Windows 10: Introducing Windows Desktop Program for Desktop Application Analytics

Source: Introducing the Windows Desktop Program for Desktop Application Analytics - Windows Developer Blog

:)

 

Questions about Task View and the resources it takes up

With Windows 10 Microsoft introduced the Task View. It allows you to create a new desktop that you can switch back and forth from. (At least I think this was introduced with Windows 10.) I think this could be a huge productivity gain. The thing that concerns
me is how much resources does it take and how to handle/manage them.

For example, I can see me creating a desktop that has my regular Office applications, like Outlook up and running. Then I could have another desktop for programming, where I'd put Visual Studio.

What I don't understand about Windows 10 Task View and the ability to have multiple desktops, is how it handles resources. For example, suppose I set up those two desktops as I've described. If one has Outlook up and running and the second one has Visual
Studio in it running, does that mean whenever I log in my PC will have the two desktops going and will launch Outlook in the first and Visual Studio in the second? And what happens when I log off? Suppose I'm in the first desktop. I close Outlook so it can
release resources and then I log off (or reboot or shut down) my PC from there. What happens with the second desktop? Does Visual Studio just crash, because I didn't happen to go to it and close it, so it can release the resources it has opened? What's the
best practice, when using the multiple desktops that Windows 10 offers? Is it best to have shortcuts on the different desktops for the different applications you want to run in that desktop or on the taskbar for each desktop and don't launch the applications
automatically? For that matter, does Windows 10 allow for unique taskbars per desktop? Is it best to visit each desktop to properly shutdown each running application before logging off/rebooting/shutting down Windows 10? Knowing what's best to do is very important
to me. I'm a long time user of Windows and have seen where applications which weren't properly shut down corrupts the configuration for those applications. Sometimes people have to spend a lot of time getting it fixed again.

And how about sharing this from one desktop to another? For example I've got a desktop and a laptop; if they're both using Windows 10 does that mean these multiple desktops are shared between them?

I want to use this feature, but I want to know how to use it properly to avoid having to uninstall/reinstall applications, corrupt either configuration or other resources and so on.

 

What is Nokia Analytics Collector?

Hello there,

I'm a Nokia engineer, and I'm part of the team which has implemented the Nokia Analytics Collector. I'm not an official Nokia spokesperson, so what I write are not official Nokia statements. That being said, I have a good understanding of the software, what
it does, and what it doesn't do. I would like to volunteer my time to answer in detail a few of the questions that have been asked.

Question: How does the Nokia Analytics Collector work?

Answer:

The Nokia Analytics Collector is a "library" which can be utilised by an application. It is not an application, and doesn't do or send anything only by itself. Each application using the Nokia Analytics Collector has to define what application data it logs,
these are typically tags indicating "application's feature X was used", or hopefully less commonly, "application error Y occurred".

This application data is then enriched by the Nokia Analytics Collector with some standard data items. The standard data items would be, for example, the timestamp and phone model information, but not personal data such as the user's email address or phone
number. I want to specifically mention that no user-generated content is in these data items.

The data is sent via a https network connection, if a data connection is available (data network is connected). A data connection is not opened if it's not already available. Also, by default no data is sent if the data connection is over a roaming network,
however an application may override this. The frequency of sending is that typically one network request (data sending) is made by the Nokia Analytics Collector when an application is started and running, if a data connection is available.

Question: How much data does the Nokia Analytics Collector send?

Answer:

The data amount sent depends on each application using the Nokia Analytics Collector. Typically the amount of data traffic is small, a few kilobytes per one connection. Of this few kilobytes in the typical case, most of the data bytes are due to the https protocol,
while the actual data sent by Nokia Analytics Collector can then be less than 1 kilobyte in size.

Question: How do I turn the Nokia Analytics Collector off?

Answer:

Every application using the Nokia Analytics Collector has a setting inside the application for analytics or feedback collection which controls the Nokia Analytics Collector usage. The terms and conditions of the application will mention when the analytics collection
is used, and give instructions on how to turn it off. When the setting is off, it will disable data collection and data sending by the Nokia Analytics Collector for that application. There will be one more data connection made, which contains the information
that the user has chosen not to participate (opt-out), but it does not contain any data from the application.

To make this more user friendly, in the next release there will be a centralized setting in the phone's application settings for improvement program participation. This can be used to turn off the Nokia Analytics Collector for all applications. This next release
is already available with some applications in Betalabs.

Question: Can I uninstall it? What happens if I uninstall it?

Answer:

Since applications which use Nokia Analytics Collector expect it to be present, they may crash or not start if the Nokia Analytics Collector is uninstalled. This depends on the application's implementation technology, specifically Qt QML applications are not
affected in this way. It's recommended to not uninstall the Nokia Analytics Collector because of this possibility of applications crashing or not starting. It would not be readily apparent to the user that this problem with the application is not a bug in
the application or the phone malfunctioning.

The recommended way to disable Nokia Analytics Collector is to turn it off from the application's settings.





Best regards,

Mikko