Ask Paul: June 3 (Premium)

After a curiously long short week, we can kick off this normal weekend a bit early with some great reader questions. Happy Friday!

What makes a Store app a Store app?

jeroendegrebber asks:

Earlier this week, I installed Audacity through the Windows 11 Store. I like Audacity, have used it before, and was looking forward to having auto updates through the store.  Installed it, then I found out it’s a Win32 app, so it shows up in Program Files, does not show in my store library and through some googling found it’s actually not updated through the Windows store. Confusing. Moreso since there’s no way to know this upfront. Is this a temporary situation with some sort of roadmap from Microsoft, or just a trick to get more apps in the store? Would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Microsoft has dramatically expanded the availability of apps—and app types—in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10/11, and part of that effort has involved an ongoing loosening of the rules. In the beginning, back when it was called the Windows Store and Windows 8 was still new, Store apps were immersive, full-screen, mobile- and touch-centric sandboxed apps only, the precursor to what we now call Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, and they were based on the then-new Windows Runtime (WinRT). But over time, Microsoft expanded the types of apps that developers could distribute through the store, sometimes via app packaging methods (like AppX with Windows 10), and in effect expanded the definition of what a Store app was. And most of the requirements/benefits of the Store are now basically optional.

I wasn’t aware of the specifics of Audacity in the Microsoft Store, but when I read that, I could have sworn this had been news somehow. And sure enough, in late April, Audacity revealed that it had put its app in the Store to counter the “ludicrous number of fake”/paid Audacity apps there. (Which could trigger a debate about the quality of the store, which has definitely improved too, but is still kind of an issue.) I can’t find an explanation of what it is that Audacity is doing with the Store version per se, but given the loosened rules, I suspect they just did the minimum. I’m surprised it’s not in your app library though.

Regarding Microsoft’s evolving strategy for the Store, we could see this kind of thing as desperation, I suppose, as it hasn’t taken off in a meaningful way and they continue to have trouble getting high-quality apps. Few probably remember this, but when Terry Myerson revealed that the Store would get desktop apps, he said that Adobe would bring both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements to the Store, but only the former ever appeared. That’s the problem in a nutshell: users can’t just use the Store, so they still have to get apps from multiple places. And I’m sure most simply just use the web.

I still like the central promise of the Store, however, and I will almost always choose a Store version when it’s available. Here, again, that Adobe example makes the point: when you purchase Photoshop Elements from the web, you have to manage activating and deactivating the product, which can only be used on two PCs at once, and if you accidentally wipe a PC without deactivating it first, you need to contact Adobe support to fix that. But with the Store version, you’re good to go: you can install it on any number of PCs and can actively use it on 10 (I believe, though I’ve never run into that limitation, ever).

I almost feel bad for Microsoft here. They have made some mistakes, for sure, for example with their weird web browser requirements (now mostly gone). But they tried to create a store that users could trust, with reliability, security, and performance promises, and most users and developers have simply ignored it. This is why the rules keep getting loosened, and while it’s helped improve the app availability situation, it’s done so at the expense of those central benefits. It’s too bad.

Erogomics

Akis asks:

I’m curious regarding how you are coping with work in an ergonomic way. That is, the way that doesn’t affect too much or at all your body, especially your back. Having worked remotely for most of the time during last couple of years, I’ve felt the effect of not sitting on a good way. Which means, leaning over the laptop over the desk, couch or bed most of the times.

I’ve been working from home since the mid-1990s, and I’ve always had a home office with a proper desk/work area. I did notice some pain in the top of my hands about 20 years ago, and I so I researched ergonomic keyboards and mice, such as they were at the time, and settled on various Microsoft models. Most recently, I’ve been using a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic setup, which I find ideal, and I’ve not had any pain issues in the decades since it first happened.

But you have to get the rest of the setup right, too. That involves positioning the desk at the right height with regards to your seating position (your lower arms should be parallel to the ground) and getting the right chair with proper lumbar support: my wife bought me a barely used Herman Miller Aeron chair in 2001 (from an auction for a failed startup) and I’ve had it ever since. Super high quality. It also involves using an external display and positioning that correctly so that you’re not hunched over a laptop. (Correctly here means that the top of the display should be roughly even with your eye level.) You can use a laptop stand or riser to get the laptop display to the right height as well. And I use a mouse pad with a gel wrist rest at home too.

Long story short, you shouldn’t be working directly on a laptop all day every day. I do so when I travel, of course, though I have recently experimented with a more mobile setup that isn’t terrible to travel with and improves ergonomics on longer trips. (It’s not perfect: portable keyboards are not ergonomic.) But I’m OK with using just a laptop for a week or whatever, and I do mix things up during the day at home by working on a laptop on the bed for an hour or two. In my case, this kind of helps my back: there’s something about lying on my stomach that seems to help.

Some people take breaks, some people have found a good key/mouse and work position or any combination of the above. I’ve also seen some people replacing the chair with a inflated balloon (like the one for exercise).

I tried the exercise ball as a chair thing but that didn’t work well for me. But I’m sure it’s good for some. I tried a standing desk too, but hated that.

I’m wondering what works best for you especially now that you are splitting your time between US and Mexico.

I decided to leave a “more mobile” laptop setup in the apartment in Mexico. You can see that here: It’s basically a laptop on a stand with that Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard and mouse, a Thunderbolt Dock, and, for now, a random IKEA chair that I’ll think about replacing if we start spending more time there. I could have simply traveled with the setup noted above, but the keyboard/mouse bit is not portable, and having something there is nice. (I could have also gone with a desktop setup, I guess, but I’d have to get it there, and I have extra laptops. I could see using an Intel NUC or whatever.)

Ctrl + Alt + Del

Akis also asks:

One more for you Paul. I have the feeling that Ctrl-Alt-Del is getting gradually worse. It used to be (NT4 or so) the ultimate command when Windows was not responding. Gradually it looks like it has become less responsive making people having to rely on power cycling the PC when unresponsive. Have you experienced the same? Is this intentional from MS?

No, I’ve not experienced that per se, though there have been random times over years where it doesn’t seem to work or do anything, and I’ve been forced to yank the power plug or, with a laptop, hold down on power till the thing finally shuts off. But I don’t feel like it’s gotten generally less reliable over time. I’m curious if anyone else has experienced that.

MSRC, transparency, and speed

wright_is asks:

What is MSRC up to these days? A zero-day exploit was sent to them, the employee there looked at it, couldn’t get it to work on the first try, so closed the ticket as not an exploit…

Yeah, I’ve been wondering the same thing. MSRC makes a big show of being transparent, and they seem to do a decent job of documenting what happened after the fact. But there is a long list of examples of security researchers warning them about vulnerabilities and exploits, MSRC doing nothing and/or remaining silent, and then those researchers simply go public (or exploits happen or expand). And … I’m not sure what to say about that. It seems like a “heads should roll” situation to me.

Last year, with the printer driver problem, they were shown a security hole and an example of how to exploit it. They patched it to stop the explicit example, but the security hole remained… The researcher pointed it out, sent in a second example of how to exploit it, Microsoft patched to stop the explicit example, again, but left the security hole there. This went on for several months. Are they so overworked, that they don’t have time to look at the reported problems properly, are they lazy or just incompetent? This is starting to happen with frustrating regularity.

Agreed. I don’t know enough about this group to know what’s up. But it’s clearly a problem. And it seems that being publicly embarrassed, repeatedly, and seeing customers exploited by vulnerabilities they knew about in advance, has no impact on how they do things. This is a huge problem.

Another Windows 11 regression

anoldamigauser asks:

The Microsoft Store used to offer the option to hide applications in your library, which was tremendously useful for making sure that none of the cruft that comes with a new Windows PC (Candy Crush), or an app that Microsoft updates with a less capable version (Whiteboard), would get installed or updated once it was hidden. Now it does not.

Right. I don’t have a Windows 10 PC with me at the moment, but the Windows 11 version of the Store app no longer supports the ability to hide apps from the list in your library. And I don’t see any way to manage this from the web (from the Microsoft Accounts website, for example, or from the essentially non-existent web interface for the app/game store). I think we can chalk this up to yet another thoughtless functional regression in Windows 11, a byproduct of Microsoft’s desire to make everything simpler. Which, again, involves removing features.

Any chance of this coming back?

Your guess is as good as mine. Given the refusal to address most of the top feedback related to Windows 11 regressions, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Also, I did check the Feedback Hub to see whether this had been reported to Microsoft, and of course it had been. I filed a report as well.