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Microsoft To Revamp Windows 10 UI With Upcoming 'Project Neon' Update, Leaked Images Show (mspoweruser.com)

Posted by msmash on from the where-things-are-going dept.

Microsoft plans to revamp the user interface on Windows with an upcoming update called Project Neon. Chatter about this new update has been doing rounds for quite some time, but now first images of where Microsoft is going with the design changes are here. According to MSPowerUser, Microsoft will introduce a new component dubbed "Acrylic" to the overall Windows 10 design, which will serve as a method for developers to further customize the appearance of their universal apps. Project Neon also focuses on Microsoft's efforts with 3D and HoloLens, tweaking UI elements in places where you interact with a mouse pointer.

48 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. When will it end by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just give us back a proper start menu you wanktards!

    --

    Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    1. Re:When will it end by ckatko · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I love how you act like "removing all the universal apps" is some easy, not-annoying task. Try doing that on a hundred new computers.

      If it's easier to Google "Windows Classic Shell" (a third-party application) than it is to make your start menu usable. You officially suck.

    2. Re:When will it end by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course it's easy. You just reformat the hard drive, and then install Windows 7 (or your other preferred flavor). Easy as two simple steps!

    3. Re:When will it end by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When Windows 95 was introduced, a load of Windows users really hated the Start menu (you shut down by pressing start? WTF? And the icons are so small and hard to hit, plus you need to go through loads of layers of menus if you have a lot of apps installed!). 20 years later, and I wonder how many of them are the ones complaining that it's gone.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    4. Re:When will it end by The-Ixian · · Score: 5, Informative

      Try doing that on a hundred new computers.

      One way to handle this is get the start menu how you want on a single computer, then use PowerShell to run Export-StartLayout. Then on the 100 computers, you script the import using Import-StartLayout.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    5. Re:When will it end by nctritech · · Score: 2

      Well played, sir, well played.

    6. Re:When will it end by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course it's easy. You just reformat the hard drive, and then install Windows 7 (or your other preferred flavor)

      Linux Mint?

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    7. Re:When will it end by nctritech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There will always be some people resistant to change because they have to learn how to do something a little differently. The thing is that the Windows 95 Start menu was objectively superior to Program Manager. No UI can be perfect but Start forced some useful hierarchy onto Program Manager's groups and placed really important stuff like Control Panel or the Run box front and center so they couldn't get lost in some minimized Program Manager or deleted from Program Manager by a careless novice user.

      The problem people have with the loss of the traditional Start menu in 8.x/10 is that the most important fundamental benefits of Start were thrown out again. The Start screen in 8.x completely discards a layered hierarchy in favor of a two-level "pinned OR absolutely every shortcut in the entire Start shortcut pile" and in 10 the replacement "Start menu" crams the hierarchical stuff into one thin column in favor of searching for everything or (once again) "pinning a tile" instead. It's a half-hearted bone thrown to people who wanted the utility of Start back to shut them up. In the Anniversary Update they REMOVED the ability to use a keyboard to navigate the leftmost column with Power, Settings, File Explorer, and the user icon.

      Most of the changes to the Explorer user interface since the advent of Windows 8 have been severely regressive unless you use a touchscreen with no other input devices, a use case for a typical computer which is a niche specialty rather than the norm. It's nice not to worry about fat-fingering on a tablet, but when the thing isn't in "Tablet Mode" or some sort of option that enables a subset to that effect, it should not have the huge UI elements needed by the grossly inferior input device that is a touchscreen.

    8. Re:When will it end by DickBreath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It doesn't end. Have you ever had a dream, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream user interface and the real world user interface?

      What if in the dream OS everything you did was phoned home to the mother ship?

      What if every time you had acclimated to the most recent user interface, a new user interface was inflicted upon you?

      A user interface not based on three plus decades of human interface research, but based on the whims of some hipster design wanker whose only skill is photoshop. What if the only purpose of this new UI was a lame attempt to get you to like the vendor's failed phone products?

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    9. Re:When will it end by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... a load of Windows users really hated the Start menu (you shut down by pressing start? WTF?...

      You confuse "really hated" with "mocked". The original Start menu was mocked because in order to shut down the PC, you had to click on Start. (you have to admit, that really was a goofy way to word it...) The load of Windows users were making fun of the poor wording in the UI. Aside from that mocking, the Start menu was relatively well received.

    10. Re:When will it end by unixisc · · Score: 2

      Just download Classic Shell, as someone above suggested. You can make it look like 7, XP, NT or whatever

    11. Re:When will it end by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When using Windows 8 I genuinely had no idea the full screen start menu was able to scroll. There are no bars or any indication it can move. I installed Office and couldn't locate any of the icons. There is actually a knowledge base article on this exact problem! Talk about a broken UI.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    12. Re:When will it end by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Gotta agree with that. Went looking for a way to change my IP address and only found a large switch letting me turn airplane mode on or off. Really fucking useless on a desktop.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    13. Re:When will it end by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Suppose the auto industry kept changing the user interface for cars? Sure, the early ones has pedals and a steering wheel, but then they switch to a series of levers, and then a joystick, and then two ropes and a broom handle. It's not "INNOVATING", it's screwing up standardized control interfaces!

    14. Re:When will it end by johannesg · · Score: 2

      It was always a load of BS, and everybody knew it. The use of the word "start" wasn't all that bad a design choice - people looking at a computer the first time get a powerful hint where to... start. So where else could you have put the "shutdown" button? Consider the options:

      1. Permanently allocate screenspace for a second button, with only a single function: "stop" (or whatever you want to call it). That makes no sense at all: the start button takes up a lot of valuable screenspace, but offers a huge amount of functionality as well. The stop button uses the same amount of space, but offers only a single function, so you're both making it easier to trigger by accident, and eating into the space available for window tabs - which wasn't actually all that great to begin with, given the resolutions available at that time.

      2. Rename the start button to something more neutral, like... "stuff"? "control"? What exactly could you put there that is both concise, and a powerful affordance for a first-time user? Eventually they settled on an icon, which I feel is a step back: it works only if you already know what it does (which you do largely because you were trained to look for that functionality in that spot by the earlier start button); just by looking at it you have no way of figuring out it is more than mere decoration. But yeah, it got rid of the mocking at least. Congrats, everyone who ever made that stupid joke... ...or...

      3. Stick the functionality under the start button. Considering that it is the central control panel for the entire OS, adding this one important function here makes a lot of sense. Once you realize the start button actually does a lot more than merely start programs, it makes sense, and people will notice the function here anyway so while it might look a little odd at least they will be able to find it.

      Oh, and we could look at what other operating systems do of course. Under Linux it's probably something like "well, you first set the library path to include libshutdown.so, then you open a bash shell with admin rights, and then you can type a simple command like 'sysctrl -fs now up -f4d34ab', but with your macaddress substituted and if that does not work here's a kernel patch..." - I kid, I kid... And on Mac - well, I have no idea really, but I'm guessing it's something like dragging your computer into the trashcan. Am I right?

      My Amiga had a power switch. If you wanted the computer to be off, you pressed it and it turned off. And to turn it on you actually had to press the same switch again. In the old days people weren't bothered by that kind of ambiguity, one switch to do two very different things... Of course it wasn't actually labelled "start".

    15. Re:When will it end by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

      Isn't it funny how UI design on mobile devices is back to basically using Program Manager? What's old is new...

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    16. Re:When will it end by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Back then we thought it was funny that you even had to shut down your PC. We were used to just hitting the power button on our Amigas.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    17. Re:When will it end by lgw · · Score: 4, Funny

      You just reformat the hard drive, and then install Windows 7 (or your other preferred flavor). Easy as two simple steps!

      fdisk, format, re-install
      doo-dah doo-dah
      patch without the phone-home calls
      oh the doo-dah day

      Win10 stuck in a big mud hole
      doo-dah doo-dah
      Cant touch bottom with a ten-foot pole
      Oh the doo dah day

      Gonna patch all night,
      Gonna patch all day,
      Same old story, different day
      Oh the doo dah day

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    18. Re:When will it end by Puls4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd like to correct your first sentence. If every company in every facet of your life took that view point, you would spend your entire life re-learning how to perform nearly every task on a yearly basis. Many people like myself are resistant to change because we have other areas of our life we need to focus on. For products with a longer life-span, say an automobile, this isn't such an issue. I am not forced to buy a new automobile every year or two. Even smart phone manufacturers have figured this out. Almost every popular OS / launcher functions in a similar manner with similar characteristics. Because people may want something a tiny bit different, but don't want to relearn the system. In addition, phones are like cars in that way - they are a fun 'toy' to show off to your friends etc. A computer operating system is none of those things. It isn't fun. It isn't something I want to 'show off'. It's not something I want to constantly be forced to relearn by updates every year or two. As a technical user I have better ways to spend my time, as do most non-technical users. Microsoft needs to stop fucking with things that work. Seriously.

    19. Re:When will it end by nctritech · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It doesn't need correction; it needs clarification: there will always be people who are resistant to change regardless of the merits of that change. I'm in general agreement with you. Change is always a balancing act. The benefits of the change must significantly outweigh the pain that it will cause, otherwise the change will be worse than the status quo no matter how much more enlightened the changers think their ideas are.

      The Program Manager to Start menu change is an example of a change with a great enough benefit to overshadow the complaints of people who just happen to be used to whizzing around in Program Manager: it provides a drill-down hierarchy that is easy to understand and scales far better than program groups ever could, and it has excellent discoverability (an extremely important factor when making a significant change to how an interface works!)

      The Windows 8 Start screen is the ultimate example of a terrible change and a complete lack of regard for the most basic requirements of a good user interface design. Taking over the entire screen eliminates all points of reference. No scrollability hints, no borders around anything, awful contrast between UI elements, and abstract monochrome icons that are difficult to understand at first glance (which ironically is half the point of an icon in the first place.) The Start button changing to an invisible "hot corner" is difficult to remember for a new and elderly users. The charm bar suffers the same problem with its hot corners, plus its behavior lacks consistency; if you use a hot corner to pop it out, it'll vanish if your pointer slides away from it by a single pixel, but hitting WIN+C makes it stick around until you click away from it, and the Settings panel within the charm bar is so terrible and inconsistent that I don't think we have time for me to discuss it.

      All of these changes were a solution in search of a problem and were done despite extremely loud protests from inexperienced and expert users alike. Of course, some people liked the changes, though I have yet to find anyone who liked the changes in Win8 that could explain the things they liked other than how it was new and different and referencing nebulous aesthetic concepts like "clean looking." The reality is that basic UI design concepts were chucked out the window in favor of trend-chasing and building a corporate image of "forward-thinking-ness." The changes in Win8 rendered vast chunks of all Windows users' existing skill sets useless, but the only benefits brought to the table were "it's easier to use on a touchscreen device, something that the vast majority of computers don't even have!" and "we made it boot faster...sometimes!"

      Alas, there are fools that actually believe that newness in technical stuff is a merit like it is in car buying, as if Start is a set of tires that will wear out. If they were to all be struck dead right now, nothing found stored on their computers post-mortem would be of any value to society. It's easy to not care about the crappy Windows interface changes when all you do with the machine is masturbate to online pornography and bang out moronic condescending comments on Internet forums. All these idiots care about is "where's the blue E? And where do I type Redtube dot com? And what is that midget doing to that unicorn?" and that some computer dude somewhere told them that they can hold the power button for five seconds to turn the computer off when they're done.

    20. Re:When will it end by nctritech · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hate to break this to you, bro, but "accidentally trigger it to find out it's there and hope you can figure out what you did to trigger it in the first place" is not one of the core tenets of a functional user interface design. What was your point, exactly? YOU knowing it's there and how it works doesn't help anyone else to find and understand it.

  2. Why are the win buttons set so low? by BenJeremy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has the title bar expanded an inch or two? Why so much wasted vertical space?

    The same idiots who subverted 30 years of UI research at Microsoft are still at it with their inane attempts to enforce a hipster UI on us. I don't need buttons that get lost because they are not clear, multi-colored and where I expect them. I don't need monochrome, abstract icons. I don't need menus IN ALL CAPS.

    Stop changing stuff I've become accustomed to, stuff that makes me productive.

    1. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Answer: Touch screen UI.

      (It's not a satisfying answer for those of us that hate phone-UI on desktops, but it's the reason.)

    2. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hear, hear. I knew before I clicked on it that it would be more 'flat' nonsense. Atrocious 'design', these idiots haven't got a clue about user interface design - we already had the most beautiful interface ever made, in Windows 7. Just WHY are the window buttons not at the top right of the window? Why is there no title bar? Why is there no visible border? Why is there no shadow - so you can see which window is on top, instantly? Why don't they just allow the user to CHANGE all of these things to our own liking, which is the whole point of software?

      Because they KNOW that most people won't like what they've come up with, so they are terrified that we will all change the look of things and thus prove that their designs are dreadful.

      (CAPTCHA: 'annoyed')

    3. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, but this 'touchscreen' UI isn't any use on touchscreens either. Touchscreens need visible, 3D buttons (only larger) just as much as a desktop environment does. The answer is "bunch of amateur idiots with no UI skills whatsoever blindly copy Apple's stupidity and think they are being 'cutting edge' and 'modern' ".

    4. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by ckatko · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh god, that looks terrible. Good catch. It's an ENTIRE UI based on iTunes for Windows.

    5. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, let's never make any progress and just keep things the same way forever...

      Change is not necessarily progress, if you define progress as "moving forward in some sense".

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    6. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by JBMcB · · Score: 2

      Has the title bar expanded an inch or two? Why so much wasted vertical space?

      This +1000. I understand the need for whitespace on a touch UI, but why is everything spaced so far apart on my desktop? I have a giant HD monitor so I can fit a bunch of stuff on screen at the same time (not a fan of multimonitor, I'd rather have one huge monitor) With a 2" border around everything, I'm going to need a separate monitor or a 34" 4K monitor just so I can have a media player in one corner, Notepad++ in the other corner, and an IDE open on the side.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    7. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by nctritech · · Score: 2

      Yes, copying Apple, who is notorious and under a lot of fire for still not releasing a single Mac with a touchscreen. Copying THAT for your "touch-friendly OS." They're really smart up there in Redmond. Do I really need to place a sarcasm tag by that?

    8. Re:Why are the win buttons set so low? by fox171171 · · Score: 2

      Yes, let's never make any progress and just keep things the same way forever...

      Yes, and in cars make the brake and gas pedal opposite. Put the steering wheel on the ceiling, and the horn button in the headrest. And the wiper controls in the trunk/boot.

      It's not progress, it is change for the sake of change.

  3. I admit it, I like Windows 10. by DatbeDank · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok, partially. I put classic shell on to it and really haven't looked back. I'm too busy to learn a new UI. It's pretty decent for the gaming and work that I do on it. Works a lot faster than my previous Windows 7 installs (never tried 8).

    Shutup10 took care of my privacy concerns.

    If Microsoft wanted to engender positive feels on Windows 10, they'd release a UI start menu that matched Windows 7 and keep themselves from changing their damn UIs every other release. Overall, i'd give this a B grade as a tech product.

    1. Re:I admit it, I like Windows 10. by nctritech · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Please explain what it is about the Windows 10 Start menu that is "SO MUCH BETTER than the old style." Be specific about the FUNCTIONAL elements, not a simple aesthetic appreciation which is not what is being discussed. For example, in what ways is the new Start menu:
      1. More discoverable (new features can be found without someone telling you they exist)?
      2. Better organized?
      3. Faster to use for experienced users?
      4. Providing better keyboard shortcut functionality?
      5. Integrating better features that help the user's workflow?

      I always see people like you going "it's new therefore it's awesome and the only people that have a problem with it are aged-out old people that can't adapt to new stuff" but I have not once seen a single person with this attitude explain their position in detail. I am of the opinion that this is because people with this attitude either don't do much with a computer in the first place (a browser icon and a file manager is all you need to satisfy you) or fall into the same elitist fanboy class that some Mac users paint themselves as, considering "new" to be a valid measurement of the value of a tool. "Just get on board and stop whining" makes you sound like such a person.

      Please get back to me with your specific functional arguments in favor of the Windows 10 Start menu over the Windows 7 Start menu. If you have valid arguments for the changes you feel are so superior, it would be quite helpful to the discussion for you to contribute them.

      It's reminiscent of how carburetor mechanics hated fuel injection and OBD-II when they started shipping in cars, but both are objectively superior systems and are easier to work on once you have the basic tools needed to query the computer because the computer can tell you what it sees going wrong and avoid tons of unnecessary effort, only in this analogy you're a dealer mechanic who works on locked-down cars with tons of non-user-serviceable stuff going "cars the user can't work on are newer than those old unlocked cars people could fix themselves, therefore they're certainly better than cars that users could work on!" Please feel free to prove me wrong.

    2. Re:I admit it, I like Windows 10. by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      When I hit the Start button on Windows 7, it comes up instantly.

      When I hit the Start button on Windows 10, it usually takes between 2 and 10 seconds to appear.

      I'm not noticing any other performance "improvements" either.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:I admit it, I like Windows 10. by tepples · · Score: 2

      If your PC shipped with Windows 7, then the old one is better because the old one costs $0 to you (because you are already a licensee) and the the new one costs $119. What makes the new one worth $119?

    4. Re:I admit it, I like Windows 10. by nctritech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Notably, I have already "learned something new" as I have been using Windows 10 for quite some time already, so on that note you may feel free to shove your condescending manner where the sun doesn't shine. The onus is on you to prove that your beloved new shiny interface is better than the one it replaced because you made the original claim of superiority. You have refused to back that claim with specific points, so we can safely assume you don't have any points to raise in favor of your position. However, my position is easily defended, so I will gladly do so now...not for you, but for other readers that are actually interested in a discussion on this subject.

      Windows 7's Start menu consists of two columns. The left column contains frequently used and user-pinned programs, with optional sub-menus to open recent documents and perform common tasks associated with that program. Windows 10 has replaced this with pinned tiles and a "frequently used" section at the top of the full program list. The sub-menus for common tasks and recent documents are completely gone. Recent documents are now accessed via File Explorer and the view of these files cannot be grouped by associated program at all.

      Pinned tiles take up a large amount of screen space and are the most distant items from the Start button, increasing the amount of movement needed to reach the desired application. This is worse on low-resolution screens since less pinned tiles can be shown and the user may have to scroll in addition to moving the mouse over more distance. While the tile target size is somewhat larger than a pinned Start program in "large icons" display mode, the extra distance and two-dimensional layout cancels out the benefits of the larger target due to requiring a longer (and therefore less accurate) motion to reach.

      Pinned and frequently used programs on Windows 7's Start menu can be changed from to "use small icons," increasing the density of what can be pinned there without reducing target size horizontally. Pinned tiles reduced to the equivalent size are reduced in both dimensions and lose their text labels completely, reducing target size to 1/4 (requiring more focus from the user to accurately hit) and forcing reliance on the icon alone to quickly select the desired application. Icons are hard to get right and only enhance usability under specific conditions and "A user’s understanding of an icon is based on previous experience. Due to the absence of a standard usage for most icons, text labels are necessary to communicate the meaning and reduce ambiguity." Hovering over the tile will reveal the label via a tooltip, but this is not sufficient as each tile would have to be hovered over by the user to read all of them whereas displaying text labels for everything enables the user to scan quickly for the name they're interested in.

      Windows 7's Start menu has a customizable right-hand column which comes with these (mostly sensible) defaults: User's home folder, Documents, Pictures, Music, Games, Computer, Control Panel, Devices and Printers, Default Programs. The lack of the Downloads shortcut by default is problematic, but the ability to add it exists in an intuitive location. The utility of some options is highly debatable but since they're fully customizable the user can choose new defaults that are more sensible to them. Regardless of what programs (the left column) a user might want to use, all but the most novice users will inevitably need to reach their home folders, the Control Panel, and internal, optical, and external storage media under Computer (aka This PC on Win8+) on a regular basis. Windows 10's Start menu does not provide any of these as first-level shortcuts. Windows 10 provides by def

    5. Re:I admit it, I like Windows 10. by Holi · · Score: 2

      You really do sound like a two year old with your little tantrum there.

      You made a claim and you refuse to back it up? Fine, then you should understand that people will see that as an extremely childish position and ignore you in the future. Now finish your peas and go to bed.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  4. When you can't provide substance by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Give them superficial inaneness. Microsoft's time-honored tradition and trademark.

  5. Lipstick On A Pig by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When Windows 10's underlying data harvesting infrastructure has fundamentally broken users' trust in Microsoft and Windows 10, why bother with trying to make Windows 10 look prettier?

    1. Re:Lipstick On A Pig by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is on topic. The whole data mining bullshit is the huge white elephant in the Windows 10 room that won't go away.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. Now I get it! by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Clearly, Microsoft programmers got solidly behind the concept of ramming Windows 10 down everyone's throats, just so they could force their freak-show visions of user interface experiments upon the largest possible number of rubes. The data mining and potential ad revenue were just a bonus.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  7. Neon? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So Windows will finally have a good UI?

  8. Not this flat design shit again by nctritech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft has gone insane. They've taken their already-flat design and ironed the crap out of it. Hey assholes, when I hit the Windows key on my keyboard, why can't I hit the up arrow to get to the power button or settings cog anymore? Why don't you have hotkeys for the folder icon views like I used to get with ALT, V, and the view's corresponding letter key? Stop fucking with the "ooh shiny" user interface stuff until you fix the really basic stuff that you broke. It would also be super nice to have some of the fundamental UI design best practices brought back in from the streets where Microsoft chucked it and the baby and the bath water.

    Also, has anyone noticed that a huge number of Microsoft Support forum posts are "solved" by someone with an Indian-looking name going "Kindly try a 'clean boot'. Kindly try System Restore. Kindly let us know if that fixes it." Then a huge pile of people go "NO, that generic reply didn't fix it and I have the same problem!" and the MS helpers go dead silent and absolutely no one at Microsoft gives a damn?

    At least with "archaic" Windows 7 nearly every problem has a discoverable solution at this point. The way that Windows 10 problems have been handled by Microsoft under Satya Nadella indicates that they really don't care about delivering a decent product anymore. They were never even close to perfect but they at least had a few really sharp people on staff that both gave a shit and had the power to help or fix problems. Now it's the best company that H1B can cheap out!

  9. *Gigantic* titlebars by Junta · · Score: 2

    While I think a lot of the looks are improved compared to the rather ugly steps in Windows 8/10, there is a massive amount of wasted space.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  10. Lipstick On A Pig by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft plans to revamp the user interface on Windows with an upcoming update called Project Neon. ...

    Microsoft can try to dress up the UI of Windows 10 all it wants, but until the egregious data harvesting stops, Windows 10 will continue to suffer from a lack of trust.

  11. Windows 10 is the last version of Windows by MrLogic17 · · Score: 2

    Remember when we were told that "Windows 10 is the last version of Windows"?

    Ya, and this move is exactly what I expected. Windows will keep changing, complete with random, pointless UI changes. Nothing in the update schedule has changed.
    Mark my words - at some point "Windows 10" will change it's name because of sales & marketing pressure. Forced updates and user-hostile changes will continue unabated.

  12. there is one thing I like about it... by gosand · · Score: 2

    I am a linux user... have been exclusively at home since 99. At work I use windows.

    I have been using Win10 for a year now at work, and I have to say that I don't really care for it. I have a touchscreen laptop, and I have disabled the touchscreen feature. But all the icons are still like I am on a tablet. I have been living with it. For the most part, I don't like much about it at all.

    One of the features of the start menu that I use, and like, is the type-search. I open the start menu, and can start typing the name of the application I need, and it quickly narrows down the options. I find it useful because I can do that from the keyboard alone, which is helpful.

    My one caveat is that I use this feature all the time because I really don't like the way the menu works in general. When I am searching for an application that I don't use all that often, it always takes me a second or two to find the "all apps" link, then it opens up that stupid alphabetically sorted list. That is why I have lots of apps pinned on my menu bar. It's a workaround at best.

    At home I use Mint XFCE, and it has the search for apps in a very similar fashion, but WITH a very usable nested menu structure. I love it so much more.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  13. A change is not "always exciting" by Joshs922 · · Score: 2

    The author says "a change is always exciting." Really? How about when a hospital is running life-saving applications on Windows and the latest forced upgrade introduces an "exciting change" and now the nurse can't figure out how to launch her application?

  14. Re: Groove by unixisc · · Score: 2

    The video is available in a related app called Movies, where one can play movies and TV. Problem in using that w/ music videos is that one can't organize them into playlists. So if one is driving, then either a passenger has to manage it, or one has to get distracted and change tracks when one comes to an end.