Signs of Sanity (Premium)

Recent builds of Windows 10 19H1 offer partial solutions to some long-time problems with this platform. To be clear, neither goes far enough. But they are both steps in the right direction and a sign, I think, that Microsoft is finally listening to feedback.

The first change was something I noticed the other night in Windows 10 Home on the then-most-recent Windows 10 Insider Preview build: It is now possible---or, will be possible when Windows 10 19H1 ships---on Windows 10 to pause Windows Updates for 1 to 7 days. I was so excited about this change that I pinged Mary Jo when I saw it, because we often complain on Windows Weekly that Windows 10 Home users are guinea pigs when it comes to Windows Updates. In Windows 10 to date, it was impossible for these users to effectively prevent updates from installing. In fact, we discussed this on the most recent episode of the show.

Not that it matters, I guess, but I don’t know when this change was implemented. When I wrote my rundown of everything that was right so far about Windows 10 19H1, I didn’t see this being called out in any of Microsoft’s build announcement blog posts beyond a general “simpler way to pause updates for seven days.” That is, I didn’t know this would be made available to Windows 10 Home as well as Pro. Here’s what it looks like.

So that’s good news. But Windows 10 users should all have the same capabilities for pausing and deferring updates, and I’d still like to see that happen. For now, I’ll chalk this one up as a minor victory.

This next one, while still only a partial fix, is also a minor victory. And like the issue above, it’s one I’ve personally championed to the point where I’ve gotten in arguments with misguided Microsoft employees who a) don’t understand the problem despite my explanations, and b) believe that any Accessibility addition to Windows is a good one, even if that addition is annoying or pointless for virtually everyone who uses the platform.

I am referring, of course, to Cortana’s obnoxious voice-over scatting during the first screen in the Out of Box Experience in Windows Setup, which is delivered an incredibly high volume and routinely scares the crap out of unsuspecting users.

“Based on feedback, if you clean install Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions of Windows, the Cortana voice-over will be disabled by default,” the Microsoft release notes explain. “Screen reader users can still choose to start Narrator at any time by pressing WIN + Ctrl + Enter.”

As Mehedi noted, the feedback that Microsoft is most likely responding to is from IT pros who need to provision multiple PCs at once in a room. You can only imagine what a cacophony it is when multiple PCs starting screaming and scatting at the same time.

But Microsoft’s inability to understand why this feature would be annoying to IT is only part of the problem, and this, again, speaks to a misguided desire to simply add any Accessibi...