Windows 10: Windows 10sion: What's Old Is New Again

I have seen comments on forums from people claiming they use it as part of their default setup.

 

when I used to run Linux, I used it heavily. It can be very beneficial and I'm glad it's finally made it to windows without using sub par 3rd party apps. However I'd still like to see the "spinning cube" animation. Eye candy is nice icing on the cake.


as for the whole re-sizing of apps etc - I've had that functionality all along with stardocks modern mix. Good to see it natively, but can't say it's a huge selling point for me. In fact a lot of these new "features" I already have thanks to 3rd party apps.

 

Gadgets are one of the most popular features with consumers in Windows 7, while Live Tiles were probably the most unpopular feature in Windows 8 causing it to be a flop.

So why are Live Tiles on the Start Menu and gadgets not included in Windows 10? Are they still not listening?

Until they do here's what I'm finding just dandy for 10: 8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8 / 8.1

Now, is there a way to remove the Playskool from Start Menu and what can it be replaced with?

 

You can "Unpin" the App tiles.
They can be replaced with program icons/tiles.

I haven't been able to figure out how to make the "Pinned" area thinner though.



Someone claimed (on another forum) that they had written a "delete all apps" script.

I can't remember which forum (maybe Softpedia?) and I didn't download it either. *Sad

 

I have a MS account but it's not my primary one which is Yahoo where I house my Mail, Contacts and Calendar. I'm migrating my Yahoo and Skype stuff over to these apps to give them a trial this time before uninstalling them. If there is really seamless integration then I'd like to give it a go to see how much more useful it can be.

Otherwise I'm probably going to uninstall most and plant Programs there. I've already gotten to like tools on Start right click so I guess that side of the menu is expendable if not expandable.

I've now been on 10 for two days. I think what's keeping me here is slightly faster performance on a Core i5 w/ SSD, unobjectionable GUI, beginning to take to the Mail and People apps with Yahoo pulled in.

It may be a matter of personal taste but I think Win7 Aero is downright elegant while the newer flat look is borderline ugly. I'd like to hear why they are not continuiing Aero since the argument that it strains resources has been disproved for years now. Why not the best of everything? The Playskool Primary color scheme can't be that popular. *Sleepy

 

Yes, I have unpinned all that I most likely will not use and replaced them with my programs. Presently this works for me - to be continued........



Rich

 

I would hardly say gadgets were "the most popular feature", in fact most people didn't even know they existed... since most people don't really know much about their OS.

However, Gadgets had a fundamental security flaw, and Microsoft completely deprecated them because of it. They could have fixed it, i'm sure... but Win32 is dead... It really is. Eventually, WinRT will replace Win32 as the primary part of the OS. Microsoft isn't going to be developing many new technologies that are based on Win32.

 

There you go, the power users shortcut menu, right clik the start button. There should be a away to customize this and add some utilities you use all the time to it......

 

Thanks, but please see post 79 and 80.

MS came up with a great idea to make a menu a screen in which one could post anything they want there. It's called a Start Screen. We don't need all these stinkin' menus popping out everywhere. They're confusing.

 

Now if you could get rid of all of silly boxes it might just work out *Wink
Otherwise it's just a sad eyesore.

 

From the Verge article shown on post #1 :

That sounds like a statement by someone who really doesn't understand operating systems. It confuses the superficial aspects of the user interface with the OS itself. And is it so wrong for a new OS to look much like Windows 7, one of Microsoft/s most successful operating systems?

Appearances can be deceiving. One could have looked at Windows 2000 after it's introduction and conclude it wasn't much different from Windows 98. And I am sure many people did just that. The desktop, start menu, and many other aspects of the user interface were very similar. Based on appearances alone it was a reasonable conclusion.

But they could not have been more wrong. Windows 2000 was a member of the NT family, designed for reliability, security, to meet the needs of business now and into the future. I had fewer issues with Windows 2000 in a year than with Windows 98 in a week. Don't get me wrong about Windows 98. The 9x family was designed as a bridge between the 16 bit systems of the past and the 32 bit systems of the future. It succeeded very well.

That didn't last long, but only because Windows 2000 was quickly overtaken by XP. Most people today would agree that it was one of Microsoft's most successful operating systems. But even after it's introduction there were "experts" who were very critical of it. It was said to be bloated and slow, had a color scheme that would never be accepted by business, and recommended that business stick with Windows 2000. Not a few predicted that it would be a failure.

5 years later these same "experts" were singing the praises of XP after they had found something new (Vista) to criticize. They will likely be doing the same with Windows 10 when some new operating system does not meet with their approval.

I have lived long enough to see many "expert" predictions go very wrong. They make interesting reading but shouldn't be taken too seriously.

 

I saw the post to the tutorial and thought maybe you wanted to see a screenshot from the 10 desktop. Yep that is why they call it a power users menu so you don't have to use it and for some it goes unused. I personally would rather have the little menu instead of a screen full of 16 color tiles. I know you think they are great but to me they are an insult to my intelligence and to use Greg's wording "Playskool". What on earth has been wrong with the design of the existing control panel that has been used since NT4???