Ask Paul: October 15 (Premium)

It’s the Ides of October, so let’s kick off the weekend—and the spooky season—with a great set of reader questions.

Privacy marketing

erich82 asks:

Microsoft advertises Enhanced Security, as a benefit to subscribing to 365. Are you aware though, if Microsoft also offers enhanced privacy as a feature? Is a subscriber still tracked and monetized in the same way as a person who uses the free version of 365? Aside from not being shown ads in Outlook, I’m questioning what the real benefit is to subscribing, regarding privacy. Maybe those who use Libre Office and keep everything on a USB drive, are on to something.

I’m not aware of anything like that, but I had made the case in the past that Microsoft was missing a nice opportunity to be seen as the Apple of productivity, from a privacy (and marketing) perspective. I was referring mostly to Windows whenever I wrote that (sorry, I can’t even find it now), but it makes even more sense in the scenario you describe. But for Microsoft to truly embrace this role it has to actually make substantive changes to whether, how, and where it collects user data, and give its customers a proactive chance to opt-out of that.

Whether we’re talking about just Windows or Microsoft 365 more broadly, I’ve never understood not giving users the chance to opt-out, since few would anyway, but it would give the firm such a positive aura. It’s a win-win. But yeah, nothing. In fact, things have gotten even worse with Windows 11, arguably. The Widgets interface alone is a one-two-three punch of pushing users to Edge, MSN, and Bing, even if they’ve made other choices for themselves. That’s unnecessarily shady.

Never the twain shall meet

ericmeetsworld asks:

I’m also wondering why there isn’t a package deal with Office 365 and Xbox Game Pass. I know they had one in the past. Kind of like the Apple One.

Yeah, I had to look this up since it’s been so long, but you’re thinking of the Work & Play bundle, which was a sort of limited-time offer via the Microsoft Store. I think the first version dates back to 2013 or 2014, but since this site has only been around since 2015, the oldest article I could find out it is here, back when Microsoft 365 was called Office 365 and Xbox Music Pass still existed.

Anyway, I agree. When Google announces the Pixel 6 family of smartphones next week, it will also introduce an Apple One-like subscription service, according to rumors. And yes, Microsoft should too. Microsoft 365 and Xbox both target consumers, after all, and any kind of savings could help push people to adopt a service that they’re not currently using.

On a semi-related note, it’s unclear to me how or why I can run out of storage space for Xbox-based screenshots and video recordings when I am paying for over 5 TB of OneDrive storage via by Microsoft 365 Family account. Those things need to be integrated under the covers as well.

Outlook stability and reliability

cwfinn asks:

Is it my imagination or has Outlook desktop candidate become way less responsive since Microsoft seems to be trying to force users to Outlook.com? I’m getting regular “Outlook is not responding” messages as I change folders or even toggle between email, calendar and people.

I haven’t used the desktop Outlook client—beyond semi-regular tests to see if anything has changed—for many, many years, having long ago adopted Google’s and Microsoft’s web clients instead. And I don’t really see that client disappear, despite the news that Microsoft is working on a “One Outlook” client that will apparently span desktop, web, and mobile. We’ll see how that pans out, but so many people use and rely on Outlook desktop, especially in business, that it must still be a priority.

Perhaps someone who has more Outlook experience than I do can chime in. I see that wright_is responded in the thread with, “I’m not seeing this with my Outlook 365 and a Microsoft 365 account and an on-premises Exchange account.” Perhaps the issue is related to something else on your PC, and not to Outlook specifically.

Sub folders

Bgoodbody asks:

Looks like lock screen and desktop no longer support sub folders in win 11. I wonder why?

Apologies, I’m not sure what you mean. You can add folders to the Windows 11 desktop, and I still use it as I always have, as a scratch space of sorts for things I’m working on.

Pixel 6 Pro

anderb asks:

Are you still going to buy the Pixel 6 Pro even though it has a curved screen?

Yes.

On a related note, I recently re-tested the OnePlus 9 Pro, in part because I always do this type of thing from time to time, and I wanted to see whether I’d miss the clean Pixel Android experience I get with the Pixel 5a, and in part to see what OnePlus was doing with Android 12 in the Oxygen 12 beta. I’m not sure if I’ll write about that formally yet, but I did have a couple of observations. I really missed the dynamic color capabilities in stock Android 12. I feel that the OnePlus 9 Pro’s camera system stands up well against the Pixel 5a, though it requires a bit more babysitting and lacks a few features I like having. I really preferred the OnePlus minimalist case to the bulky Google case I had been using, and have since replaced that with a thinner, lighter case. And that curved screen. God damn that curved screen.

I will never understand why any smartphone maker would add a curved screen to a handset in 2021, premium or otherwise, as it is objectively inferior from a usability perspective. The biggest issue is that it’s often hard to swipe from the edge of the screen, as when you wish to go back in an app or between apps. And in the two weeks I was using the OnePlus 9 Pro again recently, I ran into that issue multiple times. It’s maddening to do something simple like a back gesture and have it not work and have to repeat it. You tend to press a bit firmer, and get a bit madder, each time.

To be clear, this isn’t a showstopper. It’s just wrong and stupid. And it’s possible, unlikely but possible, that Google has figured out some way to overcome this issue via software. But I’m committed to at least trying the Pixel 6 Pro regardless, because it’s still the sum of what I want after a frustrating 2-3 years of lackluster Pixels: A flagship-class Pixel (performance) with three camera lenses (main, ultra-wide, and telephoto with optical zoom), and the clean Pixel Android experience. Other handsets like that OnePlus and recent Samsungs come close (OnePlus more than Samsung). But if Google could just get this right, I’d be very happy. Even with that damn curved screen edge.

If this handset has other issues, however, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I hope not to have to deal with that.

Future fixes for Windows 11

darkgrayknight asks:

With Windows 11, I’m frustrated with the taskbar not being movable to the side or to the short side of screen. I’d also want it to stay on that side when rotating the screen (like when using Surface Pro). Hopefully Microsoft will do something with that or at least Stardock will take on the challenge. Do you see Microsoft doing more to Windows 11 to make it more usable and customizable for Pro-users? I appreciate the usage for normal users, like my Dad, but it will still be a challenge to train him on using the new start experience.

Yes, they will fix this, at least to some degree. In one of those off-the-record conversations that Microsoft is infamous for, press, analysts, and bloggers were told that it had heard the feedback about the limitations it introduced in Start and Taskbar in particular, and that it would make changes to address that feedback. It didn’t literally promise to let users move the Taskbar to other screen edges or right-click and get more options, or whatever. But these are the biggest complaints by far about Windows 11, along with that default apps interface, which it insists was not malicious. And it will make changes.

Will they? They seemed sincere. I guess they always do.

Utilities to fix Windows 11

hrlngrv asks:

Will you be looking at desktop UI alternatives beyond Start11/Stardock, or is that it?

Yeah, I’ve been trying to pay attention to this stuff, but related to the note above, I’d rather that Microsoft just fix these problems directly in Windows 11. I’d rather not have to install third-party utilities every time I bring a new PC online, and since I’m working on a Windows 11 book, it’s better/easier for me not to have to deal with that kind of thing. We’ll see how quickly Microsoft moves on this.

(I did link to two related topics, how to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware and how to bring back the classic Windows 11 desktop context menu, in Thurrott Now.)

Broken promises

madthinus asks:

Paul, you going to write still the article about all the things that did not ship in Windows 11? Is the emoji’s part of that list? This is crazy, considering the ones that shipped last night is not the same as the original reveal in the design blog post. What the hell is going on?

I did write that article, it’s called Windows 11’s Broken Promises. But no, emojis weren’t on the list. I guess I somehow missed that, perhaps because the original announcement was about Microsoft 365 and happened after the initial Windows 11 reveal.

For those unfamiliar with this new controversy—which I jokingly called “the worst of their lies!” on Twitter—Microsoft said in July that it would introduce “3D emojis” based on its Fluent design system across  all of Microsoft 365 “in the coming months.” But when Microsoft announced the addition of “Fluent emojis” in the most recent Windows 11 build in the Windows Insider Program’s Dev channel yesterday, those new emojis were not 3D. And this apparently has upset people quite a bit. (Tech Radar, channeling me, declared that “communication matters.”)

Since I see emojis as superfluous nonsense, I don’t care all that much whether they are 3D or not, but it is amusing to me, in a way, that this is the issue that has most enraged Windows fans. After all, Windows 11 Home requires an Internet connection and a Microsoft account just to set up, and that’s caused barely a ripple. And there are substantive promised features and regressions in the shipping product that make it difficult to recommend in its current form: I’ve spent more time on some laptop reviews than Microsoft spent testing this major Windows release publicly. Think about it.

Anyway, whether this is “classic Microsoft” or whatever is open to debate. But I think we can all agree that Microsoft has a serious communication problem that just gets worse and worse as time goes on. This is just one ingredient in that sad stew.