Complexity, Thy Name is PC (Premium)

The post-PC era spawned by the iPhone in 2007 impacted Windows in ways both obvious and subtle, and in ways both good and bad. Many of these changes can be seen as a virtuous cycle of sorts, where innovations that started in mobile are brought to Windows PCs, making them simpler or more efficient. But some of the changes are disruptive, leading to unintended consequences.

File sharing is a key example. In the pre-mobile world, Windows users would create shares so they could transfer files between PCs on a network. This process was technical and difficult, and with the rise of home networks, Windows XP introduced a simple sharing method while keeping the legacy system and renaming it to advanced sharing. But simple sharing was also too difficult for most users, so Microsoft created a different system called HomeGroup in Windows 7 to further simplify the process.

By the time Windows 7 arrived in 2009, the shift to mobile was already underway, of course. Web-based email was common, and for basic sharing needs, most people simply emailed files to themselves. And with USB storage getting faster and cheaper, we used the time-worn sneakernet method for sharing bigger or more files, with a flash drive or external hard drive replacing the floppies of the past. Most simply ignored the network-based sharing features in Windows.

To address this changing world, Microsoft then introduced the Windows Runtime (WinRT) mobile environment in Windows 8. Among WinRT's many advances was a new Share contract system that allowed the operating system and its modern apps to support the sharing of files and other content. This was exposed as a Share charm and Share pane in Windows 8/RT.

And now everything is different, again. Well, almost everything.

If you're familiar with all or some of these features, you may know the charms disappeared in Windows 10 and that the Share system feature continued forward, though few apps support this functionality today. And that HomeGroup soldiered forward until 2018, when it was removed in Windows 10 version 1803. And that system Share has since expanded with new functionality (that few use), especially in Windows 11.

Tied to all this, Microsoft in Windows 7 introduced the ability to link what was then called your PassPort online account to your local account sign-in, a system that Apple still uses today in macOS, albeit with its own Apple online account. Then in Windows 8, Microsoft introduced the ability to sign in to Windows using this online account, since renamed to Microsoft account (MSA), instead of a local (or domain) account. There are real security and usability advantages to using an MSA sign-in, but Microsoft began cracking down on local account sign-ins starting in the first release of Windows 11 to force the issue. You can still use a local account, but Microsoft makes it difficult.

So here we are in 2024. Most of us sign in to Windows 10 or 11 using an MSA. There are new methods for PC-to-PC...