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How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

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Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#51

Post by ThatMedicIsASpy »

tcfhgj wrote: post #34
muststopmyths wrote: post #17

As a 25+ year user of windows none of this stuff bothers me. What ticks me off is just the abysmal quality of windows 11 compared to the past. It’s like no one working on it has any pride in their job Example: - hate the new notification area. The action center was so much better - dumb stuff like a window update notification that shows a c# class name instead of windows update - clicking said notification does not b…

- calendar of task bar became useless - swipe from the left is unchangeably wasted for trash news - touch interaction (especially in Edge) is worse than Windows 8: I am dependant on a virtual touch pad to do certain stuff (e.g. selecting text and copying it via context menu) - start menu customization possibilities are ridiculously low

Swipe from left can't be disabled? I haven't found it anywhere. Awful on a tablet (surface go 3) with local account - W10 gives me Win+Tab overview.

Start menu suggestions cannot be removed. The start menu settings allows you to make it use less space. Disabling it in group policies reserves the space for a message that it has been disabled.

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#52

Post by mihaaly »

piyush_soni wrote: post #39
dochtman wrote: post #4

I would be curious for a similar dissection of modern macOS. My intuitive sense is that it is a little better though there are probably still at least 5 layers of stuff. So to some extent, does doing this better at the scale of a modern user-facing OS provide enough return on investment?

Unpopular opinion: Windows UI has a lot of problems, but it's still much more intuitive and stupid-proof than macOS. Having worked with both, macOS is just inconsistent to the core (and Finder is an application one would have to pay a team of developers with the core instruction of 'make it a non-intuitive and unusable mess'). Also, I still use apps last maintained in 2010 on the latest Windows version, while apps wr…

macOS got worse during the past decades but still better for everyday use than Windows (which brought in macOS ideas for its advantage meanwhile closing the gap), still much more consistent than Windows despite the changes (to the worst mostly). Much less in the way while doing your job than Windows. Of course it has different philosophy on how to carry out things and it does not fit everyone, for them Windows may be better choice of course.

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#53

Post by causality0 »

muststopmyths wrote: post #17

As a 25+ year user of windows none of this stuff bothers me. What ticks me off is just the abysmal quality of windows 11 compared to the past. It’s like no one working on it has any pride in their job Example: - hate the new notification area. The action center was so much better - dumb stuff like a window update notification that shows a c# class name instead of windows update - clicking said notification does not b…

I still don't understand what kind of masochist wants all their windows to be grouped together with no labels so you have no idea what you were working on until you open it again and have to click multiple times. Thirty years of windows and there's still no setting I can tick to make the taskbar adjust automatically to the number of things I have open? If I have nothing open, hide it. If I have twenty different windows open, give me a taskbar three rows high. Is that so damn hard?

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#54

Post by jabbany »

mihaaly wrote: post #3

I am still looking forward for the option to ungroup task bar buttons, preferably with titles. Again! Something that was there before, worked, and was useful. But some designer decided we don't need that, to the bin with it!

This! So much this!

What's the point of having a taskbar that only groups by app...This has been one of the major pain points of me using Mac OS and it is immensely sad that Windows 11 has also taken this approach. At least some Linux DEs still let me keep my app windows ungrouped...

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#55

Post by switch007 »

daemin wrote: post #26
vasqw wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costs money.

So does Windows itself. If you're afraid to or don't want to pay for software then you should probably use some variant of GNU/Linux instead.

Windows is free (as in beer), if you can live with the minor nags, minor lack of customisation and watermarking.

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#56

Post by nextlevelwizard »

alganet wrote: post #45
muststopmyths wrote: post #17

As a 25+ year user of windows none of this stuff bothers me. What ticks me off is just the abysmal quality of windows 11 compared to the past. It’s like no one working on it has any pride in their job Example: - hate the new notification area. The action center was so much better - dumb stuff like a window update notification that shows a c# class name instead of windows update - clicking said notification does not b…

The installation got into my nerves. Past versions wouldn't force having network or a Microsoft account. You could always unplug your cable and setup a local account. Now, that requires opening a console and typing OOBE commands, which took me a while to figure out. The secure boot requirements were also a pain. My hardware is compatible and my first install got TPM enabled, but memory protection and core isolation w…

I'm pretty sure you don't even have to unplug network to install Win10 without Microsoft account - just during the installation you don't create one (or login to existing one)

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#57

Post by KronisLV »

mihaaly wrote: post #28
muststopmyths wrote: post #17

As a 25+ year user of windows none of this stuff bothers me. What ticks me off is just the abysmal quality of windows 11 compared to the past. It’s like no one working on it has any pride in their job Example: - hate the new notification area. The action center was so much better - dumb stuff like a window update notification that shows a c# class name instead of windows update - clicking said notification does not b…

I am getting very repetitive here but my first addition to your good list is the taskbar. (and not the center alignment as default - mimicking macOS -, not at all, that's marginal and still can be reverted).

As far as I know, you can't have a vertical taskbar in Windows 11 either, which is unfortunate for those with widescreen monitors that like vertical screen space to be used efficiently (e.g. seeing more lines of code, but being able to switch windows easily as well).

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#58

Post by alganet »

mihaaly wrote: post #46
alganet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're willing to tweak your installation, you can revert to the Windows 10 taskbar using the free third-party ExplorerPatcher utility. It has an option to not combine taskbar items and a lot of other goodies.

Wasn't this corrupted by one of the Windows updates? Or was that the other product? Got the whole UI frozen or such. I read about third party apps that hack back features this way or the other but I am still hoping a bit that MS will get back their senses and not some - potentially fragile to underlying OS structure change - third party app is required to make things functional again. But I am around the breaking poi…

It never broke for me. I've been using since October. There has been a large update since, but the app repatched explorer flawlessly. I also use a lot of other funky stuff (system icon changers, theme patchers, etc gotta get that rice). I also remove a lot of stuff using SophiaApp.

There has been some usability turndowns for me in the past years, but two things keep me hooked: snap windows (built in) and powertoys (ms-made but requires an install). I can't imagine myself without these two anymore.

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#59

Post by olivermuty »

mihaaly wrote: post #3

I am still looking forward for the option to ungroup task bar buttons, preferably with titles. Again! Something that was there before, worked, and was useful. But some designer decided we don't need that, to the bin with it!

Lmao, I am not able to group it!

I have two browser profiles and no matter what I do they come up as separate tasks on the task bar.. I am not able to group them up.

I would also like to alt tab to them as a whole, then tab between the group windows instead.

Luckily win11 is just a game launcher for me these days, so I only manage to get so and so aggravated :D

Re: How many layers of UI inconsistencies are in Windows 11?

#60

Post by oblak »

Dalewyn wrote: post #43
oblak wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still baffled by the whole Windows 8 drama. All they did was they replaced a menu with another one. Everything else was the same or better. Supposed power users freaking out about something completely inconsequential. What the hell is wrong with people

Windows 8 with Metro and Start Screen was practically unusable, with the desktop in a /desktop computer/ relegated to third-rate citizen status. Any other Windows UI even as far back as Windows 1 is better than the piece of hot, useless garbage that was Windows 8.

This is exactly the mindless vitriol I had in mind.

Flow A: hit a button, a menu with text input and pictures shows up

Flow B: hit a button, a full screen with text input and pictures shows up

A is perfect, and B is "practically unusable".

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