[OFFICIAL] Windows 10 Insider Program

[Eric Veteran]

[Poll text fixed]

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

They've been making (and continue to make ) a lot of common sense changes. So that's good. :) Tabbed Explorer, Virtual Desktops, Notification Center, reduced window borders, windowed apps... all good (as OS X users will know... :p )

[Quillz]

File Explorer has tabs now?

[Max Norris]

File Explorer has tabs now?

Meh never been a fan of tabbed file managers (not that I've heard anything about it being added but *shrug* never know), really doesn't make anything more convenient -- split window though I'd like to see, that's much more useful.

[Studio384]

They've been making (and continue to make ) a lot of common sense changes. So that's good. :) Tabbed Explorer, Virtual Desktops, Notification Center, reduced window borders, windowed apps... all good (as OS X users will know... :p )

There are no tabs in Threshold's current File Explorer as far as we know...

[Boo Berry]

Tabbed file explorer?!?

[George P Global Moderator]

No tabbed file explorer yet but who knows?   It could be an option one can turn on or off in a future build maybe but for now it doesn't look to be in there.    The only app we know is getting a new UI, or we're told is, is IE12.     There's a number of things they can do still though, I want to see more things added to PC settings, advanced options you can still only find in control panel.   Then we can finally replace control panel IMO.  And why does the taskbar have it's own settings box?  I think those options/settings should be in the PC settings section as well.    Still a good number of stuff scattered around and not centralized that should be.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

sorry guys, I sort of assumed tabs were coming after Neowin had reported on it... (or did I only dream that?)   :blush:  

[Ian S.]

sorry guys, I sort of assumed tabs were coming after Neowin had reported on it... (or did I only dream that?)   :blush:  

I don't think anything has been reported, by Neowin or any other site, about File Explorer except the change in icon :)

 

 

Storage Sense is coming though.

[+Zlip792 MVC]

be careful if you have an Nvidia card and multi monitor. unless Nvidia has fixed it, having Hyper-V installed will make your extra monitor black.

 

what? i do have a laptop with Hyper-V enabled, multimonitors and a nvidia card and i don't have that issue at all...

 

I only heard one issue relevant to nvidida in Hyper-V which seems to be fixed now: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3491

[HawkMan]

what? i do have a laptop with Hyper-V enabled, multimonitors and a nvidia card and i don't have that issue at all...

 

They might have fixed it in newer drivers, or you never upgraded to the latest "big" release, though it's been like 6 months or so now. 

Why would you want a tabbed file explorer... it makes no sense. you don't have thta many explorer windows open at a time, and when you do tiling them makes a lot more sense. 

[Quillz]

Two things I would like Win9 to fix...

 

 

That monitor icon is beyond ugly and has been around since 9x. They redid the screen resolution options quite a while ago, they should model the wallpaper options after that.

 

 

Not only is that mouse icon ugly and also from the 9x era, this entire properties page is bad. Use of battleship gray clashes with the rest of the UI, and this Control Panel applet opens its own window, instead of being inline like the rest of the Control Panel applets, which also goes against the Aero guidelines Microsoft defined with Vista.

 

I just realized I could properly go on and on, because Windows is full of dozens of inconsistencies like this. These really are the things Win9 ought to fix, no matter how minor they are.

[Ian S.]

What really annoys me is the User Accounts icon in Control Panel, the ugly outdated interface of Disk Management (and other built-in OS management programs), and Performance Options, there must be a way to better organize all the performance options.

 

Also, while I was digging around in the User Accounts in CP, on the left pane I opened Change my environment variables and Configure advanced user properties to find the old battleship grey popping up in the obscure dialogue/window. Should we start a thread for just inconsistencies? 

[Quillz]

What really annoys me is the User Accounts icon in Control Panel, the ugly outdated interface of Disk Management (and other built-in OS management programs), and Performance Options, there must be a way to better organize all the performance options.

 

Also, while I was digging around in the User Accounts in CP, on the left pane I opened Change my environment variables and Configure advanced user properties to find the old battleship grey popping up in the obscure dialogue/window. Should we start a thread for just inconsistencies? 

We could, sure. And what annoys me is Microsoft surely knows these things exist, and yet seemingly has no interest whatsoever in fixing them. First impressions are important, but so is consistency. It's 2014 and I still have no idea how any given element in Windows will look or work. Will it open inline, will it spawn its own window? Will it look like it belongs in the OS or will it be a holdover from an earlier time?

 

It's like when Vista was still using the Win3x font installer. It was changed in 7, but only because Microsoft got so much ridicule for never bothering to get rid of it in the first place.

[HawkMan]

 

It's like when Vista was still using the Win3x font installer. It was changed in 7, but only because Microsoft got so much ridicule for never bothering to get rid of it in the first place.

 

It was also redundant and left in for obscure backwards compatibility, it wasn't really needed anymore. 

 

And bad icons actually server a purpose, somehow regular users don't think they should go places that don't look pretty. so it keeps idiots out of areas they shouldn't be messing.  and the sections are also used so rarely even by professionals, it doesn't serve any meaning to make them pretty, especially when they are in an UI that's being deprecated anyway. 

 

proper resource allocation, making these things "pretty" isn't it.  

 

Heck the whole screen saver is pretty deprecated as a function. 

[Quillz]

It was also redundant and left in for obscure backwards compatibility, it wasn't really needed anymore. 

 

And bad icons actually server a purpose, somehow regular users don't think they should go places that don't look pretty. so it keeps idiots out of areas they shouldn't be messing.  and the sections are also used so rarely even by professionals, it doesn't serve any meaning to make them pretty, especially when they are in an UI that's being deprecated anyway. 

 

proper resource allocation, making these things "pretty" isn't it.  

 

Heck the whole screen saver is pretty deprecated as a function. 

If bad icons are intentionally being left in for the purpose you stated, I'm sorry, that's just really, really stupid on Microsoft's part.

 

And I realize updating icons and other aspects of the OS isn't a high priority, which brings me to a point I've asked before. Why doesn't Microsoft have a team of graphic designers whose job is to provide unified icons and ensure all areas of the OS function in a similar manner, in accordance with the HIG that Microsoft updated for the Vista era? I don't think expecting an OS to look and function in a similar fashion from one app to another is too much to ask. Not to mention, changing up graphics isn't hard, given that in the past, those changes usually appeared around the RC stage.

 

I seem to actually recall that Microsoft doesn't even have a dedicated team of graphic designers. And that the various departments don't work together, like the Windows team and Office team. I hope some of that has changed, because that's quite sad. It's one of the things that Apple does every well. Yosemite isn't even released yet and already, it has updated graphics and design. So even the oldest OS X applications look and feel in place in Yosemite.

 

I guess I just find it odd that a company as large as Microsoft somehow can't balance the essentials that need to be done (obviously this comes first and foremost) with the minor issues that would really help to give Win9 a great first impression.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

 bad icons actually server a purpose 

lol ? 

i guess anything can be rationalized... think different, eh?  :rofl:

[George P Global Moderator]

lol ? 

i guess anything can be rationalized... think different, eh?  :rofl:

 

 

It could just be that while they're "bad" or old it's what people know universally for what it is, if we're talking a specific icon here or there.  Like the icon to print or the cut or to paste.  Those have hardly ever changed and are mostly if not exactly, the same in every app/OS.

[vcfan]

if they change the icons, be prepared to hear

"windows 9 icons are too different. its too confusing for consumers. im sticking to windows 7"

[Quillz]

if they change the icons, be prepared to hear

"windows 9 icons are too different. its too confusing for consumers. im sticking to windows 7"

Microsoft could personally make the operating system that John Q. wants, and he'd still somehow complain about it.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

if they change the icons 

good thing we probably won't have to worry about that  :laugh:

[SionicIon]

I really hope they just dump using the current Win32 apps and make everything an app. Sorta like how Material Design for Google is all about making a consistent design across all apps on all types of form factors. Modern UI 2.0 is their chance to do that, if they can make some changes to the guidelines, and account for all the form factors, the Modern design language would actually appeal to desktop users who think it is dull. It has evolved over the years but I think it could use a ton of improvement.

 

Imagine a Modern Internet Explorer that looks and acts like a desktop app, but on a tablet or device with a touchscreen, the app would rearrange itself to be a full-screen experience. The IE12 extensions we are hearing about could run on desktop, tablet, and phone, because it is the same Modern Internet Explorer.

 

Or an Xbox Music app that looks a lot like the one we have now but much more desktop-oriented while windowed, and action center integration on phone, tablet, and desktop.

 

The problem with Modern Windows apps is they don't look right on the desktop in windows. They look boxed up, stand out like a sore thumb. They still expect touch gestures, the app bar still is there and then it's gone. A lot more design work has to be done to the WinRT SDK APIs and Windows itself for Modern apps to coexist on the desktop. But I see the future of Windows is WinRT apps.

[neo1911]

Honestly, I don't think judging it over screenshots seems right since it is at its early stages and could possibly be completely different by the time it reaches RTM.

I am afraid, it will look exactly like that on RTM. Microsoft has poor UI taste and sense for consistency.

[Praetor]

They might have fixed it in newer drivers, or you never upgraded to the latest "big" release, though it's been like 6 months or so now. 

Why would you want a tabbed file explorer... it makes no sense. you don't have thta many explorer windows open at a time, and when you do tiling them makes a lot more sense. 

 

i'm using the latest drivers, but then again it seems they fixed the problem although I've never experienced any problem.

[HawkMan]

lol ? 

i guess anything can be rationalized... think different, eh?  :rofl:

 

stop trolling.

 

 I didn't say they left the old ones in on purpose for that. But its a positive aide effect. And again, spending resources changing stuff that's deprecated or getting deprecated is bad business