Fed up with intrusive Live Tiles and Microsoft’s obsession with its non-existent tablet platform? Darien Graham-Smith reveals how Windows 10 will make things right.
On paper, Windows 8 wasn’t a bad idea. The introduction of a new touch-friendly app framework, designed for both ARM-based tablet hardware and more conventional Intel devices, was bold and clever: it addressed the new tablet market head-on without sacrificing the continuity that had always been Windows’ trump card.
Unfortunately, the execution was badly fumbled. The new interface discouraged newcomers with its hidden gestures - and Microsoft failed to support the nascent platform with a competitive software library. Officially, the Windows Store launched with just over 9,000 apps, but without key names such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Windows RT couldn’t hope to challenge the iPad.
Microsoft also managed to alienate its desktop users by requiring them to use the full-screen, touch-first interface in place of the familiar Start menu. Presumably, it hoped this would encourage them to explore the tablet side of things - but many found the new interface inappropriate for their hardware, and resented having it forced upon them. Businesses in particular opted to stay away, rather than face the training and support costs of adapting to the new interface. Not only had Microsoft failed to establish its new tablet market, it had also thrown away goodwill and custom from its existing desktop business.
Since the initial release of Windows 8, things have got a little better, but neither Windows 8.1 nor the confusingly named 8.i Update managed to salvage Windows 8’s reputation - chiefly because Microsoft still couldn’t let go of the highly symbolic Start screen. At the start of the year, Windows 8’s share of the desktop OS market had stalled at around 12%. According to market-research firm Net Applications, that share actually fell slightly in mid-2014, as businesses migrating away from Windows XP still chose to invest in Windows 7 rather than deal with Windows 8. A more substantial conciliation was needed.
That arrived at last on 30 September, when Microsoft’s Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore held a low-key presentation in a small room in San Francisco. Just a few dozen reporters were invited, and although a video was later made available, the event itself wasn’t televised or streamed. Microsoft was in humble mode; and while it had been widely anticipated that the Start menu would be brought back into Windows for non-touch hardware (a tantalising screenshot of the restored interface had been shown in April at Microsoft’s annual Build conference), few were prepared for the scale of the climbdown that was about to be unveiled.
The first surprise was the name. Before the event, speculation had focused on whether Microsoft would make a break with the tainted Windows 8 brand and move up to Windows 9. The idea that it might skip ahead to version 10 hadn’t been anticipated by anyone - except, as pundits with long memories pointed out, the US technology website infoworld.com, which had suggested the move in a joke news story published for April fool’s Day 2013.
Officially, the version jump reflects how much Windows is changing in the new release: “Windows 10 is not going be an incremental step from Windows 8.1,” explained Microsoft marketing VP Tony Prophet, speaking after the announcement. “Windows 10 is going to be a material step.” Online commentators quickly pointed out a second possible reason: an operating system named “Windows 9” might be misidentified by poorly written programs as Windows 95 or 98, triggering the wrong behaviour.
A new Start
As you’d expect, Windows 10 introduces several new end-user features. And it’s expected that more goodies will be unveiled between now and the final release: the purpose of September’s presentation, Belfiore announced, was to focus on the “core experience”. “We’re not talking about cool new consumer features,” he teased. “That comes later.”
Yet, significantly, Microsoft was less coy about business features. Early on, Myerson declared that “one of the most important customers for Windows is the enterprise. Windows 10 will be familiar for companies,” he pledged. “They’ll find all the tools they’re used to finding, [andl Windows 10 will be compatible with all the traditional management systems used today.”
As he spoke, a new page was being added to the Microsoft website, detailing business-friendly features planned for Windows lo, including a container-based encryption scheme, an in-place rollout and management model, and improved control over Windows Update. Clearly, Microsoft had realised it needed to win back the favour of its disgruntled business market. “Windows ю is going to be our greatest enterprise platform ever,” Myerson said.
One particular change of emphasis will surely be welcomed by conventional desktop users: when Windows ю detects it’s installed on non-touch hardware, it automatically chooses the Start menu interface instead of the Start screen, and associates known file types with desktop apps, ratherthan the full-screen view used by Windows 8. Belfiore made clear that Microsoft had repented of its previous error in pushing too much of the tablet side into desktop users’ faces. “We’re looking to find the balance,” he said, “so that Windows 7 users get a familiar experience on the devices they already have.”
“We want Windows 7 users to have the sentiment that yesterday they were driving a first-generation Prius, and now with Windows 10 it’s like a Tesla,” he went on. “They don’t have to learn any new way to drive.” Point taken.
Working across platforms
While focusing on the desktop, Microsoft hasn’t abandoned the tablet-style Interface. However, It hopes to offer a more flexible experience than the stark binary of Windows 8. “We’re trying to be thoughtful about a UI that goes across all devices,” declared Belfiore. He demonstrated a work-in-progress interface - part of what Microsoft is calling Continuum, which selects the right interface for each device - that combines elements of both interfaces into a hybrid Start screen, showing both Live Tiles and a taskbar, to make better sense on a touchscreen laptop.
Windows 10 also allows apps to launch in regular desktop windows rather than insisting on full-screen or split-screen mode. This makes it vastly more convenient for mouse-based users to try out games and tools from the Store. Similarly, the Live Tiles previously located on the Start screen have been moved into the new Start menu, where they can be glanced at without interfering with the main desktop view. There’s no longer anything to discourage desktop users from dipping into the Store - hopefully creating a virtuous circle that will at last encourage more developers to target the platform.
Perhaps the real significance of Windows 10, however, isn’t to do with specific features, but with its overall reach. Introducing the new OS, Myerson presented a concept slide showing Windows 10 running on a wide range of devices, from smartphones to tablets, laptops, desktops, games consoles and smart televisions. “We’re delivering one application platform,” he declared. “One store, one way for applications to be discovered, purchased, and updated across all of these devices.” In other words, the same Modem apps and services that run on the Windows 10 desktop today will also run natively on the next generation of Windows Phone handsets. We may even see a new generation of Windows RT-type tablet hardware, although it remains to be seen whether it will be possible to upgrade existing RT devices.
While Microsoft was previously accused of focusing too much on the consumer market in the development of Windows 8, the company is also now starting to show how tablet-style apps can work for businesses - and it’s a persuasive narrative. The Modern framework supports a quick, visual development model; it’s heavily sandboxed; it is (at last) amenable to both touchscreen and desktop environments; and it’s highly host-agnostic. This means no repeat of the Windows XP fiasco, where companies clung to the ageing OS because their in-house applications and processes couldn’t be easily moved to a more modern platform. To support it all, companies will even be able to curate their own in-house app stores, containing their choice of bespoke and third-party apps.
Looking inside
Before the final release of Windows 8, Microsoft distributed a series of preview builds, but seemed to turn a deaf car to critical feedback. This time around, the company really wants us to know it’s listening - and to make sure everyone gets a say, it’s created the new Windows Insider Programme, giving regular users a chance to test and comment on a “Technical Preview" build that, in the past, would likely have been restricted to developers.
If you’re interested in trying the Technical Preview, ail the usual caveats apply about not using pre-rclcase software on critical systems. Also note that the current Insider build is programmed to slop working on 15 April 2015 - which may be the intended release date of the full OS, although so far all Microsoft has said is that it will arrive after next year’s Build conference (29 April to 1 May 2015).
In use, though, you’ll find the build is pretty robust. That’s Just as well as, according to Microsoft’s own figures, in the first two weeks of running the Windows Insider Programme, around 640,000 people had started using the technical preview as their daily OS.
Using the Technical Preview is just like using a regular edition ofWindows, except for the presence of occasional pop-ups, asking questions such as: “How easy is it to switch between apps using the multitasking button?” You’re invited to rate how accessible you found each feature, on a scale of 1-5, and to provide any comments. If you have anything else to share, you can launch the dedicated Windows Feedback app, select the appropriate area of the OS (such as “Hardware and Devices” or “Personalisation and ease of access”) and leave a remark. Cleverly, you can also see other people’s comments and click to add your voice, causing the most popular requests and comments to bubble to the top.
Besides giving manual feedback, users also agree to have their usage remotely monitored by Microsoft, so the OS can be tuned to better suit the ways people really use it. It’s been suggested that during the test period Microsoft might even send different updates to different users, so It can monitor how different approaches affect user satisfaction and efficiency. After the stubbornness of the Windows 8 design process, it’s a refreshing approach.
The verdict
In the developing story of Windows 10, it’s tempting to see parallels with the transition from Vista to Windows 7 - and the next Windows certainly has the potential to be as popular as that much-loved desktop OS. But to look backwards is to sell Windows 10 short, because this vision goes further than merely replicating past glories. Where Windows 7 sought principally to overhaul the desktop, the new release represents a credible second go at establishing a new conception of what Windows means and where it runs - without leaving behind the vast ranks of desktop users.
It’s too early to declare success, of course. We’ll have to wait to find out what Microsoft does with all the feedback it’s collecting, whether desktop users are willing to come back into the fold, and whether the Windows Store can gain the momentum it needs to compete with its much better established smartphone and tablet rivals.
What we can say is that Windows 10 represents a turnaround. In the past three years Microsoft seemed to have set itself stubbornly on a course to irrelevance. To our great relief, Windows 10 puls Microsoft back on track. It finally extends the olive branch to desktop users, while simultaneously opening up the tablet platform to them. It gives businesses solid reasons to upgrade their desktop systems -and, brilliantly, gives them a reason to buy into the Modern framework too. It even promises a seamless multi-device experience, allowing your apps and services to follow you from your phone to your work PC and up into the cloud - a degree of loyalty-rewarding integration that Android and Apple can’t match. If early rumours ofWindows 10 being a free upgrade for users ofWindows 8 turn out to be true, we’ll have to say that Microsoft really has put almost everything right.
Almost everything? Well, the one thing Microsoft hasn’t done is apologise for putting its customers through three years of frustration. But we’re not offended: every time you open the Start menu, you’ll be looking at a functional expression of penitence that’s more meaningful than any corporate statement. And the rewards of Microsoft’s soul-searching are self-evident: Windows 10 promises to be the start of a great new chapter in computing for home users, business, mobile users and Microsoft itself. It is,if you’ll pardon the expression, a Win-Win.