Ask Paul: December 2 (Premium)

Happy Friday! After a busy holiday week, Ask Paul is back and this is another mammoth installment with some great reader questions. And quick a book update…

Update on the Windows 11 Field Guide eBook

I wanted to update you all on Premium members getting a free copy of the Windows 11 Field Guide through Leanpub: you should be receiving an email sometime in the next week with a code that will let you get the book for $0. I believe you will need to create a Leanpub account, which is free, to do so, so you might want to look into that now. I’ll write a formal post when this goes live.

Thanks!

The next wave

brothernod asks:

Microsoft seems to come out ahead of the next big thing then abandon it without becoming the next big thing. Tablets, AR and windows phone come to mind.

Yep. Terry Myerson used to call this the “next wave.” In his view, Microsoft had missed the smartphone wave, and despite being pretty quick to market with Cortana, had missed the intelligent assistant/voice control wave too. So it was intent on not missing the next wave, whatever that might have been/will be. Augmented Reality (AR) was a possibility. Maybe still is, in some people’s view. (I see AR like I see assistant/voice, as more of an add-on than a replacement. Actually, tablets are kind of like that too.)

And I’m curious, is there a world where Microsoft could have become a pillar in the smart phone space, or was it a forgone conclusion that only 2 phone platforms could survive. What do you think Microsoft could have done (with hindsight) to be an equal to iOS or android.

Well, since I’m quoting former Microsoft executives, I’ll point out that Stephen Elop, then the CEO of Nokia, asked the same question publicly: is there room for a third ecosystem in the smartphone market? History says there is not. And the list of failures there extends far beyond Nokia to include Palm, Motorola, Symbian, Amazon, Facebook, and probably many others.

But Microsoft (with Nokia) made, I think, the strongest case for a third ecosystem. But the problems were many. Windows Phone came to life in a world in which Microsoft’s executives couldn’t get past licensing fees and so it initially refused to give it away, as Google (sort of) does with Android, killing its chances with hardware makers. It innovated with a “people-first” user experience that put photos, games, videos, messages, and other content types above the popular brands that dominate those markets, ensuring that none would ever buy-in, making the platform unattractive to users. (Yes, Facebook gave it a shot briefly, but in the end, Facebook wants you to think “Facebook” when you post photos, for example, not think about a Photos hub on Windows Phone.) And it was late to market: by the time Windows Phone hobbled into the market in an unfinished state in 2011, its innovations were no match for its limitations compared to the market leaders.

Put another way, this was a market Microsoft could have dominated, but it’s also a market Microsoft could never have dominated because the Microsoft of 2007 (when the iPhone first appeared) was still the old Microsoft and couldn’t see doing something different from what had, to that date, been successful for them. It took an outsider, Apple, with no stake in that game and no established products to worry about, to do so. This is kind of a classic issue in business.

And even if they succeeded, would it have been a good business decision? Microsoft makes money off paid software. Apple makes money off paid hardware. Google makes money off free software and customer data. How would Microsoft have squared their preference in the phone market.

The same way Google does: it charges per-device fees for making Android whole with the Google Play Store and its own very lucrative apps. And it builds software and services on top of it. That said, that part of Google is probably relatively small, given that roughly 80 percent of Google’s revenues come from advertising. Microsoft is still trying to build that business, but had Windows Phone been successful, the ads business would have grown with it.

It’s worth pointing out that Windows Phone’s app store terms were initially the same as Apple’s and that, had Windows Phone been successful, we’d possibly have three terrible platforms to deal with instead of two. But the theory here, of course, is that more competition lowers prices. And with three viable platforms, surely one of them would start lowering app store and in-app fees to gain an advantage. And that the result would be ever-lower prices, like in any truly fair and competitive market.

I guess ultimately I’m curious how they fail at these things with what feels like unlimited resources.

Bad decisions, mostly. Although, again, to be fair to Microsoft and Windows Phone, they were victims of an ailment that’s almost impossible to overcome. How Microsoft has responded in the wake of its mobile defeat is perhaps more important. And they’ve made some good moves—meeting the customers where they are by bringing Office etc. to iPhone and Android—and some bad moves. But the big thing for Microsoft, really, is that it used to be some thing—a software company—and it is now some other thing, a major player in cloud computing. When you make a shift like that, the old stuff—Windows, Office, etc.—doesn’t go away. Can, in fact, be profitable and lucrative for many years to come. But this transition is important, because if Microsoft was only a diminished version of what it once was, it would just fade over time. Like IBM. Which is nothing short of uninteresting.

It will be comical if Elon tries to make a phone platform. 

Yes. Yes it will.

And I don’t see that happening, honestly. Most of what comes out of his mouth is nonsense and quickly reversed or forgotten.

Intel, the iPhone, and you

jt5 asks:

Have you heard any more about Intel’s plan to have an app that will use iMessage similar to what is available on the Mac?  We heard about it in January – but I have not seen anything since.   Also- do you know if it will integrate the phone call functionality as well?

No, but the key thing to know here is that Dell used to provide a Phone Link-like utility to its PC buyers that worked with iPhone. And that the product Intel is bringing to market is that product, since Intel bought the company that made it.

The Dell app was called Dell Mobile Connect. Here’s the description:

“Dell Mobile Connect is a software solution that enables users to connect their PC with their smartphone, creating one integrated experience. This provides the ability to work on a PC, while also answering calls, sending text messages, and viewing various phone notifications. Phone actions are performed easily by using the PC’s keyboard, mouse, and touch-screen, in addition to a high-quality microphone and speakers.

The solution consists of a PC-side app (Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app that is preinstalled on new Dell PCs), and an iPhone-side app that the user is requested to download from the App Store as part of the initial setup process …Once the PC and the phone are paired and connected for the first time, the full functionality of the solution is available and ready to be used.”

Put simply, this should work pretty well. And it’s unclear why Microsoft can’t figure this kind of thing out too.

Which VM?

bwookey:

I’d like to set up a virtual Windows machine to run some industry specific Windows software.  It must be reliable, and I need to easily copy files between the local computer and the virtual machine.

1. Based on your experience would you recommend Hyper-V, VirtualBox, or VMWare?

I’ve had good experiences with all three, but each is better at certain things. Lately, I’ve been going back and forth between Hyper-V and VirtualBox, but this is kind of usage-specific: it depends on what it is you need and want to do. In my case, most of my virtual machine work is about taking screenshots, mostly for the book, of “offline” experiences like Windows Setup, the Windows Recovery Environment, and so on. So I don’t have very high-end requirements. It doesn’t matter what the performance is, though it’s generally fine. (Getting sound working on Hyper-V seems problematic, but I assume there’s a fix for that too.)

2. Since this will be for long term use will I need to purchase a Windows 11 license for the virtual machine?

Yes. (Legally, right? Could you get away with no paying for it? Yes, of course.)

3. Or would it be easier and more reliable to just purchase a monthly subscription to a Windows 365 virtual machine and let Microsoft handle all the details?

I only have a little experience with Windows 365, but that too should be an option. It’s kind of hard to answer this question without knowing exactly how you’ll use and it how often, but my general advice would be to test all of these things and see which makes more sense. Obviously, Windows 365 is an ongoing subscription, and it is still pretty expensive. The other three are one-time fees for the product (not for VirtualBox) and the Windows license.

It looks like a few other people have the same basic advice in the comments. Definitely test with all four of those.

Local user vs. password reset

maddycom asks:

So Paul, I loaded a windows 11 home on PC using local only account for past months, but the password expiration still forces me to change password. I am Developer for Dynamics NAV/BC not big deal, for I run some powershell script to not expire password for local accounts, but how is there not some flag for the normals in Home version.

I hadn’t really thought much about local accounts over the past several years, and maybe this is just an ADHD thing or just the way my brain is wired, but I often go down some path in figuring something out, arrive at the answer, document it, and then move on and remember the answer but completely forget the details. And in this case, the truth I knew to be real was that using a Microsoft account is more secure than using a local account. But in writing about this for the Windows 11 Field Guide recently, I had to reacquaint myself as to why that is true. And you can see the result in the Local Accounts chapter: local accounts don’t require a password, don’t have two-step verification and can’t be recovered if you’re locked out, can’t use Device Encryption (on Windows 11 Home), and so on.

That said, the experience of using a local account with Windows 11 is surprisingly not that dissimilar to using a Microsoft account, and this is especially true if you don’t use a lot of Store apps. Yes, you can add a Microsoft account for that purpose, but at that point, why not just sign in with that to get the additional benefits? Anyway.

If I understand what you’re asking, you’re worried about Windows 11 Home users signing in with a local account and being forced to change their password every so often? If so, don’t: you can’t configure Windows 11 Home with a local account without working around that or by adding one late and wiping out the initial Microsoft account. And both of those actions are technical and would require someone who knows that such a thing is possible and can figure out how to get it done. This is an audience we don’t need to worry about.

That said, the issue with not using a password is that you can’t then use Windows Hello PIN, or facial or fingerprint recognition. And that would be an interesting setup: no password, but the PC is still protected, ideally by biometrics. Microsoft doesn’t allow it. I sort of get it. But if one wants to use Windows Hello and, more generally, be more secure, just use the Microsoft account. It just makes sense for most people.

AI-rt

christianwilson asks:

Have you experimented with any of those AI art generators like Midjourney, Nightcafe, Starryai, etc? I know you mentioned you had a background in art and curious if you tried any of these and your thoughts. I play around with Nightcafe. I find it fun to see what the AI comes up with when I feed it a prompt. Sometimes it generates something truly beautiful. Sometimes the result is the thing of nightmares.

I haven’t, but I will soon, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot too. I was wondering about the possibility of generating something as simple as a unique “hero” image for articles as there are lots of copyright concerns with using stock photos. We’ve actually gotten into legal issues that make no sense to me because of this. In one case, Microsoft used a photo to promote a conference and had custom imagery on top of it related to that show. We used that image for a post about the show, as, no doubt, did dozens of other blogs. And then were threatened with a lawsuit from the photographer several years later, demanding we pay several thousand dollars for a post that might have been read by 30 people, all several years ago before the event. Stupid.

Related to this, please check out the incredible remake of the Dolly Parton hit song Jolene that artist Holly Herndon created with an AI she calls Holly+. The singing voice is incredible and 100 percent an AI creation using a model of her real voice. (The video is whatever, just listen to the song.)

There are legitimate concerns over how the AI learns, however, and copyright issues are aplenty. I’m wondering if you’ve looked into any of that and what your opinions are.

This is advancing so rapidly right now that there will be problems. But it’s hard not to imagine a future in which AI is used for content creation of all kinds. Will this eliminate the need for human content creators? That’s the fear, but it’s still early days. And it’s only a matter of time before an AI creates a best-selling book, or even an award-winning journalistic report. What then?

Let’s not forget, too, that the concerns here are mirrored by earlier advances like Photoshop, video deep fakes, and Auto-Tune, which makes middling singers sound amazing on recordings, among others. We do live in an incredible time, in some ways.

Android tablets

Sabertooth920 asks:

Since, you actually prefer Android, are you at all interested in Google’s upcoming tablet?  If it can’t undercut the entry level iPad on price, do you give it any chance to avoid the Google Graveyard?

Not really, not yet, anyway.

I understand why Google is making an Android tablet push, but it’s worth remembering why they’re doing this. And it’s not just about tablets. It’s about adapting Android better to big-screen —and folding/dual-screen—devices, including Chromebooks, which will also benefit from these advances. For a variety of reasons, most Android apps are designed only for phones, and are given little in the way of customization for larger devices. Apple, by contrast, has had great success getting developers to fully adapt apps for iPad or even to create iPad-only apps.

As for the Pixel Tablet, it will suffer from the same issues as Samsung’s otherwise well-reviewed Android tablets. It just won’t have the same breadth and depth of software library as we see on the iPad. The hope, of course, is that that changes over time, and that developers follow Google’s lead and adapt their apps better for bigger screens. (And allow them to adapt on the fly for folding and dual-screen devices, neither of which Apple currently offers.)

People have different use cases for tablets. Some can use them as a general-purpose computing device by attaching a keyboard/touchpad accessory and will never need a PC or Mac. Some, like me, just use them as a consumption device for reading and watching videos. But until and unless the Android ecosystem catches up in either or both use cases, they’ll always be second rate, no matter how good the hardware is, how much less expensive it may be, or whatever. People do use iPads for a reason.

I think the way to view the Pixel Tablet is the way we view the Pixel Watch. It’s a first-generation product, and it’s pretty, but it is very much lacking from a functional perspective compared to Apple Watch. Some may buy it—or a Fitbit or a Samsung smartwatch or whatever—because they’re using Android, and that’s where they’re at. But the problem for Google and Android is that people switch to Apple’s ecosystem in part because the Apple Watch—or the iPad—is so good too. It’s not just about the iPhone.

And that explains, I think, why Google is making this new push and is making its own tablet. It kind of has to because it’s losing people, not to just iPhone, but to a broader, more cohesive ecosystem that spans multiple products and services. That’s the table stakes now, it seems. You can’t just have an answer for the phone.

Folder views

Akis asks:

I was wondering if you have ever stumbled across one issue that Windows has been bugging me with for many years: Folders view. I have enabled visibility of file extensions and hence want to get rid of the now useless “file type” column. Except, it keeps coming back. Regardless how many times I will do this, resetting the folder types to match the current view, that comumn keeps coming back. Normally I wouldn’t mind but it takes plenty of screen estate and makes the scroll bar appear, which is what I want to avoid. Just a thought about it. Wondering what your view is on this. Thank you.

Interesting.

I feel like I may disappoint you here, sorry. This reminds me of the local account question above in that it’s something I’ve not thought much about in many years. But it’s fair to say that File Explorer and the way it handles folder views have changed quite a bit over the years. Windows XP, for example, had a view for media where there were thumbnails on the bottom and a big preview at the top. And more generally, Microsoft has worked over the years to customize views based on content. And Windows 11 still does this, albeit less overtly: the Documents and Music folders are shown in Details view by default, while Pictures and Videos use Large icons view (which could be called Thumbnails).

What you’ve reminded me of is that there was once a way—and, honestly, probably still is—where one could configure a single folder to whatever degree and then tell File Explorer to always use that style, not just for this folder but for all folders. And I recall that being a concern, something I actually did do. But that was possibly 20 or even 25 years ago.

And I have to just guess here that the lack of facility you’re seeing is just tied to how people use File Explorer today compared to years ago and that this just isn’t a common activity anymore. I obviously use File Explorer every single day, all day long, and often have many windows open. (I don’t use tabs, ever.) And I honestly have not thought about this almost at all. There have been a few occasions where I’ve expanded or contracted columns in certain File Explorer windows in Details view for whatever reason. But I’ve never felt the need to do so in the views I use regularly (like for the book).

Also, File Explorer has been rewritten and updated many times. The version we see here in December 2022 is literally the third major visual update since the first release of Windows 11 in October 2021. And based on the changes—mostly visual/organizational, plus the tabs—you can see where the focus is. I think what you’re experiencing is that horrible outlier issue where you have a very specific need or want but it’s not being met because it’s not a concern for most people. We just spent a lot of time complaining that Microsoft removed Task Manager from the right-click Taskbar menu, for example, and while that was a small percentage of people, I’m guessing it’s still a bigger audience than those who wish to fine-tune the view in a particular folder in File Explorer and actually have it stay that way. What you want is not unreasonable. But I feel like that bit of File Explorer just isn’t a concern for the Windows team these days.

What can we do about this? Obviously, you could open up the Feedback Hub, report it, and hope that it gets the attention of enough other people and then of Microsoft. It’s kind of a long shot, obviously. Or, I suppose you could find out whether there are third-party file management tools that do meet your need. This is an area where I again fall short, but I know they’re out there. Not sure if any would work the way you prefer, sorry.

Sorry. I totally get your complaint and feel this way about many things. I don’t think about this particular issue. But I do get it.

The Beatles

eeisner asks:

Paul or John? (I’m a Lennon fan myself, but my parents did spoil me and take me to a Paul McCartney concert in Vegas as my first show years ago)

(This is based on the conversation Leo and I had about the new remix of The Beatles album Revolver, which I wrote about the other day as well.)

When I grew up, I had two Beatles double albums, which I thought of as the red album and the blue album. The actual names of these albums were 1962- 1966 and 1967 – 1970, however, and that explains them. The red album covered the first half of their careers, and the blue covered the second.

I loved both of these albums to death. And I went back and forth on which I preferred, and this was something that varied over time. And that’s kind of where I am with Paul McCartney and John Lennon. I go back and forth. There are strong cases for each. On Revolver and elsewhere.

But it is inarguable that these two did their best work together. McCartney went on to have a more prolific career, for sure, before Lennon passed away. But then Lennon had the bigger and most impactful song of all, in Imagine. I don’t know. I love them both. And if you want a feel-good moment, be sure to catch the recent McCartney live rendition of I’ve Got a Feeling where he duets with Lennon courtesy of the Get Back documentary and the Peter Jackson technology that made it possible to isolate their vocals. It’s chilling in a good way. I tear up watching it.

Andor

eeisner also asks:

Andor – What’s your review?

I am embarrassed to say I’ve not watched it yet, but it’s next in my queue.

12th-Gen woes

MartinusV2 asks:

About your Intel 12th gen behavior, perhaps sone way to be sure it’s not the CPU, would be to try Edge on a full Linux OS. Or wait for the new Linux optimizations to be available on the Linux OSes. Then try Edge to see if the behavior still occurs. And maybe you did mention this before, did you try running the laptop at full power (Power management)? What does HP, Lenovo say about this strange problem?

I did try different power management settings, yes. I’ve not asked about this with a PC maker, but I will (off the record). I am curious.

I have a follow-up article that I had thought to publish sooner—it’s been a month now—but there’s so much to test, and there are some testing bits I left out of the last article. More recently, I’ve been using Firefox, for example, and it doesn’t appear to have the same issues. But each of the AMD laptops I’ve used also doesn’t have issues. I’ve been taking notes and collecting the data. But I still see major performance issues with all Chromium-based browsers on all docked 12th-Gen Intel Core-based PCs. They work fine undocked. AMD laptops work fine docked. Non-Chromium browsers (well, Firefox) seem to work better though the data on that one is still a bit light. I’m closing in on it.

And I find it very sad that Linux is getting better at optimizing CPUs and GPUs. It’s like if Microsoft lost their touch.

Yes. When Intel announced the 12th-Gen chipset, it was very explicit that Windows 11 had been optimized for the new hybrid architecture. I feel like what I’m seeing runs contrary to that. Or that they missed something.

I understand what you are feeling, trying to figure it out. I have a strange problem myself when I play a game at 4K, sometimes my PC reboot without warning. It may be the GPU transient spikes phenomena that may trigger the Over Current Protection of the PSU. I cannot find any tools or getting help to figure it. Is PC getting too complex to troubleshoot?

Yeah, that could be. Or that and a combination of our collective attention moving off the PC and to other platforms so that a problem like this maybe doesn’t get the attention it would have 20 years ago. I’m still very confused that no one else has written about these issues. Maybe there just aren’t a lot of people using docked laptops? Seems unlikely.