Is it just me or those Metro apps really sucks so bad?


Recommended Posts

Another point: can't seem to remove Mail, Messaging, Calendar, and People individually. They're all either there or they're all gone.

Which is annoying as I would like to use all but Messaging, but it keeps insisting on signing me into Messaging when I want to use another IM client.

The Marketplace is home for Metro and Desktop apps (I don't know why Desktop, especially since you can't buy them from the store, they redirect you to the company website). And like the iOS Apps Store and Google Play store, many of the apps are crap or useless, but sometime, you find a gem that's worth it.

The included Metro Apps in Win8 are going to get better with further update. Should be better than waiting for a Service Pack...

I think we have to give it some time.

The Marketplace is home for Metro and Desktop apps (I don't know why Desktop, especially since you can't buy them from the store, they redirect you to the company website). And like the iOS Apps Store and Google Play store, many of the apps are crap or useless, but sometime, you find a gem that's worth it.

The included Metro Apps in Win8 are going to get better with further update. Should be better than waiting for a Service Pack...

I think we have to give it some time.

For the sake of W8 adoption, I sure hope that the majority of app issues are addressed in this next set of updates scheduled to hit before GA. It seems that a lot of early adopters have been left with a bad taste in their mouths over the general reliability and usability of the apps, and if the status quo persists, the general consumer is not going to develop any better an impression.

I really want to use the Metro apps. I've even connected my Blackberry (without Data) to MS Office Outlook to Microsoft Account to Facebook in a kind of sync-loop, because I want to be able to make changes in one and have them propagate to the built-in apps. But they have so many quirks that make them hard to use!

Messaging:

- Half the messages from Facebook don't appear

- Shows FB contacts as offline (and won't receive messages from them) even if they are online on the main site and sending messages

Mail:

- Won't notify of new messages in folders other than Inbox

- Refused to download the attachment in a mail. Office Outlook downloaded it fine.

Music:

- No autoplaylists (my biggest issue, this was how I organized music)

- No independent volume control. It's either loud music or quiet system sounds.

Reader:

- Font rendering isn't as crisp as Adobe Reader

- No fit-to-screen option?

People:

- Reads information about me from the Microsoft Account instead of Facebook account and my contact card in Office Outlook

- FB feed late to update

Video:

- Seriously? No Custom filters? No MKV?

- <see Music>

Windows 8

- Half half snap please

I've brought up the complaints with the music app before, and I've gotten that it's 'by design'. Simplified by design I can accept. Crippled by design? Not so much. It seems that Microsoft is being lazy, thinking that if we don't like the Metro, we can just use desktop apps. This is creating experience segregation, which I thought they didn't want with Windows 8.

I don't think ANY of these Modern UI apps are meant to replace their big brother Desktop Versions.. only supply a touchscreen/tablet PC or user that has simple needs with a means to do something quickly and efficiently with the hardware. So by all means, you should continue to use the desktop version of the apps that do exactly all of those things they already do that you use...

TLDR: Don't try to replace your desktops apps with Modern UI apps.

I don't think ANY of these Modern UI apps are meant to replace their big brother Desktop Versions.. only supply a touchscreen/tablet PC or user that has simple needs with a means to do something quickly and efficiently with the hardware. So by all means, you should continue to use the desktop version of the apps that do exactly all of those things they already do that you use...

TLDR: Don't try to replace your desktops apps with Modern UI apps.

Why? If the Metro Apps were as good and complete as the desktop apps, we would no longer need to live in both world. And Metro Apps NEED to get better, remember Windows RT? Those tablet are not going to be able to run Desktop Apps (except for Office).

If Microsoft plan on just making "barely useful" Metro Apps, well, I don't see Surface RT having much chance in the market. Apple (iOS dev) and Google (Android devs) are not aiming for low quality simple apps on their tablet.

  • Like 1

Why? If the Metro Apps were as good and complete as the desktop apps, we would no longer need to live in both world. And Metro Apps NEED to get better, remember Windows RT? Those tablet are not going to be able to run Desktop Apps (except for Office).

If Microsoft plan on just making "barely useful" Metro Apps, well, I don't see Surface RT having much chance in the market. Apple (iOS dev) and Google (Android devs) are not aiming for low quality simple apps on their tablet.

1: Window RT isn't meant to be a standard Laptop replacement

2: Surface RT isn't in the "market" of competing with full fledged x86 apps, hence why MS is releasing a Windows Surface and Windows Surface Pro.. MS recognized this and acted accordingly.

The apps are not good enough to stand alone at this point, whether you're on a tablet or the desktop. Gotta e-mail someone in your org whose e-mail address you need to look up? If you're on the desktop, sigh and fire up Outlook to perform the LDAP search. On Windows RT? Whoops, guess you don't need that feature.

If Microsoft is looking at apps as supplements to desktop applications rather than standalone, fully functional programs, then they're going to be feeling a world of hurt as Windows RT tablets face off against more mature platforms like iPads and Android tablets.

The apps are not good enough to stand alone at this point, whether you're on a tablet or the desktop. Gotta e-mail someone in your org whose e-mail address you need to look up? If you're on the desktop, sigh and fire up Outlook to perform the LDAP search. On Windows RT? Whoops, guess you don't need that feature.

If Microsoft is looking at apps as supplements to desktop applications rather than standalone, fully functional programs, then they're going to be feeling a world of hurt as Windows RT tablets face off against more mature platforms like iPads and Android tablets.

In Mail, I have my Exchange account setup.... I start typing a name, and it says "Search blahblah Directory" with my exchange address below it, I click that and bam, it shows all the contacts in our Exchange OAB/GAL. Just FYI.

And I wouldn't compare ANY of the iPad and Android apps to Desktop apps either.. Plus these are default apps that come with the system, there will be plenty of 3rd party alternatives with more features.. It's like when Windows shipped with Wordpad.. well you don't have to use it, you can buy/download any of the other various other Word Processors/Suites out there that are better.

I don't think ANY of these Modern UI apps are meant to replace their big brother Desktop Versions.. only supply a touchscreen/tablet PC or user that has simple needs with a means to do something quickly and efficiently with the hardware. So by all means, you should continue to use the desktop version of the apps that do exactly all of those things they already do that you use...

TLDR: Don't try to replace your desktops apps with Modern UI apps.

The point of Microsoft creating Windows 8 in the first place is to unify the interface of desktop and mobile users so that it could leverage its desktop power in the tablet space. That means we all get the start screen. We all get the same apps that sync to our data over the cloud. We get the same experience across all our devices.

People hated the fact that we got a tablet interface shoved onto our desktops. Me? I don't mind. I just don't want a half-baked any-sort-of-interface. Why should I have to use Outlook to receive attachments if the Mail app worked properly at all? What if I'm on an RT tablet and I have to use this broken Mail app? Wouldn't it be better if I could just use the Mail app on both my desktop and tablet so I can get used to an interface?

Microsoft wants us to use Metro apps in order to create this unified experience. The desktop is for backwards compatibility, not for the future. By forcing me to look at the desktop for things that Metro should provide, they are defeating this goal of unification.

Power user and tech geek are two different things. Power user's need things to work and work well without tweaking things or "working around" functionality. If you're used to doing things a way it's hard to change, and you have to be able to justify that change. For some people Win 8 will disrupt their workflow.

In this field, change happens whether you want it to or not. It's not something you can justify on your own, unless you wish to remain behind, and eventually forgotten.

I don't know the future and I don't know what Microsoft is planning, but if the future include the removal of the "Desktop mode", well, Metro Apps will have to get much better.

After all, is it just what Microsoft wants? Unified experience on all device? So why would we still need a "Desktop", do we have one on a phone?

Consistency is something MS would want to reach.

Let's talk about Apple iOS and OSX, the included apps are getting as powerful on iOS as they are on OSX. That's what MS should be aiming at.

I don't know the future and I don't know what Microsoft is planning, but if the future include the removal of the "Desktop mode", well, Metro Apps will have to get much better.

After all, is it just what Microsoft wants? Unified experience on all device? So why would we still need a "Desktop", do we have one on a phone?

Consistency is something MS would want to reach.

Let's talk about Apple iOS and OSX, the included apps are getting as powerful on iOS as they are on OSX. That's what MS should be aiming at.

This... I want a media player I can do full ID3 tag editing ( I'm completely OCD about tags!!!) EQ, can play .mkv videos, proper playlist support, supports .flac files, headphone DSP, queue next, show real time bitrates, etc....

This... I want a media player I can do full ID3 tag editing ( I'm completely OCD about tags!!!) EQ, can play .mkv videos, proper playlist support, supports .flac files, headphone DSP, queue next, show real time bitrates, etc....

These are the last things the media player devs have on their mind. :(

These are the last things the media player devs have on their mind. :(

They wouldnt know a proper media player if it smacked them upside the head and "never gonna give you up" started playing out of thier ears....

  • Like 3

I don't think ANY of these Modern UI apps are meant to replace their big brother Desktop Versions.. only supply a touchscreen/tablet PC or user that has simple needs with a means to do something quickly and efficiently with the hardware. So by all means, you should continue to use the desktop version of the apps that do exactly all of those things they already do that you use...

TLDR: Don't try to replace your desktops apps with Modern UI apps.

But that's exactly the issue - if they're not better then why do we need them? If Microsoft is going to put so much effort into a new design philosophy for applications then it should at least be better than what we had before, at least in some meaningful ways. On the desktop that just isn't true, as functionality is limited, multi-tasking is limited, the use of the screen is inefficient and requiring you to use the Windows Store is restrictive and has anti-competitive implications. I can certainly understand their appeal on tablets/laptops with touch screens but they are poorly suited to a desktop environment.

The Music app is the best example of how infuriating, poorly featured and poorly designed Metro apps are. When you open a music file you entire screen turns bright orange for the intro screen, before filling your screen with a giant pause button and album art for random artists. Say I want to now add a second track to the playlist from the folder I was just in, I switch to the desktop via the top left corner and then my music drops to a virtually inaudible level. Great. Then you realise you can't actually add a song from your folder into a Metro app - you can't right click to add it (no option); you can't click and drag onto a Metro app. From a usability perspective it's an unmitigated disaster. So, now I'm in the Music app and trying to add a song to the playlist... but I can't find any option for it. I right-click to bring up the menu but there's nothing there about a playlist - perhaps opening a file will give you an option to add it to the playlist? Nope. Maybe it's in the charm bar? I had a look... nope, can't see anything there.

I've been using computers for over twenty years and I have absolutely no idea how to use playlists with the built-in Music app. Even if the functionality is there - which I have to assume it is - it's presented to the user in a thoroughly unhelpful way. The interaction with the desktop is appalling, as there pretty much isn't any. On the desktop I can easily drag files from one app to another. Metro? Ha! There's share functionality but it's greatly restricted. How about changing an ID3 tag? Nope. In iTunes it's easy to do. How about opening a music video while I'm in Music? Nope, even though iTunes plays them; Music doesn't even present you with an option to open a video with the Video app. I've been using Windows 8 as my primary operating system for over 6 months, so this isn't just about learning new systems - this is about them being obtuse and poorly designed.

  • Like 3

The Music app is the best example of how infuriating, poorly featured and poorly designed Metro apps are. When you open a music file you entire screen turns bright orange for the intro screen, before filling your screen with a giant pause button and album art for random artists. Say I want to now add a second track to the playlist from the folder I was just in, I switch to the desktop via the top left corner and then my music drops to a virtually inaudible level. Great. Then you realise you can't actually add a song from your folder into a Metro app - you can't right click to add it (no option); you can't click and drag onto a Metro app. From a usability perspective it's an unmitigated disaster. So, now I'm in the Music app and trying to add a song to the playlist... but I can't find any option for it. I right-click to bring up the menu but there's nothing there about a playlist - perhaps opening a file will give you an option to add it to the playlist? Nope. Maybe it's in the charm bar? I had a look... nope, can't see anything there.

Open Music app. Scroll to the left and click the My Music header (Ctrl C, Preferences allows you to open your music collection by default). Select desired songs by normal means or by sequential right-clicking. This will also cue the menu, which allows you to select Play, add to Now Playing, or add to existing/create a new playlist.

I think the major mistake here is that the Music app doesn't immediately take you to your music. The splash screen yields to...ads. Microsoft, HELLO? You're presenting a method to BUY content when the user wants to PLAY content. By default. What other application dumps you into the middle of a scrollable page to in order to hide the content that the user first wants to get to? How much sense is there in loading up Neowin and having your browser default-jump you to the middle of the page? Ever open a book to find that the first printed page is number 173? Do you ever open your fridge and want to dig through a pile of coupon books in order to get to your food?

Yes, Metro is neat. I like Live Tiles and the clean design philosophy. It can go far. Some design choices are, however, clearly hostile to the consumer. That's my feedback.

  • Like 2

I like a lot of the apps, but I've definitely had reliability issues, not so much with crashing (that does happen, but mostly with third-party apps), but with notifications and tile number badges getting out of sync (WTF is with the Store telling me about updates that don't exist?) Performance used to be pretty bad, but they've gradually gotten faster over time and mostly start up pretty quick now. I've definitely never had Mail take anywhere near half a minute. Though it does bug me in the Picker control when something like SkyDrive, or the People contact picker, has to put up a splash screen when you switch to it ... it's only a couple seconds, but having a splash screen and having it take any noticeable time at all breaks the flow in that situation, makes the picker system feel a lot less "magical" than it might otherwise feel ...

Has anyone purchased a Metro app from Windows 8 app store? Is payment getting accepted now?

I liked that element mixing and matching to create the world game Doodle God.

I tried a few days ago and it didn't went along.

It does if you're not an idiot and are technically savvy. My machines work top notch because I know how to take care of them and I know how to optimize them to utilize their full potential. So yes, if a particular software (or OS in this case) doesn't function properly, chances are it has nothing to do with my machine as surprise, the only thing that's changed is said software ;)

That being said, that doesn't mean something wasn't changed in the OS to force me to have to tweak and optimize everything all over again...but that's really besides the point.

Ideally, that is how it should work, but things like bad drivers tend to bring good hardware down a notch lol

Nothing works always these days ;p

Ideally, that is how it should work, but things like bad drivers tend to bring good hardware down a notch lol

Nothing works always these days ;p

Absolutely. Drivers are never ruled out, however that is still related to something that has nothing to do with the machine. Which seems to be running theory on nearly all Windows 8 issues according to the fanboys. The "you're doing it wrong" era...thanks Steve Jobs!

  • Like 2
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • WhatsApp is getting usernames, and you can reserve your preferred one now by Fiza Ali Sharing your phone number isn't always something you want to do, especially with people you've just met. Whether it's someone from a class, a local community group, or a sports team chat, handing over your number can feel like giving away more personal information than necessary. That's exactly the problem WhatsApp is trying to solve with its upcoming usernames feature. The company has announced that users can now reserve a unique WhatsApp username ahead of the feature's wider rollout later this year. Once usernames become available, they'll let people connect without revealing their phone numbers. It's a change that makes a lot of sense for group chats. Right now, everyone in the group can see your phone number. With usernames enabled, that won't necessarily be the case when someone contacts you for the first time. WhatsApp says it's opening username reservations early because more than three billion people use the app, meaning plenty of people are likely to want the same usernames. Reserving one now gives users a better chance of securing the name they actually want before the feature launches more broadly. If your preferred username is already taken, WhatsApp will also offer a built-in username generator to suggest available alternatives. The feature isn't only aimed at individual users. Creators, businesses, and organisations will be able to claim the same username they already use on Instagram or Facebook, making it easier to keep a consistent identity across Meta's apps. Furthermore, privacy is a big part of how WhatsApp is introducing usernames. There won't be a public directory where people can browse or search for usernames. Instead, people will need to know your exact username before they can start a conversation with you. Additionally, users can also choose to enable a username key, which adds another layer of control by requiring people to enter that key before sending a message. Once the feature rolls out, people who choose to use a username will no longer have their phone number shown when messaging a person or business for the first time. If you want to reserve a username, make sure you're running the latest version of WhatsApp, then head to Settings > Account > Username. The tech giant says usernames will roll out gradually over the coming months, and users will receive an in-app notification when the feature becomes available in their country.
    • When I think about a network, there are really two aspects, the hardware and the wiring. So here is what I would do for both. Wiring: Use Cat6A for the patch panel, outlets, and all structured cables (cables installed in walls). Run plenty of Wireless Access Point (WAP) cables, as a general rule, assume a signal can only pass through 2-3 walls and can't pass through a floor (that is conservative, but trust me on this if you want strong WiFi)  Cat6 patch cables are fine for now if you don't plan to run 10gig, those are easy to replace later if needed. Run OS2 single-mode fiber to anywhere you think you may have a server or sub-switch. (yes, single-mode for everything on a small network, don't mess with multimode unless you have entire racks of servers and that minor module cost and power savings will matter). If you really want to future proof, also run fiber to any high density WAP locations, it is likely that WiFi 8 WAPs will push the limits of 10g. Run 6-12 pairs of single-mode fiber between your MDF and the building's MDF, even if you only need 1 or 2 pairs now, those extra pairs will pay off down the road. Hardware: (its easy to say "get all the features incase you need them", so instead of futureproofing, I am going to take approach of suggesting areas worth investing in, and areas you can save money). Don't overspend thinking you need every feature on every port. You don't need 10g on every port, you don't need PoE on every port. Don't overspend on redundancy either, unless you are ready to buy two of everything, don't waste money buying two of some things and not others. Dual power supplies are worthwhile, but probably not HA or multi-path redundancy.  Get 1 "distribution layer" switch that your router/firewall will connect to as well as all your access layer switches below. This should be a fully managed 10g+ switch with a combination of copper and SPF ports, a few 25g uplink ports are nice for this switch. Given that you said it is a small network, I suggest also using that distribution layer switch for servers and WAPs, meaning it will need PoE. Speaking of wireless, get good professional tri-band WAPs, and either turn on the band stirring options, or limit 2.4 to an IoT only SSID. This will provide a solid WiFi capable nearly everything but the highest of bandwidth clients...you could even consider skipping wiring workstations depending on usage. Access layer switch for workstations and printers can be cheaper switches, 2.5g is a good sweet spot between price and future proofing, but even 1g is fine for most individual clients (the kind that could probably be fine on WiFi). You can consider saving a little on access layer switches by only getting 1 PoE switch for whatever needs it (remember your WAPs are connecting to the distribution switch, not here), and non-PoE for your workstations, because desk phones are falling out of favor. You can also save money here by not buying managed switches if you don't need them--but really do some soul searching there, if you go this route, then anything that isn't on your workstation VLAN would either need to be connected to the distribution switch, or its own access layer switch. Also, don't feel like you need a fancy fabric stacking switches for your access layer, that is the point of the higher-end distribution layer, to remove the need for things like that at this level. Home Hardware: I'm realizing the above assumed an office setting, if this if for your house and home lab then the above still applies, but you'll probably want everything managed and PoE, just because, but you probably also don't need multiple access layer switches. If your total port count is below 24, just skip separating distribution layer and access layer and just get one nice switch with the features you want. If you are at the point of considering a 48-port switch, I would instead get a nice high-end distribution switch for things that need it, and cheaper access layer switches with specs based on the needs of connected devices. For home use, don't worry about home running every device to the main switch, there is nothing wrong with running sub-switches for your media areas and office, those essentially become your access layer, just look for sub-switches with a 10g uplink so sharing bandwidth isn't an issue. Just make sure you always connect them to your distribution/main switch, don't daisy chain, the path should never have more steps than Client>Access>Distribution>Firewall>Internet.
    • Google Meet brings Gemini note-taking to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers by Karthik Mudaliar Google's Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature inside Google Meet is now available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The features work on Google Meet for web as well as on mobile, and Google says that subscribers can use it for meetings they host in many supported languages. As the name suggests, "Take notes for me" allows Gemini to listen to a meeting, generate a summary, identify action items, and save the notes as a Google Doc in the user’s Drive. After the meeting, the organizer receives an email recap with the summary and action items, while the notes can also be attached to the related Calendar event depending on the meeting setup and sharing settings. The feature isn't automatically turned on for everyone, though. Google says that all meeting participants are notified when note-taking is turned on, and users can start it from the pencil icon in Meet or enable it for future calls through Meet’s meeting records settings. For work or school accounts, administrators can also control whether the feature is available and may require explicit participant consent for note-taking, recording, or transcription features. The feature first launched back in 2024, when it was available just for selected Workspace users. Over the years, Google added refinements and more options, including the ability to enable it when scheduling meetings via Google Calendar. Google's support docs say that the feature currently supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, but only one language at a time. Meetings with multiple spoken languages are not currently supported, and Google recommends using the tool for meetings between 15 minutes and eight hours. The new feature makes Google Meet closer to its rivals that have AI tools already built in. Microsoft Teams has recently started offering Copilot and intelligent recap features that summarize meetings, surface highlights, and help with follow-ups, while Zoom’s AI Companion can also generate meeting summaries from desktop and mobile meetings.
    • GnuCash 5.16 by Razvan Serea GnuCash is a personal and small business finance application, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It’s designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. GnuCash allows you to track your income and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, monitor stock portfolios and manage your small business finances. It is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. GnuCash can keep track of your personal finances in as much detail as you prefer. If you are just starting out, use GnuCash to keep track of your checkbook. You may then decide to track cash as well as credit card purchases to better determine where your money is being spent. When you start investing, you can use GnuCash to help monitor your portfolio. Buying a vehicle or a home? GnuCash will help you plan the investment and track loan payments. If your financial records span the globe, GnuCash provides all the multiple-currency support you need. Between 5.15 and 5.16, the following bugfixes were accomplished: Bug 421610 - RFE: Include logical dates for View->Filter by "date range"The Select Range section of the Date tab of the register's Filter By dialog box is changed to provide relative, specific date, or days ago options for the start and end of the filter range. The Show number of days item label is changed to Show from days ago to better reflect what it does. Bug 436105 - esc key not working as expected in register: Enable the escape key to cancel a field edit. Bug 797384 - Gnucash doesn't handle commodity prices with big numerator/denominator properly. Bug 798004 - Next gen UI for stock transactions Bug 799314 - Add "enter now" option in scheduled transaction editor. tab to allow users to select the scheduled transactions to be included in a “Since Last Run…” window. If there are no instances of a selected transaction triggered by today’s date, the next instance is triggered. Bug 799751 - autocomplete crash Bug 799759 - Users can't Enable entries via Checkboxes on Scheduled Transactions PageAllow the Enabled box in the list of scheduled transactions to be operated instead of having to open the transaction editor dialog and change the Enabled checkbox. Also added use of the Name column as the secondary column sort for all the other columns. Bug 799762 - Poor handling of cases where hidden/placeholder accounts are used in the account register Bug 799766 - Double line preference not respected in search register Bug 799767 - POST /accounts in bindings/python/example_scripts/rest-api is broken Bug 799777 - `xaccSplitSetParent`: reparenting a committed split silently drops its KVP slots (online_id, cap-gains links) Other changes & improvements: Numeric values may now be selected to copy in the Accounts page. Add new Finance::Quote source Finnhub.io: Free API key (personal/non-professional use) available at https://finnhub.io. Set FINNHUB_API_KEY environment variable to API key to use this source. As of June 2026, free tier API limit is 60 API calls/minute. The Investment Lots report has new optional columns for Computed Annual Growth Rate. Python Bindings: Improved translation of primary object (Account, Transaction, Split, etc.) so that they can be treated as normal Python objects. This is accomplished with SWIG magic so no existing code is obsoleted. Python Bindings: Better conversion of GLists to Python lists. Python Bindings: Destroy the QofSession in the Python Session dtor to prevent leaving the database locked. [engine] Add first-class online_id accessors for Split and Account and make them available to Python bindings, removing the unused Transaction online_id property. Improve C++ implementation of QofBook. Correct the Doxygen doc for qof_instance_get/set_kvp. [gnc-log-replay.cpp] fix incorrect guid dump Add some Boost library requirements needed by libgnucash-guile to CMakeLists.txt so that missing feature will fail at configure time. Use Compile-time Regular Expressions instead of std::regex in gnc-filepath-utils.cpp and instead of boost::regex in the CSV importer, with the CTRE v3.11.1 header added to borrowed [gnc-filepath-utils.cpp] null check char* arguments Add ChartJS licenses. Removed AEX from list of commodities. euronext.com is now using JS based anti-webscraping. [report-core] always offer options summary in reports. This is useful to debug reports. The Add options summary option is removed because it's no longer optional. Remove remaining obsolete IMContext from sheet Fix blurry text in HiDPI offscreen-rendered widgets Add port field to database connection dialog: The convention of appending the port number after the host isn't obvious. When editing a split in the register treat the account as being changed only if it isn't the one selected before editing instead of if the user performed an edit Return immediately from qof_book_destroy if hash_of_collections is null. If qof_book_destroy is called on a QofBook* freshly created with qof_book_new (usually because it was used to create a session that now must be destroyed) it would try to empty the non-existent hash tables, crashing. Clean up Flathub metadata to solve warnings at flatpak build time. Be consistent in naming GncPluginPage and GncPluginPageRegister HTML: Remove unimplemented function declarations. [gnc-html.cpp] remove unused buggy string conversion functions Convert libgnc-html to C++ Apply -Wall -Werr -Wmissing-prototypes to C++ compilation on Windows and fix the resulting errors. New and Updated Translations: Arabic, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, German, Finnish, Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian-Bokmal, Spanish Download: GnuCash 5.16 | 176.0 MB (Open Source) Links: GnuCash Home page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Microsoft finally launches WSL Containers in public preview by David Uzondu Microsoft has announced that WSL containers, a feature that allows developers to run Linux containers natively inside Windows without the need for Docker Desktop, is now available in public preview several weeks after Microsoft previewed it at Build 2026. To use the new container feature, you first have to install the latest pre-release version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux by running a quick update command in your terminal: wsl --update --pre-release After installing, you'd get access to the new Linux container CLI (wslc.exe) and the programmable API. Microsoft said that the CLI has a "familiar format" that matches the toolsets developers already use every day. If you know standard Docker commands, your muscle memory will translate directly to wslc.exe, which even features a built-in alias called container.exe. You can quickly run a full Ubuntu KDE desktop container by exposing ports, or pass your graphics card straight into a machine learning environment to run PyTorch workloads. Passing the --gpus all flag inside the run command instantly links your hardware. Image via Microsoft As for the API, developers can now embed Linux container operations directly inside native Windows applications without exposing the command line to users. The team integrated the API directly into MSBuild and CMake, so developers can define container steps directly in project files. Apart from bringing the CLI and API into public preview, Microsoft also said that it's working on a new default file system called virtiofs to speed up file transfer rates between Windows and Linux. Microsoft also introduced an experimental networking mode named consomme, which resolves compatibility issues with corporate VPNs by routing Linux network traffic straight through Windows. One thing to note about WSL containers is that they don't run in your standard WSL distributions; instead, every application and CLI session spawns its own lightweight Hyper-V utility VM in the background. This basically reduces the chances of one app snooping on the container of another app.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      535
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      269
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!