Why Mark Wilson is wrong about Windows 10

My colleague, Mark Wilson, just posted a list of the seven things he "still hates about Windows 10". And while I feel his pain -- I have my own pet peeves with Microsoft’s latest and greatest -- I found many of his complaints are misguided and/or shortsighted.

In a lot of cases he's just nitpicking and I think he’s missing the bigger picture.

Store Apps -- On the subject of Windows Store apps, there’s no question that Microsoft has let through some real clunkers. Many of these were created by developers seeking to obtain one or more freebies from Microsoft as part of some promotion or contest (hence the low quality and rushed feel). Others simply weren’t well thought out from the get-go. But amidst the detritus there exist some genuinely useful programs that have made my own life under Windows 8.x through 10 much more pleasant.

One example is Readiy, a truly delightful RSS reader app and my go-to tool for keeping current and generally gleaning new story ideas. Another essential part of my toolbox is Torrex Pro, a powerful, full-featured BitTorrent client that puts many desktop stalwarts to shame. And, of course, you can’t ignore Microsoft’s own Mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word (I’m writing this from the latter). These three programs showcase the power of Microsoft’s Universal Apps model. They’ll even run on Windows 10 Mobile (if it’s ever released).

Action Center -- Mark seems particularly annoyed by this new UI mechanism, and I agree that notifications could be handled better through grouping and similar aggregation. But the Action Center is still leaps and bounds ahead of what we had in any previous version of Windows, and the lack of such a notification area has been a blight on Windows in the touch-first space.

Speaking of touch-first, those Quick Access buttons may seem large to a mouse-and-keyboard user, but they’re the perfect size for Tablet Mode. I use them all the time on my Surface 3, and like the Action Center itself, they’re leaps and bounds ahead of what they’re replacing (just try turning on/off Bluetooth in Windows 8.1).

Live Tiles -- Another area Mark takes issue with is the addition of Live Tiles to the Start Menu. While I can understand his annoyance at the wasted screen real-estate caused by the Tiles in their default "Medium" or "Large" view, I hope he realizes that he can also set them to "Small" mode, at which point they become no larger than any Taskbar icon. In fact, being able to mix-and-match tile sizes allows me to create larger targets for frequently used apps while leaving less used Tiles clustered together in the smaller format.

As for the "live" aspect of the Tiles, I find myself turning most of them "off" since the images and other animations can make them difficult to identify at first glance (e.g. Store, News, Money). But there are some Tiles that do convey useful information -- the aforementioned Torrex Pro, for example -- and it’s nice to have that option.

File Explorer -- Once again, I feel Mark’s pain regarding the lack of tabbed File Explorer windows. It’s especially annoying when you’re using File Explorer in Tablet Mode and you have to switch between multiple, full-screen instances to get anything done (or dock them side-by-side in split screen view). However, I also know how sensitive Microsoft is to messing around with a core part of the Windows UI. More than once I’ve tried to achieve this functionality using third party tools, and in each case it ended badly as File Explorer would become increasingly unstable over time.

If it were truly that easy to simply "add tabs" to File Explorer -- and to do so without breaking myriad legacy shell extensions -- I’m betting Microsoft would have done so by now. But if Mark is really that unhappy with File Explorer in Windows 10, he can always look to the Store. There are some great third party Modern App replacements available (Filebrick was once a personal favorite, but there are many others).

Confused Interface -- Now this is just nitpicking. A menu is a menu is a menu. Sure, Microsoft could have done a better job of polishing these things before releasing Windows 10. But then again, it’s not like there are any functional issues with the menus as currently constituted. They may not be pretty, but they work. And as Mark himself noted, Microsoft is actively testing new Windows builds that feature a more consistent context menu UI.

Microsoft Edge -- No question, Edge is a mess. It’s buggy, quirky and generally unfinished. But it’s also faster and more compatible than Internet Explorer ever was, and it will only get better over time. Meanwhile, if Mark really can’t stand Edge, just use Internet Explorer. Or better still, do what almost everyone else has done and download Google Chrome.

I, for one, find I’m using Edge more and more. It’s lighter than Chrome and works better than Google’s browser when I’m in Tablet Mode (though nothing can touch the usability of Windows 8.1’s Modern IE in this regard). And like Action Center, the context menus and Store Apps, it’s only going to get better with time.

So lighten up, Mark. Windows 10 may not be perfect, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

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