The Windows 10 Review: The Old & New Face of Windows
by Brett Howse on August 25, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Digital Inking gets a Promotion
Microsoft launched the Surface Pro with a Wacom stylus, and the Surface Pro 3 switched that up to a N-Trig model. Microsoft ended up buying the N-Trig pen technology outright, and they now offer pen support in the smaller, less expensive Surface 3 model.
They have had a good response to the stylus input support, and some of their first-party apps like OneNote and Fresh Paint have great stylus support. Using the rest of the operating system with the stylus was more for easier selection of items, and navigation. That is of course still there, but the stylus has gotten a big promotion in Windows 10.
With this release, the system now supports pen input for any text field. Let me say this again. Any text field now supports pen input. Even desktop apps like Skype can be written to with the stylus now, and that is a big change over previous versions of Windows.
And, the text support is really good. I have, well let’s be honest here, I have atrocious handwriting. Windows 10 consistently had no issues knowing what I was writing and getting the right word added. It also offers a text correction box so you can tap on a word to correct it if it wasn’t right, much like a touch keyboard offers.
Some 3rd party tools have tried to emulate this, but it is really hard to compete with built in tools, and this addition to Windows 10 really moves the operating system forward for anyone who loves to use a stylus as an input tool. Before, you had to use in in combination with the touch keyboard, but now you can drastically increase text input by using a pen.
If you look ahead, you can see that this may also be a big feature of Windows 10 Mobile, coming to smaller tablets and phones in the near future. This should be a nice benefit to those devices, and the rumblings are that the new flagship Windows 10 Mobile devices from Microsoft are going to come with stylus support.
To a big chunk of users, adding pen support as a first-class citizen may not seem like a big deal, but going forward it may end up as one of the differentiators for the platform. For those that do have a device with pen support already, you are going to find it to be a big change that is very welcome.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
293 Comments
View All Comments
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
I run a Galaxy S5, Android has a fake Google account, using Cyangenmod as the fork OS, which comes with Privacy Guard by default. I can tell each and every app (as they pop up for permissions), that they cannot have access to say, my contacts, location, camera, photos, etc. Google Syncs nothing, everything turned off - I save my contacts to a file, and via microSD card they are transferred from phone to phone as I upgrade them.You really only need the Google account to access the Play Store, and yes, I do side-load some apps. Having no Samsung account, my Gear apps won't download, so I grab a working apk from a place I've known for some time. I have never ever made an app purchase on Android. Only once on Crapple some years ago (Shazam - now free also).
Every now and again, Android asks me to 'Review my Account', which is their way of trying to force me to add Paypal, or a Credit/Debit card to the account. No chance.
I change the Google account every two years too.
I don't use social media.
Text messages are not seen by apps, due to Pirvacy Guard.
Any more Q's?
Ratman6161 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
If none of your phones "send anything to the cloud" I'd like to see how you accomplish that. With either iOS or Android are you saying you don't use any apps at all? Or you side load every app you use (don't think iOS would let you do that anyway but not an Apple user).If you are getting any apps from the respective app store you have to be logging into them and providing them a credit card and other information to make the purchase.
Are you saying you either don't get email or have your own mail server so you can avoid the cloud? You never use any social media from your phone?
Use a navigation app? How do you do that without your location going to the cloud?
This is all kind of difficult to believe. For most, a smart phone would be next to useless without at least some cloud services such as email.
Or are you saying you don't use a smart phone and when you say "none of my phones" you mean old feature phones ... oh wait, even text messages could be considered sending your data to the cloud.
Notmyusualid - Friday, August 28, 2015 - link
Ratmann, see my answer above.groberts116 - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Troll Alert: More misinformation about Windows 10. A lot of wasted time writing a comment that is totally inaccurate. Windows 10 does not read your email or look for any applications for files other than to insure Microsoft Software on our systems has a valid product key.superflex - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Says the M$ sockpuppet.ppi - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Using link from RT.com completely discredits your argument, as it is site full of deliberate lies. Half-an-hour watching RT.com TV (when I was genuinely looking for alternative view on Ukraine crisis) was more than enough for me to understand this site is total rubbish.Obviously, if you save data on OneDrive, and court orders to give your data away, MS has to comply. If SWAT comes to your home, they will look in your computer as well.
And citing Technical Preview EULA is unfair. And incorrect.
sonny73n - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
@ppiYour opinion worths trash. You should go back to watching Fox News which is more suited for your perspective.
ppi - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
@sonny73n: You are making incorrect assumption, that I am basing my opinion on RT.com on what they say on Russia/Ukraine. No, I made that conclusion based on what they said on my country and my region, and which were blatant manipulative lies/disinformations. Also, RT.com spreads any fitting conspiracy theory available, no matter how crazy they are.I actually wonder what makes you believe RT.com is reliable source of information for anything else other than things like KHL results.
Michael Bay - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
[muh offended stereotypes intensifies]Oh no, RT didn`t blame Russia for everything, alarm!
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Here, this picture might help you some more:http://i.imgur.com/p2DYhbd.jpg
Kinda spells out the whole privacy issue for me... so much so, I won't be upgrading my Win 7 Pro to Win 10 Pro.
My spare laptop received a free copy of Win 10, and I have a firewall on it, to prevent the Microsoft packet leaks.