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Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

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Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#111

Post by logifail »

notarget137 wrote: post #62
simula67 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can solve this problem with branding. Have a "Windows OS Bleeding Edge" brand that changes regularly. Have "Windows OS LTS" brand that changes less often.

They have tried exactly that with Windows 10 LTSC. And killed it off quite qucikly.

> [..] Windows 10 LTSC. And killed it off quite qucikly

They really didn't.

Full disclosure: I installed Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 on a brand new laptop earlier today :)

For this specific device, my wish is a Windows-compatible OS that's going to shut up and stay out of the way, and it seems the LTSC variant of Win10 is the closest Microsoft are willing to provide at the moment.

That LTSC doesn't come with Edge, Cortana or the Windows Store, well that's just the icing on the cake.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#112

Post by pohuing »

WhereIsTheTruth wrote: post #83

Microsoft is not what it used to be.. now unbloat all the stuff and remove useless services.. they are about to miss on the Handheld console revolution.. crazy when you think about it, they own windows yet they let it rot, just open source it at this point

With a lot of luck we might get a tablet mode for Windows. They did present something in that direction in an internal hackathon https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/handheld-mode-for-wi...

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#113

Post by anonymouskimmer »

poisonborz wrote: post #12
Tempest1981 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious who makes the decisions... who has final say -- designers or engineering or PMs or execs? (So I'll know who to blame :-)

This sheds some light: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30019307

> I spent far too many years of my career sitting in conference rooms explaining to the newest designer (because they seem to rotate every 6-18 months) with a shiny Macbook

The more you make it like a Mac, the less barrier there is for a user to jump ship to a Mac. I wonder if any of the increase in Apple marketshare is due to Windows becoming more Mac-like.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#114

Post by Night_Thastus »

What is meant by "labels"?

What I really want is the ability to categorize and separate out certain icons.

Like creating little groups. One for browsers, one for productivity, one for games, one for utilities, etc. That would be so amazing.

You can hack a way of doing it by creating an empty executable with an icon that looks like a divider, but that's just painful to do.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#115

Post by justsomehnguy »

gregmac wrote: post #110
Eldandan wrote: post #4

Never Combine and Only Combine when Full. Two missing features that were literally keeping me from upgrading to 11.

A huge portion of "applications" I use on my computer happen to run in a web browser. And I mean this as a distinct activity from "browsing the web" (which might be something like HN or researching a topic or shopping). All the browsers have the ability to open both windows and tabs. If I wanted stuff grouped in one taskbar item, I'd open a tab. If I've specifically opened a new window, I am specifically saying I don…

> curious: if "Always combine" wasn't actually the default, how many users would specifically turn it on? 50%? 5%? A fraction of 1%?

With a vertical Taskbar this is the only option, in my case.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#116

Post by 908B64B197 »

wvenable wrote: post #80
cubefox wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with pleasing old costumers is that you might fail to gain new customers. Microsoft is mostly conservative with its OS, while Apple is not afraid to cut off features it consideres outdated. And the MacOS market share has increased strongly over the last ~20 years.

The problem with Microsoft always looking to their competition for ideas is the fail to capitalize on their own strengths. They end up chasing Mac OS or Android and create a product that isn't as good as either of those (because chasing the competition is hard) while subsequently throwing away what made their own product competitive and interesting. Windows should not be a Mac OS clone. But every single UI update sen…

Windows should clone one particular release of OS X: Snow Leopard.

It was marketed as a "Zero New Features" update [0]. Only performance, reliability and back-end upgrades (and it was a packed release for sure that completed the 64 bit transition).

EDIT: Anyone who agrees, upvote this comment! Who knows maybe someone in Redmond will see it! You never know!

[0] https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/26/apple-work-looking-back-at-wh...

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#118

Post by zamadatix »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #30
cypress66 wrote: post #24

Small taskbar still missing. It makes no sense having such a large taskbar (in terms of height).

Taskbar program icon overlay icons (such as red/green/yellow status indicators for Skype and other IM programs, or the New Mail symbol for Outlook) are only visible in Large Taskbar mode - in Small Icons mode the overlays are entirely hidden. Those overlays do convey useful information, it's a shame MS couldn't find a way to make them work in Small Icons mode. --- Personally I can't stand Large Icon mode in Windows 1…

It'd be nice if it'd use the best resolution available but the Chrome icon needed to be fixed regardless. Windows doesn't guarantee a quantized DPI so the icon is always going to need to scale.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#119

Post by deepsun »

wvenable wrote: post #80
cubefox wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with pleasing old costumers is that you might fail to gain new customers. Microsoft is mostly conservative with its OS, while Apple is not afraid to cut off features it consideres outdated. And the MacOS market share has increased strongly over the last ~20 years.

The problem with Microsoft always looking to their competition for ideas is the fail to capitalize on their own strengths. They end up chasing Mac OS or Android and create a product that isn't as good as either of those (because chasing the competition is hard) while subsequently throwing away what made their own product competitive and interesting. Windows should not be a Mac OS clone. But every single UI update sen…

> fail to capitalize on their own strengths

Well, they capitalized on their market share immencely with Azure. At the beginning it was pretty ****, but a lot of customers signed up immediately. Not because that **** is better, but because Microsoft already held all their eggs.

Re: Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

#120

Post by vetinari »

bouke wrote: post #107
LarryDarrell wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just have two Desktop Environments. One for the hoi polloi where the designers can go wild and the bean counters can push MSN "news", and one for Enterprise/Professionals that is more or less "Classic".

Like the good old times with Windows ME and 2000!

NT4 and 2000. Please leave Windows ME behind closed doors, thank you.
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