Microsoft's agenda of pushing modern apps and Build 10162

[spch]

These are my honest thoughts, and I am kind of disappointed at the state of things and the way Microsoft is taking with Windows 10 and desktop computing.

After installing build 10162 I realized something and it kind of felt awkward. As we all know microsoft is pushing modern apps over win32 applications. In windows 10 b10162 the apps start fast, way faster than windows 8.1 and overall OS and modern app performance has improved. The bugs I found in earlier builds are gone. The OS itself feels overall stable.

Now the troubles.

Video driver

I am testing on my htpc which has a Gigabyte MoBo with Intel G41 express chipset. The driver needs netfx3 to work. netfx feature is disabled in Win10 (and win8/8.1) as well. The problem is enabling the feature from Programs and features gets stuck with downloading files dialog. I had to use DISM deployment method to fix this issue.

Part2 : After enabling netfx3, when I went to install the latest driver from Intel's website (Gigabyte's website has even older version) windows showed a message that the driver is already installed but also windows includes a higher version, but still the screen looked blurry and low resolution (like no driver active).

Audio Driver
I have a speaker set up where I put 3x3.55 mm jack in the back of my MoBo and make Line In/Mic In ports be used as Rear and front speakers, so I can get a 5.1 output. But to do this I need to install Realtek's HD audio driver.

After installing this and doing the setup I found out that I can't hear any sound. Why? Because Windows does not sync the Realtek's speaker setup with it's own, I needed to manually select "Default Format" in speaker properties>advanced to get sound out. Maybe a bug, no biggie, moving on.

Start Menu and Search/Cortana
Start menu look effin awesome, translucentish, cortana is great as well.

But doesn't it feel too much space has been given to Tiles and App list seems confined and squeezed. Upon using the app list I found out that there is really no direct way of increasing it's width (Or can I? I don't know).

Moving on, have no fear.

Music App
The app is internally named zune music deep inside system folders. The issue with the app is the same issue with all modern music apps, they cannot handle large libraries. The app almost crashed, took up whole cpu resource, using 500 MB ram, now there is no way to clean the libraries, add custom tags. I like my music library perfect. Artist images didn't show up and had that default grey icon.

But app starts fast, works well, but zero customization options and advanced features.

Video App
I couldn't make it play videos with subtitles, subtitles were srt files with same name in same directory, well maybe the features haven't been added yet.

The video app also missing very basic features like step, skip few seconds, rewind few seconds, zoom, manual AR change, brightness/contrast/hue adjustment, support for directshow, mutil audio, ordered chapters, external audio file with video. Along with settings/enhancement that WMP has.

Windows Store
For some reason apps downloaded/updated through windows store doesn't show up in start menu, thus no way to directly launch it. You have to resort to some weird way like bingmaps:// to open apps. Overall app download experience is sluggish the same way it's in Windows 8.1.

Now Some pointers here...

• Microsoft is pushing featureless mobile apps instead of higher quality win32 apps they already had.
• Windows Media Player is light years ahead of Music/Video & TV modern app.
• It's been a long time since Windows 8.1's release but Microsoft has failed to streamline Windows Store and Modern App experience in PC.
• It's extremely hard to launch a modern app if it's not in the start menu but exists in the system, can be launched with a supported file type.
• Current state of Onedrive is pathetic where an user has to download their whole uploaded files to see file list.
• Microsoft doesn't want to show us download speeds, both in edge/windows update/store. This is important for people who have slow internet like me.
• Using the OS is even harder for users who like to tweak stuff.

I can foresee windows 10 being installed in a billion PCs, but I doubt they will stay there.

I KNOW IT'S A BETA OS. But I'm pushing more about reduced functionality, and increased gimmicks that makes the OS in no way useful in day to day use.

Thoughts?

 

[ven07]

I say give it time It's quite obvious that after the july 29 launch there will be bugs to squash (there always are), but so far, even when using the w10 beta, I can still get things done, that I would do daily with w7.

What people do on a day to day basis isn't the same. Some things like browsing, gaming, music, photos and mails can be predicted yes... But I wouldn't be able to predict who is a graphics designer, hacker, technician etc so the ways they use their devices will be different from a casual user and afaik there are a lot more casual users.

The pros will most likely go looking for their own solutions, but granted, that's not what they should be doing. All in all, no one should expect w10 to handle everything we can throw at it, come july 29. It will take some time...

As far as the music and vid apps, we all know that they are lacking, but I appreciate the fact that they are coming along nicely. When MS decides to stop supporting Windows Media completely, they better make sure that those apps can actually replace that "go to program".

In the mean time I think developers will play into this and probably start developing their own media apps, which could or could not end up being a success. Established programs like VLC will have on less competitor and all the more reason to update their program to include more of the options that people want and are missing... However this is all theoretical lol

 

[realwarder]

I sincerely hope you used the Feedback to file bug reports before writing a book here.

As said, give it time. Win32 apps will come to the store as developers repackage their apps. Expect some big names on day one. Until UWP Bridges are public only expect to see UW apps though.

Totally agree with OneDrive. Big step back.

BUT.. overall I think W10 is a big step forward with Cortana, Edge etc.

 

[spch]

As far as the music and vid apps, we all know that they are lacking, but I appreciate the fact that they are coming along nicely. When MS decides to stop supporting Windows Media completely, they better make sure that those apps can actually replace that "go to program".

WMP is already a well built app, why not improve it instead of making two separate app for no reason, it's not like any Windows Desktop/Tablet is going to run with ARM processors.

Why not go the skype route, desktop app for desktop, mobile app for mobile.

I sincerely hope you used the Feedback to file bug reports before writing a book here.

Haha yea I did some, most of these were already reported so I upvoted them.

 

[ven07]

WMP is already a well built app, why not improve it instead of making two separate app for no reason, it's not like any Windows Desktop/Tablet is going to run with ARM processors

tbh I stopped trying to figure out every move MS makes a long time ago, but in this case the reason is that they want to push us towards an app first world or at least that's how it looks

 

[El_Burro]

Sound to me like you are part of that minority of users who are looking for features that hold no interest for the majority. Especially with your large media collections and custom built rig. There will be apps for you but alas they are unlikely to be created by MS or even modern apps.

With your HTPC needs have you considered going the LInux route? I believe that OS would be much friendlier to your needs. For sure it would be much more configurable which is something you are seeking.

 

[Bobvfr]

As we all know microsoft is pushing modern apps over win32 applications

I bet you there are thousands of Skype users who will disagree with you, MS are killing off the "Modern" app this week and everyone will have to use the desktop (Program) version. Personally I thought the app version on PC was crap, but the WP version works so you would have thought they would go down the "Universal" route, but no just a proper program.

 

[spch]

I bet you there are thousands of Skype users who will disagree with you, MS are killing off the "Modern" app this week and everyone will have to use the desktop (Program) version. Personally I thought the app version on PC was crap, but the WP version works so you would have thought they would go down the "Universal" route, but no just a proper program.

Skype is an exception which I already noted and WP version is also crap.