Things I’d love to see in Windows 10

Some thoughts on things I’d like to see in Windows 10:

(1) A better Your Phone experience

The current Your Phone (in the Settings app) experience is clunky, requiring you to sign into the phone app (which only supports the latest Android OS versions) and the Your Phone app as a Microsoft account. Why not make it more Teamviewer-like and simply show a QR code or PIN on the PC, enter this on the phone and then it connects up? Then add support for older Android devices, and include things like screen-mirroring and file-transfers.

(2) Consolidate the Control Panel

Windows 10 first appeared in, what, 2015? And still there is stuff in the Control Panel that isn’t yet merged into the Settings app. I wish Microsoft would spend one of it’s “non-feature” half-year releases really working on this. I totally appreciate some old applets, such as Keyboard and Mouse, can’t be got rid of easily, due to how many drivers hook-into them and add additional tabs, but surely a link to those old applets could be added into the Devices page in the Settings app as shortcuts, and then the shortcuts in Control Panel deleted?

(While I’m on this one, am I the only one who finds it weird in Settings that Display, Sound and Battery are all in “System” and not “Devices”? I’d rename Display to “Screens & projectors” and Sound to “Speakers, headphones, microphones” and move these into Devices immediately!)

(3) A more-modern file system that supports data duplication

I understand this is a thing for Exchange and SQL (not sure about the new ReFS, in Windows 10 Pro for Workstations and Windows Server 2019?) but I find it mad that if you have multiple instances of the same file on your current NTFS volume that each instance takes-up the exact same space. In some cases, this wastes 100s of MBs and sometimes even GBs — think family computers where each person installs Google Chrome, which goes into their AppData\Local folder for each install. Or corporate PCs where each member of staff in a team logs into the same shared computers, opens Outlook and each use the same shared mailbox, so the same .OST file is created for each one.

(4) 7-Zip and RAR extract support

Ever since built-in ZIP support first arrived in Windows ME (possibly 2000?, though it was first in the Plus! Pack for Winows 98SE) no newer formats have been added. Would it be that difficult to add the ability to extract other file-formats such as 7-Zip and RAR? I believe the unextract ability for both is free…

(5) In-place upgrade from 32-bit Windows 10 to 64-bit

It should be made possible to upgrade a Windows 10 32-bit OS to the same SKU of 64-bit. So if a PC currently runs Windows 10 Pro 32-bit it should be possible to change it into Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. A compability check should run first, and flag up any issues (such as the old Upgrade Advisor tools used to do, e.g. to see if you could upgrade from XP to Vista, or Vista to 7) and advise against if a device will have no driver, or an old app won’t work. But if everything is okay, do a reboot, wait an hour or so while Windows essentially reinstalls itself, then migrates your settings and folders (which is what it does anyway, during one of the major updates, e.g. 1803 to 1809 to 1903). To be clear, this would be same-SKU only. So no Windows 10 Home 32-bit to Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. In that case, you should first update to the 32-bit SKU, then change it into the 64-bit one: Home 32-bit -> Pro 32-bit -> Pro 64-bit.

(6) Add BitLocker to the Home editions

It’s crazy that in today’s world, the Home editions of Windows don’t have any built-in encryption, given macOS, Linux and most newer iOS and Android devices do, and in a lot of cases, is on-by-default. There is a different thing in Windows 10 called “device encryption”, but I understand this only works on machines with UEFI and a TPM chip. Why not allow Home users to also be able to use a boot-time password option, or plug-in a USB key or even use 2FA to get a boot-time code each time? Sure, there are third-party options, such as VeraCrypt or a self-encrypting SSD, but I’d still prefer better built-in options here.

(7) Udpate some of the Inbox apps

Some of the built-in “inbox” apps that come with Windows 10 either have not seen updates in years (Character Map, Fax & Scan or WordPad) or perform similar functions (Snipping Tool, Snip & Sketch, Problem Steps Recorder and the screen-recording part of Game Bar). Surely the last four could be combined into a single app that could do screenshots and screen-recording? It’s also a pity there isn’t anything thesedays as good as the old Windows Movie Maker from the XP SP2 or Vista days, and the Windows Live suite simply isn’t a thing nowadays. And ditto for all the effects ad stuff that used to be in Sound Recorder in XP and below; “Sound Recorder” in Vista and 7 barely did anything, as does Voice Recorder now in Windows 10.

(8) Allow for a higher resolution than your screen’s native one

Some drivers do actually allow this, but I’d love to see a native option to let you go beyond the native screen resolution. Some laptops have large screens but with low resolutions (e.g. HD Ready) and even though it would make the image slightly “soft” I’d love to be able to go past the native resolution to fit more on-screen at the expense of a blurrier image.

(9) Improve the System Image backup type

A simple (albeit long, especially on USB 2.0 speeds) way of backing up a Windows Vista or 7 computer (yes, the option does still exist in Windows 10, but is depreciated and could be removed in a future Windows 10 release) this would backuo your entire System partition to an external drive. You could then either restore the entire thing in one go, or mount the .VHD file as a drive to restore individual files and folders. I wish Microsoft would have improved, rather then try to retire, this feature. Make it easier to get back individual files and folders, and have an option to modify an existing backup, to save time by only copying new and changed files, and delete out any from the previous VHD that no-longer exist. Given mounted VHDs can be repaired by CHKDSK this seemed like an awesome feature originally, but sadly Microsoft have let it die.

(10) Improve support for old MS-DOS and Windows 9x games

Okay, so this won’t be for most people, but in the age of Client Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox, would it really be that difficult to make it so MS-DOS, Win 3.x and Win 9x games could actually be installed (e.g. into C:\Program Files\VDOS9X) and ran in their own, secure environments with the only file access to the folder the app is installed in, and perhaps within your Documents folder, a folder called “VDOS9X Files”. Still seems mad to me it’s easier to get PS1, N64, Dreamcast, Gameboy and so-on games working on Windows via their respective emulators than it is old Windows or MS-DOS apps! Maybe as part of their renewed PowerToys they could make such support a Windows Store downloadable app?

Conversation 39 comments

  • kevinbouwman

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 2:12 pm

    <p>Oh my…yes, please, to all of this.</p><p><br></p><p>(11) Fix a significant number of long known bugs. </p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      12 January, 2020 - 11:02 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#511713&quot; target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em>In reply to kevinbouwman:</em></a></p><p>Indeed. In Insider builds, try making the taskbar completely transparent, then open the Start menu. Not pretty.</p>

    • dftf

      14 January, 2020 - 10:28 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511713">In reply to kevinbouwman:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agreed, but it's a bit vague unless specifics are given.</p><p><br></p><p>The one I'd like most is to make the Start Menu actually open at the same-speed as in past Windows versions, not after a 3-5 second delay, or sometimes not-at-all and requiring a second click.</p><p><br></p><p>After this, make the new Task Manager open faster too. Again, even on fast machines I've used, you're still talking 3-5 seconds, whereas up-until Windows 7 it was virtually-instant, except if the PC's CPU was jammed at 100% across all cores</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 2:17 pm

    <ul><li>Control Panel isn't going away because there's a lot of older but still functioning 3rd party peripheral hardware which only has Control Panel configuration applets. Hard to see how all of that could be brought into Settings as links.</li><li>Family PCs: parents should install software everyone uses AS ADMINISTRATORS, so just one instance of the software in %PROGRAMFILES%. Only specific user configuration and data would then be in each user's %USERPROFILE%.</li><li>7-zip support should be possible, but I believe there are licensing restrictions for RAR.</li><li>BitLocker: MSFT wants you to buy Professional rather than Home if this is important to you, and, YES, this means MSFT wants you to pay a fair amount extra for it. This one shouldn't be hard to figure out.</li><li>MS-DOS support: MSFT doesn't need to do everything 3rd parties already do (this applies to 7-zip and RAR too). If you want DOSBox functionality, INSTALL AND USE DOSBox.</li></ul>

    • dftf

      10 January, 2020 - 3:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511714">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>There are third-party Control Panel applets, such as for your video-card driver, or Flash settings, which may be hard to move, yes. But for things like "Phone and Modem", "Keyboard" and "Mouse" I can't see why when you go into Devices in the new Settings app they can't just provide a link to each of these under the "Related" section on the right-hand side. Then you can launch the old applets from there.</p><p><br></p><p>Even on a family PC running as an admin account, some software, such as Google Chrome and Spotify, still install by-default into your AppData folder. Spotify it's not possible to change this behaviour; and for Google Chrome a global install requires using the .MSI version, which your average home user won't know about. So end-result is each user gets their own install of Google Chrome, at around 600MB average each! (Oh, and 64-bit Google Chrome weirdly installs into "Program Files (x86)" for some reason.)</p><p><br></p><p>As I say, on the Home editions they do offer something called "Device Encryption", but it's limited to UEFI machines with a TPM chip. If they could at-least make it work on BIOS computers and allow a pre-boot password option that would probably then be sufficient.</p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        10 January, 2020 - 6:50 pm

        <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#511750&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to dftf:</em></a></p><p>Control Panel: mine looks like this (Windows 10 Insider with Classic Shell installed).</p><p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/zD6f8xDW/deleteme2.png"><img src=""></p><p>All the boxed items open separate windows or dialogs. The unboxed items remain in the Explorer/Control Panel window.</p><p>Blue boxed items appear in separate windows or dialog boxes AND have no equivalent in Settings. Purple boxed items also appear as links in Settings and open the same separate dialogs.* Green boxed items have links in Settings which open pages in Settings with the same options as the dialogs opened from Control Panel.* [* Why are these still in Control Panel?] Black boxed items are 3rd party, so presumably need to remain in Control Panel. Red boxed items open Settings to a full page with those settings.</p><p><strong>Note that Fonts remains in the Control Panel window, but Settings also has a full Fonts page which seems to provide the same functionality. Why are fonts in both places?</strong></p><p>Note also that while Settings has a full page of Mouse settings, they're not as comprehensive or actual mouse-specific as the Control Panel Mouse applet.</p><p>The other unboxed items may be the most difficult to move to Settings since they're presumably more tightly integrated into Control Panel. Dunno, but copying Fonts in Settings may have proved to be such a PITA that the Windows developers have been loathe to repeat the experience with these other settings.</p><p>Re Chrome, you could install a portable version into a common/shared directory. However, the MSI is the better way to go even if more complicated. IOW, there's a few ways to install the software only once. Does Windows really need to include ever more cruft to seek out identical files across all users' %USERPROFILE% directories? Besides, different users could be using different versions because they've set different update options, in which case LOTS of files could be different from user to user.</p><p>As for BitLocker, MSFT wants you to pay more for Professional. As for device encryption, does it provide for backing up decryption keys, or are you well &amp; thoroughly screwed if you forget the password or decryption key or accidentally fubar the master boot record?</p>

        • dftf

          14 January, 2020 - 10:25 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#511797">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>I fail to see why for some of the items there they cannot simply put a shortcut link to open the old applet in Settings.</p><p><br></p><p>Settings has a section called "Devices". Why not make it so on the very first page you go into, in the "Related Settings" in the right-hand column just put "Device Manager" there — even put the old icon to the left of the link to make it visually clearer. As long as you've somewhere to launch it from, does the shortcut to it have to be in Control Panel?</p><p><br></p><p>Then do the same for Keyboard, Mouse, Phone and Modem, Bluetooth and Infrared (on PCs where the last two would still be seen). Keep the old Windows 95 era dialogs for now, but put shortcuts to open them in Settings instead. Color Management should have shortcuts placed under both Display (in Settings) and Printers (in Devices).</p><p><br></p><p>Some things there it's beyond me why they can't migrate them sooner: <strong>Administrative Tools </strong>literally just opens a folder. <strong>Credential Manager </strong>just lists stored passwords; surely that can't be too-difficult to replicate? <strong>Troubleshooting </strong>provides a list of shortcuts to built-in things you can run.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>File Explorer </strong>doesn't really need to be there: just do File -&gt; Options when inside Explorer.</p><p><br></p><p>The annoying thing is how many things are still in Control Panel simply because all of their functionality hasn't been replicated yet. <strong>Date &amp; Time </strong>I think the only bit to move-over is letting users specify their own NTP server. <strong>Ease of Access Centre </strong>I think virtually all of it has been replicated already? <strong>Programs and Features </strong>I think it's just the "Manage Windows features" that hasn't moved. <strong>Recovery </strong>actually does just open the Settings app anyway when you click most links in it now, and takes you to the Reset &amp; Refresh page.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Mail </strong>really shouldn't be there, as it's a leftover from when Windows 3.x and 95 originally did come with Schedule+ or Windows Mail (or was it "Windows Inbox"?) as a built-in offering. They really should just put this in the Start Menu!</p>

          • hrlngrv

            Premium Member
            14 January, 2020 - 2:35 pm

            <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#512872&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to dftf:</em></a></p><p>It's the Control Panel items which open separate dialogs or which already appear duplicated in Settings which are the greatest mystery. The former could presumably be added to Settings without much fuss &amp; bother, and the latter are no longer to be needed in Control Panel. [I put * after these in my previuous reply.]</p><p>I figure items tied to the Control Panel/Explorer window are harder than you believe to move to Settings.</p><p>There are more than a few items still in Control Panel which arguably shouldn't be there AND shouldn't be in Settings, e.g., Administrative Tools, which has a perfectly good entry in the Start menu.</p>

      • madthinus

        Premium Member
        12 January, 2020 - 5:24 am

        <blockquote><a href="#511750"><em>In reply to dftf:</em></a></blockquote><p>All driver applets is now UWP type apps. Some of them like the Nvidia one is old 32 bit one ported with the desktop bridge. Going forward, all newer drivers will work like this. If you build a new system to day or buy a new laptop, you will find very little in the control panel. </p><p><br></p><p>Also, they have done a good job linking to the control panle where it is needed. I have not open the control panel in a long time, I do access the bits via links or search. To be fair, that is fine. </p><p><br></p><p>I have a feeling most of what is left is features you will not see in Windows 10X and that the settings app might see a big uplift of features as they complete that interface. </p>

  • SWCetacean

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 3:04 pm

    <p>Regarding filesystems, I think ReFS supports data deduplication, or perhaps some limited form of it. But I also have a filesystem-related request, and that is a case sensitivity option. As it stands currently, Windows is case-preserving, but case insensitive, but some apps are completely case insensitive. The underlying NTFS file system is case-sensitive, but the Windows layer forces applications to be case insensitive for backwards compatibility. I want an option to enable case sensitivity in Windows.</p><p>I wouldn't mind it being hidden a bit, like the option for ignoring the MAX_PATH length limitation that can only be set via Registry or Group Policy. Now I realize this is opening a huge can of backwards compatibility worms as case-insensitive apps would write to the wrong files and destroy data if filenames differed only by case, but I hope that can be overcome with abstraction or containerization or something.</p>

  • Vladimir Carli

    Premium Member
    10 January, 2020 - 3:15 pm

    <p>1) embed in the os an app with basic pdf editing functionality, move and delete pages, copy%paste, something like preview on macOS</p><p>2) update file explorer to a more modern appplication</p><p>3) adopt a macOS like version of outlook as built in mail and calendar app</p>

    • lwetzel

      Premium Member
      11 January, 2020 - 11:04 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511751">In reply to Vladimir:</a></em></blockquote><p>"2) update file explorer to a more modern appplication"</p><p><br></p><p>What would it look like? What would make a file explorer any different as a "Modern Application"?</p>

      • thejoefin

        Premium Member
        12 January, 2020 - 11:53 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#511904">In reply to lwetzel:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think the File Explorer is pretty good as is, however it is a core app of Windows and does not fit in with the rest of the new core apps like Settings, Calculator, Photos, etc. </p><p><br></p><p>I don't think Microsoft needs to rewrite the app it is a very productive app, but adjusting the UI to match more of the design patterns of the other new apps on Windows would be nice. </p><p><br></p><p>The number one thing they could do to improve the File Explorer is make the previewer work with more file types, audio, PDF, maybe even Adobe files, 3D files, etc. Also it would be great if the previewer was a little interactive with zooming at least.</p>

        • hrlngrv

          Premium Member
          12 January, 2020 - 11:00 pm

          <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#512196&quot; target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em>In reply to TheJoeFin:</em></a></p><blockquote>match more of the design patterns of the other new apps on Windows</blockquote><p>If Settings is an app, so is Task Scheduler. In terms of software <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">bundled with Windows which runs like applications in their own Windows, there's still a majority of titles which look the same as they did in Windows 7 if not even further back.</span></p><blockquote>make the previewer work with more file types, audio, PDF, maybe even Adobe files, 3D files</blockquote><p>1st, previewing AUDIO files? Meaning playing 5 seconds (customizable?) whenever the mouse pointer hovers over its entry in Explorer? Unlike thumbnails for image and video files, it's not sensible to 'preview' several audio files at once.</p><p>2nd, FWLIW, several Linux desktop environments present thumbnails of files stored in ~/Desktop so appearing on desktops.</p>

          • thejoefin

            Premium Member
            13 January, 2020 - 9:22 am

            <blockquote><a href="#512337" target="_blank"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>There are many applications in Windows which are not used by 99% of Windows users and those should probably be a lower priority for getting a visual refresh. Task Scheduler, Disk Management, Computer Management, etc. are on that list. However I do think part of the reason why people don't use Task Scheduler is because it is old and complex looking. Maybe if Microsoft made a more modern Task Scheduler it would be used more and help automate away some repetitive tasks.</p><p><br></p><p><em>&gt; 1st, previewing AUDIO files? Meaning playing 5 seconds (customizable?) whenever the mouse pointer hovers over its entry in Explorer? Unlike thumbnails for image and video files, it's not sensible to 'preview' several audio files at once.</em></p><p><br></p><p>No, this is not what I am suggesting. I would hate this if it got added to Windows. I'm talking about the "Preview Pane" in File Explorer. I'm not talking about file thumbnails. </p><p><br></p>

  • yaddamaster

    10 January, 2020 - 3:32 pm

    <p>#1 for me is to let me run my existing Windows 10 license within a virtual machine on my same laptop so I don't have to buy another license. </p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      10 January, 2020 - 6:59 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#511764&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to yaddamaster:</em></a></p><p>You could always run Slow Ring Insider builds in a VM without needing to worry about licensing terms.</p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        13 January, 2020 - 1:00 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#511799">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not the same thing, if you are using it for testing. It needs to be a consistent environment that is the same as your current release environment, especially if you are working in a corporate environment, you will have a standard image that needs to be used.</p><p>Bigger companies will be on Enterprise, so this is possible, but for smaller companies or hobbyists, this would be a welcome move.</p>

  • willc

    10 January, 2020 - 6:14 pm

    <p>None of this will happen – Windows is a dead platform and is no longer being actively developed.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      10 January, 2020 - 6:58 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#511794&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to willc:</em></a></p><p>Windows may no longer be a GROWING revenue stream for MSFT (ignoring ever greater cleverness from MSFT's bean counters for engineering Volume Licensing and Software Assurance pricing terms), but it's at the very least in hyperactive maintenance. Not dead, just stuck in a manic sleep-walking state.</p>

      • willc

        11 January, 2020 - 11:36 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#511798">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>I’m not the only one saying this – developers are leaving the platform in droves thanks to Microsoft’s stupidity.</p>

  • codymesh

    11 January, 2020 - 6:05 am

    <p>this is why i've called for the updates to keep coming, because clearly there's so much work to be done, especially with regards to the control panel which, imo, right now is quite a pain to use</p><p><br></p><p>but with each update and its improvements also comes a whole bunch of people whining about how no one needs new features or anything in windows to change</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      13 January, 2020 - 12:57 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511861">In reply to codymesh:</a></em></blockquote><p>What we need is for MS to sort out what they are doing now. We don't need new features, we need the existing features to work properly and be fully implemented. They start doing things, get it half-way finished, then move on. They need to stop and get what they already have working.</p><p>The front end doesn't need a raft of new features and eye candy every time, it needs improved operating system level features.</p>

  • ghostrider

    11 January, 2020 - 4:03 pm

    <p>There's very little dev activity in Windows anymore – either win32 or UWP. Everything these days is about mobile and web. Windows 10 is lurching and clunking along, with little direction. Throwing in 'features' that nobody asked for and very few use, pulling functionality because it has almost zero use – it's almost like MS feel obliged to keep it going because of the Enterprise – where they still make most of their money. Right now, even MS know the writing is on the wall, hence their efforts to push everyone to their (cross platform) cloud services. Win10 is still riddled with bugs and inconsistencies with apparent poor management and testing procedures (Insiders was always going to be a bad idea). Most who use Windows probably start it, then launch Chrome. and that's it (and a Chromebook would do that job so much better!)</p><p>So, where next? MS now seem to think ARM is the future (again), and they're desperate to get a foothold with some sort of mobile device – again, but they're almost not sure what or when and I'm not sure how many viable ideas they have left.</p>

    • Winner

      12 January, 2020 - 11:16 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511973">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>This post has been marked down but I'm not so sure most of it isn't accurate, even if the readers don't like to hear it.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      13 January, 2020 - 12:55 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#511973">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Except that it isn't all going web based. We are currently upgrading our ERP software (from UNIX, COBOL, Btree (anyone remember that?) based to Windows, SQLServer), a new domain and a new Exchange server. All local, because going Cloud and Web based is not an option, both legal and company direction restraints.</p><p>We have Microsoft 365, but no access to Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint Online or Exchange Online and no Azure AD, that is all disabled because of GDPR and management policy.</p>

  • Winner

    12 January, 2020 - 11:14 pm

    <p>Appreciate that you wrote a very thoughtful list. I agree with many of these items. Certainly most of them are more important than adding "inking markup tools" to web pages, etc.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    13 January, 2020 - 12:51 am

    <ol><li>This is an app and shouldn't be part of the OS. That is part of what is wrong with Windows 10, they are cramming more and more fluff into the "OS" that has nothing to do with the OS. As an App, I'm fully behind what you are saying, just it shouldn't be part of the OS.</li><li>Yes, definitely, but they need to sort out the permissions problem first, about 10% of my machine, including servers, can't use the new Settings, because the Administrator doesn't have enough privileges to access the Settings, and that includes updates on some machines.</li><li>That would be data de-duplication, but, yes, that would be useful. NTFS isn't bad, but the world has moved on.</li><li>Again, this should be left to the "experts", this should be an add-in as part of a third party application and not the OS. Add 7-zip and somebody will want RAR, add RAR and somebodly will want tar.gz and so on. This isn't what the OS should be doing.</li><li>Probably too complicated and too error prone. Plus a majority of 32-bit PCs probably have 32-bit Windows because they don't support x64. I've certainly never seen a 32-bit Windows 10 install on a 64-bit machine (at least not from new).</li><li>I agree, up to a point, but this is how MS differentiates the different versions. I'd prefer they did away with "Home" and just made Windows 10 (based of Pro) and there only being only Pro and Enterprise, at most.</li><li>I agree about the apps not being updated. I disagree with merging the screen recording and screenshot, they are two different things. The screenshot is a small, lightweight tool (I usually use Greenshot anyway) and doesn't need the extra loading time or complexity of mixing up the interface with a recording function. The other is a good example of why such applications shouldn't be included in the OS itself. These have nothing to do with the OS, they are add-ons and should be treated as such.</li><li>I wouldn't use such a facility, each to his own. My eyes are very sensitive to blurry content and I get a twitch in my eye after a short period of time if something is out of focus, even poorly set-up ClearType causes this, so the last thing I want is something that deliberately makes the screen out of focus.</li><li>Again, this is MS offering a basic feature and letting specialists provide the "real thing". There are dozens of decent backup and imaging solutions out there. Microsoft have had their hands burnt by the courts for pushing other companies out of the market, it would probably not be allowed.</li><li>Put FreeDOS in a virtual machine, again there are lots of solutions, HyperV, VMware, VirtualBox etc. Maybe offering DOS and Windows 9x on a free license to enthusiasts… They should be doing what you say with legacy Win32 cruft though, this is something that I have been arguing for years, they need to sandbox off the dangerous stuff and move forward with a clean, modern and safe environment. Until they do that, programmers will stick with Win32, because that is the way it has always been done. Until Win32 is treated as a second class system, we won't be able to move forward to a safer world.</li></ol>

    • dftf

      14 January, 2020 - 10:05 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#512351">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>(1 and 7) Disagree with your views on built-in apps "shouldn't be part of the OS". I know in the Linux world, the kernel is "the OS", things like KDE/MATE/FXCE/Unity/Cinnamon are "interface managers" or "window managers" and when you add a selection of pre-installed apps to the mix you get a "distro", but to your everyday person they expect "an OS" to have a certain-level of built-in apps. I mean, the biggest one you could argue by your logic is "Edge and Internet Explorer should not be provided with the OS". So, in today's world of devices having no optical-drives, and magazines with CD/DVDs on the cover no-longer a thing, how would anyone realistically acquire any new apps? And where would you draw the line — would Command Prompt be an app, or part of the OS? What about things like Disk Management or Device Manager?</p><p><br></p><p>(2) Yeah, Settings does have issues, especially when UAC is changed from anything-other than the default Windows 10 comes with. Additional languages don't install, or some of their features, for example.</p><p><br></p><p>(4) I think built-in 7-Zip and RAR would actually be useful for businesses who, when doing some government or military contracts, often have to regularly demonstrate all software on the machines is up-to-date (some contracts also forbid use of open-source software). Having this support as part of Windows itself would mitigate these factors. Plus, for people like yourself who don't want it, Microsoft could just make it so you can remove support via the Windows Features or PowerShell.</p><p><br></p><p>(6) I think this is a poor thing to not offer to Home users nowadays though, just to push Pro. At the very least the "Device Encryption" that Home does have should be reworked to allow BIOS support, and not require a TPM, but permit a boot-time password option.</p>

      • warren

        14 January, 2020 - 3:29 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#512866">In reply to dftf:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Simple solution for #2 — don't touch the UAC settings. The default is completely fine. In the last 14 years (which has included me writing parts of the User Account Control article on Wikipedia), I've yet to hear an especially compelling argument for why it should be turned off.</p>

        • dftf

          14 January, 2020 - 4:16 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#513018">In reply to warren:</a></em></blockquote><p>In my case, I would usually move it one notch up to the highest, most-secure setting: prompt me for everything. This still breaks parts of the Settings app.</p><p><br></p><p>Turning UAC off entirely is essentially "Windows XP mode" where for standard users some operations silently fail, or just error. Any business still requiring this really needs to find-out which apps they need it off for and update them, or create a shim to workaround the issue (usually you just need to add permissions to a Registry key, or make a folder allow write-access to the Everyone group).</p><p><br></p><p>I think for enterprises, Microsoft even has a service where they will test apps and write shim workarounds for you… might be an E5-only thing?</p>

  • thejoefin

    Premium Member
    14 January, 2020 - 9:16 am

    <p>One thing I keep thinking about which I would love to have added to Windows would be a button for "I'm done for the evening."</p><p><br></p><p>In addition to Shut Down, Restart, Log Out, there should be an option to tell Windows, I'm done using this computer for the day so you can update all of the apps, optimize search, clear the cache, do what you need to do, then shut down. Too many times I start up my PC open Visual Studio or open Steam and after a couple of minutes there are popups for updates. These come from within Visual Studio or Office or Windows, they come from Steam, or Discord, or all over. </p><p><br></p><p>I wish I could have a big check for updates, get the updates, shut down button so my PC and applications are ready next time I sit down to get to work or game.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      14 January, 2020 - 2:17 pm

      <p><a href="https://www.thurrott.com/forums/microsoft/windows/thread/things-id-love-to-see-in-windows-10#512848&quot; target="_blank"><em>In reply to TheJoeFin:</em></a></p><p>Devil's advocate: if updates become available between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM your local time, you may just be seeing notifications when Windows first becomes aware of them. OTOH, if you mean Windows should STFU during your working and leisure hours, so updates becoming available at 9:00 AM local time shouldn't be installed (or display notifications) until much later in the day, sure.</p>

      • thejoefin

        Premium Member
        15 January, 2020 - 9:07 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#512998">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Windows usually doesn't bother me. Usually it is an issue where I go to play a game and Steam needs updates, then the game needs updates. Also when I sit down and work in Visual Studio there is no issue, but there might be updates to extensions or to the application itself. The update procedure is annoying because I have to babysit the update, clicking "okay", "modify", "Accept" wait for the update to complete then shut down my PC. </p>

        • kevin_costa

          15 January, 2020 - 9:13 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#513224">In reply to TheJoeFin:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use Chocolatey<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (an apt-get for Windows)</span> to manage most of the application updates ouside the Microsoft Store. I created a task which triggers the updater on every system boot. It's been good so far, even though some rare programs still requires an update (or sub-component update) after its launch (like Steam).</p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        15 January, 2020 - 9:54 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#512998">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>The updates come late at night / early in the morning, so they are "appearing" when I first log on in the morning, here in Germany.</p><p>Here, "Patch Tuesday" is always the second Wednesday of the month.</p>

  • ashakantasharma

    05 February, 2020 - 11:10 am

    <p>Loved your post…..True</p>

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