Ask Paul: February 18 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and welcome to another mammoth installment of Ask Paul with a great set of reader questions.

Taskbar improvements to Windows 11

hrlngrv asks:

How much Windows 10 taskbar functionality do you believe the Windows 11 taskbar will recover in 22H2?

I keep checking on this because it just doesn’t seem possible, but in case this is still news to anyone, the Windows 11 taskbar is all-new code and isn’t an evolution of the Windows 10 taskbar. That explains why it has so many feature regressions. (But not why Microsoft shipped Windows 11 so quickly.) And so I think it’s reasonable to expect many improvements over time. We’ve already seen the first few, I guess, though only the ability to review the clock on multiple displays addresses a regression.

So what do I expect to see? More options on right-click, including Task Manager. The ability to resize the taskbar with at least two sizing options. The ability to place the taskbar on any side of the display. And direct interaction with preset icons like Search, Task view, Widgets, Chat, the Pen Menu, etc. so that you can disable them directly. Over time, I would imagine we’ll basically get back everything we had with Windows 10, though that may not happen in time for the first feature update.

For something completely different, whither your foray into Linux?

Nothing yet, sorry. But with Laurent writing news every day, I should have more time. For the short term, I want to finish up the Programming Windows series so I can move on to other things. Linux is at the top of the list.

Is FUBO FUBAR?

spacecamel asks:

Did you see that FUBO switched to quarterly billing and dropped their monthly?

No, but looking at the site, it appears they’ve only dropped their cheapest monthly plan but still offer three $65/month and up plans. And since that matches the base cost of YouTube TV, maybe this is just a reflection of the economic reality of these services, with have gotten much more expensive over time, erasing a key advantage over cable TV.

Do you think this is the end of being able to switch easily between the services?

No, not yet. I don’t think most consumers would accept a quarterly payment for a service that expensive. Even $65 per month is a tough level for most. The good news, such as it is, is that these services, whatever the cost and/or duration, are still frictionless in the sense that you can drop one and adopt another at any time. I guess if you were on a quarterly plan, that stretches the notion of “any time,” but three months is still better than one year, which is/was the standard for cable TV.

I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing with regards to my wireless carrier, Mint. Mint is an MVNO that charges less over time if you pay quarterly or annually, and so I’ve gone with a $300 annual plan for the past two years. My contract is up for renewal next month, but with us able to travel internationally again, I’m wondering if it makes sense to go back to Google Fi. That would be more expensive each month—Fi has a base price of $30 per month vs. the $25 I’m paying at Mint, but the Mint plan I’m on currently provides 15 GB of data each month whereas that $30 Fi fee is for 1 GB with each additional GB costing $10 extra per month up to a ceiling of $60 (or $90 total).

I don’t remember how this worked out math-wise, but Fi was probably double the cost or more of Mint Mobile in a typical year. But switching from Mint is a bit difficult because of how I pay for it (annually). The nice thing about Fi is that it’s monthly, so I could switch at any time. I could choose a lower Mint plan, I guess—I don’t use all that data, ever—and I could go to a quarterly or six-month plan too. I don’t know.

Anyway, FUBO is sort of the Mint of TV streaming services, if that makes sense. I’m not sure its policies will impact the bigger players.

Chrome OS Flex

crunchyfrog asks:

I am curious on your take of Google’s Chrome OS Flex being released this week. The timing of its release right around Microsoft’s Windows 11 SE can’t be a coincidence.

Well, it could be: Google announced its acquisition of CloudReady maker Neverware over a year and a half ago, in December 2020, and so we’ve known that it would offer something like this for a while now. I think the way to position this is that it’s not coincidental that both Microsoft and Google are trying to figure out a platform for low-end/low-cost computers, especially for education. And that Microsoft is clearly aiming at Chrome OS with Windows 11 SE.

Are they really comparable? I’m not sure. I did look at Chrome OS Flex briefly this week and this platform has some hurdles to clear, the biggest one being hardware compatibility. I love the idea of putting Chrome OS on an old PC, but if it can’t work with all the hardware devices on that PC—in my case, sound notably doesn’t work—then it’s kind of a non-starter. Google does maintain a list of PCs that work and sort-of work with Chrome OS Flex but it’s real hit and miss, and it sort of reminds me of the Windows NT 4.0 hardware compatibility list (HCL), which I used to print out and bring to Best Buy when I needed a particular peripheral. Your mileage will vary.

The other issue is that Chrome OS Flex doesn’t support Android apps and the Google Play Store and it may never do so. Granted, Windows 11 SE won’t run Android apps either.

Rubbing salt in a wound, unlike Windows 11 SE, Chrome OS Flex can be downloaded for free and installed on any old Windows laptop effectively breathing new life into old hardware. I’ve not installed Flex yet, but so far reviews look very positive on old hardware.

Yeah. Windows 11 SE is clearly aimed only at education whereas Chrome OS Flex is about reviving older PCs. It’s an interesting strategy, but I can’t see Microsoft offering a Windows Lite for aging PCs that can’t run Windows 11. They want you to buy a new PC, whereas Google’s model is more about the services (and tracking for ads).

Chrome OS Flex is worth testing. But scan that list of compatible PCs to understand the experience you’ll have. (Or just run it via the installer USB key instead of installing it for a quick peek.)

Microsoft 365 integration with Windows

anoldamigauser asks:

Perhaps this is something I missed before, but it seems Microsoft is getting better at tracking their Microsoft 365 Office installations.

I have a Microsoft 365 family subscription, and installed Office on a laptop used by various family members. I also use it for work with a local non-profit using a different account, and have several test accounts on it. When I log on and run an office app, it correctly attributes the license to my Microsoft 365 Family subscription. When my wife logged on, she was prompted to agree to the license terms for Microsoft 365 Enterprise before Word would open. I switched the license and it correctly attributed it to the Family subscription and incremented her install count. When I logged in with one of the test accounts, which has an MSA, and attempted to run an Office app, that account was also prompted to accept the terms for an Enterprise license, which I declined since it seemed a bit odd. I then tested this on another older laptop that was lying around and got the same prompt. I am pretty sure this is new behavior.

Have you experienced this?

So this one may require a bit more information. I assume if your wife is being prompted to agree to the license terms for Microsoft 365 Enterprise that she signed into the PC using a Microsoft 365 commercial account (AAD) and not a Microsoft account (MSA)? If so, yes, that makes sense. And while I have not tested that recently, I do sign into Windows PCs with an MSA, and am automatically signed into my Microsoft 365 account in the bundled Office apps.

What exactly would be the result of accepting the license?

My understanding is that this is for licensing purposes only, that, as you’ve noticed, that PC will increment the device count for the underlying account. And that should work identically for an AAD or MSA account.

However, if your wife is indeed signing into Windows with a commercial account, then whatever policies her organization has will be applied to the PC as well. If you sign in to Windows with an MSA and then sign in to an Office app (especially Outlook or Teams) with a commercial account, you will be prompted to apply the organization’s policies to the entire PC or to just that one app. I always choose the latter, as I use a commercial account daily with Teams. (But use my MSA for the other Office apps.)

Would this prevent someone from mixing a Microsoft 365 Family subscription with a Microsoft 365 Business Basic subscription to get access to the desktop apps?

It shouldn’t. The opposite approach to what I describe above should also work: you sign into the PC with a commercial account and open an Office app, and notice that it is signed into that same account. But you can sign out and and use an MSA against those apps. Or you can add an MSA to those apps too. For example, you might want to access your personal and work OneDrive file sync at the same time.

If they can track this, why can’t they figure out that I use Outlook for iOS and stop badgering me to download the app?

LOL. That is a great question. Maybe that will happen someday too. I wonder about that one.

MSA requirements on Windows 10 Pro

OldITPro2000 asks:

Windows 11 Pro will soon require an Internet connection and signing in to a Microsoft Account during the Out Of Box Experience. It appears that all of the workarounds that have been used previously with Windows 11 Home are being yanked.

Right. I feel like there will always be workarounds for this, but let’s assume that’s not the case.

Do you have any insight into Microsoft’s goal with this? Is it to push a passwordless future? Harvest data? Drive tech enthusiasts crazy?

When Windows 11 was first announced, I figured that the MSA/Internet requirement for Windows 11 Home was going to be the big controversy. But Microsoft, God bless them, had a surprise for us with its hardware requirements (8th-Gen Intel CPU, TPM 2.0, etc.), and of course that dominated the news cycle. The MSA thing kind of came and went without any real grumbling.

This still surprises me: most PCs ship with Windows 11 Home, and it’s not a huge problem for most people. And yet … silence. You hear almost nothing about the MSA requirements, and I guess the workarounds satisfy power users. I document a few of them in my Windows 11 book.

When I heard that Microsoft would require MSA/Internet for Windows 11 Pro this past week, I surprised myself by not caring very much. Part of it is that this didn’t trigger much outrage when they required it for Windows 11 Home. But another part of it is that most personal computing platforms (pretty much) require you to sign in with an online account. Yes, technically, you don’t have to in some cases. But if you want to use a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet, or Chromebook, you pretty much need to sign in with an Apple or Google account, at least to get the full experience. Most people do this without thinking. Of course, they will need to use an Apple account with an iPhone. Who cares?

So in that sense, Microsoft is doing what its competitors are doing. I guess the difference is that Microsoft is literally requiring it. (I think only a Chromebook literally requires this from a competitive perspective.) But I sort of view this in the context of the wider goals of Windows 10/11, which is to get as many customers as possible on the latest versions, because that’s how the entire ecosystem stays safe. And signing in with an MSA is safer than using a local account, at least when that account is protected with two-step authentication. And you need an MSA to use biometrics like Windows Hello facial and fingerprint recognition. These, too, are safer than using a password or PIN.

I’m just playing Devil’s advocate here: I know that this will drive some enthusiasts nuts, but I am also positive there will be workarounds. And at the very least, anyone can sign in with an MSA initially, create a local account (and make it an admin), sign in with that, and then kill the MSA account and get on with their lives.

Also, how does this impact you personally? I’m sure you go through the OOBE regularly both for the book and when reviewing hardware. Do you just sign-in with an MSA and move on or do you perform one of the workarounds and use a local account?

When Windows 10 first came out, I advocated for creating a local account at first, doing whatever configuration over a few reboots, and then migrating that local account to an MSA. But Microsoft made many improvements to the setup/OOBE experience over time, and now I no longer do that: I just sign in with an MSA from the get-go, and that is what I recommend to others. If you’re technical or smart enough to do otherwise, that’s great. But I think this is the right choice for most people.

One other thing to remember.

Windows 10 Pro isn’t aimed at managed businesses. Windows 10 Pro is mostly used by individuals and by small, unmanaged businesses. And so this decision doesn’t impact Microsoft’s biggest customer base, which is using Windows 10 Enterprise (or whatever commercial version). Those customers will continue to do what they’ve been doing, which is requiring their users to sign into their commercial accounts so that whatever policies and apps can be applied to the system from the get-go. This new MSA requirement pretty much applies that thinking to PCs used by individuals, and while I know that it will upset some, it’s better for everyone overall because of the security implications.

I know this won’t convince some people. But that’s where my head is at on this issue.

Xcode

wright_is asks:

Have you looked at Xcode on the Mac, as part of your programming series? I thought it might be fun to replicate your .Netpad in Swift on the Mac, as a way of learning Swift.

I’ve used Xcode many times over the years, but I’ve never really gotten past the beginner stage. The transition from Objective-C to Swift is interesting to me, however, and my research into that new (now new-ish, I guess) language has been mostly positive. But I still don’t find Apple’s developer environment to be particularly easy to use, and it doesn’t make as much sense to me as does Visual Studio. That’s probably just experience-based.

With regards to a Mac version of .NETpad … Yeah, maybe. I’m kind of leery of just remaking the same app again and again, and I had originally hoped to move on to other things. And now that I’m trying to do some programming project every month, here I am, again, with the same app. But I’ll get past that. I have some ideas around future projects and environments (Flutter, of course, Power Apps/Power Automate, etc.) but … yeah. I could see doing something in Xcode on the Mac as well.

I started Xcode, selected new document based project… And it dumped a fully working basic text editor on me, without me having to write a single line of code! Save, open, save as (Duplicate), cut, copy paste, quit etc. menus are all there and work fully, as does window resizing, in the default skeleton “Document project” code that Apple throws out.

Nice. It’s funny, I’ve kind of lost track of this, but when I started down the path to what became the first version of .NETpad, I was really just trying to prove something I felt had been true since my early Visual Basic days, that it was astonishing how much of an app one could create without writing a single line of code. That is/was definitely true of Windows Forms as well, and it appears that could be true of Xcode/Swift. I will need to take another look.

On the one side amazing how much is there in the standard template, on the other side, a little disappointing, as there isn’t much to code, to learn how Swift really works.

Yeah. I think this is why so many programming tutorials try to start you out with console apps where you are forced to understand how everything works first. With regards to Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), folks like Charles Petzold took the all code/no visual environment approach for the same reasons. I wrote about that a bit in Programming Windows: Hello Again, Windows Forms and Programming Windows: Hello, WinFX, Avalon, and XAML. I’m not sure what part of my brain is so broken that I find that interesting, but there must be similar resources for Xcode/Swift.

Testing Windows 11

wright_is also asks:

We had a rogue laptop that managed to sneak Windows 11 in, before it was pushed into the WSUS scheme, so now, faced with either rebuilding the user’s laptop or testing Windows 11, we’ve gone with the latter.

Godspeed. 🙂

I had been holding out, because, although I like the look of Windows 11, I had read in reviews that things like the Jumplists for applications were missing, something I use all the time. It turns out they are still there. Have they come back, or were they always there in 11?

I believe that Jump lists have always been there, but the matrix of regressions is a bit hard to track. It’s possible that someone heard about all the missing features in the taskbar and assumed they were out as well.

Secondly, the new Notepad and Media Player, do they come as part of Windows Update or only through the Store? How are corporate users supposed to get the updates (especially security updates), when in most places the Store is blocked by policies?

The new Notepad and Media Player come via Microsoft Store updates, not Windows Update. So if the organization is blocking Store updates/downloads, I assume you will not get those updates and will simply keep seeing the old Notepad and Groove Music instead. At some point, these apps will simply be included in Windows 11—feature update 1, presumably—so I suppose they would arrive if and when you upgrade the OS.

This type of thing makes me wonder how Microsoft is handling the non-app updates it’s providing to Windows 11. You will know much more about this than me, but it looks like the other new features/changes are delivered via Week C cumulative updates, which to date have been optional/preview updates only (I think). So I assume that organizations can block those updates via policy as well, and that they can do so pretty much forever (or, more realistically, until the PCs are upgraded to the next Windows 11 version). In other words, in a tightly controlled environment, it would be possible to block all new Windows 11 features, no matter how they’re delivered. I’m curious if you can verify that.

NYT is bad for Wordle

helix2301 asks:

I read your article on why you think NYT is a bad home for Wordle. I understand your frustration and views of NYT business model but I wanted to say as someone who subscribes to the game section I think NYT might be a good home for Wordle. They have revitalized those newspaper like games like Crossword puzzle, Sudoko, and others by putting out great apps with a huge archive of content. I kind of think with how the NYT is focused on word style games it might be a better home for it then others.

The problem with the NYT isn’t that they don’t have good games—I do the mini crossword every day—it’s that their games are tied into expensive subscriptions, and that those subscriptions don’t prevent you from seeing animated ads everywhere. I wasn’t criticizing the quality of their games, just their business model. For the creator of Wordle, the NYT was obviously a life-changing payout, and so I get that decision. But the NYT won’t make Wordle available for free forever. You’ll have to subscribe either to some NYT digital tier or to their (non-Crosswords) Games offering. It was originally free.

If you find the publication’s Games offering worth the price, that’s great. But the developer could have simply gone with a hybrid pay model (pay once, pay a subscription fee, or free with ads) and that would have been better (or more desirable) for most Wordle fans. I’m sure the vast majority of Wordle fans have no intention of ever paying for this and will simply move on. They would have done that if it remained independent too, of course.

The broader issue is that I just can’t stand the New York Times. As someone who also creates content and now offers a subscription choice, I find their business model inexcusable.