Ask Paul: February 26 (Premium)

Happy Friday! This last Ask Paul for February has another great set of reader questions, including a few stumpers, to get the weekend started.

Short Takes

Thanks for all the feedback last week regarding Short Takes. I will be publishing Short Takes on Mondays or Tuesdays going forward, schedule dependent, and starting next week to coincide with Ignite. –Paul

Why does Windows rename my network connections 2?

crunchyfrog asks:

Paul, there’s a phenomenon that has plagued Windows going back many years that I still see in Windows 10 and can’t understand how or why it happens. When I setup WiFi on Windows at installation, I select my SSID and enter the password. Over time though, I see that my that the SSID develops a numerical number when I hover over the icon on the taskbar, ie: ‘Home’ shows up as ‘Home 2’, etc. I’ve never fully understood what causes this and I don’t think I’ve seen this on MacOS or Linux.

I’ve not experienced this recently, but I’ve absolutely experienced it, and I’m positive it’s not unique to Windows 10: This goes back to at least Windows 7, if not earlier, I think.

Regardless, I don’t know why this happens, sorry.

The need for speed

darkgrayknight asks:

Have you noticed the fast loading of games on Xbox Series X? I’m still amazed at how Ark Evolved and Halo Wars 2 just load the game. Ark Evolved used to take a couple minutes, but now the world is loaded in less than 30 seconds. Halo Wars 2 loads a skirmish game in a few seconds when it used to take more like 30.

Yep. I feel like this is the primary benefit of the consoles, and if you ever get too used to it, just fire up an Xbox One X (or whatever) for comparison purposes.

In a related note, NVMe M2 SSDrives are amazing at making a computer fast. Unfortunately the size of these drives is still relatively low and leave storage space issues for the new Xbox Series X/S. Have you noticed the speed on any recent computers you have reviewed?

I think I’m just used to things in Windows being fast. But the new M1-based Macs are the only computers I’ve used recently where the speed was notably better than before. When you launch apps, they seem to explode off the dock. With previous Macs, it was a lot more leisurely.

Is there anything you think would make a good leap forward in technology? I think quantum networking would drive some real innovation and technological advancement.

Actual pervasive 5G-level connectivity is the big one for me. This would really open up things nicely. I always think about our early home swaps and how horrible the Internet connections often were, and how that has changed for the better in recent years (to the point where most of the homes we’ve swapped with recently had much better connections than we do). Being able to instantly download or access anything from anywhere would be a game-changer.

From LastPass to Microsoft

staganyi asks:

Following up on my previous question about lastpass and moving to ms authenticator/edge. I know you can you export from lastpass but what is the best way to get those passwords into ms authenticator/edge?

So this is crying out for some kind of a how-to article. I will look into that.

But I’m not a LastPass user. Off the top of my head, the big issue may just be that the new Edge is not explicitly a target for exporting. If that’s the case, you could export the LastPass data into Chrome (or whatever) and then import to Edge from there. (LastPass does support exporting to CSV as well, it looks like.)

Follow up question, will Windows ever get an autofill passwords service like iOS/Android? Seems like a no-brainer.

I agree. I’ve been wanting that for years and don’t understand why it’s not a feature of the platform.

Windows 10X news

AnOldAmigaUser asks:

Do you think there will be any word regarding Windows 10X at IGNITE? Certainly does not look like it from the list of presentations. I fear that by the time they bring it to market, they will be a day late and a dollar short.

The only chance I can see in there is the fireside chat with Panos Panay. But I learned that Microsoft has a gaming event on March 23 and then a Windows event after that, and that might actually be tied to Build. And that does seem like the logical time to announce this, not that Microsoft is ever logical. (There’s also a security event coming at some point.)

On a related note, what sort of bite has Chredge taken from Chrome in the browser battles?

I long used Netmarketshare because Microsoft used it as well, but they stopped providing this data last October. So I will have to turn to StatCounter, which says that Edge has 7.81 percent usage share on the desktop, just behind Firefox, with 8.1 percent. Ahead of both is Chrome (67 percent) and Safari (10.38 percent).

Looking back a year, you can see some interesting trends. Chrome usage share has gone down a few percentage points, but Edge has grown enormously; it was just .28 percent of the market a year ago. Firefox has a lost a few percentage points in that year, too, so it looks like Edge took share from Chrome and Firefox throughout 2020.

If you look at all browsers (mobile plus desktop), Edge lands at 3.24 percent, behind Chrome (63.6 percent), Safari (19.4 percent), Firefox (3.65 percent), and Samsung Internet (3.49 percent).

When do we learn about 21H2?

madthinus asks:

Paul, a little speculation: When do you think 21H2 will be shown / detailed?

As noted above, Microsoft has a Windows event scheduled for some time in the next few months, and I’m guessing it’s happening at Build. So that seems like the logical timeframe. Same caveat about Microsoft and logic. But I wish they wouldn’t wait.

Console choice

sabertooth920 asks:

I know you legitimately prefer the Xbox, but, what would it take to persuade you to move to the PlayStation?

Honestly, I’m not sure what Sony could do to win me over. Even if the last two Call of Duty games hadn’t been so terrible, I can’t imagine switching. Part of it my history on Xbox, and how my games just keep moving forward with me, of course. But part of it is how these platforms are evolving, and I really like where Microsoft is going with Game Streaming.

Also, do you plan to try any of the upcoming Diablo games on console?

I don’t think so. I only did briefly get into Diablo ages ago—with the original, I think?—but it’s not really my kind of game.

Seeking serenity

ingve asks:

Have you tried (or seen) SerenityOS? It is described as “an open source graphical Unix-like operating system for x86 computers, a love letter to ’90s user interfaces with a custom Unix-like core.” I personally love the UI; it looks like it is actually designed for desktop use, not some kind of lowest common denominator phone/touch-based thing. Buttons look like buttons, scroll bars are visible, etc. (Of course, could just be nostalgia…)

I had not heard of this, but the UI is delightfully similar to that of Windows 2000, which I sort of feel was a high-water mark of sorts for the UI that debuted in Windows 95. And they’ve even duplicated some apps. That’s actually pretty interesting.

Two semi-related notes. I will be looking at Linux again soon. And there is a project that I can’t recommend per se, but will at least point out: It’s called ReviOS, and it’s a stripped-down version of Windows 10 without most of the built-in apps, bloatware, and tracking. Is it … safe? Hard to say. I’ve installed it in a VM to check it out, and while I decided against writing it up as a tip or whatever, I’ll just leave it here for anyone curious.

Android tablets

waharris007 asks:

I recently got a Galaxy Tab S7+ tablet to see if it could replace my iPad since I recently switched back to Android on the phone side. I have been blown away at the capability of the most recent Galaxy Tab S series … The tablet functionality is way beyond Windows 10 (since it uses an actual mobile OS), and Dex mode makes it an extremely capable desktop machine when needed.

Wait for it…

Needless to say, though, the biggest weakness to this is app support for Android tablets. That can be maddening, but I’ve figured out solutions for most of it, including using web apps through Samsung’s browser.

There it is. 🙂 Yes, the big issue with Android on tablets is the apps. For whatever reason, developers don’t natively support Android tablets to the same degree that they do iPad, and the result is fewer optimized apps and fewer high-quality apps.

At the very least, it’s hard for me now to see why someone would choose a Chromebook over the Tab S7/S7+ setup (money and school requirements notwithstanding). It definitely appears to be the better choice over a Surface Go unless you HAVE to have Windows on your tablet.

I think the big reason I’d choose ChromeOS over Android on a tablet/clamshell-type device is that the browser is the full-featured desktop version. And that most of my time would be spent in web apps and that the Android (or even Linux) app capability would just be used to put it over the top.  With an Android tablet, you’re pretty much in a native apps environment. Not that you couldn’t use many web apps, but that most people would probably seek out the apps.

I’m curious if you’ve seriously looked at the most recent Galaxy Tablets from a Surface Pro competitor standpoint. I think it’d be worth a look.

This is something I think about a lot. For my personal situation, an iPad makes more sense for what I use it for, and I use PCs for productivity, so having this one device—be it an iPad or iPad Pro with a keyboard or some Samsung tablet—that does everything isn’t a real need. But I do prefer Android to iOS/iPadOS, and if such a thing were better than an iPad (for how I use it), I’d be happy to switch. Just getting Apple TV+ on Android would make this a lot easier.

Part of the problem is that Google seems to have given up on Android for tablets. It’s pushing Chromebook-based tablets (and 2-in-1s and laptops) instead, and since those devices can run Android apps too, it makes pure Android tablets less viable overall. (Key work here would need to come from the platform maker, not Samsung or whomever else.)