your activation will expire "eventually" - unless you upgraded from a legitimate Win 7 or 8 license to begin with.

 

Treating your best customers with contempt is the way of the world in 2015.

 

-Noel

 

That jibes with what I've heard, too. It's not only their customers that they're treating with contempt, but also their volunteers and enthusiasts.

 

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

There is a sense of dread out there regarding the invasion takeover launch of Windows 10, and enterprising companies are stepping in to provide an easy-to-use safety net:

 

Worried about upgrading to Windows 10? EaseUS System GoBack Free provides you with an escape route

 

EaseUS has released System GoBack Free 1.0, a tool aimed squarely at those about to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

The stakes are high for Microsoft’s new OS -- it’s a free update to many, but those who have reserved their upgrade may be getting twitchy ahead of the big day. System GoBack Free aims to soothe their nerves by offering an easy fallback option.

 

 

System GoBack Free makes it easy to take a full system image of the user’s computer prior to them upgrading to Windows 10. If they subsequently want to roll back to their previous version of the Windows, the app makes it easy to do so.

 

It’s aimed squarely at Windows users who don’t want the hassle of discovering how to use Windows’ own built-in system image tools, or who haven’t made use of a third-party tool like Macrium Reflect. System GoBack Free is designed to make the process as hassle-free as possible. And despite the fact it’s targeted at Windows 7 and 8 users, it’ll work with XP and Vista too.

 

--JorgeA

 

[Tripredacus]

Today's news: 

 

There is now no such thing as RTM

 

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/4797/no-rtm-for-windows-10-microsoft-says

 

-Noel

Yes/no. There is an RTM build (DVD image) that the PC Maker gets and there are "hotfixes" that come out post RTM date/pre GA date that need to be added to a Windows OS that is deployed to a PC. However, MS does not go about and update that DVD image. So to me, that is still the RTM version.

This isn't even anything new. Most of the time, the hotfixes are for things no one notices. One example of a post RTM/Pre GA hotfix was to correct this behaviour:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/158189-netcfg-log-files-in-system32/

So it really isn't anything new, its more likely that no one wrote about it or was interested in it before.

[JorgeA]

User rejection of forced automatic updates is spreading beyond Windows 10:

 

Why I’m dumping Google Chrome

 

You've got to read the whole post for the infuriating details of Google's hostility to user choice. But here's the conclusion:

 

I’m aware, of course, that the trend in software is to force users to install security updates by default, and if Google had only made security patches mandatory, I’d have little issue with the company. My problem with Chrome isn’t that Google pushed out a broken software version that crashed 20x a day on my primary system — my problem is that Google has made it virtually impossible to actually choose not to update your browser. You can’t opt out. You can’t install an older version. You can’t shut Auto Update off unless you own the professional version of the Windows OS (though there are hacks to allow gpedit.msc to run on other versions of Windows). Even once you’ve jumped through the hoops required to shut off Auto Update, Google retains the ability to turn it right back on. Windows 10 at least allows users to uninstall updates if they cause a problem. In Google’s world, every version is better than the last for everyone, period, without exception.

 

I still like Chrome, but I’m no longer willing to put up with Google’s lockdown and willingness to override its own update policies. Back to Firefox for me.

 

And then there's this fellow who's totally fed up with Chrome, automatic updates being one reason. (I doubt he'll be happy with Microsoft Edge, but let him find out for himself.  )

 

--JorgeA