Ask Paul: January 18 (Premium)

Happy Friday. Here’s another round of Q’s and A’s for Thurrott Premium members.

My music playlist(s)

helix2301 asks:

Wondering what Paul’s playlist looks like on Google Music.

Hm. I need to think about this one. As a middle-aged white guy, I do have some predictable musical tastes. But I also listen to music with my wife a lot, and I’ve been making playlists for her/us for the past few years that are more diverse, with more female musicians and more pop/dance-type music that I don’t normally listen to on my own.

I don’t normally listen to music when I write or work, as I find it distracting. That said, I’ve be curating this set of music that I do listen to when I write/work when traveling, like when I’m flying. I’m a big fan of U2’s two most recent albums—Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience—and have a playlist that’s just the deluxe versions of both of those albums. I like Dave Gilmore-era Pink Floyd, and their most recent (last) album, The Endless River, is great for this purpose too, as it’s mostly just instrumental. I’m also a big fan of a French artist, Yann Tiersen, that most know from the Amelie soundtrack. In fact, we’re going to see him live, finally, this year.

But when I’m driving, flying, working out, or whatever, and just want to zone out, it’s pretty much the traditional diet of Van Halen, Def Leppard, Collective Soul, and bands of that ilk. I’m a really big fan of live music, and when I can find live versions of songs, I usually prefer those. There is an on-again/off-again bad called Rock Sugar that makes incredible mashups that I like more than I should: Don’t Stop the Sandman is an incredible combination of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ and Metallica’s Enter Sandman that somehow manages to be better than the originals. (Check out the video.) And Shook Me Like a Prayer (AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long plus Madonna’s Like a Prayer; check out the video) and Roll You in a Hurricane (Rock You Like a Hurricane by The Scorpions plus Adele’s Rolling in the Deep) are pretty amazing too. This stuff shouldn’t be so good.

As for the music I listen to with my wife, it’s a lot more diverse. I used to make a new playlist every 2 or 3 months, and then after we’d been in Pennsylvania for a year, I combined all the playlists I had made since the move into a single “Year One” playlist. And have been making new playlists since then, with a bit of overlap. Between the Year One and Year playlists, it’s about 400 songs I guess. Most recent additions are There You Are by Zayn, Do You Love Me by Mass (an 80’s song; I knew the lead singer), Rescue You by Chicago (a non-single from 16), Cheap Thrills by Sia, and the live version of ATYA by Collective Soul.

I guess I’ll look into sharing these somehow if that makes sense.

Hardware compatibility database

hrlngrv asks:

Microsoft must have developed a comprehensive database of compatibility issues between Windows and various hardware combinations. Why doesn’t Microsoft make an extract of that database for at least the 1,000 or so most common hardware combinations a publicly searchable resource for anyone with a MSFT account used to activate a Windows license?

Microsoft used to have a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Windows NT because that system initially didn’t offer the same level of compatibility as classic (DOS-based) Windows versions when it came to hardware devices. (I recall printing part of it out and bringing it to Best Buy to make sure I bought a compatible networking card, if I remember correctly.)

The need for an HCL went away when NT was merged with Windows and adopted the classic Windows driver model. But what you’re asking for is interesting, though I’m not sure if it would even work: A database that would highlight incompatible configurations caused by two or hardware devices. The reason I’m not sure is that I don’t know if it’s ever that clean. I could imagine two devices interfering with each other in one PC but not in another … for some reason. That there’s something more complicated going on, usually, than just Device A and Device B don’t play nice.

Are we sure that such a thing is widespread enough that it would be useful to end users?

AR on the iPad

StevenLayton asks:

While I love my iPad Pro, one of thing things I was most interested in playing with was AR games etc, and I’ve not really found anything that blows me away. Can you recommend anything cool or exciting to showcase AR on the iPad?

Unfortunately, no, sorry. I don’t really play games on mobile, and after a few initial experiments last year with AR, I’ve kind of moved on.

Maybe someone else has some recommendations?

Windows 8 + Windows Phone Store?

T182 asks:

If Windows 10 had launched in 2012 instead of Windows 8, would the UWP platform and Windows Store been more successful? Would it have helped Windows Phone survive, or would it all have failed regardless?

What if’s are tough, but I do think that Microsoft using the Windows Phone platform and app store in Windows 8 would have made both platforms better and could have succeeded. What I’ll point to is that both Google (with Chromebook) and Apple (with macOS) have belatedly moved to do the same thing: Offer their own app platforms and stores in their desktop offerings. Because it makes sense.

The mistake that Microsoft (by which I mean Steven Sinofsky and the Windows team) made was to create yet another mobile platform (Metro) when it already had one for Windows Phone. Adding Windows Phone apps to Windows 8 would have been immediately beneficial, and that platform could have easily been adapted to support a PC’s bigger display. Plus, those excellent-looking panoramic interfaces, which required multiple swipes to navigate on Phone, would have just appeared all at once on the PC. That would have been amazing.

By creating two incompatible mobile platforms, Microsoft harmed both platforms. And though it later moved to address that, it was too late. This is a major missed opportunity.

New Microsoft services screen in Windows 10 19H1

hrlngrv Alpha Member #100 – 12 hours ago

Have you come across the following in the latest Insider build during login?

Yeah. I’ve been screenshotting each step for a future article and/or for the Windows 10 Field Guide.

Too hard a computer science problem to provide a Skip forever option?

That only would be necessary in the Insider Preview. Normal users will only see this when they upgrade to a new Windows 10 version (twice a year).

Why is Chromebook superior to Linux?

MarkPow asks:

I’m no doubt missing the point on many fronts here, but I wondered, what makes a Chromebook superior to Linux on a Laptop? Perhaps both from a consumer perspective and the Enterprise. I’m assuming it’s not just the ability to run Android apps. This is potentially a long way off for the UK based company I work for, but the ultimate goal would be to offer our users whichever platform they wish to use, providing, of course, it doesn’t come at a too higher financial cost or too higher strain on IT Support.

A number of readers answered this question in the forum post, but my answer is very short because it comes down to one basic thing: Chromebooks are simpler than Linux. Much simpler.

Whatever anyone thinks of Linux, it’s just another take on the classic desktop platform like Windows or macOS. Chromebook (OK, Chrome OS) offers a new approach. It doesn’t matter that it’s “based on” Linux, just like it doesn’t matter that Android is. The actual system that users see and use is much simpler. And that’s true across the board: It’s easier to buy a Chromebook, since few PC makers sell Linux-based PCs. It’s easier to find familiar apps. It’s easier to use. Easier for schools and businesses to manage. And easier to update. Linux is great, but it’s still more apt for developers and other power users. But there’s no contest for normal people: Chromebooks are the better choice.

That, by the way, is why Microsoft is working on its own version of Chrome OS. This will be “based on” Windows 10. But it will be simpler too.

Setting up 2FA on a phone

craigsn asks:

Paul, when you setup an Android phone, is there an “easy” way to setup 2FA app, either Google’s or MS’? Or do you have to go thru remembering all of the websites to visit, all of the settings you have to weave thru to setup them up?

Yeah, when it comes to non-Google sign-ins, which are built-in to Android (or a similar system Apple uses now on iOS), you have to go through it manually as far as I know. I’m not aware of an Authenticator app that will let you sign-in once to a central account (like MSA) and then just populate the app.

I’ve not tried this, but I suppose it’s possible that restoring an Android system from backup (on a new phone) might bring forward those settings. But I doubt it. And I do this manually every time, yes.