technology @hexbear.net doublepepperoni [none/use name] @hexbear.net 6 mo. ago

This specific pop-up is one of my greatest annoyances with Windows 10

It's completely inconsistent with traditional Windows design language and there's no "Cancel" button or an X in the corner to click on so you can't cancel out of it with your mouse and have to reach for Esc on your keyboard

It also tries to funnel you into a shitty Microsoft service

61 comments

- They should make a Linux that's just Windows 7
  
  Just about every single window manager improvement Windows has seen since Vista was introduced in Gnome first then later cribbed by Microsoft.
  
  Here's a guide. I don't know if it still works, but regardless making Linux Mint look like Windows 7 shouldn't be too hard.
  
  That's the beauty of Linux, it isn't "they should make" it's "you can make"!
  
  Just run a distro with KDE, it's a lot like old school windows.
  
  Any distro with KDE + WINE, and you basically have Windows 7, but Linux.
  
  Only real difference is if you want to interact with devices that need special drivers (basically, anything that isn't a USB HID device), you gotta use native Linux apps for those. Example would be reflashing a phone's firmware using the proprietary SoC bootrom mode, or trying to use a DJ controller with a Windows program via WINE.
  
  Usual disclaimer: Linux is not Windows, and things will not behave exactly the same. For example, installing software is done through a software repository instead of going to a random website and downloading an exe. When installing software from a repository, it will get updated along with the rest of your system. Think: an app store, but before app stores existed. Also, the only time you have to reboot after an update is when updating the kernel, and you won't get that annoying thing where Windows Update has to take forever to apply an update when shutting down since Linux will give permission to write to files that are currently in use.
  
  Linux Mint is already pretty close to Windows 7 out of the box, in terms of how the UI behaves.
  
  Someone should do some testing where they sit down with a few dozen windows users and have them "playtest" linux to figure out what the snags are for onboarding, and what is generally meant by "make it work like windows" to them. Certainly there are some things linux objectively does better, even if it isn't immediately intuitive coming from windows.
It also likes to forget what programs I've already designated to open what files.
- 'Hey, we know that you've set your favourite program as the default for this file type, but we want you to use our program. Here's the choice yet again, with our program highlighted'
It's also terrible at guessing what you want to do. Like no I do not want to open my .git file with paint 3d
- I do not want to open my .git file with paint 3d
  
  don't knock it till you've tried it
- .git file?
  
  I said what I said. It's none of your business what file extensions I hide my communist meme zip files inside of
  
  Everything is a file, including .git directory
I think if you click outside of that pop-up it disappears completely, which as you say is totally inconsistent with everything else in Windows, but it is at least possible to get away from it with the mouse.
- The mishmash of old Windows and the more mobile phone-esque design used in places like the Settings App (🤮) really irks me. Makes the whole thing feel unfinished, not that I would want them to finish what they've started and make everything else look like a phone too, mind you
  
  As someone who has been working in IT, been using SCCM and WSUS to manage windows 10 pc’s since 1807, including LTSB versions, I can attest to how awful the winNT and modern OS integrated has been handled. They slowly take away legacy settings and processes, only to be replaced by some crappy UWP system application, or they just straight up have no alternative.
  
  I hate that it has started to become a better OS, and with tools like powertoys I’ve been able to make it damn near great, only for them to be moonlighting it for windows 11. And the whole cycle continues as they have just made the OS even more fragmented while still having the same issues win10 did.
  
  I've started using Windows with Windows 98, and they're basically three UIs that clash with each other:
  
  The OG UI design that started with Windows 95 and continued up to Windows 2000 like this: https://stealthsettings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/change_ip_v4_address.jpg
  
  Stuff added in from Windows XP to Windows 7 like this: https://blog.usro.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/windows-10-classic-control-panel-1024x607.jpg
  
  That Metro-phone crap that started from Windows 8: https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Windows-Update.png
  
  Honestly, people don't talk enough about how the XP-Vista-7 stuff clash with the 95-98-2000 stuff, but it's there. Microsoft fucked up again by layering yet another UI design on top of the first two, and it just looks like ass.
- It doesn't for me. I just have to alt-tab around it until my next reboot if I'm stuck using windows.
Another example of the fact that the sooner you switch to Linux, the sooner your personal computer becomes "personal".
Has anyone ever used that Microsoft store?
- It forced me to sign up so my brother could play minecraft bedrock. I had had it disabled but had to reenable it because windows threw a tantrum that I was using a non-microsoft windows account.
- No because they started publishing their games on steam lol.
- I have autoupdates disabled but around a year ago one got through and, for some reason, it uninstalled the default photo viewer that had nothing wrong with it. I tried to replace it with the one listed in the store and it just straight up wouldn't work. Windows and microsoft by themselves are perfect examples of how pathetic capitalism is at delivering good products.
- I think old people and kids who only know phones with app stores are the biggest user demographics
the worst thing about windows 10 aside from pushing the store (which I have found mostly easy to turn off) is that you can open five different settings folders and encounter six different ui elements.

edit: opening a windows 10 system menu to then search for the screensaver function and get the same style of window you got in xp is wild lol. also its impossible to even get to the screensaver settings without searching because I guess they don't think you need it anymore, but its so weird to see menus and folders formatted however they were when the feature was first introduced lol.
- No, the worst part is the damn ads,
  
  Get windows LTSC and use MAS to activate it. It’s basically an enterprise version that strips the OS of ads, Cortana, store, etc as well as frivolous updates. But it’ll still push security updates.
- also this specific prompt absolutely filled me with rage for a long time. you can just click not on the window to cancel it but WHY is there no x in the corner to cancel out? disgusting design.
there's no "Cancel" button or an X in the corner to click on so you can't cancel out of it with your mouse and have to reach for Esc on your keyboard

Because

It also tries to funnel you into a shitty Microsoft service

Ftfy
That's because it's the Windows 8 design language and they didn't update it in a decade!

It's not the worst offender. There are older and worse screens that you see every day.
My (backed up 😉😉😉) collection of movies and tv shows is made up of like 8 different file formats. I prefer to play them all with VLC, but every few months Windows likes to forget that and they'll randomly open with Windows Media Player, and i have to go through this bullshit.

It's especially annoying because VLC doesn't appear in the list, so I have to manually select the program in File Explorer. For every video format.
- and it tries to get you to buy codecs from the windows store to play certain videos lol, it's absurd
literally just click anywhere but the popup you fucking dingus, 'inconsistent with traditional windows design language' ok how about you move the mouse anywhere but the giant 'look for an app in the windows store' button grandpa
- Why are you defending a 3 trillion dollar company from perfectly valid criticism?
  
  bold of you to think I'm "defending a 3 trillion dollar company from perfectly valid criticism" by pointing out how the pop-up can be cancelled (unlike OP's claims that it cannot be) by clicking LITERALLY ANYWHERE lol
  
  this pop up is better than what it did before, which was open a similar window that didn't just disappear if you click outside of it
You need to pull the plug to cancel the dialog.

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