Meet Windows 10's new UI for OneDrive – also known as File Explorer Some members of Microsoft's Windows Insider program received yet another build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview this week, one that foreshadows more changes to the OS that should come as welcome news to those who cheered the return of the Start Menu. The release, marked as Build 9879, is only available to those who have …
Its not looking good for Windows Phone.
Microsoft are going to struggle to get Operators/Carriers on board to offer customised updates to Windows 10 on Nokia mobile devices, that incorporate the new combined Windows Phone/Windows RT OS.
That sort of support and investment only happens by operators when they have sold a few million of a mid/high end device, with good margins. Disinterested Operators have sold a small bucket full, equivalent of a flee market sale, in terms of the overall mobile market, of mostly low end Nokia Window Phone and margins are tight.
Microsoft need to start confirming which devices will support Windows 10, through their own measures, which are getting ditched, in the case of Windows RT. Otherwise a sales vacuum will ensue, this Christmas.
With the 4G Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini now £119 PAYASYOUGO at Three, Samsung/Android is coming in for the kill. Microsoft Lumia 535 are now having to compete with Samsung, when it was once cheap Chinese Androids.
You can hardly call a generic tweet (in response to a customer enquiry) from the Lumia twitter marketing team, official!
I suppose thats the best we can expect from Microsoft, not convinced, MS need to far more pro-active in terms of recognising marketing pitfalls they are making, for WP to survive.
Until the product has been released and an offiical statement made by MS (and approved by their Legal dept) anything in the tech preview can be changed/renamed/deleted/whatever\
It is a preview. More like testing the waters to see what stick more like. But the above still applies.
If you take it a gospel that all current Lumias will run W10 (or whatever it is called) and base any purchasing decisions on that fact then you might be in for a rude surprise.
That's not to say it is not true but... this far ahead of the release anything and everything can and probably will change. That is MS's perogative. Otherwise, sorry, more fool you.
I like the ability to do away with the Search and Task View buttons in the latest build, but what I really want is a way to get rid of the Start button.
I use it SO rarely that I'd rather have the space for another application shortcut or open application.
The times I do use it, I have the Windows key or even CTRL+ESC.
Last Preview was interesting on a spare hard disk (could be good?). Cautiously used the wife's Microsoft e-mail ID while installing it, and was surprised when it not only showed her private screensaver unbidden, but that her own laptop's Win 8.1.1 OEM product key was declared on her next boot to be in use elsewhere! Remedied by first changing my spare to the Preview product key (which it hadn't asked for), then going through the phone rigmarole to revalidate the wife's laptop key.
He said that when he used his wife's Microsoft ID with the last preview (installed on a spare hard drive) her copy of Windows threw a wobbler: When she next booted her normal machine, it thought she was breaching her licence by using two copies of Windows under a single licence (same product key, two different devices). It refused to let her do anything until he fixed things and validated her copy by phone.
OK, but perhaps I'm being a bit dense - why log into any machine with anything other than local account? I particularly dislike the way windows 8.1 random links you to various bits of the cloud if you use their account. Also using your wife's account would normally lead to marital discord...
No, sorry, I do not expect all files to sync - and I do not expect the same files to sync on every machine. Especially since 1TB storage means I can easily store much more I wish to sync on a tablet, for example. There are files I can really need to access on demand only.
Anyway on my 8.1 system they did sync everything by default until I disabled it for some folders.
First, why would any one in their right mind want to use a public, insecure, Microsoft hosted "cloud" for anything other than milquetoast? Second, why would any one in their right mind want an OS that automatically connects to the internet without asking? Third, why would any one in their right mind trust any Microsoft product that gives any one and everyone access to the internet with no restrictions or conditions automatically?
Many users don't live in an underground bunker using Windows only to design their next death ray.
Many users are people whose main online data is a bookmark to a recipe site and don't feel that this needs to be stored with quantum encryption in a explosive rigged black box in a dungeon under a fortress of doom.
"Many users are people whose main online data is a bookmark to a recipe site and don't feel that this needs to be stored with quantum encryption in a explosive rigged black box in a dungeon under a fortress of doom."
Unfortunately most ordinary users who don't think they have anything to hide, and that they don't do anything other than look up recipes will still do a lot of domestic administration on their PC. So although they feel that they're not worthy of having their data stolen, in fact they've actually got everything to hide, from identity thieves, fraudsters, and the whole panoply of internet ne'r do wells (not to mention over-reaching and unaccountable spy agencies).
Bank details, tax returns, and the thousand and one other things you do on your PC all have a value to somebody else. From ordinary data on somebody's PC you stand to find out their full name, address, data of birth, spouse and children's names, current employer, employment history, pension arrangements, savings and bank details (or at least the name of the bank), details of companies they do business with and the services purchased. Possibly travel and passport details if they've ever filled in an on-screen document that was then saved to disk.
You think that information isn't worth proper security?
I'm obviously running a different version of Windows 8 to everyone else. My OneDrive has always synced all files by default and the ability to view the files with Explorer has always been there, with the Store app merely being a different way to view the same files. Essentially, the meat of this article is that the OneDrive Store app has gone, not sure why the author sees the need to make this look like a massive u-turn...
Anon - waiting for the accusations of being a Sheep or a Microsoft Shill.
Posts accusing people of shilldom get rejected (see point 7)...
... unless it's one rule for Google and another for everyone else.
I don't think so. Windows 8 has potential as a tablet OS. I like active tiles and when you learn the gestures it's quick and easy to navigate in touch mode. The irritation is that it has to jump to the non-touch friendly desktop for some applications and even OS functions. Sometimes, It's Microsoft's fault - changing the default browser, for example, disables the internet explorer app (Why???!!!!). It feels a bit half-baked (well when did Microsoft ever actually, you know, finish the job?).
I use Windows 8 on the desktop as well, and fixing that with Classic Shell makes a nice OS that can just stay in desktop mode all the time. It's too little Metro that's my problem, not too much desktop. It's not beyond the wit of man to have both!
If Microsoft were actually an intelligent company (I know...) then they would make a Windows 8 which could operate entirely in the desktop or entirely in 'Metro', with the ability to flip for hybrid devices. There really is logic in having two UIs on hybrids. But giving customers options and letting them choose is not something that ever seems to occur to Microsoft.
Couldn't agree more with Ossi. I love my Surface 2 (RT version) and the Metro interface is about as perfect touch OS as I could ask for - until it forces me into desktop mode. All fine while I have the keyboard and mouse connected, but most of the time I use my tablet as a tablet and feel quite annoyed I can't use it as a tablet for all functions. Conversely my Win8 desktop is great until it wants to use a Metro app (Store, for instance).
Win8.1 on my phone - brilliant! No hint of desktops interfering with a touch OS, any why should there be? Which is where Windows 10 scares me and leaves me fearing Microsoft will ruin a perfectly good OS by trying to make it more compatible with the desktop version :(
Oh, Win10 preview? Loving it but let's not kid ourselves, it's just a skinned version of Win8.1 and all these little features they're trialling on the preview (OneDrive's change, for instance) could have been rolled directly onto the current win8.1...
Gah - they've done it again: copied someone else's idea!
Owncloud for example does this on all OSs - it uses the built in file manager thing. I suspect all other sync apps do the same. You configure it to watch a folder or two and then you drop files in then and they sync somewhere.
Magic.
Cheers
Jon
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