Ask Paul: July 2 (Premium)

America celebrates Independence Day this weekend, so let’s get the holiday weekend started early with another epic round of reader questions.

Windows 11 system requirements

yb asks:

The more Microsoft restricts CPU requirements the less market share Win11 would attain. Most businesses, such as ours would only buy new PC/laptops only when we need to – we do not really want to have two visibly different versions of Windows [support and training of staff]. From what I can see, the adoption rate for win 11 would be really slow- maybe 25% in two years? and then it will be time for the next version of windows?

So, I have the same concerns. Obviously, Microsoft needs to strike some balance between allowing free upgrades to existing customers and spurring new PC sales. And while most would probably agree that finding that balance is hard, Microsoft seems to be doing a phenomenally bad job of it. Regardless, I think you’re right: The stringent Windows 11 system requirements will only harm Windows 11 adoption because the customers who needed new PCs last year because of the pandemic already have them, and now we’re going to settle into a more normal PC buying cycle.

Do you have a rough idea of the market share of Intel CPU generations from previous sales figures? when do you think that win 11 would reach a 50% market rate- worst and best case scenario? It is a hard question I know[smile].

I don’t, and I would love to know that. I have speculated that 7th-generation Core CPUs are likely the biggest generation within those that should be able to upgrade to Windows 11, but that’s not based on any hard numbers, just anecdotal information.

Regarding the speed of adoption, Microsoft won’t be silly enough to make some “one billion”-type claim for Windows 11. And I think it will be happy to see a more measured (and reality-based) usage share uptick over time, with Windows 10 fading only gradually during its last four years of support. It’s reasonable to assume we’ll see ~200 million new Windows 11-based PCs each year from 2022 going forward and then we can add whatever number from the Windows 10 upgrades.

But how many Windows 10 upgrades, and when? We could only speculate. If the past is any guide, there will be a big number immediately when upgrades are allowed followed by slow growth after that with the occasional spikes from corporate upgrades over time. In short, I have no idea.

Teams vs. Skype in Windows 11

will asks:

One item with Windows 11 that is odd to me is the integration of Teams into the Windows client, and not Skype. I am curious why Microsoft thinks Teams is a better experience for home users vs Skype?

This is the wrong question. To Microsoft, Teams is the embodiment of, and the growth engine for, Microsoft 365, and the Teams brand is already so successful and positive for the company that replacing Skype is no longer even a question. To that end, Windows 11 will include Teams integration in the taskbar. But it will not include the Skype app. Interesting.

But let’s consider the “why” question. Skype was never a good upsell. You just got it for free and the only thing a few users ever paid extra for was international calling, and I think we can all agree that rarely happens these days. Teams, meanwhile, is the gateway drug to Microsoft 365, which is a paid subscription. So it can give away some free Teams features, as with Skype. But there is an upsell with Teams. And it gets even more lucrative for Microsoft as you move from individuals to families to small businesses to bigger businesses and beyond. Pushing Teams is obvious.

That said, we should remember that the predecessor to this feature, called Meet Now, likely did nothing to drive Skype adoption or usage in general. And I suspect that Chat with Teams will suffer the same fate in Windows 11. It’s just another random piece of UI that most users will click on once and then ignore forever. So in the end, it’s not going to matter in the slightest. And users will install Skype and/or Teams as they require or prefer, just as they do now.

Even the name alone “Teams” is more for business ” vs a home group or family and the desktop application is very much geared toward business users and not home users. Plus, when you start to talk about Skype you have to bring up the point that in the biggest work from home event ever, Skype should have been leaps and bounds ahead of Zoom. Microsoft spent billions on Skype and now it seems like it is the kid that is no longer cool to be around. So what happened to or IS happening to Skype??

Skype is going away. Microsoft won’t kill the brand immediately, but there will be a moment similar to when the Windows 2000 splash screen included the redundant tagline “Built on NT technology,” except in this case it will be Skype-powered experiences in Teams. Chats with Teams isn’t the first step toward this future, but it is one step.

I do agree that Teams isn’t a great brand for individuals, including consumers. But at some point, we all—Microsoft included—just need to acknowledge that this company’s success is based largely on businesses and not individuals. (It used to be a 65/35 percent split, but I don’t know where it’s at now.) Maybe its software should be tailored for that market first.

Then again, Windows 11 includes Xbox too. These things coexisting on the same platform is a bit odd, for sure.

Window 11, sure, but what about Linux?

justme asks:

I realize between Windows 11 being announced and your travel, its probably been a bit full-on for you. I was curious if you had made your decision about the Linux distro you are going to use for your upcoming project.

Yeah, this is one of several things that have been pushed back by the sudden appearance of Windows 11. The others being finishing the Windows 10 Field Guide (though I published a big update, finally, last night), the next programming series, and catching up on my PC reviews.

But to answer your question, no, I’ve not quite decided, sorry.

On my side, I have recently installed Kubuntu in a VM to give KDE a try – and am surprised at how well it works. Yet to try it with game controller or printer, but out of the box the laptop hardware works. (As an aside, I was inspired by WIndows 11, as I saw pictures of Kubuntu configured to look very much like the new Windows 11 desktop in some comments on OMGUbuntu and wanted to look for myself.)

Interesting. I will look into that, thanks.

Tablet experience

christianwilson asks:

I don’t ever expect Windows to beat iPadOS in a pure tablet experience, but any thoughts on how Windows 11 will perform as a tablet OS compared to Windows 10? I am encouraged by what I saw on the Windows 11 announcement, but I still have my concerns.

I’ve always been fascinated by those who were disappointed by the tablet features in Windows 10 compared to Windows 8, mostly because I approach this from the other end of the spectrum and believe that Windows, like everything else, should be optimized for the most common use cases. But that said, I don’t mind the Windows 10 tablet experience today, and I actually think that Windows 11 is a case of “two steps forward, two steps back” when compared to that.

Some of the improvements are real, like the touchpad-like on-screen gestures, which I think is smart. And automating what happens when you switch between having a keyboard and not is also smart. But I don’t understand why Widgets is so important that it needs that left side swipe; that should be for app switching, I think. That’s a great example of optimizing for what Microsoft wants, not for what people will want. (What could solve this? Everything in Windows should be configurable, including edge swipe gestures.)

Anyway, my general take is that Windows 11’s tablet experience will be like everything else in Windows 11: Dumbed down for the masses, and probably the right direction, though the more technical will be unhappy. I assume that most people who detach the keyboard are either going to write/draw/take notes with a smartpen or consume content (read/watch videos) as one would on an iPad. Both experiences will be very similar to Windows 10 and, I think, will get the job done for most.

What if I test Windows 11 and can’t upgrade to the final version?

erich82 asks:

I’ve installed the Windows 11 preview and am really liking the looks and functionality of it. It’s made me wonder though, what Microsoft will do to the devices of other Insiders, should Microsoft deem a device unworthy?  As I understand, the old Windows OS data is automatically deleted in 10 days, or possibly even sooner should a space-conscious user manually delete the Temporary Files, without stopping to consider, or even being aware of the ramifications.  How would Microsoft handle an unworthy device in this case, when a user can’t simply revert to Windows 10 without creating a bootable USB? When the time comes to possibly be booted from Windows 11, would Microsoft send over the most recent Windows 10 OS, just as they would with a feature update? Asking for a friend, of course.

Microsoft hasn’t said exactly what will happen, in part because a big swath of currently-incompatible CPU generations (like 7th-generation Intel Core) will likely be allowed to upgrade to the final version, and in part because this is Microsoft, and the Insider Program, and they literally have no idea.

But you describe both the worst-case and best-case scenarios accurately. At the worst, you will need to create Windows 10 USB Setup media and nuke the PC from orbit, so to speak. At the best, Microsoft will do what both Apple and Google with their OS betas and let you trigger some kind of a profile that automatically delivers the previous OS version to the device, so you can downgrade. Since we don’t really have that capability in Windows—the ability to go back to the previous version is temporary, as you note—that might require work that Microsoft isn’t interested in doing. After all, Insiders should be technical enough to know that the Dev channel, in particular, is a one-way street and be able to handle wiping out a PC.

My guess is that you’ll be required to reinstall Windows 10 from scratch yourself.

Windows and smartphones

rmlounsbury asks:

Does the recent revelation that Windows 11 being able to run Android apps change your calculus at all for what mobile phone you use as your daily driver? I know you’ve recently considered moving to iPhone/Apple Watch but have stuck with Pixel thus far. I know in my early testing with Windows 11 the Android integration seems to be pretty rock solid as well.

That’s an interesting question. I guess not, because the smartphone integration features in Windows today (via Your Phone) are so dodgy as it is that I never use them myself. The one thing I would like to have on the PC most of all is messaging integration, and I can get that through the Google Messages web app now. (And almost never do, so I guess it’s not a priority. I feel like I would use this stuff more if I were in the Apple ecosystem; seeing and answering text messages on an iPad or Mac would be useful.)

I’ve spent so much time over the years experimenting with this stuff and never finding it worthwhile. Ultimately, my phone, tablet, and PC are all separate and isolated, and I use each for specific things. That means that I could theoretically switch to iPhone at some point—I’m literally experimenting with that now so I can test iOS 15, and there are certainly positives but also a lot of pain points when you’re used to Android. But I do prefer Android overall, and the Android 12 beta has done a lot to keep me from drifting.

That said, sure. I am interested in the next iPhones and their camera capabilities. And the Apple Watch, despite its battery life issues compared to the Fitbit smartwatch I currently use. I will always reevaluate these things as new versions appear and decide accordingly. It’s like anything else: If you test something and find it lacking and move on, at least you know.

As I look forward to the rest of the year and think back on the smartphone camera issues I had in Mexico City, I naturally think about where I might land when it comes to upcoming smartphones especially. There are three primary contenders: Pixel 6 (whatever the best one is called with three lenses), Apple iPhone 13 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. Right now, based on what I know, I’m leaning very heavily towards the Pixel.

But you never know.

What’s not to love?

hrlngrv asks:

What do you NOT like so far in Windows 11? For me, far & away the lack of toolbars in the taskbar. It’s a feature I’ve been using for over 2 decades at this point, so more than irksome it’s gone.

You’re hitting on a specific example of something I understand but find concerning in Windows 11. Microsoft is clearly working explicitly in Windows 11 to make everything cleaner/simpler, but in doing so, it is eliminating features that more technical users rely on. The taskbar is such a great example of this because it’s so easy to communicate: When you right-click on the Windows 10 taskbar, you get dozens of items in a context menu, including some I use a lot, like Task Manager. In Windows 11, you get one option in the context menu, Taskbar settings. And that opens the Settings app, which has some, but not all, of the options we used to get in Windows 10.

So what is the takeaway from this? I think it’s that Microsoft is serious about simplifying the thing they have (“big” Windows) because its previous attempts at creating something based on Windows that were not quite Windows but were “simpler” all failed. So some things we used to do will require extra steps; for example, toggling icons for the Pen menu (previously Windows Ink Workspace) or Touch keyboard in the taskbar. Some things will require another approach; for example, you can get to Task Manager via Start search or by right-clicking the Start button. And some things will just be lost, like taskbar-based toolbars. Those losses will mostly impact people like us.

And that’s the weird concession we have to make in Windows 11. After spending decades providing multiple interfaces for different types of users, Microsoft is going to simplify Windows for the masses. That makes it more like macOS, which is understandable and even desirable. But it will burn those of us with specific ways of doing things.

I feel like Windows 11 could accommodate two basic UIs, one simple and dumbed-down, and one that’s more like Windows 10. And that in either, one should be able to toggle specific features to get it where we want. I also don’t see that happening.

Why didn’t Microsoft die?

philbypond asks:

Today’s daily NY Times email about tech had the title On Tech: Why didn’t Microsoft die? I think you probably get that as well. This caught my eye “Microsoft’s ability to thrive despite doing almost everything wrong might be a heartening saga about corporate reinvention. Or it may be a distressing demonstration of how monopolies are extremely hard to kill. Or maybe it’s a little of both.” The email as a whole is a slightly different slant on many of your posts about Microsoft (what they did wrong and what they did right) and trying to relate Big Tech of the past with Big Tech of today. I’m interested if you saw it and your thoughts on the questions it poses about survival of very large companies.

Yes, and I actually added that to Thurrott Now on the homepage as well, as I figured others might be interested. I think there are two interesting aspects to this story. One, that Microsoft’s antitrust experiences from 20 years ago should inform companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and so on and how they can/should respond (since Microsoft really screwed that up). And two, that Microsoft’s subsequent success should be studied in business schools in the future because the firm pivoted from a one/two product company (Windows + Office) to a far more diversified company with many successful businesses and a wide-open future thanks to cloud computing. If you look at one-product companies like Apple (iPhone), Google (Search advertising), and Amazon (e-commerce), you see the same evolutions taking place, where they are diversifying and trying to make that one major product a smaller slice of the pie. The problem is, in doing so, they’re doing what Microsoft did: Illegally tying products and thwarting competitive threats.

It is amazing to me that Microsoft has escaped the wrath of antitrust regulators. This is the ultimate example of Microsoft’s biggest defeat, with consumers, has had a silver lining. It’s the second-biggest/most powerful corporation in the world, and virtually no one is paying any attention to it from a regulatory perspective. Had Microsoft succeeded with consumers, that would not be the case. To most people, including those in government and regulation, Microsoft has more in common with an electricity or water company than Apple. It’s boring and doesn’t deserve the attention.

TPM thoughts

beckoningeagle asks:

My desktop has a TPM 2.0 module and I was able to install Windows 11 without a problem. My brother, however, does not have a TPM module, his processor does not have PTT or TPM integrated (It does have Intel AES-NI Instructions). Yet, he woke up this morning to find Windows 11 installed on his computer. He had not even attempted it because every compatibility tool told him that his PC was not compatible and no TPM module was present. His version of Windows is Pro. Does Windows Pro require a TPM as well? We have no idea how he is running Windows 11 and it was auto installed by the insider program.

Looking at the Windows 10 system requirements, I expected to at least see TPM 1.2 as recommended, but it’s not even on the list. TPM is required for certain Windows features, however, including BitLocker drive encryption. But that’s the only mention. So the move from “no TPM required” in Windows 10 to “TPM 2.0 required” is a huge step. I suspect we’ll be living with TPM uncertainty for a long time.

Two turkeys don’t make an eagle

crunchyfrog asks:

One of the more interesting and mostly unexpected outcomes from the Windows 11 event was the partnership of Microsoft and Amazon teaming up to provide Android Apps within the new Microsoft Store.

I agree. This came out of nowhere and it’s not the type of thing anyone would have guessed could happen. Android app compatibility had been rumored for years, but the expectation was that Microsoft would do this in-house and the only question was how they’d curate Android apps in the Microsoft Store. Now we know. They won’t.

While both of these companies are very large and powerful in their own right, they have both done very poorly in the mobile space and in particular, the mobile app space.

This is a good point.

I am curious to hear your take on this in more detail. Is this just a case of two companies just throwing sh%t against the wall to see what sticks or is this forging of empires going to make a difference in taking mobile apps on Windows in an entirely new direction? What’s in this for Amazon and does Microsoft have a long term plan?

I think the correct way to look at this is how Microsoft implemented the Windows Subsystem for Linux. If it had announced WSL and said, hey, we’re partnering with Ubuntu, and those guys will give you all the Linux you need, some would have been fine with it, but many would have preferred other distributions. But that’s not what WSL is. You can choose from multiple Linux distributions and can even mix and match on the fly between multiple versions. It’s an open platform of sorts.

The Store is just like that. Yes, we learned about Amazon and its Android AppStore, but it hopefully won’t be the only option. And over time, we should see other Android stores-in-a-store, with the big win, should it ever happen, being the Google Play Store, of course. You know Microsoft wants this.

If Windows 11 launches with just the Amazon AppStore, it will still be a net positive compared to not having Android apps at all. But hopefully, other app store makers are interested in integrating with the Store. Semi-related, Microsoft has spoken openly about its desire to see Steam in the Store.

And seriously, it’s very possible that Windows 11 will have more compatible mobile apps available within it than does macOS. That would be an interesting dig.

Why Recommended?

harmjr asks:

So how much money do you think Microsoft makes on things like the Recommended area in Windows 11 or on Windows 10 start menu pushing Office 365? Is it really worth the complaints we users make about it.

Obviously, there’s no way to know how much money these things earn, but the real question here is whether the advantages of advertising in the product outweigh the negatives of how these things impact users. But based on what we see already in Windows 11, the Recommended area of the Start menu will obviously display ads in the future. The question is whether we will be able to turn that off and turn Recommended into a more useful area. You know, one that should really be called Recent and only include recent documents and other files.

There are some options in Settings > Personalization > Start that suggest this is the case. You can toggle off such things as “Show recently added apps,” and “Show most used apps” right now, which is a step in the right direction. What’s lacking is the ability (in the UI at least) to toggle off “recommended” things (e.g. ads), as in Windows 10. That could change.

Samsung Galaxy Book Go vs. Windows 11

anoldamigauser asks:

What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy Book Go as a testbed for Windows 11? I know performance will be lackluster to abysmal, but I was thinking that I could do all my beta testing for Microsoft with a single platform so to speak…all the problems without the compatibility. The price seems reasonable. Or should I just put a sharp stick in my eye?

One of the PCs I’ve upgraded to Windows 11 is the HP Elite Folio, which runs Windows 10 on ARM and has a high-end (for Qualcomm) 8cx-series chipset. And I got to say, the experience is not great. I was working on the book yesterday, taking shots on one PC and writing and updating on the Folio, and the performance was so bad I had to give up and switch to a different PC. I can only imagine that the Snapdragon 7-series chip in the Go (and whatever other lesser components it has) will be even worse. And that this machine is likely the single worst supported Windows 11 experience possible. On that note, that is what makes it interesting to me. I might get one for testing purposes.

A reader provides more hope than me, so check back with the original post to see his reply.

Microsoft communication

Jester asks:

What’s your opinion on why is Microsoft’s communication is so bad? They have changed leadership numerous times and it seems it never changes.

And navarac adds…

Would a change of PR Company (presently WE Communications) help, do you think? After all it has represented Microsoft since around 1984. Have they outlasted their usefulness or does Microsoft Marketing just ignore their advice?

No, it’s not Wagged’s fault. As a PR firm, Wagged can advise Microsoft, but the decisions ultimately fall back on the software giant, not on outside PR. And Microsoft, of course, also has in-house PR, led by Frank Shaw, which I assume falls under Chris Capossela’s org. I really like both of those people, personally, and quite a bit. And I feel that they do great jobs, especially given the constraints they have to operate under.

And that’s the thing. Microsoft is a very big company and it’s possible that parts I don’t deal with directly do communicate well. In my experience, sure, it’s been an unending stream of poor communication for many, many years now. I’m not sure how to assess the blame here, or the “why,” I guess. Looking just at Windows, I can see outside effects, from the rollercoaster-like shifts between different regimes (Sinofsky vs. Myerson vs. Panay) and how each is a reaction to the past, to the broader corporate aims at Microsoft that led to it over-emphasizing the new (cloud computing) and deemphasizing the old (Windows) to appease to investors and shareholders.

(This isn’t unique to Microsoft: Apple in the 1980s infamously ignored the Apple II lineup to push the Mac despite the fact that the former was, at that time, its cash cow and the Mac was losing lots of money.)

Also, while Microsoft has shifted from Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella, the overall strategy never changed. Ballmer put in place everything that’s happening today, not Nadella, and Ballmer is unfairly criticized by people who don’t understand that. The biggest change, to me, under Nadella is that Microsoft now requires its businesses to justify their existence. This led to the demise of Windows phone, which was a failure with no future, and the rise of Xbox, which was a failure that could become very successful in the new cloud-focused world.

I keep thinking that Microsoft will wake up and figure out how to communicate effectively. I’m vaguely thankful that’s never happened. It’s been quite the career, making sense out of its nonsense.

Premium member seeing a full-screen ad

GT Tecolotecreek asks:

Why are premium members now getting full screen ad first when clicking on a premium article?

I had to ask about this, since I don’t have anything to do with the technical end of the site, and I’ve not seen this myself. It turns out it is a technical glitch and that you shouldn’t be seeing that. We were able to duplicate it this morning and will work to get that fixed. I hope it’s obvious that we want our Premium members to have the best possible experience, and that includes a mostly ad-free experience.

Sorry about that!

More hardware requirments

haghighat asks:

As I think about the win 11 compatibility debacle, I observe two obvious things:

1- it is clear that the CPU compatibility limitations are totally arbitral. I even installed the preview version on my old “Surface Pro 3” with a Core i5-4300U CPU without a hitch! It is clear that this “incompatible” hardware “can” run Windows 11 but Microsoft does not “want” to approve it.

It does seem arbitrary to me as well. I kind of beat this topic to death in Windows 11: Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknown Unknowns (Premium) but the search for any reason behind this decision is fruitless. I think there’s a case to be made for some post-Spectre/Meltdown dividing line, and that would exclude the 4th-generation chipset you mention above. But surely 7th-generation and newer is fine. And maybe even 6th-generation.

2- Let’s consider that Microsoft is right and windows 11 needs a certain chip with certain Technology for a certain feature (for example the chip to cloud security or running android apps), but I could see a scenario where Microsoft allows anyone without a compatible CPU to install and run the OS without those features. Some users may not need those features, while others may only want to have the choice.

They’re already doing this. Microsoft is allowing system makers to bypass these requirements under certain conditions, and that gives the lie—or, at least the arbitrariness—to the whole story. These things are either requirements or they’re not. If they’re not, then that should be for everyone.

I think we’re going to see more and more changes as we go forward. And we’ll look back in two years and wonder what all the fuss was about since Microsoft eventually let in every reasonable PC there is.

Android apps in Windows 11

wbaggerly asks:

I’m curious to know what Android Apps you are most excited about testing once the option/store becomes available for Windows 11. I think in the past you’ve mentioned that you’d like to run the Mobile/Android version of Outlook instead of the built in Mail client. Is this something you think you’ll try?

Definitely. (That said, I’d rather see a brand new native Mail app instead.)

Beyond that, I’m not sure I’ll ever use that many Android apps in Windows. As I noted above somewhere, I use Android phones, an Apple iPad, and Windows-based PCs, and they’re each isolated islands of sort, each for specific things. And interoperability isn’t all that important to me. The types of apps I use on Android are specific to the phone and being out in the world, and the apps I use on the iPad are most for reading and watching videos, and I wouldn’t ever (or rarely) do that in Windows. In fact, one of the things I really liked about Windows 10 initially, and still do, is its return to desktop-centric computing. To me, Windows PCs are about productivity. I install desktop apps for writing, editing photos (for work), and programming, and I use a desktop web browser. I don’t need or want mobile apps, or entertainment apps, or whatever.

I will, of course, test Android apps on Windows 11. But I would be surprised if this “stuck.” At least for me.

 

Thanks, everyone. Happy 4th if you’re celebrating!