[OFFICIAL] Windows 10 Insider Program

[Mugwump00]

Nothing seen or heard today of 'Metro 2.0', interactive tiles or any API/feature enhacements for Modern apps then?

 

Seems there was a lot not covered - when is the next 'discussion' event?

[Clirion]

I mean, don't you find the inability to 'touch' the UI on external monitor jarring?  In my experience with the admittedly little desktop stuff I do on my RT, I've rarely needed the trackpad.  I imagine using using a Pro with an external display kind of forces you back to the mouse, compramising the Surface experience somewhat?

 

Not jarring at all.  I just shift to mouse on the 27" monitor vs touching it.  It is not jarring, just another method of getting there.   Input is Input in my world.  Mouse,  IBM erasure joystick (You would think i could remember what the actual part name is since I have done this so long), MAC Magic Mouse, Track Pads.  They are all just a means to an end.  No jolt or anything.   The "jaring" was before you could set the start screen to the same as the desktop background.  Once they became the same for me, it was just icons up, just as if I hit the LaunchPad in IOS. 

[Mugwump00]

Not jarring at all.  I just shift to mouse on the 27" monitor vs touching it.  It is not jarring, just another method of getting there.   Input is Input in my world.  Mouse,  IBM erasure joystick (You would think i could remember what the actual part name is since I have done this so long), MAC Magic Mouse, Track Pads.  They are all just a means to an end.  No jolt or anything.   The "jaring" was before you could set the start screen to the same as the desktop background.  Once they became the same for me, it was just icons up, just as if I hit the LaunchPad in IOS. 

 

If your external monitor was touch-enabled, how much would you use your mouse?  Do you think you would grow to use it less?

 

After my brief experiences of SP3, I feel touch beginning to feel more obvious than going for the trackpad.

[Quillz]

Couple things i notice with the UI.

 

Start Menu is now transparent

New Icons for Action menu

New icon for volume

New icons for settings app

 

Of course MS isn't going to show\focus on the UI, because its going to change.

I do hope they keep those folder icons, though, I like them.

[Clirion]

If your external monitor was touch-enabled, how much would you use your mouse?  Do you think you would grow to use it less?

 

After my brief experiences of SP3, I feel touch beginning to feel more obvious than going for the trackpad.

 

Probably not, unless I was standing and demonstrating something.  Then I would use the touchscreen.  I am not very likely to bend over to reach a touchscreen in my normal setup.

[George P Global Moderator]

Nothing seen or heard today of 'Metro 2.0', interactive tiles or any API/feature enhacements for Modern apps then?

 

Seems there was a lot not covered - when is the next 'discussion' event?

We don't know yet outside of build in late April, could they have talked about more? Sure they could've but I'm betting the key here was about universal apps, office and so on, more than the OS itself.

 

They did add things people asked for though, like being able to toggle the start menu full screen if you want.  Other little things should show up over time, GDC is in March and they said they'll talk about more Windows 10 gaming there.

[The_Observer]

is the search bar there forever or can you remove it.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

is the search bar there forever or can you remove it.

the search bar is just the default. you can right click on the task bar and change it back to the button or disable it entirely

[nosense]

Not sure if anybody posted this but "DirectX 12 will indeed be exclusive to Windows 10".

[Kazama Levi]

Couple things i notice with the UI.

 

Start Menu is now transparent

Nice, for starters.

 

Things they still need to do:

• throw out the tiles garbage from the start menu, it really doesn't belong there
• re-add transparency to taskbar and window titlebars
• fully customizable colors (not just taskbar and window titlebars) for all themes, not just High Contrast ones, because High Contrast has some nasty disadvantages (e.g. it breaks the display of web content in IE and Firefox)

Not sure if anybody posted this but "DirectX 12 will indeed be exclusive to Windows 10".

No surprise at all. Actually, I would be surprised if it was any other way.

[TAZMINATOR]

• throw out the tiles garbage from the start menu, it really doesn't belong there

 

You can simply unpin tiles from start menu.

 

Just like you can un/pin tiles on your start screen.

[Ian S.]

Nice, for the benefit of Windows.

 

Things you want them to do:

• unmodernize Windows, return to static icons!
• give Windows distracting colors and effects that slow the system down and look ugly, especially how it mimics glass
• a feature it already has, cutomizable colors?

No surprise at all. Actually, I would be surprised if it was any other way.

 

[TDT]

Am I the only one who has some concerns about all this "Cortana constantly learns things about you" thing? While it clearly simplifies things, it could also be a big security risk. Not Skynet risk, but still a risk.

[Kazama Levi]

return to static icons!

give Windows distracting colors and look ugly

a feature it already has, cutomizable colors?

1. Your reading comprehension fails. I didn't say said anything at all about icons.
2. "Distracting colors and looking ugly" is what Windows 8 presently does with that awful start screen, where the haphazard collection of colors has apparently been picked by a color-blind person.
3. Actually, no. You're forced to turn on High Contrast if you want customizable colors, and High Contrast breaks stuff (e.g. web page display in IE and Firefox, as I already said). You cannot customize colors without High Contrast, only the color of the taskbar and the active Window titlebar can be changed.

[blerk]

Is Cortana like OSX Spotlight in where all request data is sent back to servers, even if you're searching for specific contents & things inside local files + folders? And is the voice search functionality crippled with no internet connection? (I would somewhat doubt it, Windows has decent voice recognition)

 

I also wonder if Microsoft are going to make a Cortana server for those companies who would like to integrate cortana somehow into their workflow but don't want to search data going to Microsoft. Probably not. 

[Ian S.]

 

1. Your reading comprehension fails. I didn't say said anything at all about icons.

 

What then do you expect to take the place of the tiles? Text?

[Athernar]

give Windows distracting colors and effects that slow the system down and look ugly, especially how it mimics glass

 

Wow, I'm surprised that Pentium 3 and GeForce 256 of yours can even load Neowin.

[timbo_sf2]

I would like to see what they will do more with these tiles. These tiles look messy, I prefer static icon over them. And also live tiles is pointless because of notification center. I wonder if they are working on interactive live tiles now

[Quillz]

Nice, for starters.

 

Things they still need to do:

• throw out the tiles garbage from the start menu, it really doesn't belong there
• re-add transparency to taskbar and window titlebars
• fully customizable colors (not just taskbar and window titlebars) for all themes, not just High Contrast ones, because High Contrast has some nasty disadvantages (e.g. it breaks the display of web content in IE and Firefox)

No surprise at all. Actually, I would be surprised if it was any other way.

 

I'm fine with things like transparency, as long as they are options. I disliked that Win8 didn't allow you to turn off taskbar transparency unless you ran the Aero Lite theme. Why there wasn't a simple toggle, I don't know. Win10 can have transparency, or it can be opaque, just give us the damn option to decide for ourselves, Microsoft. And be consistent... If you're going to have a transparent taskbar, have transparent window chrome, too. Or be opaque system-wide.

[Ian S.]

Wow, I'm surprised that Pentium 3 and GeForce 256 of yours can even load Neowin.

 

How does a website (btw Neowin is very lightweight, are you suggesting it is graphics intensive?) even compare to rendering glass effects?? Most integrated graphics do not support Aero Glass. PS I know you are being sarcastic (hopefully?), but your analogy makes absolutely no sense to me, and I don't know if you are trying to attack me or are just disagreeing and thinking that Aero glass should return.

[Ian S.]

Here is some translucency:

 

New Store:

 

[Athernar]

How does a website (btw Neowin is very lightweight, are you suggesting it is graphics intensive?) even compare to rendering glass effects?? Most integrated graphics do not support Aero Glass. PS I know you are being sarcastic (hopefully?), but your analogy makes absolutely no sense to me, and I don't know if you are trying to attack me or are just disagreeing and thinking that Aero glass should return.

 

Considering you present yourself as a Windows fan I would think you would at least be aware that IE was one of the first web browsers to utilise GPU acceleration. Websites can also utilise alpha transparency via the rgba() property.

 

Alpha transparency is incredibly cheap to compute, so much so that you could likely do it on the CPU without any issue. (And it probably has done before the other browsers added GPU acceleration)

 

Your statement that Aero's transparency could "slow a PC down" is utterly absurd.

[gohpep]

Considering you present yourself as a Windows fan I would think you would at least be aware that IE was one of the first web browsers to utilise GPU acceleration. Websites can also utilise alpha transparency via the rgba() property.

 

Alpha transparency is incredibly cheap to compute, so much so that you could likely do it on the CPU without any issue. (And it probably has done before the other browsers added GPU acceleration)

 

Your statement that Aero's transparency could "slow a PC down" is utterly absurd.

Aero is not just alpha transparency.

 

Anyway, why are people obsessed with this? What difference does transparency make? It is nothing but a distraction. Simple UI let's you focus on what you are doing. You don't use a computer just to look at the UI, so as long as the UI is fast, snappy, and easy to navigate, it's fine. Metro does that perfectly. Metro is about the content, and letting the UI be as simple as possible to let everything else stand out. Transparency is a mess. It looks sloppy and distracts you with more content than you need.

[Prymitywista]

^This

I hope we can turn off transparency in start screen's settings.

[Athernar]

Aero is not just alpha transparency.

 

Anyway, why are people obsessed with this? What difference does transparency make? It is nothing but a distraction. Simple UI let's you focus on what you are doing. You don't use a computer just to look at the UI, so as long as the UI is fast, snappy, and easy to navigate, it's fine. Metro does that perfectly. Metro is about the content, and letting the UI be as simple as possible to let everything else stand out. Transparency is a mess. It looks sloppy and distracts you with more content than you need.

 

Yes, you're right, it also has a screen-wide transparent texture overlay to give a glass effect which is still utterly infinitesimal in terms of computational power.

 

Are we done with the pathetically flimsy excuses to try and justify your aesthetic tastes now?