Ask Paul: December 1 (Premium)

Happy Friday and, yes, it’s already December somehow. Here’s another great set of reader questions to kick off the weekend a bit early.

Also, apologies for whatever the heck happened with the “Bad request” error that some were seeing with the Ask Paul forum post this week: The part of the URL that was screwed up is not something I can configure, change, or edit later, so it wasn’t anything I did. And a quick bit of research into this issue suggests that it was a WordPress problem. I feel like this has happened before a few times, and I almost engaged our web guys to try and fix it, but we already had 11 questions in, so I was able to close it and just move on and hope it never happens again. I’ll keep an eye on the site today to make sure it’s not a recurring issue. –Paul

From phone to phone

leoaw asks:

I just made the upgrade from a Pixel 5a to 8 and it was not as seamless as I hoped … Both phones were on the same version of Android and the SIM card was still compatible. Even with that, some of the settings, particularly sound settings, did not transfer over. The odd one was the 8 switched my Messages notification to vibrate instead of the system sound the 5a had even though the sound I use is native to both Pixels. It took me a while to remember where I set the sound at since it’s something I only set every 3 years or so.

Given how often you replace phones, do you have a specific process or checklist for transferring your data and settings from one phone to the next?

I don’t, and I go about this in a very different way than most people—meaning I almost always do a clean install and then manually install apps, etc.—so I’m not super-experienced with the built-in upgrade capabilities in Android or iOS. I alluded to this in Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: Transition Blockers and Delays because in that case I had done an upgrade (from an iPhone 13 Pro) and it killed my ability to configure the eSIMs, forcing me to just reset it and do a clean install a few days later.  And then when I moved to the Pixel 8 Pro, I went back to my normal way of doing things.

But I do make this shift about twice each year, sometimes more, and it’s time-consuming but usually easy, and it’s gotten a bit easier recently. To me, a phone change is about installing and configuring the OS, installing and configuring the apps (and the home screen), and switching over the SIM/eSIM. And the only hard bits, to date, have been switching over my authenticator app accounts, which has always been a tedious, manual process, and, more recently, switching over my eSIM because I’m on T-Mobile and a temporary security measure that requires me to call them to do this rather than just do it myself has dragged on for over a year. I may literally leave this carrier because of this: I need to change eSIMs a lot and this should take minutes, not an hour. (Google Authenticator now supports account sync, which solves most of the authenticator issue; I still use Microsoft Authenticator for my Microsoft accounts.)

In my case, phone upgrades are also a rolling series of configuration changes because you realize you need other apps, or need to make whatever other configuration changes, as you use the device. And that it’s usually exactly where I want it within a week or so. But no, nothing formal or anything automated, sorry.

Nevernote

MichaelMDiv asks:

Paul, what are your thoughts on Evernote severely limiting their free accounts? On one hand, I would be willing to pay for the service. I don’t really use it for notetaking as much as storing articles of interest, and while $130 a year is steep, I am interested in supporting the product. On the other hand, I don’t want to dump money into a product/company that is circling the drain either, and this seems like a desperation move. I saw your bit on FRD and it seems like you are not a user of Evernote, but in your experience, can consumers save a product or company at this stage of the game?

I think we’re witnessing the Evernote death spiral, unfortunately. I’ve described this company/service as the note-taking equivalent of Skype, in that it should have gone on to great success during the pandemic but didn’t. And while I don’t have an inside view into what happened there and how or why it didn’t respond to each competitor and challenge, in turn, it just hasn’t. And today we have terrific free apps like Notion that do so much more and have reasonable upgrades if you need more. (I don’t, which is kind of interesting, as I use Notion for all kinds of things, every single day.)

But this wasn’t entirely a surprise: Evernote’s new corporate parent announced massive layoffs in July and its plans to relocate its operations to Europe. That was the beginning of the end.

And while part of me wants to be nostalgic about this, Evernote fell behind years ago. As noted, there are better solutions out there now, and there have been for a long time.

Windows DMA

SherlockHolmes asks:

Hi Paul, im curious. I did a clean install with the “new” EU Version of Windows 11 with the needed Update installed. During installation, I noticed no difference between the old and the new install. Also after I finished my install, I wasn’t able to uninstall Edge. Do you have any idea when this DMA changes take effect? Thanks.

No, but they’re still testing it now: You can only get this through the Windows Insider Program, and given how crazy this past year has been with Controlled Feature Releases (CFRs) and preview software shipped to stable, it’s likely that it’s just on some rolling release now. We cannot take these people at their word. I’ll try to look at this over the weekend. I’m behind on this.

The history of communication

christianwilson asks:

Have you read, or do you plan to read, The Gutenberg Parenthesis by Jeff Jarvis? The audiobook (narrated by Jeff) is out next week, I think. It is already giving me a lot to think about, not just the history behind us, but what is to come as we leave the parenthesis in the age of the internet. It isn’t a huge book but it’s deep in its subject matter and well researched, which isn’t surprising.

I have not, but thanks for the tip: I will check this out now.

Desktop vs. laptop

j5 asks:

Paul, we know laptops are conducive to your lifestyle. But when was the last desktop PC you used? Was it a nice gaming PC or mostly for writing and surfing the web? And at what point did you decide to just switch to laptops? We know you’ve been a big fan of the mini PCs. But I don’t consider those the same for the sake of this question. Just curious. And did you ever get into the RGB gaming PC thing? Have one of those GIANT Gateway towers? Can you elaborate on your big desktop PC experiences?

I’ve owned many, many desktop computers over the years. I built my first PC using an AMD 386SX chip and a mini-tower case. My first newly purchased PC was a Dell in a PC desktop (not tower) form factor. (No Gateways, though my writing partner bought one of those giant Gateway towers when I got that first Dell.) I’ve had dozens of desktop PCs since, mostly Dells and HPs, including some gaming PCs. Nothing with RGB lighting per se, but now that Windows 11 formally supports dynamic lighting, I’m going to look into that for the book.

Today, I move between a desktop PC in my office and whatever laptop(s) I’m currently using every day: I wrote about this in More Mobile: A Lot Less Mobile (Premium) this past April. But yeah, I do think a laptop makes more sense, generally, for most, but I’m obviously in a different space. And that the ability to work anywhere far outweighs the dwindling advantages of a desktop system for me and for most people. (That said, I have been doing some light gaming this year on my desktop PC, and not on Xbox. There’s not much to that per se, but it’s been a weird year in that regard.)

Smart charging

jt5 asks:

Question about power features on a pc.  I have both a PC and a Mac and noticed something interfering on charging.  The Mac notices when it is continually plugged in and keeps the battery charge at 80 percent.  It gives you the option to fully charge it at any time.  I have not seen a similar feature in a pc.  I know some manufacturers add functionality for power management – but none like this.  First of all – is it actually helpful to have this feature?  Second – any idea if it will come to Windows?  Thanks!

Few people know this, but Windows has had this feature—which it calls Smart charging—for years. And the reason they don’t know this is that it’s not exposed through any settings in Windows but rather has to be enabled and managed by your PC maker. So you only see it on some PCs.

When enabled, the PC will only charge to 80 percent by default because batteries last longer when they’re not fully charged (or undercharged, below 20 percent). You can tell it’s on because you’ll see a heart overlay on the power icon in the Taskbar. This is what it looks like:

More often than not, I find this feature to be a nuisance, and when I see that icon overlay I try to figure out where to disable it. That will depend on the PC maker. With HP PCs, for example, there’s an HP Power Manager app that has a Battery Charge Manager feature that’s configured to “Let HP manage my battery” by default, and part of that is enabling Smart charging. (There are additional related features that do things like learn your schedule and charge accordingly.) You can disable it if you want.

As to whether it’s helpful, I assume so but I also think that the UI should be standardized in Windows, and not in some third-party app that differs by PC maker. And that it will have the most benefit to those who are not traveling a lot or leaving their house otherwise. If you’re always on power, it’s almost certainly the best thing you can do for your battery.

The new Outlook

uSlackr asks:

See my thread on the new outlook client.  I have a custom outlook domain that it doesn’t appear to support and it doesn’t appear to support two accounts (one outlook.com and one ExchOnline).  But it keeps forcing itself on me.  Yesterday it made the change without asking.  How do I make it stop asking?

None of what you’re experiencing sounds right to me. By which I mean, it’s not supposed to work like that: It does support multiple accounts, including mixing Outlook.com and Microsoft 365/Entra ID-type accounts. And there’s a switch in Windows Mail and (old) Outlook for switching to the new Outlook that’s supposed to just respect your choice (at least for now: Mail will be removed from Windows next year and Microsoft will support old Outlook for at least a year past that if not more, that’s still up in the air).

How is the new Outlook forcing itself on you? Can’t you just uninstall it?

Gadgets for the holidays

helix2301 asks:

Paul any tech ideas for Xmas this year been a little lack luster for gadgets only thing I like are meta raybans.

Nothing super-expensive comes to mind, but we did buy a new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader for our daughter recently, and I successfully rescued several thousand photos from my brother-in-law’s defunct PC so I bought him a little USB flash drive and copied it all over for him. My wife is left-handed, which limits her mouse choices, but there’s a new Logitech left-handed ergonomic mouse, so I bought one for her stocking. I’m not sure if this qualifies as tech, but I also got her Loop Experience ear plugs for concerts, they’re supposed to be very good. And honestly, anything made by Anker. I just picked up this outlet extender for the kitchen so we can easily charge multiple devices from one outlet.

There seem to be a lot of $25-ish deals on Windows 11 Pro and/or Office 2019 codes that might be of interest to anyone building a PC.

Which Linux?

helix2301 asks:

Also Fedora 39 released while I know you’re not a Linux user, do you have a distro you would use? I like Fedora with cinnamon very close to Windows or Linux mint.

I’m behind on Linux right now but I’m hoping things will slow down over the holidays so I can pick that up again. I’m a fan of Zorin OS and Elementary, but I will look at Mint and Ubuntu, for sure. I’m not as up on Fedora anymore, but will look into that, too, thanks.

MAUI vs. the universe

MartinusV2 asks:

Hello Paul, I read an article on TheRegister mentioning some developers getting frustrated in how Microsoft handle fixes or the lack of communications for the .Net 8 MAUI. Went on the GitHub repo to look by myself and saw on all bugs report, a bot stating that the bug was added to the backlog and will be fixed when time and resources are available. I can see how developers get frustrated by lack of feedback from Microsoft. Or Microsoft relying too much on AI on this? Are we witnessing another UWP moment? Or another case of not finishing the job? Or that everyone are so much occupied on AI, that there are so few resources for other projects like MAUI?

So I hadn’t seen that article, and I’m a bit surprised to find out there’s this kind of disconnect between this team and its community. I watched the MAUI session from .NET Conf that day and have always enjoyed David Ortinau’s and Maddy Montaquila’s friendly and folksy style, and it appears like they’re quite current on what the needs are for MAUI to mature, etc. But … I’m also not a developer, and one of the 7 stages of grief things I needed to get through with MAUI was coming to understand that this framework is not about replacing UWP or any of the desktop frameworks that Microsoft has offered over the years, it’s a way to create modern mobile apps that run on multiple platforms. So the “finishing the job” bit here, to me, is more about how or whether MAUI can effectively replace Xamarin Forms.

Only consolation for multi-platform development for C# that there is UNO and Avalonia UI that seems more supported by the community than what Microsoft is doing for MAUI. Would love to have Richard opinion on this too 🙂

This does come up on Windows Weekly, but perhaps MAUI is a bit of a niche product because of its mobile focus, whereas UNO and Avalonia target a completely different niche (building true desktop apps, basically). I also think that MAUI needs to be viewed in context with Blazor, which is now a set of web app frameworks (sort of) and can integrate with MAUI in ways that I assume point to bringing the web more formally into the MAUI world as an app type.

In short, I’m not really sure what to say here. But perhaps MAUI’s less ambitious goals are what will save it from being another UWP. It’s not like the whole company is banking on this thing to succeed.  (Although there are some interesting Microsoft apps built on MAUI, including the Microsoft Azure app for iPhone and Microsoft 365 Admin for Android.

I’ll ask Richard about all this.

Arm is the future

ianceicys asks:

With the recent announcements at Ignite about Microsoft building custom ARM silicon (ex. AI workloads in Azure), the news that the exclusivity deal with Qualcomm for Windows on ARM reportedly set to end in 2024–allowing other companies (Nvidia) to create chips for Windows on ARM PCs, and the reality that Microsoft made a decade bet on Windows on ARM (launched back in 2016) with weighty engineering investments such as ARM64EC and x64 emulation, how might we begin thinking about the future of Windows in 2026 (3 years from now)? Microsoft clearly saw the future of Azure was ARM back in 2016 and just spent the last 5 years building custom silicon, what’s your view for the future of Windows, clearly, it’s ARM, so what does the next decade look like–surely it’s not a repeat of WinRT, right?

Speaking generally, Arm—and/or architectures like Arm that use hybrid core architectures for that “power per watt” advantage—is clearly the future. In the datacenter, this is a no-brainer as that combination of performance and efficiency at scale is what will drive prices down across the board (electricity/cooling, especially). The client is a little more complicated on the PC side because of the x86 legacy in Windows, it’s just hard to move past that. But you gotta respect what Microsoft has done to improve Windows on Arm internally, and if this past summer’s massive Xbox leak is any indication, the company clearly has big plans for Arm on the client as well: It could be building a new generation of Xbox console hardware on Arm as we speak. I bet it is.

Next year is going to be interesting. I believe that Windows on Arm will eventually succeed and that, in doing so, it will establish itself as a viable alternative to x64 systems based on Intel and AMD chipsets, first with specific PC types/markets but then more broadly. Whether it will win overall is sort of beside the point, since Intel and AMD have finally gotten the memo and are aggressively pushing to emulate the Arm architecture, and this competition will benefit all of us.

Well, maybe not all of us: Qualcomm might be the big casualty of the next few years. There is little love for this company, and if Nvidia or whatever other companies come to market with Arm-based designs for Windows that instantly outperform them, it’s over. They haven’t completely squandered the past several years—their NPU work is apparently quite good—but there’s a general feeling that performance should have improved more by now. And there’s always Apple, embarrassing the PC side of the market with its own Arm-based chips.

Project Sophia

ianceicys asks:

From Ignite’s AI announcements, Project Sophia looks super powerful for business. What are your thoughts as a small business owner about how you might be more curious about your business? If you haven’t watched the demo video it’s worth a watch.

What this looks like to me is a natural evolution of Microsoft Graph and now Copilot for Microsoft 365, where Microsoft has figured out how to seamlessly connect individuals in an organization with its internal data and other information so that they can get help, find specific resources, people, and help, and make sense of what has been, to date, siloed islands of information. It also has a Microsoft Loop element to it, from a user experience standpoint, and speaks, I think, to that Stevie Batiche appearance at Build 2023 that I can’t stop referencing, where he spoke of three “AI application structures.” The first was “beside applications,” which Microsoft now calls Copilots, and the second was “inside applications,” in which AI is embedded directly in an app (Cocreator in Paint, perhaps, with pro-level capabilities delivered in one click). But perhaps this is an example of the third type, “outside applications,” which involves exactly the kind of cross-solution agent-based orchestration capabilities that Sophia seems to promise. (This section of the talk starts at about 1:45:45 in the video linked above.)

This is exciting. But as with Copilot for Microsoft 365, this is a capability that will come to, and make sense to, the biggest organizations first, the companies with not just the most data per se, but also the most data and other information spread out across the most sources and locations. Short term, small businesses like mine, which are essentially the online version of a mom-and-pop retail store, will have more basic needs that will likely be met by more traditional software and services that will be improved with copilot-type solutions. And here’s an example of that that I bet most people have never heard of: Microsoft right now has a service called Clarity that examines how readers use your website and then provides things like heatmaps so you can see which parts of the site they’re clicking on, session recordings so you can see how they move from page to page, and a lot more. We’re not using that here today, but I’m seriously considering it. (It’s also free, which is nice.)

Duolingo

eeisner asks:

I know for a while you were a dedicated Duolingo user. Are you still? Is this how you became fluent in Spanish and have kept it up enough to immerse yourself in CDMX?

Yes, my wife and I both use Duolingo daily, enough so that we pay for the Super (Family) Duolingo subscription. It has improved a lot over the years and now has much more extensive lessons than when I first started using the service in 2014. It’s become a source of conversation for the two of us, as we’re always comparing our experiences and commenting on new words and phrases and the like. I can’t claim to be fluent in Spanish—I have what I think of as “menu Spanish”—but I’m improving. And my wife, who is also taking weekly Zoom-based in-person lessons with a native speaker, is further ahead than I am. But yes, it has absolutely helped. I do recommend it.