The most annoying thing about Windows 10 is how it makes clear improvements in some areas, but then decides to be utterly brain dead in other areas. The task manager is hugely improved. The file explorer is better. The copy/move file dialog is far more useful. But then they abandon the Control Panel and give us this flat UI abomination that doesn’t even support one of the original ideas that made Windows 95 such a hit: Multitasking. You literally can’t have multiple copies of Settings open to modify different parts of the settings at the same time. I can’t quickly open a new window to check something while keeping my focus on one main task ... as in, multitask. I’m forced to break my flow and traverse back/forward through a bunch of nested settings instead of letting me alt-tab between what I’m actually interested in. It’s terrible and infuriating and I have no idea how this got released in this state.
And that’s before even considering how incredibly wasteful it is with space. I hate myself and wonder where my life went wrong every time I have to open a Settings window on a device that doesn’t have full HD or higher, because it usually results in copious amounts of scrolling for information that could be easily displayed in 1/4th of the space. Hell, and you can forget about using it non-maximized, because then the “advanced” links on the right side disappear to wherever, because fuck showing you what you need at a glance.
And they keep changing how you reach the actually sane, usable and functional Control Panel windows (like the sound devices settings) and alternate between making it easier and ridiculously obtuse. It makes me want to bash my head against things really, really hard.
It's very frustrating when the hide elements that are very useful. They're trying to guide people away from what works toward things that don't work, in their quest to make PCs work like cell phones.
Sort of related: MS has done something that stopped my DVD function from working. My drive plays CDs, but it won't recognize DVDs. I uninstalled the latest update, but that hasn't fixed it. I've searched and found this problem has existed and been reported for years now, as though it's a continual effort to prevent DVDs from working on all Windows machines over time. There are a multitude of 'fixes' that have worked for some and not for others, because there are many different ways to create the same problem. It strikes me as Microsoft's attempt to steer people away from "legacy" hardware (my new laptop wasn't even offered an option for a DVD drive) and toward the cloud. Well, I paid a lot of money for my DVDs and I don't have the money lying around to purchase the entertainment that I already purchased just because Microsoft has seen fit to break a product that I paid for. I've already wasted hours of time trying to fix it and I'm resentful of these people who have no respect for their customers.
I share so your frustration with Windows 10. It’s reaching iOS levels of lack of discoverability of features.
I wrote to tell you that Control Panel itself still exists. You can get to it from using the hidden search in Start Menu. Open Start and begin typing Control Panel and it will show up eventually. Or you can right-click on Start button and select it. Or even type “control panel” in command prompt or powershell, without quotes. Apparently it shows up in File Explorer under Desktop as well, which makes the least sense of all to my intuition. Hope that helps.
Yes, I know it still exists. But they keep making you jump through hoops. There were major versions of W10 where the start menu search didn't list the Control Panel if you searched for it. Right-clicking the sound icon in the tray now directs you to the new Metro Settings, and they also keep changing how to reach the traditional Sound Control Panel.
Apparently, searching for sound now lists the old panel too, so at least there's that.
Since Win8, I've found that right-clicking the Start button gives you an actual menu of useful things instead of the ad-riddled abomination that they've decided to put in its place.
I'm mostly pushing back against the idea of some lost golden age of UI design. The file explorer used in this example is almost the same a quarter of a century later. And some of its deficiencies have lasted a long time - it took a couple of decades for explorer to learn to show a unified list of files and directories sorted by modification time. And it still doesn't have an inlined tree view making the basic task of moving files between adjacent directories clunky.
At the same time, for all of its fashions and foibles, the one-app-a-time, direct-manipulating touchscreen UI has made computers more accessible to all sorts of people to whom 'the desktop metaphor' was and remains confusing and unintuitive.
Young children, the elderly, the desktop-bewildered still use iPads and touchscreen phones more readily than they ever used desktop UIs. I think as experienced computer-users we easily miss that this has been a genuine revolution in UI reach.
I don't think we miss that. We're just paying attention to what that revolution cost us.
Part of the problem is the "winner takes all" dynamic of the computing sector. I'd be fine with simplified interface for children and elderly existing side by side with a properly deep interface for adults in full capacity. But currently, the market can only sustain one of these - and it chooses the one that can support more users, despite the total loss of utility this causes.
Porting an example I use in topics about accessibility: consider Braille. Everyone can learn to read Braille, but blind people can't learn to read regular, printed characters. But we don't try to replace print with Braille, because it would be ridiculously debilitating to the vast majority of the planet's population. We instead opt to run two interfaces side by side - we print both regular and Braille books.
I often hear this argument. It could be used to argue that comics are better than novels and overalls are better than regular clothes. Three year olds are three year olds - what is best for them is not necessarily best for adults.
Not necessarily, if it debilitates the majority of the user population (adults) - if it helps some people get more done, while making much more people get much less done.
Also, in some cases, we can make investments to get productive on the new UX.
I did that with Android. Have to be honest. I can fly on a reasonable Android phone. Apple, not so much. Didn't want to make two investments.
Content create, communications, programming, social media, all aren't a burden today. Function set is limited, but it's not as big of a deal as it was prior to really working the UX, just like many of us did with the other paradigms. And I often just do not need a deeper set of features / flows too.
Not saying it's better. It's not in my view. But, I am also saying, users can do better with it than they may think.
No, it's still a net gain. What you are talking about is a priority problem.
That problem is applying the right UX to more people more of the time. That costs more than just doing one size fits all, and we should be paying those costs more, in my view.
And that’s before even considering how incredibly wasteful it is with space. I hate myself and wonder where my life went wrong every time I have to open a Settings window on a device that doesn’t have full HD or higher, because it usually results in copious amounts of scrolling for information that could be easily displayed in 1/4th of the space. Hell, and you can forget about using it non-maximized, because then the “advanced” links on the right side disappear to wherever, because fuck showing you what you need at a glance.
And they keep changing how you reach the actually sane, usable and functional Control Panel windows (like the sound devices settings) and alternate between making it easier and ridiculously obtuse. It makes me want to bash my head against things really, really hard.