Ask Paul: September 3 (Premium)

With summer drawing to a close and a big month coming up for Microsoft, it’s no surprise that this week’s questions are both excellent and timely.

What to expect from Microsoft’s September event

crunchyfrog asks:

Now that Microsoft has announced their September 22nd event meeting date, I would be curious to know what you expect to see or hear from them as far as hardware, software or any other major changes coming as well as your predictions of what they will not announce that others might be expecting.

For starters, it’s worth examining the language that Microsoft uses in its invitation email. First, it refers to this event as “the Microsoft Fall 2021 Event,” suggesting that it’s not just about Surface. And then it more explicitly mentions that “the company will talk about devices and Windows 11.” That sentence alone may require a bit of speculation. Is it about Surface and Windows 11? PCs in general and Windows 11?

I’ve presented this as a Surface event, but the more I think about it, I think that Microsoft will discuss new (and existing) Surface PCs that will come preloaded with Windows 11 and possibly third-party PCs that come preloaded with Windows 11. And Windows 11 as a more general topic. I guess we’ll see.

With regards to expectations, I’m mostly concerned with Surface here. We already know what Windows 11 will look like for 1.0, and the timing of this event is right after (or around) the time that IFA 2021 would be held, but that event was canceled this year. Normally, PC makers announce new hardware for the holiday season at IFA, so I suspect we’re going to see a lot of standalone product announcements this month from Lenovo, HP, Dell, and others, and most likely before the Microsoft event. (Some may choose to do so at that event, if third-party PCs are part of it, I guess.)

Looking at the Surface product line, I think it’s fair to point out that there isn’t a single PC or device that isn’t in need of at least a refresh. Let’s run down the list:

Surface Go. We’re on Surface Go 2 right now, and that was released in May 2020. To date, both Surface Go models shipped in the first half of the year, so this one is overdue. I’ve seen rumors of a Core i3-based Surface Go 3, so it’s reasonable to assume that we might see that this month.

Surface Laptop Go. This inexpensive little laptop shipped in October 2020 with lots of compromises. I guess the question here is whether it just disappears or whether we see a refresh; it’s only been a year, so I’ll put a Surface Laptop Go 2 in the unlikely column.

Surface Laptop. Surface Laptop 4 arrived in April 2021, but it also arrived with previous-generation AMD processors, so fans would obviously love to see a Laptop 5 sooner rather than later. Again, Surface moves slowly, so my guess is that we won’t see Laptop 5 this month, it’s just too soon.

Surface Pro. Microsoft has been milking the classic Pro design for several years, and Surface Pro 7 is almost two years old now (though a Pro 7+ model for businesses did ship this past January). I don’t see Microsoft not announcing a Pro 8 with a new form factor that more closely resembles the sleek Pro X.

Surface Pro X. Microsoft last refreshed this ARM-based PC last October, adding a very slightly updated processor and a new finish. My guess is we’ll get another small refresh this month as the new-generation SoCs that will make Windows on ARM really make sense won’t arrive until 2022 or 2023. But Microsoft needs an ARM entry for the Windows 11 launch regardless.

Surface Book. Surface Book 3 shipped in May 2020 with the same form factor as the previous two versions, and we know that Microsoft has patents suggesting an all-new design. Could Surface Book 4 happen this month? Maybe: This product line needs a major redesign to remain competitive and tying that to Windows 11 makes sense. But Surface Book isn’t exactly a best seller, either, and making this a wave two device makes just as much sense. I don’t have a read on this one.

Surface Studio. Surface Studio 2 shipped a very long three years ago, leading some to wonder if Microsoft has given up on this very expensive AIO desktop PC. And while Microsoft allowing this aging beast to upgrade to Windows 11 may seem like good news, it could be seen as the opposite as well, since it could be killing it and throwing existing customers a bone so it doesn’t seem like it’s abandoning them too. (Plus, Microsoft knows that this audience is tiny.) I wonder if this will ever see a revision.

Surface Duo. This one seems like a lock given all the rumors lately, but … what does Surface Duo have to do with Windows 11? Nothing, unless you consider the Your Phone app, which is not getting updated for Windows 11, to be relevant. Regardless, I bet Microsoft does announce Surface Duo 2 this month.

Surface Neo. It’s been taken off the Surface website, but since Neo was originally going to run Windows 10X, and since the Windows 10X has made its way to Windows 11, it’s worth mentioning. And, no, I don’t expect to see Neo announced. But this opens up a new discussion about whether Windows 11 will be better adapted in the future for dual-screen devices, and if, so, that could see the return of Surface Neo.

Active Directory at home?

matsan asks:

With so many computers around your house (I guess you and the family use a couple and not all PC are there to review…) – do you use any kind of Active Directory to keep accounts consistent across the computers?

No. Like many people involved in IT—I wrote about IT and business computing for over 15 years at Windows IT Pro Magazine—I of course went through a phase where I pursued having a work-like infrastructure at home. But this made zero sense 15-20 years ago, and it makes even less sense now. Over the intervening years, I used peripheral solutions like Windows Home Server, Windows Foundation Server, and the like. But today, thanks to advances in Windows (including fast PC Reset) and sync technology like OneDrive, there’s no need for this kind of overhead.

Facing a situation where we have a couple of VMs for administrative tasks and two Windows laptops and looking at implementing Samba 4 as a Domain Controller for the sole purpose of keeping all accounts in sync.

Yep. Don’t do that. 🙂

Oh good we needed another problem

jack asks:

I accidentally discovered that anything I paste into the Start menu search that goes into a web search gets added to my online Bing search history, such as phone numbers, bank card numbers that I’m quickly typing instead of using a pen and paper. Bing search settings don’t have an option to auto-delete search items (including these Start menu search items) after a specific period. At the same time, Google lets me auto delete searches after three months. Perhaps a tip is necessary to bring this to people’s attention.

Thanks for the heads-up. I guess this doesn’t surprise me in that the web search functionality in Start search (and search in Widgets) is literally a silent front-end for Bing, and you’re signing in to Windows with your Microsoft account, and of course it would lead there. But yeah, this is a problem that needs to be highlighted. At some point soon, I hope, I’ll try to tie this to a tip about removing the Edge integration in Start search and Widget search. (You can use a tool like EdgeDeflector for this now, by the way.) I assume we’ll see similar ways to switch to the search engine you prefer too, not that that will solve the issue you raise.

Anyway, thanks for this.

Instability in Windows 11 Dev

hrlngrv asks:

Granted Insider builds are supposed to be unstable, but what’s your impression of both 22000.176 and 22449 both having serious problems with EXPLORER.EXE?

I just upgraded, and while I’ve not had issues yet, I have seen the reports, and that Microsoft has issued fixes/workarounds for both.

Windows 11 has been so reliable so far that this seems unusual. But this is still prerelease software, and Microsoft did warn that Dev channel builds could be less stable going forward. That doesn’t excuse this issue impacting a Beta build, I know. But it’s really the first major issue.

What will Microsoft really support with Windows 11?

usman asks:

I’ve been left confused as Microsoft’s messaging around Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

Yep. We all have. 🙂

It says I am going to be kicked out from the insider program, what does that mean? Can I continue to use Windows 11, do I need to do a clean install with the Windows 11 ISO to not be in a ‘kicked out’ state?

As of today, and this is based on what Microsoft has communicated publicly, what this means is that, if you are currently testing Windows 11 in the Insider Program using PC hardware that does not meet the minimum hardware requirements, you will no longer receive new builds of Windows 11. However, you will receive cumulative updates that include bug and security fixes. When Windows 11 arrives on October 5, however, that will stop. So at some point now or in the future, you will need to manually reinstall Windows 10 using an ISO.

With regards to moving forward on Windows 11 from October 5, and, again, this is just based on what they’ve said and done, you should be able to manually install Windows 11 using an ISO from that date and continue using it in an unsupported state. And while Microsoft may not provide cumulative updates, including those that are just security updates, I have a hard time imagining that that will happen. If it does, you can always manually download and install updates each month, and it’s reasonable to expect that third-party utilities will automate that.

As far as staying in the Insider Program now and then “upgrading” to the shipping version of Windows 11 on October, it’s kind of an open question. I assume you could leave the Insider Program, download the ISO, run Setup, and “upgrade” it. And it would work as above. Microsoft, of course, has not discussed this. Because Microsoft.

Is that clean install currently available with the Beta Channel ISO or will I have to wait for the official ISO?

It is available, but the question is whether doing that now and trying to move forward would work. I suspect it will, but you might end up having to download the “RTM” ISO in October and “upgrade” again. I sort of understand why Microsoft isn’t wasting brain cells even trying to document this, since it impacts so few people. But some clarity would be nice.

Music apps for Windows

wmurd118 asks:

I’ve finally given up using iTunes. What do you use as a music player for your Windows machines that can also be synced with Apple products? I store all my music in my OneDrive account and locally but would also like to maintain it on my iPhone/iPad and keep it synced in OneDrive.

I don’t really use a local music player on Windows anymore, let alone one that can sync with Apple hardware, sorry. And maybe there are some folks here who can help with that. But here’s one thing to consider: Apple should be releasing an Apple Music app on Windows soon that will replace iTunes, and while that app will obviously be very focused on the subscription stuff, I’d be surprised if they gave up device sync.

Xbox Cloud Gaming quality

vladimir asks:

How long do you think it will take for Microsoft to improve Cloud gaming to acceptable levels? Right now only stadia is a decent service but their catalog is awful. Microsoft has an amazing catalog but the service is so very from the technical perspective. It’s slow to load, laggy, natively available only on android phones, not even on google tv.

There are two big things that just happened (or will soon happen) that should improve matters, the use of Xbox Series X-based hardware in Microsoft’s datacenters (replacing Xbox One X-based hardware), and the availability of this service via native apps (as opposed to the web). The Xbox app will ship as part of Windows 11, providing access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and that will of course work on Windows 10 as well. But that’s just the PC…

Will we really have to buy an Xbox to use it on a TV set? The experience in the web browser is terrible.

No, Phil Spencer has vaguely suggested that native smart TV and set-top box (Roku, etc.) clients were coming too. Timing is unclear, of course.

It’s really not a good showcase for Microsoft cloud technology. I use Stadia on the same Internet connection and the quality difference is embarassing for Microsoft.

I agree.

I wonder what is your opinion about this and when we will be able to appreciate in the cloud the amazing games that Gamepass has.

The timing has to be by the end of this year, though some of the non-Windows clients probably won’t happen until 2022. This is something I need to look at again, I’m really curious how/if a native Windows client changes things. But I agree with you that, as of today, the connectivity/latency experience on Stadia is better (and Amazon Luna too) than is the case with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Clearly, if Google and Amazon can figure this out, so too can Microsoft.

I’m not defending them, but they are positioning Xbox Cloud Gaming as a “beta” now, too. That may largely be because they’re not getting the necessary performance yet.