What features Win10 is missing?

[ACTIONpack]

Been using Windows 10 preview since November of last year and stuck to it with every new Technical Preview version. We are almost to the RTM version of the release and want to know what feature do you think Windows 10 is missing.

[greenwizard88]

Well, it doesn't make my coffee yet. But I have a feeling that's more to do with my coffee pot not being connected to the IoTs....

[adrynalyne]

Off-topic, but OP, you should really put some CSS 3D Transforms on your about page, that chattering while scrolling can be improved.

 

On-Topic: We still need more control over Windows Updates on the Pro version.

[DConnell Member]

The option to use either the 7 Menu or 8.x Screen if we prefer either over the 10 Frankenmenu.

[Eric Veteran]

The option to use either the 7 Menu or 8.x Screen if we prefer either over the 10 Frankenmenu.

 

I like "Frankenmenu." I've just been calling it the "Start atrocity."

[zhangm Supervisor]

It's probably too late. However, I'd like to see Task Scheduler and Event Viewer tidied up a bit. I don't have any beef with the capabilities or features of what already exists in Windows 8, but organization and presentation of said features could be made more clear for the scheduler, and Event Viewer log loading speed is an issue on all systems that I've worked with.

[DConnell Member]

I like "Frankenmenu." I've just been calling it the "Start atrocity."

 

That works too. Frankenmenu just made sense since its a jumble of mismatched, ill-fitting parts.

[Ace]

Data deduplication (like Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 already has).

[Eric Veteran]

That works too. Frankenmenu just made sense since its a jumble of mismatched, ill-fitting parts.

 

It just seems like they took the parts from the menu and screen that nobody cared about and combined them. Design by data-mining is terrible.

 

As they say in the film industry, they left the good parts on the cutting room floor.

[link6155]

Being able to turn off updates in the home addition of Windows 10.... I don't quite follow Microsoft logic behind this decision. I get that some people are just idiots who rather not install updates and leave their PC vulnerable but at the same time not all updates are good.

[Eric Veteran]

Being able to turn off updates in the home addition of Windows 10.... I don't quite follow Microsoft logic behind this decision. I get that some people are just idiots who rather not install updates and leave their PC vulnerable but at the same time not all updates are good.

 

Agreed. Windows updates I can understand, but drivers, etc., should always be optional.

[Stoffel]

I miss the hot corners from Windows 8.x

I know I'm going to the Notification center, but I would like for it to show up when I swing my mouse in the right corner.

 

The option to remove all the chrome in Edge, like modern IE, for tablet mode

 

Another one I would really like to see is a toggle to auto hide the taskbar when in Tablet Mode

[+devHead Subscriber²]

Agreed. Windows updates I can understand, but drivers, etc., should always be optional.

I don't think driver updates will be mandatory with Windows Update for home users.  Heck, they're not now; you have to manually go in and install them, even with Automatic Updates on.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Motor_Mouth]

I love that signature! Outdoor Miner is an absolute classic and you've made me go and listen to Chairs MIssing for the first time in ages.

[Motor_Mouth]

This is a pretty long list, considering it is meant to be an upgrade, but here goes -

 

1. Some kind of usable tablet interface (tablet mode is a complete joke).

2. The Charms Bar. It would be OK if they had taken it out and put it's functionality somewhere equally handy, like the new Start Menu, but they haven't. (Try finding a printer or switching your screen to a TV in W10.)

3. A touch-friendy browser. Edge is just like any desktop browser - useless with touch.

4. A way of quickly getting to any installed software (not the nightmare lifted from W7 that only let's you see half-a-dozen thigns at a time).

5. The 4-way splitscreen we have in Windows 8 (not snap).

6. A consistent UI (something we have not had since XP that just gets worse with every new version).

7. The ability to swipe between apps like we have in W8 (there was absolutely no reason to take it out).

8. Apps that work. I still can't start the Music (Preview) app and every W8 app I use regularly is btroken to some degree or other.

9. Performance on par with WIndows 8. (At least that might be a possibility, although I reckon they will run out of time and optimisations won't be completed before RTM.)

10. A reason to upgrade. The vast majority of new features are things I will never use so I am going to stick to Windows 8 until they fix this nightmare of a thing.

 

I think WIndows 10 is set to be a disaster of unprecedented proportions. I think fanbois have had way too much say in the Insider Program and they are glossing over serious problems. When I look at the current state of W10 and compare it to where W8 was at at the same point, I can't s  ethis being anything but an abject failure, especially as they are basically foisting it upon an unwary public who think it is going to make up for Windows 8.

[Pulagatha]

This is a pretty long list, considering it is meant to be an upgrade, but here goes -

 

2. The Charms Bar. It would be OK if they had taken it out and put it's functionality somewhere equally handy, like the new Start Menu, but they haven't. (Try finding a printer or switching your screen to a TV in W10.)

 

 

I still wish the Share button would end up in the System Tray.

[President Devil]

The option to use either the 7 Menu or 8.x Screen if we prefer either over the 10 Frankenmenu.

 

I actually like the Frankenmenu, but yeah.

[Motor_Mouth]

Are you a Win7 or 8 user currently? I can't imagine anyone used to Win8 putting up with it and it is missing at least half of what was in the Win7 Start Menu so, again, I'd be surprised if any Win7 users found it any good if they don't like Windows 8.

[onewarmslime]

Are you a Win7 or 8 user currently? I can't imagine anyone used to Win8 putting up with it and it is missing at least half of what was in the Win7 Start Menu so, again, I'd be surprised if any Win7 users found it any good if they don't like Windows 8.

 

I'm using Windows 8 as we speak and pretty much the only reason I'm upgrading to W10 is the start menu. Especially since you can remove the tiles and use it as a regular menu. There's literally no other feature in W10 that I'm interested in.

 

I think you're lacking perspective. Windows 8 wasn't a failure, but it definitely wasn't the great OS you're making it out to be. I literally don't know anyone IRL that likes Windows 8 over previous versions of windows. Definitely not me.

[Skiver Veteran]

I'm using Windows 8 as we speak and pretty much the only reason I'm upgrading to W10 is the start menu. Especially since you can remove the tiles and use it as a regular menu. There's literally no other feature in W10 that I'm interested in.

 

I think you're lacking perspective. Windows 8 wasn't a failure, but it definitely wasn't the great OS you're making it out to be. I literally don't know anyone IRL that likes Windows 8 over previous versions of windows. Definitely not me.

 

There are plenty people on this forum (including me) that like Windows 8, I wouldn't dream of switching back to Win 7 (especially because of the start menu) and I'm not looking forward to moving on to Win 10 and loosing the full screen start screen.

 

I think its fair to say there seems to be a majority that don't like the Win 8 screen, but from my experience that's more down to no-one actually going to the effort to make it work for them. 

 

" These Live tiles are horrible, I can't find my programs"

 

Customise the bloody screen and those two issues go away!!

 

I've not used Windows 10 enough to say what's missing - but I found the slow move of things from Control Panel to Settings menu to be a tad painful. I don't think there is much but I struggled to find Windows Updates at first and then led me to question whether I should be going into Settings or CP the next time I was thinking about changing something I found to be pretty backwards.

 

Move it all or nothing, not a half way house, that's what I'd say is "missing". It may already be done and I've not ran the latest patch but I think it was a pretty recent build and we are fast approaching the Release date for them to have time to try and move everything might be a stretch.

[MS Bob 11]

There is a comparison I made of the Start Menu/Start screen features here from my own experience and use: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2399 If anyone has opinions if the Start screen or Win10 Start Menu has any more or different/interesting features or advantages, feel free to discuss and I may consider adding it to the comparison.

[zman982]

The only thing I wished was in Windows 10 is a tabbed file explorer.  It can look similar to how it's done in Edge and it could have the tabs and titlebar match your current accent color.

[Max Norris]

10's probably going to be the first version since 2KPro that I used the built in start menu as my primary launcher.. still not as flexible as others by far, but (for me) hits a nice balance without giving up the extras like live tiles which I find absurdly handy, etc.  Had a love/hate thing with 8's, 7 was ok (but still replaced just for a bit extra convenience), absolutely hated XP's.

 

Tabbed explorer I can do without though, never much saw the point and it can be added anyway via multiple extensions anyway (or flat out replaced if that's your thing), would much rather see them add side-by-side panes, much more useful.  Ranks up there with virtual desktops, for me multiple monitors are far more useful and Windows has done that quite well for a long time.

[Motor_Mouth]

I'm using Windows 8 as we speak and pretty much the only reason I'm upgrading to W10 is the start menu. Especially since you can remove the tiles and use it as a regular menu. There's literally no other feature in W10 that I'm interested in.

 

I think you're lacking perspective. Windows 8 wasn't a failure, but it definitely wasn't the great OS you're making it out to be. I literally don't know anyone IRL that likes Windows 8 over previous versions of windows. Definitely not me.

 

Except you can't "use it as a regular menu". You can't pin anything to it if you don't want any Metro-style tiles, you can't use it to quickly get to any and every Control Panel item, it doesn't show a list of recent files, nor does it give you quick and easy access to printers and devices. The only way in which it seems similar to the Win7 Start Menu is how hard it makes it to find anything that's not pinned. i.e. They added the worst feature of Win7's Start Menu and left out all the good parts. In an admission of how bad it is, they added in an alphabetical jump list, as though adding an extra layer of complexity would make it easier. How does that work?

 

As for Windows 8, it is absolutely freakin' awesome. Every, single feature form Windows 7 is still there - you can't say that about W8 to W10 - and all the things that were broken were fixed. What people "like" doesn't matter, what matters is that no-one can actually point to a single feature that makes it worse than W7. Believe me, I've heard 'em all and they are all completely wrong-headed. e.g. "I don't need a Start Screen that takes over my whole screen" is nonsense because every version of Start, all the way back to Win95, has taken focus from any open applications, effectively taking over your whole screen. With Windows 8 they just decided that if it was going to take focus, there was no reason it shouldn't make full use of the screen to offer the best possible experience.

 

Another common one goes along the lines of "when I double-click on a PDF I don't want to be dragged off to a full-screen Metro app". This is also nonsense because a) when I click on any image file, I'm "dragged off" to a full-screen Photoshop in every version of Windows and b) it is the simplest thing in the universe to change the default app away from the pre-installed Reader (which I love for it's simplicity) to any 3rd party PDF reader. After all, what happens in W7 when you double-click a PDF? Nothing, because W7 doesn't come with anything that can read PDFs. It absolutely beggars belief that people can complain about being given software that they previously had to source and install themselves.

 

The third common complaint I hear is "everything is designed for touch but I use a mouse and keyboard". Well, I'm in the same boat and I know that it's not a valid criticism. For example, would it surprise you to learn that a small tile on W8's Start Screen is smaller than a small desktop shortcut in Win7? (W7 offers two sizes for desktop shortcuts.) And not just a tiny bit, either, they are about 20% narrower and not much more than half as high. There is also less space between them, meaning that Windows 8 can be set-up to be less touch friendly than Windows 7. How perverse is that!?!

 

Elsewhere, the differences are minor to non-existent between W7 and W8 with a mouse - you still get scroll bars, it responds superbly to scroll wheel input and right- and middle-click options still abound. Where there are differences, it is in favour of W8. e.g. Horizontal scrolling requires less actual scrolling than vertical scrolling and makes far better use of landscape oriented laptop and desktop screens. W8 also introduced some new hotkeys, making it better than W7 for keyboard users.

 

Everywhere you look, Windows 8 made the user experience superior to Windows 7. It took a few little tweaks here and there but, even before 8.1, all the major issues had been resolved. But the die had been cast by one very poor decisions late in the beta cycle, removing the Start Button, and W8 was never going to recover in the minds of the masses. Hence Windows 10 being all about winning hearts and minds, not actually making Windows better. It is a PR exercise, little more than that.

[Motor_Mouth]

There is a comparison I made of the Start Menu/Start screen features here from my own experience and use: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2399 If anyone has opinions if the Start screen or Win10 Start Menu has any more or different/interesting features or advantages, feel free to discuss and I may consider adding it to the comparison.

 

Your "comparison" is clearly just a list of features in your preferred option, designed specifically to make the others look bad. I'm sure I could create a similar table, using all the features of the Start Screen as my baseline, that would make Classic Shell look terribly under-featured. e.g. Live Tile support. You are also completely wrong on some points. e.g. The Start Screen is able to display far more without the need to scroll than any way you care to set up Classic Shell. In All Apps view, I can see 90 app icons on my HD res screen. If I wanted to, I could fit 240 small tiles onto the Start Screen itself. 240! Nothing else comes close to that.

 

The rant linked in your signature is also similarly biased. You go to great lengths to describe all the little things you feel have been removed without taking even a sentence to talk about what was put in. e.g. Why persist with Gadgets, which were hopeless anyway, when Live Tiles offer so much more? And you don't get an OS that uses half the system resources of XP by leaving in every feature of that OS, plus all the new features users expect. I think more users appreciate the lighter footprint of W7 and W8 than features they never even knew existed and probably had no use for anyway. That piece also seems very out of date, as several of the things you mention were addressed long ago in minor updates or in 8.1. e.g. The way they deal with default applications now, via a notification, is very upfront and easy to work with.