Recommended Posts

iOS and Android are both very successful and easy to use tablet OS's. Both have a status bar with useful icons/widgets. Why did Microsoft remove it from Win 8 Metro?

Metro never had a status bar to begin with, so how could they remove it?

  • Like 2

I would really like a status bar. It could replace the system tray and have the clock/date in the middle so I don't have to constantly bring up ye olde lucky charms menu just to see the damn time/battery status. A show/hide feature could also be implemented on it.

iiwFOVv0qAgzx.png

The phone has a status bar which is brought into view with a tap at the top.

Windows 8 gets an overlay when you swipe for the charms, with battery, time, signal strength etc

I know that. The point of a status bat is its visible. Esp on a desktop where there is more than enough space. I'm perfectly fine with how it is now on an Arm tablet, with no desktop. But with desktop apps that have useful information in the status bar, it makes no sense to hide it.

it makes no sense to hide it.

Making sense is not really Microsoft's strength these days. I fully agree on this one, it's one of the largest annoyances I had with Metro. There's simply no rationalizing it, a mere notification indicator would have done wonders for usability of the entire platform.

Making sense is not really Microsoft's strength these days. I fully agree on this one, it's one of the largest annoyances I had with Metro. There's simply no rationalizing it, a mere notification indicator would have done wonders for usability of the entire platform.

Why do you need it ever present, where a simple tap or swipe is too much of an effort to see this stuff. Also if the device screen is off, press the power button and its on the lock screen.

  • Like 2

I know that. The point of a status bat is its visible. Esp on a desktop where there is more than enough space. I'm perfectly fine with how it is now on an Arm tablet, with no desktop. But with desktop apps that have useful information in the status bar, it makes no sense to hide it.

With desktop apps, you have the taskbar... with the notification area... which provides all the same information...

With desktop apps, you have the taskbar... with the notification area... which provides all the same information...

STOP BEING LOGICAL! Personally I love the fact that the there is no unnecessary information on a metro app, but all the info I want is just a Win+C away.

Not to bash anybody, but MS can't win. If they do the same as Android or iOS, they can't innovate and are just copying. If they decide to do something differently then people are upset because it's different and they want the same as all the others. Very strange if you ask me.

Why do you need it ever present, where a simple tap or swipe is too much of an effort to see this stuff. Also if the device screen is off, press the power button and its on the lock screen.

Why would I want to tap to see if it's there if it can just be there? It's minimum screen real estate for a critical task -- informing you of stuff that changed (new emails, IMs, any other notifications), and Microsoft tried really hard to make this as complicated and convoluted as possible.

With desktop apps, you have the taskbar... with the notification area... which provides all the same information...

For desktop users stricktly in Metro I think was his point rfirth. If someone want to never use the desktop, Metro is much more of a pain for at a glance items that they could see before without a swipe or click. (If Metro is the future, apologists need to spend a lot less time saying well, you can do that on the desktop. No ****?!)

Metro has no status bar because they aren't that far into the design state yet, its quite alpha. Even my WP7 can show basic things like time without a swipe so don't give me that 'it hides battery/network' business. Two different classes of 'info'. Oops, I forgot, we need an app for that. :rolleyes:

Cause gods forbid, especially on a desktop, that we'd like to glace at it but not interact with it (which is a much more common scenario than on handheld devices obviously).

For desktop users stricktly in Metro I think was his point rfirth. If someone want to never use the desktop, Metro is much more of a pain for at a glance items that they could see before without a swipe or click. (If Metro is the future, apologists need to spend a lot less time saying well, you can do that on the desktop. No ****?!)

Metro has no status bar because they aren't that far into the design state yet, its quite alpha. Even my WP7 can show basic things like time without a swipe so don't give me that 'it hides battery/network' business. Two different classes of 'info'.

Cause gods forbid, especially on a desktop, that we'd like to glace at it but not interact with it (which is a much more common scenario than on handheld devices obviously).

If you are in a metro app, and you want to see the clock, date, signal strength, or battery life. You will have to swipe for the charms. There will not be a permanent on screen status bar!

iOS and Android are both very successful and easy to use tablet OS's. Both have a status bar with useful icons/widgets. Why did Microsoft remove it from Win 8 Metro?

It has a whole freaking screen showing notifications. It's called the start screen.

Should they add a dedicated drawer? may be. I think the current approach still works.

I love how people are willing to defend every single illogical decision MS has made with Metro. So I'm in a Metro app, but I also have my email, Google talk, IM and all kinds of other important apps running in desktop mode. An important email or chat comes in. In Metro I'll get a toast if lucky. Then it dissapears with absolutely no indicator that something critical requires my attention.

So the defense people have is I should be hitting Win+C or swiping like a monkey every few seconds to check the status. Instead of having a few pixels out of the tons of wasted screen space dedicated to a status bar, which shows at a glance what's happening. Hell, I want to see the time, the netowrk speed, all kinds of things. But I get punished for using Metro, designed for tiny tablets and forced upon everyone.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense.

  • Like 2

[. . .] But with desktop apps that have useful information in the status bar, it makes no sense to hide it.

I disagree. I feel it makes sense for it to be hidden when one doesn't require that information. It being on show constantly contributes to the overall design being less attractive than it otherwise would be, in my view.

I love how people are willing to defend every single illogical decision MS has made with Metro. So I'm in a Metro app, but I also have my email, Google talk, IM and all kinds of other important apps running in desktop mode. An important email or chat comes in. In Metro I'll get a toast if lucky. Then it dissapears with absolutely no indicator that something critical requires my attention.

So the defense people have is I should be hitting Win+C or swiping like a monkey every few seconds to check the status. Instead of having a few pixels out of the tons of wasted screen space dedicated to a status bar, which shows at a glance what's happening. Hell, I want to see the time, the netowrk speed, all kinds of things. But I get punished for using Metro, designed for tiny tablets and forced upon everyone.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense.

I think you raise a good point there. If I miss a toast notification, how am I to know that I've received a notification, without going to the Start Screen and checking (something I'd rather not do, in certain circumstances, while I'm using certain apps)?

Having said that, I'd likely only miss a toast notification if I'm away from my PC, and if I'm away from my PC, I'll lock the screen (meaning I'll come back to the lock screen, which informs of missed/unread notifications).

I'm torn between my desire for a more attractive design and your useful idea. I guess I'd have to see in practice whether I ever become unaware of new notifications due to this. It could well be that I don't miss any, due to the toast notifications and lock screen notifications.

Edited by Calum
Added to the post.

Having said that, I'd likely only miss a toast notification if I'm away from my PC, and if I'm away from my PC, I'll lock the screen (meaning I'll come back to the lock screen, which informs of missed/unread notifications).

You can only choose 7 lock screen apps + 1 with detailed view.

You can only choose 7 lock screen apps + 1 with detailed view.

Ah yes :/ Thanks for reminding me :) I could just check the Start Screen instead of the Lock Screen when I return, though.

I'm curious to see how the OP's suggestion of some kind of status bar could look and work. Perhaps he and/or some other members could create some mock-ups :)

I love how people are willing to defend every single illogical decision MS has made with Metro. So I'm in a Metro app, but I also have my email, Google talk, IM and all kinds of other important apps running in desktop mode. An important email or chat comes in. In Metro I'll get a toast if lucky. Then it dissapears with absolutely no indicator that something critical requires my attention.

So the defense people have is I should be hitting Win+C or swiping like a monkey every few seconds to check the status. Instead of having a few pixels out of the tons of wasted screen space dedicated to a status bar, which shows at a glance what's happening. Hell, I want to see the time, the netowrk speed, all kinds of things. But I get punished for using Metro, designed for tiny tablets and forced upon everyone.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense.

Can I play devil's advocate here? I wanted android like notification drawer on WP for the longest time and never got it. I still sometimes need one but 99% of the time most notifications on WP I care about are in the first few rows and I see them without much effort (probably same as pulling down a drawer). A status bar with bunch of icons will probably clash with the overall metro minimalism (e.g. on WP the status bar is hidden most of the times). It's not blindly following Microsoft's decisions as such but more like it's their OS and sometimes the designs make sense. In Windows 8, the start screen appears and disappears crazy fast and I think it probably acts equally well. They cut off desktop apps as those are not WinRT apps.

Having said that, I'd likely only miss a toast notification if I'm away from my PC, and if I'm away from my PC, I'll lock the screen (meaning I'll come back to the lock screen, which informs of missed/unread notifications).

I'm pretty sure that if a toast notification comes while your screen is off, it will display when you turn the screen back on.

I'm pretty sure that if a toast notification comes while your screen is off, it will display when you turn the screen back on.

Oh, great. Thanks for letting me know. I'll check that whenever I can. If that is the case, I shouldn't miss toast notifications when I'm away from my PC for extended periods. Further, I didn't think when I wrote that post that if I'm away from my PC, I'll likely receive the toast notification on my phone (apps that provide notifications I'm most interested in will likely have a Windows Phone counterpart).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Waymo recalls self-driving software after cars enter closed freeway work zones by Paul Hill Waymo, the self-driving car maker owned by Alphabet – the parent company of Google –, has recalled some of its fifth-generation Automated Driving Systems (ADS). It did so after some of its cars drove through closed construction zones. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the affected vehicles were capable of driving through a closed freeway construction zone and continuing to drive at speed. The listing on the NHTSA website says that Waymo is currently developing a solution to fix this issue, but in the meantime, freeway driving is being restricted. Waymo will update its ADS software so that vehicles can detect when they can avoid entering construction zones. According to the Safety Recall Report, on April 20, 2026, Waymo’s Field Safety Committee began meetings reviewing an event from April 11, 2026, and five events from April 19, 2026, where Waymo’s autonomous vehicles didn’t recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into the pre-planned freeway construction zones. This took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Separately, on May 18, 2026, seven Waymo vehicles entered freeway lanes with active construction in the San Francisco Bay Area by driving between cones that were placed to show the lane was closed. On the back of both of these events, Waymo restricted freeway driving until it could address the issue. In June, Waymo’s Safety Board reviewed the issue and additional information related to ADS performances around construction zones; then, as a result, it decided to conduct a recall. This development is not good for Waymo as it adds to a growing list of technical hiccups its cars have experienced. Ultimately, it will lead to more scrutiny from lawmakers around the world who will be more cautious about letting autonomous vehicles on their roads without tighter regulation. For readers in areas where Waymo operates, does this news make you more wary about stepping into one of these vehicles?
    • I'm still on Windows 10 22H2 because I didn't want to deal with all the issues in Windows 11, so I waited almost a week before installing the latest Patch Tuesday update (KB5094127), I went ahead and did it, and it was a huge mistake—ever since then, my File Explorer has seen a performance drop of about 30% when transferring large files... Once again, Microsoft has outdone itself! This update cannot be uninstalled, either through the Control Panel (via Settings) or by accessing Advanced Startup Options. The only possible alternative would be to use system restore points, but I’d have to reinstall all app and driver updates (and there’s no guarantee it would work). Or there’s the “nuclear option” of a in-place repair without losing files or apps, but even then, all my customizations would be lost! Microsoft just can’t help but mess everything up! Way to go, Microsoft! But I still don’t want your c****y Windows 11!
    • Microsoft: Windows 11 could finally solve a major issue across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs by Sayan Sen While Microsoft has been trying to improve it, Windows 11 is definitely not flawless, as even today some issues are taking a year to publicly acknowledge. However, one area of trouble that may finally see much better results soon is graphics driver crashes. Work on graphics driver timeouts, also called Timeout and Detection Recovery (TDR), is not new as the latest WDDM 3.2 also has specific improvements regarding it. Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 is supported on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. However, with the upcoming version 26H2, TDR crash diagnosis could go to the next level as Microsoft is introducing a new DirectX 12 API feature called "DirectX Dump Files". Similar to how system memory dump files work when a system crashes or freezes or encounters any such major issue, DirectX Dump Files (DDF) will essentially record a snapshot of the GPU execution right at the moment a graphics-related crash or hang or freeze occurs, so that developers can better understand and diagnoze these TDR and timeout detection errors. The dump will be available as a .dxdmp file for analysis and it will be a comprehensive dump file generated with detailed insights about the hardware, drivers, Windows, as well as the affected application. This should be another welcome change in this department. Earlier at GDC 2026, when the technology was first debuted, Microsoft had shared more details regarding it. The company had explained how DDF is designed to gather data from every layer of the graphics stack into a single file, eliminating the need for developers to manually correlate logs from multiple tools. As mentioned above, the dump can contain a lot of useful details like GPU hardware state information such as register values, shader program counters, page fault virtual addresses, shader memory data, and command buffers. Alongside that, it also captures DirectX runtime and kernel information, including D3D objects, pipeline state objects, device error data, adapter details, and CPU call stacks. Microsoft says the feature has been built around two primary use cases: retail device removals and local device removals. The former allows developers to collect crash information from end users' systems in the field, while the latter helps QA teams and developers investigate issues on test machines. Developers will also be able to include up to 2 MB of custom application data through new D3D12 APIs, providing additional context for troubleshooting. In addition, Microsoft is introducing three dump collection modes ranging from zero-overhead capture, which has no runtime performance impact on supported hardware, to higher-detail modes that collect more vendor-specific debugging data. On compatible Tier 2 hardware, zero-overhead dumps will be enabled by default, meaning developers may begin receiving useful crash diagnostics without making any code changes. The table below explains the three tiers: Tier Description NO_OVERHEAD Enables crash capture with no runtime cost and is suitable for broad deployment MEDIUM_OVERHEAD Provides a balance, capturing additional diagnostic data with moderate impact HIGH_OVERHEAD Collects the most detailed GPU and driver state available, enabling deeper investigation at the cost of higher runtime overhead In terms of availability, the company expects broader release to be around the fall of 2026, which should be right around the time when Windows 11 version 26H2 lands. Right now, DirectX Dump Files are available as a preview and currently, only AMD has the compatible AgilitySDK Developer Preview driver version 26.10.07.02. You can find the official announcement post here on Microsoft's website.
    • And with SO much better perf than the laggy mess that is Files.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      BizSAR earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Jordan Smith earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      598
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      190
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      80
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      76
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      69
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!