[OFFICIAL] Windows 10 Insider Program

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

They desperately need to fix searching: Use an app like Xbox Music, select search from the Charms menu and you get a (seemingly) systemwide search sidebar that returns web results once you press enter. I hope when 10 is released there'll be one consistent and obvious way to search within apps, and one consistent and obvious way to perform a  systemwide search (including, optionally, web results).

 

Of course, the whole Charms concept is obviously in flux, so I'm very hopeful here...

[Quillz]

Anyone send in feedback about being able to set the title bar text color yet? 

Absolutely. I've "Me Too'd" every post that brought it up, and submitted my own, too.

 

What they need to bring back is the customization options from Win7 and earlier. Not just title bar text color, but it also let you change the font type, size, etc.

 

Also... If you change the window chrome to pure white, will the Modern app title bars turn to black?

[Quillz]

What if you expand the width of the legacy calculator ?

 

windows changes how the text is aligned on desktop apps based on the width of the window, centered edge to edge when it's wide enough, cntered between the widgets when it gets to narrow. 

This is a good point that I forgot to consider.

[George P Global Moderator]

Absolutely. I've "Me Too'd" every post that brought it up, and submitted my own, too.

 

What they need to bring back is the customization options from Win7 and earlier. Not just title bar text color, but it also let you change the font type, size, etc.

 

Also... If you change the window chrome to pure white, will the Modern app title bars turn to black?

 

When a modern app isn't in focus/selected, it's title bar is white or light grey'ish I suppose, and the text changes from white to black.  I haven't selected white as the color so I don't know what will happen but it seems like it'd change from white to black depending on the color of the bar.

[Quillz]

When a modern app isn't in focus/selected, it's title bar is white or light grey'ish I suppose, and the text changes from white to black.  I haven't selected white as the color so I don't know what will happen but it seems like it'd change from white to black depending on the color of the bar.

That's interesting. So Modern apps can automatically change the title bar text dynamically to always ensure proper contrast. Either update desktop/legacy apps to do the same, or bring back the old customization options.

[Stoffel]

Has anybody figured out how to use Snap Assist to snap more then 2 windows side by side?

What if I want 2 apps on top of each other on the left and one taking up the right side of the screen

 

Or am I expecting to much right now?

[Quillz]

Nope, I was wrong. Microsoft solved one issue and introduced another:

 

 

Before, black window chrome made title bar text unreadable. Now, white window chrome makes title bar text unreadable.

 

So I was wrong... Modern apps need to dynamically adjust the title bar contrast, or just let us have those old customization options make where we could set it manually.

 

EDIT: Nope, they do change dynamically. I played around with some more color settings, eventually settling on a teal-ish tone, and opened the Modern Calculator. The title bar text changed to black! So clearly there's a glitch going on here where it's not properly changing with a white title bar, because it does appear to be working correctly with black.

[Sszecret Veteran]

Has anybody figured out how to use Snap Assist to snap more then 2 windows side by side?

What if I want 2 apps on top of each other on the left and one taking up the right side of the screen

 

Or am I expecting to much right now?

 

If you have 2 windows snapped, and want to snap the 3rd for example, you have to drag it really close to the lower left corner (a little above the start button). Only way I got it to work. :)

[insanelyapple]

Since people were posting links to the ISO I have a little silly question: is there a standard product key for Technical Preview or it's possible to install OS without it/provide later?

[Sszecret Veteran]

Since people were posting links to the ISO I have a little silly question: is there a standard product key for Technical Preview or it's possible to install OS without it/provide later?

 

AFAIK, the preview comes pre-activated, without any need to insert any serial number during or post-install. 

[Stoffel]

Since people were posting links to the ISO I have a little silly question: is there a standard product key for Technical Preview or it's possible to install OS without it/provide later?

 

It never asked for a product key when I installed it in a VM

It did mention I had to activate, but that problem sorted itself out once I managed to get my VM internet access

If you have 2 windows snapped, and want to snap the 3rd for example, you have to drag it really close to the lower left corner (a little above the start button). Only way I got it to work. :)

 

Yup that seems to work

 

I've been trying some of this but always with the Store App open and that one doesn't seem to resize properly yet

If I use IE and Explorer it works just fine

[George P Global Moderator]

It never asked for a product key when I installed it in a VM

It did mention I had to activate, but that problem sorted itself out once I managed to get my VM internet access

 

Yup that seems to work

 

I've been trying some of this but always with the Store App open and that one doesn't seem to resize properly yet

If I use IE and Explorer it works just fine

 

 

Modern apps don't resize right at this point but that should be fixed in a future build.   Anyways, depending on where you want to "stack" the apps, top left or bottom left, and so on, that's the corner of the screen you have to drag that app to.   So when I have two apps snapped side by side if I want to have two on top of each other on the left then I take the left app and drag it towards the top left corner and so on.

 

There could also be a keyboard shortcut for this but I don't know it.

 

*Edit*   Ok I figured it out, it's winkey + any of the arrow keys depending on where you want the app to snap.  

 

So if you want to snapped to the left half the winkey+left arrow.   If an app is already snapped to the left then if you do winkey+ up arrow it will snap to the top left of it and so on.  Give it a try.

[Quillz]

Also, I think from an aesthetic standpoint, there should be a 1px border on all sides of the window controls. Having them completely flush doesn't look as good, because the colors often won't contrast well. Having that tiny 1px border all around not only makes the window look more consistent, but it also puts a tiny bit of contrast between the bright blue and red that are currently being used. Same thing when going fullscreen... Have that 1px border all around.

 

And I think the Modern window controls do look better than the desktop/legacy ones.

 

Also, I've noticed that since Win8, it doesn't appear to be possible to turn off desktop icon shadowing anymore. I use a flat color wallpaper, so I don't need the drop shadows, but even when disabling it via the performance options, it still appears to render.

 

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Gave it another try on the Win10 TP, and it seems drop shadows can be properly turned off for icon labels now. But I swear it's not working in Win8 for me. I also turned off window drop shadows for the time being, really completes the "flat look," IMO.

[Studio384]

Absolutely. I've "Me Too'd" every post that brought it up, and submitted my own, too.

 

What they need to bring back is the customization options from Win7 and earlier. Not just title bar text color, but it also let you change the font type, size, etc.

 

Also... If you change the window chrome to pure white, will the Modern app title bars turn to black?

No, the bars keep the color you selected, the text however turns black instead of white when the window is active (otherwise it's always black).

[Quillz]

Yeah, I found that out on my own (ie title bar text appears to change dynamically), I worded my original post incorrectly.

 

Also, my personal Win10 mission is to get everything about this panel changed:

 

 

Every single thing about this panel annoys me. The fact it's not inline, the fact it's using an ugly icon from a bad perspective, the fact it still has the battleship gray background. I've submitted feedback, and I really hope this gets resolved by the final release. For some reason, this has annoyed me so much since Vista.

[PGHammer]

Also, I think from an aesthetic standpoint, there should be a 1px border on all sides of the window controls. Having them completely flush doesn't look as good, because the colors often won't contrast well. Having that tiny 1px border all around not only makes the window look more consistent, but it also puts a tiny bit of contrast between the bright blue and red that are currently being used. Same thing when going fullscreen... Have that 1px border all around.

 

And I think the Modern window controls do look better than the desktop/legacy ones.

 

Also, I've noticed that since Win8, it doesn't appear to be possible to turn off desktop icon shadowing anymore. I use a flat color wallpaper, so I don't need the drop shadows, but even when disabling it via the performance options, it still appears to render.

 

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Gave it another try on the Win10 TP, and it seems drop shadows can be properly turned off for icon labels now. But I swear it's not working in Win8 for me. I also turned off window drop shadows for the time being, really completes the "flat look," IMO.

That is very much background-dependent - as it should be.  Borderless windows are heavily reliant on the window behind them for contrasting purposes - that is not unique to Windows.  If the background is a contrasting color (and the foreground window is borderless), you aren't going to have any issue - if the background window is the SAME color as a borderless foreground window, you WILL have issues.  Adobe Reader's installer (in Windows 8.1) uses a black bordered window - a "branding" choice that Adobe uses for all their Web installers and updaters - they use it with Flash Player as well, for example); however, in the Technical Preview, the new "borderless" style takes command, and with a generic white background.  (It's a bit of a face-slap - it remind the user that this is NOT Windows 8.1; however, some of us apparently need that wake-up call.)

AFAIK, the preview comes pre-activated, without any need to insert any serial number during or post-install. 

Apparently all it awaits is Internet access - it auto-activated in every install I've done (two VMs and two bare-metal).  We have seen this behavior before - with the Windows 8 Developer Preview.

[9]

it wouldn't cost Microsoft much to give windows 6.nein free to Xenix users.

[Quillz]

Did some more testing with the desktop icon drop shadows... And it's definitely a glitch, the same glitch that affected Win8. It seems to respect the toggle that turns them off the first time, but as soon as your wallpaper changes, the drop shadows return, regardless of the toggle you've set, and then will be seemingly stuck forever with drop shadows, even if you turn the toggle off and on again. Reported the bug via the feedback app, hopefully it gets fixed.

 

EDIT: Logging out and back in will restore the lack of drop shadows, as it will refresh whatever toggles you've set via the "adjust the appearance of Windows" dialog box. But regardless, there's still a glitch that's occurring.

[9]

 

Also, I think from an aesthetic standpoint

(snip)

Also... desktop icon shadowing ....

 

if these OS corporations really cared about UX consistency, then when the device has gyroscopic sensors and geo location, the shadows would match the real world shadows surrounding the device.

And we all know Steve Jobs that would have invented pinch zoom shadows.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

Every single thing about this panel annoys me.  

You're not the only one. But I have a feeling we're finally going to see a bit of progress in that area (hopefully). I'm encouraged by what happened with the window border.

[Quillz]

  

if these OS corporations really cared about UX consistency, then when the device has gyroscopic sensors and geo location, the shadows would match the real world shadows surrounding the device.

And we all know Steve Jobs that would have invented pinch zoom shadows.

Funnily enough, I think iOS 6's Music app did that with the volume slider, the reflections off the knob responded to the accelerometer.

 

Also, completely unrelated to what I quoted, but I find the Windows Feedback app really messy. It says how many follow-ups there are, but you have no way of reading them, and you can't seem to view screenshots. I really wonder how Microsoft sorts it out on their end, as there are already thousands of duplicate entries, as well as many complaints that are just flat out wrong (about not being able to hide the Recycle Bin icon, for example).

I've also noticed a lot of complaints in the feedback app regarding right-aligned menus, but I haven't found this anywhere. Does anyone know what the issue is regarding that?

[HawkMan]

I really wonder how Microsoft sorts it out on their end,

 

Easy, they pick the 10 or so most popular ones and respond/fix them then they trash the rest as they are either noise, known, fixed, not an issue, not a bug or found by the internal QnA team using proper use cases so they have proper and accurate reproduction guides.

[Quillz]

Easy, they pick the 10 or so most popular ones and respond/fix them then they trash the rest as they are either noise, known, fixed, not an issue, not a bug or found by the internal QnA team using proper use cases so they have proper and accurate reproduction guides.

I suppose. I've come across some feedback that already have over 100 "Me Too's," and almost all of them are the same complaints people had about Windows 8. Indicating Microsoft probably knew about those issues but chose not to address them.

[Ian W]

Thankfully, it seems that the older balloon notifications are being phased out for the Windows 8 toasts. Hopefully we can get some additional features for notifications.

[Dot Matrix]

I really wish it was possible to remove the archaic list on the left side of the menu, and replace it with more live tiles. All Apps on the Start Menu is a ridiculous joke, the more apps you have installed.

 

It's like Microsoft brought back all the worst elements of the Start Menu that made it a PITA to begin with.

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully, it seems that the older balloon notifications are being phased out for the Windows 8 toasts. Hopefully we can get some additional features for notifications.

Possibly early notification center workings. (Y) Thankfully no more annoying balloons.