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
More Desktop Changes
One of the goals of Windows 10 is to entice Windows 7 users to migrate to the new operating system. The additions we’ve seen already to the traditional mouse and keyboard interface have already been substantial, and should make most Windows 7 users comfortable. But they are not the only changes to the desktop. There is a little bit for everyone, both casual users and enthusiasts alike, so lets check out some more of the new features of Windows 10’s desktop.
Windows 8 changed up Windows Explorer, and brought in the ribbon menu. Office 2007 was the first Microsoft program to move from the file menu to the ribbon menu, and while it was controversial at the time, it is now very familiar. Moving Windows Explorer to a ribbon menu made it both easier to use with touch, as well as exposing settings and features that may have been tucked away in a submenu before. Windows 10 evolves this. Opening up Windows Explorer now greets you with a list of files you have recently accessed in the main pane. The thinking is that when you go to Explorer, you are likely looking for something you’ve used before. I won’t dispute the logic, but I prefer to see the computer view myself. Luckily it’s an easy option to change by clicking File->Change folder and search options. What I do like though is the Quick Access feature in Windows Explorer, which gives you – you guessed it – quick access to folders that are used a lot. The system will automatically add folders you go to frequently which is kind of great for discoverability, and you can add or remove any folder here. I have found it very useful, and since it is also built into the file picker for saving files, it makes it easy to get where I want to go when saving files.
Another nice feature to come to Windows Explorer is the Share contract. Windows 8 introduced contracts, which allow apps to communicate with one another over dedicated protocols, and adding it to Windows Explorer is a great way to expand them from the tablet style apps to the desktop. Share was likely the most useful contract, and I was always disappointed that the Windows 8 Charms did not offer any functionality on the desktop, so this is a great addition.
There are also small changes which improve Windows 10 over Windows 8. Things like having drop shadows back. Windows 8 went for a very flat UI, and it was clean looking but the lack of depth was not very useful with multiple windows open. Adding drop shadows back give the subtle definition around windows to make them stand out a bit more.
One of my favorite features that has come to Windows 10 is the ability to scroll an inactive window. Prior to Windows 10, and assuming you were not running a third party utility which enabled this, in order to scroll a window you had to first select it. Now, you can just move your mouse over any open window and use the scroll wheel to move whatever window you are over. You can do this on windows that are buried three or four deep – as long as you can see some of it you can scroll it. It is great when you are referencing a PDF or site, and writing at the same time, since you can continue to type while scrolling around in your reference document. For those that think this is insane, yes, you can turn it off.
Windows 8 seemed to signal that Microsoft was looking to a future past the desktop. There were some nice changes brought to the Windows 8 desktop but they were overshadowed by the changes brought in by the touch-first UI. With Windows 10, Microsoft is not only trying to bring back the focus on the desktop, they have added a lot of great features as well which should certainly entice users of both Windows 7 and 8.1 to want to switch.
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SeleniumGlow - Wednesday, September 2, 2015 - link
What about the changes and enhancements to the Audio stack. The new windows 10 Audio stack is redesigned completely so that it reduces inputs and recording latency. This supposedly makes windows 10 Audio API on par with something like ASIO, by reserving a complete CPU core.Rickkins1 - Thursday, September 3, 2015 - link
Bwahahahaha, this is comedy gold. Browse microsoft's forums to see the multitude of complaints about win10 breaking sound cards etc.Rickkins1 - Wednesday, September 2, 2015 - link
I'd just like to thank microsoft for that totally unbiased review of windows10.But seriously, c'mon, will ya...?? Do you really take us for complete idiots...??
At least have the honesty to label such a piece as "advertisement".
Oracv4Prez - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Amongst all the glow and gushing comments I think that Windows 10 is horribly flawed. Lets start with the upgrade: Th new font renders incredibly poorly on my screen (1920 x 1200) Samsung and looks horribly blocky - like an ancient PC from the 80's. Secondly, half of the programs dont work anymore and when I tried to open Microsoft's own office applications, the links all failed.SO you want to try out Edge??? No doubt it is faster for all the sites I visit. But...what about your bookmarks/favorites. It wont except anything but IE 11 and if you have them neatly sorted and try to move from another browser to IE the organisation dies.
And finally when you think you have a few things working, it crashes. Oh well, we all have the dreaded blue screen of death now and them. It politely tells you that there is an error so it will restart. You could wait --- and wait ... and wait for something to happen, but no - nothing!!!!
Tried the solutions on the web, but obviously there are still a LOT of holes to patch. Oh, and the last update (before I banished it) did more damage than the initial install, causing perfectly functioning applications to crash/or the link to disappear.
Rating: - pre-beta software status. Use at your peril!
TheReviewWriter - Monday, September 7, 2015 - link
I love it Very smooth makes me feel organized and smart LOL :)Ramon Zarat - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
No matter how you slice it, Windows 10 is a step in a VERY wrong direction. If the product is free, YOU become the product. I *HATE* this business model consisting of trading most if not all your privacy *AND* control over your product for $149.00 (typical Windows license price).The entire M$ product portfolio is going into that direction. Their first failed move was the Metro atrocity to force you into the M$ store with Windows 8. Then you had Office 365 you rent for a monthly fee FOREVER instead of owning the product. Then they tried to impose an "always on" connection to the XB1 + restriction on sharing games and failed miserably. Now, it's the turn of the entire OS to be free, but at what price?
I'm a paying M$ customer since Windows 95 but this time, I'll wait until a fully hacked and fully sanitized version of Windows 10 comes out, including with the choice to install or not "upgrades" from Windows update and turning off and all the spyware shit for good.
I want to own my stuff, not rent them forever, not for free with tons of negative impacts either. I want to control what I own. I want my data stored locally, not in the cloud. And finally, I don't want to share anything that concerns only me. The *ONLY* technological improvement Windows 10 bring to the table compared to Windows 7 that is worthy of mention to me is DirectX12. If hackers can one day bring DX12 to Win7, I'll simply never upgrade.
clarkrptg - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
I would think twice about upgrading to Windows 10. I did so and now have a completely unusable computer with a black screen. I guess I should have known better,but don't understand how Microsoft gets away with this crap over and over and over again. I am moving to Mac . . . no doubt about it. I googled the issue and find a comment from Microsoft, oh, gosh golly,yes, resulting black screens are a problem. Oh, gee whiz, sorry about that. Take your computer into a Microsoft store, blah, blah, put back to factory settings, blah, blah. I have a suggestion for you Microsoft . . . I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER MICROSOFT COMPUTER AGAIN.Miller1331 - Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - link
Such an upgrade over Windows 8. Microsoft have done good this timeConcettaBustamante - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
My colleagues were searching for NY DTF IT-2663 a few weeks ago and used a document management site that hosts a lot of fillable forms . If others want NY DTF IT-2663 too , here's a link http://goo.gl/JQA7yVkelli stark - Tuesday, February 20, 2018 - link
WINDOWS 10 reviews are coming positive mostly like start menu is back, internet explorer is replaced by Microsoft edge there are soo many changes that are done to windows 10 you can also check reviews on this site https://www.ticketgateway.com/profile/user_profile... and you will get more updates about Windows 10