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Cortana is really bad

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Re: Cortana is really bad

#291

Post by derimagia »

fpgaminer wrote: post #124
CydeWeys wrote: post #38

Every single interaction I've ever had with Cortana has been complete garbage. It's worse than the old-school "simple string match on installed applications and files on disk" in every way, yet has somehow supplanted it?! I wish there were some easy way to completely uninstall this frustrating garbage in Windows 10 and go back to the simple interface that just worked. I cannot even begin to count how many times I've…

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

I've been trying out Listery (http://www.listary.com/) which is the best thing to Alfred on Windows I can find. Like an updated Launchy.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#292

Post by FRex »

CydeWeys wrote: post #38

Every single interaction I've ever had with Cortana has been complete garbage. It's worse than the old-school "simple string match on installed applications and files on disk" in every way, yet has somehow supplanted it?! I wish there were some easy way to completely uninstall this frustrating garbage in Windows 10 and go back to the simple interface that just worked. I cannot even begin to count how many times I've…

Perhaps http://voidtools.com/support/everything/ would interest you, I now use it all the time and my mind is blown by the fact that NTFS and (ReFS) has these features but Microsoft doesn't expose a nice GUI for them... I seriously consider looking into replacing my start menu with something that'd be much more fit for me personally, scriptable in Lua and query from everything daemon instead but I have no idea how feasible or easy that'd be but classic shell is a thing so it's clearly technically possible (I think, unless it's a dirty hack).

Another fix could be putting a shortcut to the exe (named what you want) into C:\Users\YOUR-USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, for me these seem foolproof.

However I'm similarly flabbergasted with what's going on in the start menu search (which I assume is part of Cortana since this is where her blue ring appears after clicking the home shaped icon): I type in 'downloa' and I get option to search the web (in Bing in Edge of course, despite my default being Firefox + Google) and/or 'Download maps for offline use', 'Delete downloaded maps', 'Windows Defender settings', 'Windows Defender security center' (all are built in Windows things) and after few seconds (and my Windows is on an SSD) it seems to catch up and detect the Downloads folder (that comes standard with English Windows install and isn't in any deep or hidden spot...). I add one more letter and get 'download' and the same happens but Edge online search is available only for a split second.

And then the finale: having 'downloads' (or 'Downloads', not that Windows is sensitive even if NTFS deep down can supposedly be set to be) in there looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/Jlhno I have no idea WTF just happened to have the actual Downloads folder as third result after Microsoft Store (?!) and online search with Bing in Edge (sigh...) and hidden in a sub-menu after looking for literally 'downloads'.

Another funny thing is that for me searching for 'Notepad' matches Notepad++ first and Windows built-in Notepad second. I'm not exactly unhappy about this one but it's weird, it might be heuristics but then why doesn't it work heuristically for the 'downloads' search and gives me the store I never used instead of the folder I access daily?

Re: Cortana is really bad

#293

Post by FRex »

mysterypie wrote: post #247
panarky wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type 'upda' to get Windows Update, but instead it shows Java's updater. Type 'updat' and all search results disappear completely. Type 'upd' and now it shows Windows Update but not the Java update. Type fast and get different results than if you type slow. Type the same thing a third time and get different results than the first two times. And now Cortana keeps bugging me with lame notifications. How do I turn this o…

I think that explains what the programmers who wrote Cortana were thinking. The reasoning must have been as follows: - The user types 'upd' and pauses. The most likely thing the user wants is Windows Update, so show that. - The user continues typing (typed 'upda' so far). The user doesn't want Windows Update otherwise they would have picked it earlier. So show Java's updater. - The user keeps typing (typed 'updat' so…

That doesn't explain this: https://imgur.com/a/Jlhno

Speed of typing seems to matter for 'downloa' but not for 'download' or 'downloads', see my other post for the full non-story and two possible fixes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15766965

Re: Cortana is really bad

#294

Post by 0xCMP »

symfoniq wrote: post #215
0xCMP wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see why he did it. These aren't beginners. They're experienced developers and managers. If you work at one of the top 5 tech companies in the world on a product most of the computing world uses then maybe this shouldn't be acceptable. Why is it that this is acceptable for Microsoft to publish? It's not and what makes it worse is that it often gets abandoned. If they had a history going back and finishing this o…

If the current MacBook Pro is any indication, I’m not sure how much Apple cares about experience, either. I’m still trying to figure out who that machine is made for: Horrible keyboard, gimmicky Touch Bar, worse battery life than the previous generation, no ports relevant to existing devices (including Apple’s own flagship smartphone)... I don’t think Apple can be accused of sweating the details anymore, either.

Very true, but Apple is consumer focused, vs Microsoft is enterprise focused, and so I think we still have a better chance for Apple to react to this than Microsoft would have.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#295

Post by lostmsu »

chinhodado wrote: post #193
vocatus_gate wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Everything is such a hidden gem. Simple and lightning fast, I can't imagine using a computer without it now. Compared to it, Windows's search is worse than garbage. There have been more than one occasions where Windows can't even find a file in a folder even when I have typed in the exact file name. I wonder why windows can't have something like Everything integrated in explorer? It surely can't be that hard to index…

There's a feedback item for it. Upvote!

Re: Cortana is really bad

#296

Post by Feniks »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #285
Feniks wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enterprise LTSB is what you're looking for. No Cortana, just old school search like in win7. >How did it even get launched in this state? Microsoft wants to make money with services not software. I can understand their reasoning. Nobody wants to pay for an OS anymore. Win10 is their new business strategy: Cortana and the Store.

Unfortunately, Windows 10 LTSB is only available as part of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Enterprise is only available with a volume licensing agreement.

Yeah I didn't get it legally.

Microsoft does not want to sell something that strips out the stuff they make money from.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#297

Post by mcny »

rasz wrote: post #274
vanderZwan wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, what bugs me the most is the constant reads and writes to the hard disk. I have 8 GB of RAM. I have 64 GB of RAM, and even tried turning off the swap. Still see that HDD light blinking. I don't know what is going on.

Its gathering telemetry, running live traces on your software, gathering statistics, everything gets packaged and uploaded to the mothership regularly

> Its gathering telemetry, running live traces on your software, gathering statistics, everything gets packaged and uploaded to the mothership regularly

but GP has 64 GB(!!) of memory. They don't need to write the information to disk. They could just ship the data from the memory straight back to the mothership, no? I mean Office 365 has a heartbeat and nobody complains about the near constant network chatter. It just makes Microsoft look insidious (is that the right word?) that they're collecting all this data.

The fact that gaming mode [xbox on youtube] exists makes me think that Windows is driving with one hand tied behind its back when not in game mode. Why would they do this?

[xbox on youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-ka42BMls

Re: Cortana is really bad

#298

Post by rasz »

mcny wrote: post #297
rasz wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its gathering telemetry, running live traces on your software, gathering statistics, everything gets packaged and uploaded to the mothership regularly

> Its gathering telemetry, running live traces on your software, gathering statistics, everything gets packaged and uploaded to the mothership regularly but GP has 64 GB(!!) of memory. They don't need to write the information to disk. They could just ship the data from the memory straight back to the mothership, no? I mean Office 365 has a heartbeat and nobody complains about the near constant network chatter. It jus…

but what if you crash? precious personal data gets lost, have to flush everything to HDD immediately.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#299

Post by ianlevesque »

gt_ wrote: post #238
panarky wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type 'upda' to get Windows Update, but instead it shows Java's updater. Type 'updat' and all search results disappear completely. Type 'upd' and now it shows Windows Update but not the Java update. Type fast and get different results than if you type slow. Type the same thing a third time and get different results than the first two times. And now Cortana keeps bugging me with lame notifications. How do I turn this o…

I just played this game a few minutes ago with Device Manager. I have developed a habit that when I search the Start menu, I slowly type one letter at a time and wait for the result each time.

Just right click the windows menu next time, everything you could want is in there.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#300

Post by vocatus_gate »

cabaalis wrote: post #148
vocatus_gate wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Despite your glowing review, I cannot bring myself to download and install anything from sites like these. I'm sure it's a great program.

My bad, I think I grabbed the wrong URL and can't edit the post any more. vinw's comment referencing Void Tools is the correct url.
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