Microsoft, we need to talk. Recently, you’ve been doing something with your desktop software that makes me question whether you’re really listening to your customers.
By no means do I want to convey that I recommend for the mother to be inactive. First, let’s agree that users run Windows because they need some basic applications or features. (Otherwise they might move to another platform now.) This is recent Tweet Resonated with me: “The value that Windows has to consumers and businesses today is not an eye candy. It has been running apps for 30+ years, many of which should have been retired long ago If you start over, you’ll have to jet it down – and the platform will be worthless to most. “
Eye candy doesn’t really help; In fact, it could go a long way toward creating a satisfied Windows customer. But I’ve been seeing a lot of eye candy lately.
For example, in Windows 10 and 11 you recently introduced a new feature called Search Highlights. It is characterized by improving the search experience in Windows by surfacing events, files and resources that are important and meaningful to users. Search highlights work a little differently for regular and enterprise users. For the former, it will display meaningful information such as holidays, anniversaries, and other educational moments based on user area. On the other hand, enterprise users will see relevant files, contacts and other organizational information.
It is important that you realize that the concept of “regular user vs. enterprise user” does not make much sense in the work-room-world in which we now live. Offers users different opinions and actions depending on which Windows machine they are. Reuse is confusing. Stop thinking that a “normal” user should be treated differently than an “enterprise” user. We both want an operating system that only works flat-out. Just make sure my PC boots up when I want it to and is functional. When you dribble features like this, you think people have been infected with the virus and think about what to do. Those of us who run Windows machines have to answer questions about this “improvement” over and over again. (For the record, if you want to get rid of search highlights, here are the instructions.)
My point is that many times these upgrades are not what people want. They don’t want to search for “highlights”, they just want to search for common jobs.
The current Windows 11 experience is another work in progress with mixed results. As mentioned by Rafael Rivera, Windows 11 25120 is testing a new desktop search box on the desktop, where results are always displayed on Microsoft Edge – ignoring the configured default browser. (For Windows 11 insiders, if you want to see this feature, you need to download a tool that allows you to enable optional testing. As a Rivera note, you download the ViVe tool, open an elevated command prompt, and navigate to the folder where the extracted ViveTool. Type the following command at the command prompt: vivetool addconfig 37969115 2 And it will activate the search box.)
Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either. But it is interesting to see what you are spending your time on.
You should see some feedback for items that users really want: a good weather widget, for example. Seriously. Go to the Feedback app in Windows 10 and you’ll see a bug that has been upvoted more than 1,400 times. The problem here is that the weather app’s hourly section no longer shows hours, at least for some users.
Now, I can see the hours displayed Mine Weather app, but obviously others are seeing a problem. There is a problem with the “dribble changes” you are making. Suddenly something will change and it is not clear whether the problem is a bug, a temporary problem or something intentional. Often, when a change is announced, it can take weeks for someone to see it on their computer. And by then, many users will probably forget about it. Or they think their computer has been hacked or has a virus. When the search highlight came, some users thought something was wrong with their computer. And with the weather widget, is it a bug or a feature? We do not know.
Even for business users and IT help desk admins, this pattern leads to confusion. When someone calls the help desk with a problem, the administrator is not aware of it because the change has not occurred in their workstation. So they have to go to a remote workstation to understand what is happening. This is less than ideal.
And now you’re taking a “dribble” approach to the office, pushing everyone who chooses a half-yearly enterprise channel into a monthly channel – meaning changes and tweaks will appear more often. (This often happens in my office; one day I will see a certain behavior in the office and the next day, it will change. Then I have to dig into the office build number to determine what happened and why.)
Microsoft, you may need to dribble changes so that you can measure usage and resources. But for those of us who use computers, it is often annoying and confusing and forces us to investigate why suddenly something different happens. When you make changes to our system, you can clean and fix it.
Please?
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