Ask Paul: May 11 (Premium)

Happy Friday everyone. Many of this week’s questions revolved around recent events with Windows 10 and Build, as you might expect.

Continue with Windows Insider?

johnlavey asks:

Since Microsoft has hit the pause button and only a few improvements or features will become part of Windows 1809, does it make sense for me to continue to be a Windows Insider? It seems like I will be downloading a lot of Windows Updates but rarely see anything worth the effort. Can you provide some input for my decision? Thanks.

I feel like I haven’t described this properly. What Microsoft is slowing down on is the addition of superfluous new features, what I’ve called “nonsense.” But they are still adding new features, mostly around improving productivity. And if you look at what they’ve added in the first several RS5 builds, I don’t think it’s disappointing.

What’s really happening here is a formal reset of the notion that Windows is the center of anything. It’s not. It’s a tool we use to get work done, and it’s not the device that most people use most of the time. So the improvements will play to Windows’s core strengths and will often include cross-device integration, which makes both the PC and the phone more valuable when used together.

Whether anyone should be in the Insider program is sort of a personal decision.

I will say this. I have big worries that this program is misguided, because it gives far too big a voice to the minority enthusiast base, and they can upvote silly features (and have) that don’t benefit mainstream users. The issue is that the mainstream majority is not represented in the Insider program. What this program should be is the Insider program for businesses. Which exists, but is likewise under-represented.

My hope is that the recent reorg will return a sense of normalcy to the entire thing. Not so much “less” but “better.” More engineering driven. More emphasis on core business users and productivity. Less nonsense. We’ll see.

A/B testing in Insider

Dan1986ist asks:

With the stuff about Sets eventually working with Timeline mentioned at Build, will all of who are in the Insider Program actually get to test out this fuctionality? In my case, one Insider machine has Sets, the other doesn’t.

Yep. I’ve been very clear that A/B testing in the Insider program doesn’t make sense and is unfair to those who specifically join the Fast ring. The ring system is how you do A/B testing: Slow ring members won’t get the new features until the arbitrary schedule Microsoft invented in the first place. This is a sham (and a shame).

Build, Microsoft, and consumers

Daekar asks:

I was really pleased to see the direction they took at the Build keynote even though it confirmed that Microsoft is definitely focusing less on the consumer market in favor of prosumer and business sectors. Of the things announced at build, what do you think will have the largest effect, direct or indirect, on the consumer segment? Is their IoT strategy so earthshaking that even as a back-end service it will take center stage? Or is it something more subtle?

That’s it, and it’s a huge opportunity. For consumers, this could be like electricity or water, but it will take a while for these little sensor-laden devices to make their way into the world. The potential is absolutely there, and this could disrupt the smartphone market.

Maybe it won’t take that long, actually. It seems like each personal computing generation happens faster than the last.

Build vs. I/O

dcdevito asks:

Paul, based on their developer conferences this week, would you agree that both companies are heading in very different directions in terms of personal and enterprise computing? Which areas of both conferences did you like the most? Least?

I did write a bit on this topic earlier in A Tale of Two Keynotes (Premium). But let’s step through a few more thoughts here.

Microsoft’s overly-long day 1 keynote was the presentation version of a party guest who won’t shut up: That there was interesting stuff in there gets lost when the audience just shuts down. It was a strategic mistake.

Google, like Apple, treats its publicly-streamed keynote like the marketing event it should be. It focused on fun products for consumers (something Microsoft can’t do) and featured the type of mind-blowing, future-leaning demo (Assistant Duplex) that Microsoft’s show lacked.

Microsoft isn’t Google (or Apple). So the question kind of turns on a different angle, which is: What should Microsoft do for the audience it does have? And I think they did it, if you can get past the keynote length, which is what I wrote in Microsoft, Back on Track (Premium): They have provided Microsoft-oriented developers with a way forward. That way forward is enterprise and cloud + IoT/ambient computing based, not consumer-based. Google’s way forward is mobile and web-based, and of course, it has its own AI angle too. But they have the consumer market that Microsoft doesn’t.

In a way, Microsoft as a company is like anyone as a person: You can only chart your own course within the context of the hand you’re dealt. It is handling that well.

As for which I personally liked, I think I’m with any normal person when I say that the Google keynote was more interesting and even exciting. And that Google’s focus on individuals is more interesting to me.

I know that’s not exactly what you asked. What I liked most about Build? Walking around the expo hall, through the convention center, and attending the keynotes, I was struck by the sheer volume of people there. I often talk about engagement and how it is lacking on the Microsoft side of things, but I saw great engagement at this show. This wasn’t a sickly or sad showing by any measure. It was a bit inspiring, really.

But what I liked least is that what Microsoft is pushing—while “right” for the company—is of little interest to me. And I know it’s only going to get worse over time. Microsoft will eventually realize that its consumer play, such as it is—“hey, business users are people too!”—is not a viable strategy and will never work. And when that happens, it will kick its remaining products and services that I still care about to the curb. I’m worried that this day could happen at any time now, given the recent Windows reorg.

Windows on Mac

helix2301 asks:

Paul did you ever consider running windows in a VM on Mac or possibly duel booting with boot camp?

I assume you’re referring to my stupid decision to bring a Mac to Build? 🙂

Yes, but I’ve done both many times. I’ve written about that, but not recently, I guess.

What I wanted to do was see whether I could literally just use the Mac. I may do the same later with a Chromebook and Linux. But both need to pass a certain threshold that hasn’t happened so far. Only the Mac meets the test for me.

Microsoft 365 for consumers

North of 49th asks:

Post Build, if Microsoft 365 is the go forward strategy for Microsoft and you have a virtual blank sheet of paper, how would you put together the consumer experience of this? Today we have consumer versions of Office 365, but as consumers we do not have a consumer version of the total enterprise experience. In limited perspectives for example, we have ‘Parental Controls’ that sort of match up to Enterprise level restriction capabilities that System Admins can enact, but what else would you push to a consumer Microsoft 365 experience if you could?

The only thing I’ve thought through here is that this would be a way to speed Windows 10 upgrades by offering Windows 10 Pro licenses to subscribers. That’s simple enough, though I’ve not worked out the financial angle.

The Windows 10 Pro license would also allow those who own consumer PCs with Windows 10 Home to get the Windows version that would be compatible with the management and security services, which could easily be adapted to family use.

This is a little simplistic, and I’ve not really worked through the various issues. But there are already multiple levels of management and security tools across the enterprise and business versions of Microsoft 365. Another tier won’t hurt.

Plus, you could imagine PC makers preinstalling Microsoft 365 on PCs instead of just Windows. It makes sense.

Best way to manage Office

simont asks:

Now that the Office Apps are generally available from the Microsoft Store, which is the better method for installing and keeping them updated. The regular Office 365 installer or via the Store?

For all my complaining about the Store, the two things I really like are the auto-updating and the ability to go to a single place to download all my apps. The first one is very real, and it works great. The second is more of a theory, since I only have a few apps I get through the Store right now.

To date… I’ve actually installed Office 365 (Office 2016) from the website and not the Store, however. And I’m not entirely sure why. Habit? I do think it’s a bit goofy that each app is updated individually but whatever. It should still be better.

I will experiment with this. My gut tells me that the Store is the way to go, and will be going forward.

Windows 10 version 1803

harmjr asks:

Are people still having issues with the Windows April update 1803? Did they fix the chrome issue? Holding off on it until I get an all clear.

I get a lot of feedback about each release, and this one has been more negative than the last two. Many cite blue screen issues, and I’ve had three myself. I loaned the Envy x2 to Mary Jo so she could experience Windows 10 on ARM, and she got a blue screen, too, when she installed this week’s cumulative update. Yipes.

But I spoke to Microsoft about this today and they told me that nothing they see internally that indicates that this release has more issues compared to previous updates. So … there you go.

If you have Windows 10 Pro, I recommend waiting until the June Patch Tuesday to be sure. There’s nothing overly-exciting in this release and no reason to risk a reliability issue.

I’m sure we’ll hear from many people who have had no issues at all.

Microsoft account vs. work account

jchampeau asks:

Did they say anything at Build about the effort to fix the problem where Microsoft Accounts (MSAs) and Office 365 accounts can exist with the same e-mail address? When this happens, the user gets prompted to choose whether they’re logging into their “Work or School” account or their “personal” account which, in most cases, isn’t for personal use either. Or worse, sometimes they don’t get prompted and just have to guess which password to use. And when someone shares, say, a OneNote notebook with a user with both account types, they don’t get the option to choose which identity they intend to share with.

Not that I’m aware of, sorry. This is a long-time issue that is overdue for a fix, for sure.

The new Outlook.com

davidD asks:

Have you received the new Outlook.com layout, or have you been left to last like last time 😛

LOL. No, I do have the new Outlook.com. 🙂

Invoke questions

gregsedwards asks:

Paul, do you have multiple Invoke speakers in your home/tied to your Microsoft Account? I’m curious whether they support multi-speaker media playback like Alexa’s “Everywhere” group does. Is this something you could find out?

I only have a single Invoke speaker. But no, my understanding is that it does not support multi-speaker media playback, like a Sonos or Google Home/Chromecast system.

Follow-up question…any idea when/whether multiple account support is coming to the Invoke?

Harmon Kardon says it has no plans to add support for multiple accounts, sorry.

Remove Microsoft Edge from Windows?

hrlngrv asks:

Could MSFT remove Edge from Windows 10 to make it available through the store? As a technical matter, isn’t Edge built too firmly into Windows 10 to allow for that? And built in too deeply for rapid updates to work well?

As Greg noted in the comments, this was indeed the plan at one point. I asked about this some months later and was told, sadly, that this is no longer the plan.

I feel very strongly that Microsoft should update Edge via the Store on a regular basis like the other apps that come with Windows 10. It is still a relatively new product and requires more work than the biannual schedule allows for. I have no idea why they’ve not done this. Surely the UI/UX updates could happen regularly with core underlying technologies being updated twice a year with Windows.