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
Continuum
Windows 10’s mission in life seems to be to correct the failings of Windows 8. I think the touch based UI worked pretty well on Windows 8 when using it on a tablet, however forcing that same UI onto traditional PCs was a tough pill to swallow for many people. Windows 10 takes a very different approach, and rather than try to shoehorn a single UI into all devices, the UI itself adapts to each device. Microsoft is branding this transformation as Continuum. You can enable this functionality by turning on tablet mode, which can be enabled as a setting, or if you have a 2-in-1 device, the system will prompt you asking if you want to switch when you move to or from the touch mode. You can of course control how this happens, and even enable it to automatically switch for you without a prompt.
Windows 10 on the PC has a tablet mode which morphs the UI into something that works better with touch. The Start Menu expands to fill the display, much like the Start Screen in Windows 8. This allows the live tiles to take center stage. The UI feels a lot like Windows 8, which is a good thing when using it on a tablet, but there have been some tweaks here too.
Windows 8 went with a lot of hidden gestures to get things done. The charms menu was a swipe in from the right, but there was no obvious way to know that other than stumbling upon it. Multitasking was swiping in from the left to switch between apps, or you could bring up the task switcher with an even more obscure swipe in from the left and then swipe back to the right. Apps could access their options either in the charms or from an app bar that could be opened by swiping up from the bottom or down from the top. There is nothing really wrong with hidden UI gestures but there has to be a way to teach people that they are there. Out of the box on Windows 8 there was very little training. Some was eventually added, but it was pretty sparse.
Windows 10 really moves away from the hidden gestures, and moves things like search to the task bar. Task switching moves from a complicated gesture to the task view button, and there is a back button added as well. Closing apps can be done with task view, or you can still drag the window down off the screen like Windows 8. You can still use some of the gestures, but almost all of the functions can now be accessed by findable onscreen elements.
The one function that is not obvious anymore though is multitasking in tablet mode. In Windows 8, you could swipe an app over to the side and it would snap it there. Windows 10 does not work like this anymore and you have to swipe the app down as if you are going to close it, and then bring it to the side to snap it. It’s actually a pretty easy gesture, it’s just hard to discover on your own. However when you do snap a window, you get Snap Assist again to help you find what you want to snap to the other side.
So there have certainly been some nice changes to the tablet interface as well, and Windows 10 brings some nice features to the touch above and beyond Windows 8. However one thing that I find a step back is the Start Menu when in Tablet Mode. There is a lot of wasted space now, and the Start Menu looks like it is somewhat handicapped to work on a phone display. The tiles now arrange themselves in groups which can be no more than three medium tiles wide. Windows 8’s Start Screen was scrollable horizontally, and Windows 10 only scrolls vertical. Looking at something like the Microsoft Surface 3 shows wide gaps of unusable space when in landscape mode, but switching it to portrait mode means you only get to see a single group, which is a big step back in density over Windows 8. On the Surface 3, there is easily room for three groups of tiles when in landscape, or the groups could be made wider to let you get more on the screen at once. How it is right now though feels very sparse.
Still, Continuum is a much better solution to having Windows 10 adapt to different device types than what has been available before. Forcing a touch UI onto desktop PCs was always going to alienate users. Over the time of Windows 8’s lifecycle, it did evolve to get better on the desktop, but it was never going to win over the fans of Windows 7. With Windows 10, both traditional PCs, tablets, and 2-in-1s can all get the right UI for the right time. It is a big step up for the PC, and on a touch device Windows 10 is pretty nice to use, despite my issues with the Start Menu in full screen. I think this can be sorted out, and I hope it does happen. The new tablet interface offers a lot more in discoverable actions, and it offers quite a bit of customizability.
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prophet001 - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
The spyware aspect of this OS bothers me. I'll be using Windows 7 until this is reconsidered.Michael Bay - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
So, the same spyware.prophet001 - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Windows 7 doesn't even begin to approach this level of intrusion.Michael Bay - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
As long as you believe that.wishgranter - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
The Windows 10 EULA and Microsoft's Privacy Statement declare that Microsoft will access and use the content of people's emails and other files, such as documents uploaded to One Drive, according to Microsoft's discretion. "Share with our partners" also includes law enforcement, wherever Microsoft deems required. And I think Microsoft cannot ignore any instance which they feel should be forwarded to law enforcement without making themselves complicit in any potential criminal activity.Windows 10's all-your-contents-are-belongs-to-us policy is also a widening of the backdoor which law enforcement asks OS manufacturer to build into their systems.
Basically, Microsoft's Windows 10 EULA claims that all files used in Windows 10 may be accessed, searched, and contents utilized by Microsoft, with Microsoft exercizing sole discretion over what it will access, and how it will be used.
I think all businesses, content creators, and even nations should be dismayed at this. It looks like Russia already is concerned with Windows 10's always-on espionage against its users:
http://www.rt.com/politics/312172-windo ... ent-stirs/
If people will recall, Microsoft was previously found to be snooping in people's Outlook emails, and this discovery caused a furor among people, leading to Microsoft saying they would not do this anymore:
http://www.wired.com/2014/03/microsoft_vigilante/1
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/20/55314 ... l-policies2
But now, Microsoft has made it a guaranteed policy of Windows 10 that they will always do this:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacy ... fault.aspx
"Content. We collect content of your files and communications when necessary to provide you with the services you use. This includes: the content of your documents, photos, music or video you upload to a Microsoft service such as OneDrive. It also includes the content of your communications sent or received using Microsoft services, such as the:
- subject line and body of an email,
- text or other content of an instant message,
- audio and video recording of a video message, and
- audio recording and transcript of a voice message you receive or a text message you dictate."
Shouldn't there be a much bigger furor over the discretionless snooping of Windows 10, which includes all Outlook emails, than there was over just Outlook on its own?
Are people OK with their PCs contents no longer being their sole domain and in their privacy, but instead being fully open to Microsoft?
I'm not. I'll be sticking with Windows 7 for now.
Windows 10's motto: Your System is not Your Own
xenol - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
You're reading the TP EULA. The actual Windows 10 EULA is at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Win... , which defers the privacy stuff to Microsoft's privacy statement ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/ )Which says none or few of the things in the TP EULA (the only one I found in common is they may look at anything you upload to OneDrive, which you can disable on Windows 10 anyway)
Grooveriding - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
Really unfortunate how far Microsoft went with privacy invasion and data trolling with Win 10. Fortunately you can disable what appears to be all of it with options, registry tweaks and disabling services.I would also recommend running a draconian firewall such as Tinywall that blocks all internet traffic and you have to allow applications on a case by case basis. As well as editing your hosts file to block all traffic back to Microsoft's data collection servers. As well, never use the OS with an MS account, just use a local account.
Pretty outrageous MS does not offer an option to disable everything without having to resort to these measures.
hansmuff - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
The "sharing with law enforcement" is automatic for any data Microsoft has. If you're on 7 and use OneDrive, well there you go.Regarding the recording of voice data, that's a given with all of them. Siri, Google, now MS all use online services to improve detection and of course otherwise use that data. And they all send your recorded voice in some form or shape to their servers.
I can see how you'd tie it to Windows 10 because that centralizes a lot of those "new generation" of services that are in the cloud. But those services exist with or without Windows 10. I think it's wiser to educate people about what "the cloud" implies, which is exactly what you say; people do not have control over the data they store.
It's a cloud issue, and the cloud has provided the perfect vehicle for the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft to take what they want. This goes for your PC, phone, tablet, everything.
Notmyusualid - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
None of my phones or PCs send anything to the cloud.It is called privacy common sense.
Matts8 - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link
What phone do you have?