So, to cater to the maximum number of users at once, Microsoft applied a data-driven approach to find out which features to add now, which features to add later, and which to completely avoid.
I call bullshit, because nobody uses the “modern” devices and printers interface in windows 10, because it fucking sucks. Everyone goes to the control panel instead. In windows 11, you have to use the “modern” interface, and it drives me crazy, especially because the old, fully functional, and reliable one is still in the OS, but Microsoft decided to hide it/make it a PITA to get to.
for power users? absolutely. but nobody who isn’t tech savvy even knows what control panel is anymore.
They keep re-implementing things.
Just the Start menu. You can see how 95 evolved into 98 evolved into ME, then they changed it for XP, and they never stopped making big pointless changes. In many cases, those big pointless changes have been lengthening the process of going from the bare desktop to the thing you need by adding pointless screens and dialogs. Or, like the Start menu, they just drastically redesigned it such that a user used to Win XP tries to use 7 and they just…stare at it because it’s not what they were expecting. Windows 7’s Start menu might even be objectively better, Microsoft’s software engineers could very well produce good research documentation about UI design based on observing or polling users about what features they wanted and then they made the thing people seemed to want, but to people who got used to how it already worked the new thing was bad because it’s different.
I could be convinced Windows 8.1 is a mental unwellness simulator. In Sierra’s FMV horror game Phantasmagoria 2, the player character goes insane at work, and this is simulated by the paperwork he’s working on flashing scarier words for a split second. You’re reading this document and then near the bottom of the page an ordinary word like “recommended” turns to “murdered” for a few frames. Win 8.1’s animated tiles reminded me of that. Plus the whole “The desktop and all normal Windows apps therein is itself just an app that can be run in split screen next to special phone-like single tasking apps which pretty much only we will develop for and we won’t include desktop versions of so you have to deal with this.” I hate Windows 8.1.
What’s real fun is you can tell when they abandoned work on a project by which drastically different UI it’s encrusted with. The modem dialer looks like Windows XP, the fax program looks like Vista, some things have the flat purple stank of 8, some things have the dark glass look of early 10.
For printers, go to DEVICES > let it load it all > more devices settings (towards bottom) - to open old school printer control panel. Major pain in the ass.
Because microsoft sucks at ux
That’s disappointing; I always thought the one thing they got right was the 98/XP interface that Cinnamon copied.
I’ve been using ExplorerPatcher to correct this and it works pretty well.
I’m using Linux Mint to correct this and it works even better
Yeah I’m using startallback and it just works.
Except for the notification bar, which shows up on the wrong screen, but i don’t much care about that.
Is there no fix for this? I hate having the taskbar on my main monitor and ive been looking everywhere for a way to move it to another monitor. =/
wait, did they do away with the primary monitor designation?
isn’t that like the only thing that makes a “primary monitor” special - the taskbar? why can’t you just set another monitor as primary?
I don’t use win11, if it’s not obvious, lol
So i’m an idiot and you literally just solved my problem. I just set my other monitor as my main and the bar moved over lol. Thank you.
lmao I love when the it’s just a dumb little thing like that
you did make me realize that that may not be quite so obvious anymore, though, with how they constantly change menus and setting names around. how many other things that we’ve learned over years & years of using Windows are just different in future versions, or not possible any more. and how many of those things were ever obvious settings in the first place, rather than ‘common knowledge’ learned from years of familiarity
It’s still there.
Display settings > select monitor, check box “main display”
“When you think about having the taskbar on the right or the left, all of a sudden the reflow and the work that all of the apps have to do to be able to have a wonderful experience in those environments is just huge.”
This is such utter fucking nonsense. They already have to deal with the concept of a “client area” that encompasses variable-sized screens and (worse) the multiple-monitor situation. Movable task bar is trivial.
They didn’t just rewrite it, they rewrote it in
fecesReactThat’s quite an article to say they forgot about it after re-writing the task bar for no reason. It’s such a basic expected feature.
just MS things. changing things for no apparent reason to make it worse to use and also remove existing features that people actually liked
Probably written by CowPilot
You also can’t add folders as toolbars anymore.
But widgets!!!
/s
laughs in KDE
Plasma is everything I used to wish Windows’ desktop could be, but isn’t because of… honestly I have no idea what they’re thinking over there. I am so glad I dumped that trainwreck. Love everything KDE <3
TLDR: We rewrote the taskbar and didn’t bother implementing it.
I guess the AI writing windows 11 code keeps getting the taskbar wrong.
The amount of bullshit is incredible. The DE sets the windows position. The DE tells the apps what’s the “usable” desktop area. It worked for decades. And now “you can’t imagine the amount of work”
Fuck you microsoft. Not that I care anymore. Even your excuses are pathetic.
Most windows products get slightly shittier with each new release.
I miss the old days, when the opposite seemed true about every other major release, though the early bars were low so that was straight progress for 1.0 through 95.
Join team Linux!
Install Linux Problem Solved.
This phrase should be made a bumper sticker. Or spraypainted anywhere.
Different issues and learning curve, but yes, fuck windows 11. Zorin FTW
Until you accidentally delete the taskbar panel.
Re-install Linux, problem solved.
