Microsoft Unveils New Tablet Experience For Windows 10 (theverge.com) 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft is planning to redesign the tablet experience for Windows 10. The software giant has started testing a new design for 2-in-1 convertible PCs that will keep the user interface more similar to the existing desktop design. Currently, Windows 10 throws you into a more tablet-optimized UI that removes task bar icons and puts the Start menu full-screen when a device automatically switches into "tablet mode." Microsoft is now walking back some of those changes, while keeping some touch-optimized elements for 2-in-1 PCs.
In the new tablet experience, the desktop will remain in full view, with the task bar icons visible and increased spacing between them. If enabled, the search box will collapse into an icon, and the touch keyboard will appear when you tap on a text field. File Explorer will also switch to a touch-optimized layout. Microsoft is testing this with Windows Insiders and has marked the design as beta, suggesting it will change and be shaped by feedback. Still, it's hard not to see this as Microsoft walking back from a dedicated tablet experience in Windows 10. These new changes will trigger automatically when you remove a keyboard from a device like a Surface Pro, and Microsoft has confirmed that a dedicated "tablet mode" will remain but you'll have to enable it manually. Microsoft is also testing a cloud download option to reset and restore Windows 10 PCs. "[I]t will allow Windows users to quickly reinstall the OS without needing it to be installed on the local disk or having a recovery USB drive," reports The Verge.
In the new tablet experience, the desktop will remain in full view, with the task bar icons visible and increased spacing between them. If enabled, the search box will collapse into an icon, and the touch keyboard will appear when you tap on a text field. File Explorer will also switch to a touch-optimized layout. Microsoft is testing this with Windows Insiders and has marked the design as beta, suggesting it will change and be shaped by feedback. Still, it's hard not to see this as Microsoft walking back from a dedicated tablet experience in Windows 10. These new changes will trigger automatically when you remove a keyboard from a device like a Surface Pro, and Microsoft has confirmed that a dedicated "tablet mode" will remain but you'll have to enable it manually. Microsoft is also testing a cloud download option to reset and restore Windows 10 PCs. "[I]t will allow Windows users to quickly reinstall the OS without needing it to be installed on the local disk or having a recovery USB drive," reports The Verge.
The words (Score:2)
Hold! What you are doing to us is wrong! Why do you do this thing?
good..... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You never had to? Windows asks you if you want to switch into tablet/desktop mode automatically or not.
While even the desktop mode is pretty usable nowadays, I actually think tablet mode is fine as it is when I just want to browse or skype or do something simple. That said, I never understood why individual apps didn't have tablet and desktop modes, much like how websites switch to simplified layouts on phones. Instead we had either traditional desktop apps with comprehensive mouse&kb based UIs, or ridi
We are pleased to announce (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Cloud Recovery (Score:2)
Microsoft is also testing a cloud download option to reset and restore Windows 10 PCs. "[I]t will allow Windows users to quickly reinstall the OS without needing it to be installed on the local disk or having a recovery USB drive," reports The Verge.
Users are already uploading so much Windows 10 telemetry to Microsoft every day why not add a couple of gigabytes of backup data to allow recovery? /sarcasm:off
Re: (Score:1)
Why not just change the browser useragent string and download the ISO image? Then if you have to restore windows for some reason it is this thing called FAST.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-u... [microsoft.com]
Note that you have to change the browser to something that indicates that the browser is incapable of running arbitrary code or you will get the Media Creator shit instead of the ISO download site. And the media creator does NOT create a proper ISO, only a pretend one.
Re: Cloud Recovery (Score:1)
Apple calls that âoeInternet Recoveryâ, and OS X/macOS has had that feature since OSX 10.7 (Lion) in 2011:
https://www.idownloadblog.com/... [idownloadblog.com]
Turn off ... (Score:1)
Thankfully you can turn all the tablet shit off with extreme prejudice when using an actual computer. Why doesn't Microsoft just have a "Windows 10 for Computers" and a "Windows 10 for Playthings". The current Windows 10 can just become the Windows 10 for Playthings and they can get rid of the horrid UI and replace it with Windows 2000 / XP Classic interface for the Windows 10 for Computers version (and get rid off all that App and Microsoft Store shit as well, and that new Settings App, and turn back on
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe because some of us have devices with detachable keyboards that we use as actual computers, whether sat at a desk or on an aircraft with just the screen.
The current Windows 10 UI is comparable to the Windows 7 UI unless you're in tablet mode; this change will make it easier to avoid the tablet mode entirely.
Incidentally if the old control panel dialogs are still there and work just fine, why do you care whether there's also a Settings app? Just open the control panel dialogs.
Confused (Score:3)
Let me get this straight.... so Microsoft worked to make desktop MS-Windows to act like a tablet , and now they are trying to make tablet MS-Windows act more like the way desktops were? I am confused.
Good thing I have been using Linux all along on the desktop and Android on my tablets. Of course, Gnome 3 tried to force some freaky "tablet"-ish type interface (hidden launcher, maximize everything, huge controls, no more menus in windows), but I was using KDE all through that period, thankfully.
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Let me get this straight.... so Microsoft worked to make desktop MS-Windows to act like a tablet , and now they are trying to make tablet MS-Windows act more like the way desktops were? I am confused.
Good thing I have been using Linux all along on the desktop and Android on my tablets. Of course, Gnome 3 tried to force some freaky "tablet"-ish type interface (hidden launcher, maximize everything, huge controls, no more menus in windows), but I was using KDE all through that period, thankfully.
Don't be confused, all they are doing is locking down the desktop to work like a android and other phones where the user has next to zero control and where apps are tightly controlled encrypted/streamed.
Variety (Score:2)
They could just as easily (possibly more easily) just make the OS shell a configuration option, and they could give us back NT 4 and Windows 95 and XP so those of us with real work to do don't have to fight with software that thinks everyone is playing a video game on a phone.
Re: (Score:2)
I believe forcing UI elements designed for touch on keyboard and mouse users had various reasons:
In the end I'm not convinced you can make UIs tha
New Tablet Experience? (Score:2)
MS needs to stop putting LSD in their drinking fountains: No, it isn't a new tablet GUI, it is a New Tablet Experience!!! A crystal to sit under comes with every download. Get yours today, be the first kid on your block to achieve Total Consciousness!!
Re: (Score:2)
You obviously know nothing about LSD lmao
Much Needed (Score:1)