The Glade 4.0

Microsoft finally seems to get it. Start bar is now persistent, modern apps can be minimized to taskbar / closed at the top, Start screen has a power button.

Lots of small "duh" things that should have made it in a long time ago. Here are the update notes.

Rejoice all ye who use a mouse and keyboard, for alongside these changes, the Start menu is also returning in Windows 9.

I'm curious if they'll actually brand it as Windows 9, or if they'll keep trying to revive the tainted Windows 8 brand. It will be interesting in the end how much they'll regress back to Win7. Personally, as a server/network admin, Windows 8 is an administrative nightmare. It also adds several levels of additional user training and more complex steps to both troubleshooting and performing standard tasks users already perform. I honestly think if they're going to continue with the "metro UI" in the future, they need to release an entirely different business version without it available, or allow me to customize the OS and disable it completely.

Couple of things to note:

• You can only minimize "store apps" to the taskbar if you have enabled the "Show Windows Store apps on the taskbar" option in "Taskbar and Navigation properties".
• Somewhat counter-intuitively, this option also controls taskbar persistence. If you don't enable it, you can't see the taskbar while not at the desktop.
• Closing store apps by means of the "x" in the upper right corner does the same thing accomplished by swiping down and off. It closes the UI, but doesn't actually kill the process. Likewise with right-clicking and selecting "close window" from the taskbar.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

This leaves me flabbergasted. Why would anybody think this was a good idea?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

While that does seem like a more modern implementation, there's definitely a resource somewhere notating the "current state" of the application. It may be minimal though. However, yet again, another administrative nightmare. "Yes, I closed the app and re-opened, and the issue is still happening!" "Um, you closed it, but now I need you to bring up your existing apps list, and then drag it to the bottom, so it's really really super closed." "What?" "Exactly."

This. I mean, this is essentially a regression to the "multitasking" that Win 3.1 did, where it would save the state of a program and stop it from changing while it was in the background. Which.. okay, I guess.

But making this the behavior when you "close" the program? That's a terrible idea. Think of how many programs have slow memory leaks. Now, you can't tell your user to close it at the end of the day and reopen it the next day, because that leaked memory is still claimed.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Hopefully it'll result in developers doing their due diligence and not creating memory leaks in the first place.

Right?

Guys?

Closing the window != exiting the application is the way things are in the Mac world, so I'm used to that and it actually makes more sense to me, since closing the window isn't explicitly exiting the app... quit = quit, close = close, and close != quit and all that.

If there's a problem with an app, I've never asked the folks I'm trying to help to close the app and re-open it... it's better to ask them to reboot, since that settles any question of application state. And being Windows, that's the first thing I ask folks to do, anyway.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Would be nice, but I have several teams that are high availability, rebooting isn't an option unless absolutely critical. So solving stuff on the fly is much more useful.

Start "bar" is persistent and still useless (derp the apps I pinned to the start bar now show on the page full of apps I pinned to the metro ui herp...). Start MENU remains conspicuously absent.

The rest of the update is pretty meh. Nice not to have dig down to find power/restart I suppose.

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Correction: The Start bar now launches apps in desktop mode which means I can launch a functioning version of IE quicker now so it has that going for it.

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Post-update everything runs ridiculously slow.

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It's been rebuilt and is coming back in the next update.

On the topic of "things Microsoft is getting right lately" comes Windows Phone 8.1, which honestly should be called Windows Phone 9 but I can understand the branding decision.

Cortana personal assistant, awesome. Swype keyboard, awesome. Notification center and quick toggles, very nice. UI customization with more tile options and backgrounds, finally. I was getting to the point of thinking about a switch, but this is going to keep me around for a while.

I notice you didn't mention application availability.

My last windows phone (HTC WP8) left me wanting in terms of applications to replace the things I did on android. I ended up using it as a trade-up for an HTC One, which I dearly love.

Well, it is still behind Android and iOS in that regard and there's no way to spin it otherwise. However I am hoping more apps become available now that Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox will support universal applications. I think MS finally has a mobile OS with enough technical chops to attract consumers and developers alike. They are also trying to blur the lines between what you're using - I just noticed that my phone synced its accent color onto my desktop (can be disabled)

It feels like the most significant update the operating system has ever had, and I've been using it since it launched in 2010.

Here's an in-depth review: http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-81-review

The problem is self-perpetuating and attitude-based, and won't change until developers decide to change. You can't exactly blame the OS for that.

Developers aren't writing apps for the platform because they perceive it to be an unpopular one because people aren't adopting the platform because developers aren't writing apps ...

Of course, 'shortage of apps' is subjective. There's no shortage if they've got what you want, but it doesn't matter how many apps are available if the one you need is missing. So far, I've only really felt a sense of something missing when everyone was playing Words With Friends and I couldn't find it in the Store.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Back to Windows 8(.1)...

does anyone know of a quick/easy way to export a list of all of your installed applications/programs?

I had to rebuild my gaming rig tonight because of a failing SSD, so I installed directly from a Win 8.1 Update 1 on USB.

I have to say they've made a lot of dramatic improvements. The Windows button in place of the Start button is going to take some getting used, to, but with the right-click functionality I think I can manage.

Don't get too used to it, the actual rebuilt start menu will be in an update soon.

I'll wait until the next version of Windows before purchasing it for my home (I use it on my work laptop). That seems to be the trend with Windows OS and which one is the superior version.

Windows 95? 98 was better. 2000? XP was better. Vista? 7 was better. 8? .... probably next will be better.

It's not terrible, I just dislike having functionality hidden from me and buried deep. Although, it forcing itself into a reboot because I kept telling it "Not now, damn it!" when it wanted to restart to apply updates... and doing so in the middle of a video conference which I was sharing my screen... kinda pissed me off. No, it really pissed me off.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

95 was better than 98. Always buys odd numbered Windows versions.

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Meh you missed a couple of generations in there. Off the top of my head:

It really wasn't until XP that the architectures merged significantly. There was some cross-marketing between business/standard but until XP, they really were not even the same animal. Even now there are slight modifications between Pro & Home editions but mostly its differences in included features, not architecture. (support for domains, etc)

Marketed to Business:
NT -> NT 3->NT 3.5->NT4->2000->XP->Vista->7->9
Marketed to Home users:
3.0->3.1->95->98->98SE->ME->XP->Vista->7->8

I have a $200 Dell Venue 8 tablet. I love this thing... and far more apps available than android or iOS. Thing is, win8.1 pro is more than capable of running on tablet hardware. Having all windows apps ever made instead of just RT crap means windows wins the app availability war. Honestly, there's no reason at this point that someone couldn't make a windows 8.1 pro phone.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
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