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
Photos
Another app that was in desperate need of attention was Photos. The Windows 8 photos app was frankly a nightmare, and it was one of the first things I disabled on any new install. The new version is far superior to what came before, in both looks and functionality.
Once again, we have a Universal Windows App which means that it can scale and reflow to fit any display size or window. By default, it grabs pictures from your pictures folders in your user profile as well as OneDrive, and you can also toggle whether or not to show pictures from OneDrive which are not synced with your PC.
Once in the app, you can browse photos by your collection, which shows all photos, or by albums. Collection is pretty self explanatory, and just contains a list of all photos in chronological order. There is no way to sort any other way, although you can click on a month to jump to another date. The albums view is a lot different though, and the system will automatically create albums based on time and location in your photos, and then present them to you. You can change what photos are in the album if you want to.
The Photos app does some nice things like automatically not displaying duplicate photos, and it can clean up images and remove red-eye in a non-destructive manner. If you don’t like the auto-enhance, it can be turned off.
The Photos app is now the default app for viewing pictures, and it supports most photo and video file types, and they recently added GIF support which is one format that was left out of the previous photos app in Windows 8.
It is a good improvement over the Windows 8 version, and being a Universal Windows App means it supports high DPI and multiple display sizes. I’d like to be able to create my own albums, and that is not possible yet. The change is going to be pretty drastic for those coming from Windows 7 though, and people tend to not like change.
Maps
I’d be curious to see how many people use mapping in an app on the desktop compared to mobile systems. I tend to gravitate to the web on my desktop when I need mapping capabilities. But with Windows 10 going to be deployed on everything from phones to Xbox, having mapping as an app is obviously important.
Microsoft leverages HERE for their mapping technology, and while Nokia recently sold the HERE divisionto a group of automotive companies, the licensing arrangement is likely part of that transfer. Mapping is a very personal experience though, and some people may love HERE maps while others can’t use them because they are missing local information. It’s an incredibly difficult industry to get into and keep up to date. Google is the obvious competitor here, and they have spent a lot of money and time to build up their mapping to the point it is now. HERE has some street view, but none in my area. One thing HERE has been working on though is interior views of places like malls. I’ve used this before on the phone and it is pretty handy although it appears to be missing from the data available right now on Windows 10.
The mapping app itself is fairly well sorted out, and it can easily do directions or searches as you would expect. The views themselves can be either from straight overhead, or you can get a bird’s eye view as well and tilt and pan the camera. On a standard 2D map this can give you a nice sense of direction, but in some locations, the maps have 3D views as well which is a very nice effect. 3D views are only available in select areas, but they are a great way to find your way around when you can use them.
Another great feature of Maps which is built right into Windows 10 is the ability to download and manage offline maps. You can pick your area and have the maps ready to go without having to wait for the lag of your internet connection. It appears to only work with the road maps though and not aerial views which makes sense when you think about how much data you would need to download for aerial views of anywhere larger than a city.
The performance of maps on the devices I have tested it on is very good. Clearly this is all being offloaded to the GPU because the rendering is fast, and rotations and panning is very smooth. Once you get into the 3D maps though it can tax the system quite a bit. I still found performance good even on integrated graphics, but on laptops it is going to create some heat to get rid of since the GPU can draw a lot of power, even on integrated devices.
Maps are good on the desktop, but you can see that this app is one that will be more important on smaller devices running Windows 10, since you’ll be able to have your offline maps available for use on the go.
Messaging
When Windows 10 was shown off in January, one of the apps that was shown was a new messaging app. Windows 8 included both a touch based Skype app, and the traditional full desktop app, but the touch version never seemed to offer as consistent of an experience as the desktop version. For Windows 10, it would be replaced with new standalone apps for messaging, phone, and video.
Windows 10 is now here, but delays in the messaging apps mean that for the moment, people who want to use Microsoft’s messaging service need to use the full desktop version of Skype, since the touch version has been removed from the store for all users except those on Windows RT.
Once the new messaging apps are released, I will check them out and see how well they work. Being based on Skype, the backend is at least well known and Skype itself has improved a lot as a messaging app over the last couple of years.
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Brett Howse - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Page 4 on Continuum. Overall it's a slight step back on touch.marvdmartian - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
[from the last page of the article] "But is this going to be the upgrade to move people off of Windows 7? In my opinion, yes it is."Perhaps in your world. Not so much, in mine. Nor, in many people I've talked to, who are equally unimpressed with this latest version of Windows.
In fact, so far, what I've seen (though, I admit, not yet experienced) of W10, I'd label it more of a Windows 8.2.....maybe 8.25. Still blocky looking. Still looks like the icons were drawn by a 3rd grader (no offense to the average 8 year old). Still.....just plain UGLY.
I understand the reasoning for the postage stamp sized blocks, as it makes touch interface much easier. But if they want TRUE switch-ability between touch interface and mouse/keyboard usage, they need to change the look of things, to go with the 2nd choice. Then there's also the return to the 90's screen resolution. Necessary for touch interface, perhaps. But when a person has spent hundreds of dollars on a high resolution monitor, then "upgrades" to Windows 10 (8.25?), they do NOT want to have to dial back their resolution to that which was supported first by what? Windows 98??
And don't even get me started in on the privacy issues. Yes, some people might not have a problem with the information Microsoft is gathering. But I'm betting plenty more will, once they're made aware of it. And for MS to force you to opt OUT of information gathering, makes them somewhat "big brother"-ish, in my book.
Sorry, Brett, but in my book, Microsoft is quickly striking out with this operating system. As far as their support of Windows 7, don't be surprised if they don't extend it, just as they did with Windows XP, if the majority of 7 users don't bother upgrading to 10.
chrome_slinky - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Unfortunately, for people who think, we must realize that the average user IS stupid, and FREE is making them weak in the knees.I will be on Windows 7 until 2020 at least, and carefully removed the "updates" which install more telemetry from my list of updates.
BTW, you could always use the "illudium235 space modulator" to take care of things, couldn't you? <g>
uhuznaa - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
I'm sick of repeating this over and over but you really shouldn't confuse "is not interested in how computers work" with "stupid". I've seen people who are really bright in their fields totally struggling with their computers because they're just not interested in nor care for how these things work.It's like calling you "stupid" because you are not interested in knitting your own sweaters. I bet there are thousands of things you don't care for and are not interested in which others who are not necessarily smarter than you are really good in.
On the other hand not understanding this may be reason enough to call you stupid.
Michael Bay - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
So, it`s you and your two and a half friends. Such tremendous loss for MS, certainly, somewhere in some basement Nadella is crying crocodile tears.Da W - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
I moved from the FRENCH version of windows 7 to the FRENCH version of windows 8 to the FRENCH update of windows 8.1, somehow it installed the ENGLISH version of windows 10.chrome_slinky - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Zut alors!Billy_Boy - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
The most thorough, well thought out review of ANY product I have read in a long, long time.Bravo!
milkod2001 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
I gave it a try and got w10 installed on top of my w7. All took about 30 minutes. All applications/games are working which is great. But that got me thinking what is WINDOWS 10?It feels just like windows 7.1 upgrade. New graphic interface, better boot time and slightly faster copy of files. OK lets not forget dx12 and Cortana. It took MS 6 years since release of w7 to put together this massive update and call it w10. Now i get why MS gave it to us for FREE. It just could not dare to charge us for bunch of mediocre updates.
Happy w10 user here :)
azazel1024 - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - link
Can I just say, if you are coming from Windows 7, Windows 10 is a fairly nice upgrade. If you are coming from Windows 8.1, especially if you have a touch interface, it is a serious reversion in almost every possible way. Most of the apps seems half finished at best. As eluded to in the story, the mail client is about 10 steps back from the one in 8.1. How basic is it to have the ability to change from conversation view? Photos app doesn't support the ability to view images by folder (which can be nice instead of seeing every single one of your pictures spread out by date). Edge can't download some file types, so you have to open them in IE11. If you want to change audio volume, there is no option to do that in the action center (plenty of room for a button for it). So for a tablet, you have to pull up the task bar to do it, which doesn't make sense. Want to change a wifi network? Oh, there is a button in the action center to do...oh, it only turns Wifi on and off...but, wait, there is an airplane mode button also in there to do that. Oh, you can long press on the wifi button, then go in to settings and then select a different wifi network. Want to change the brightness to anything other than 25/50/75/100%, long press again and go in to settings and then you can adjust it from 0-100% in 1% increments. But...why can't there at least be a 0% brightness on that short cut button? 25% is too bright in a dark room. WHY!Sooooooo much of Windows 10 from what I have seen is "why in the hell would you do it that way?" Sure, some stuff in 8.1 was non-intuitive and took awhile to get used to, but a lot of stuff was a quick gesture and done. Want to change the brightness or audio? Swipe in the charms bar, hit the button and adjust away. Now they are found in different places and one of them takes several extra actions to really be able to adjust where you want it. Many of the apps have lost functionality, even if they look a little nicer or have a few new and nice features. I love that Edge is faster, but it sucks for touch input now and a lot of features have been lost that were highly useful, even with keyboard and mouse input.
Windows 10 at best feels half finished as an operating system. I don't mean "they'll innovate the 'OS as a Service that is Windows 10'". I mean, they needed to have spent at least a few more months baking this thing before sending it out the door and if a lot of this stuff isn't "changed" or give the user the ability to customize (why not add more options that you can add to the action center? What about allowing the user to ELIMINATE options in the action center too, I don't need half the crap that is in there as a short cut) then frankly Win 10 is a big step backward in a lot of ways.
I am willing to give it a try for awhile, but I am itching every single day to reload Windows 8.1 on my Asus T100. I am certainly not going to load Windows 10 on any of my other machines for a very long time to come (either right before the 1 year upgrade period ends, or possibly never).