Report: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update has hit RTM

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Yeah, it’s full of bugs. But according to a report from Zac Bowden at Windows Central (who has an uncanny reputation for getting this stuff right), th
[See the full post at: Report: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update has hit RTM]

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Gee I’m tempted to say “wake me when it hits ‘CBB’ status”, but I guess I won’t say it.

-Noel

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BobbyB

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Well at the sake of repetition, this new version will probably be more memorable for all “the features they promised but ultimately took out.”
Probably going to sit this one out methinks.

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Great Lake Bunyip, AlexEiffel, Elly, Noel Carboni

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Or perhaps, all the features they removed from previous versions…

Goodbye ReFS!

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BobbyB, Great Lake Bunyip

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Besides the Linux subsystem for Windows feature (which is now out of ‘experimental’ state) and Edge having annotation abilities for PDF’s, I’m not finding much to get excited about this release. There seem to be little new for casual user, beside few menus being prettied up with new ‘acrylic’ look.

The Settings menu and classic Control Panel are still a mixed mess. I wished they would have by this release integrated at least most of the network features from Control Panel to Settings.

And of course, there will lots of bugs to be patched. Out of the box, Store app seem to be hiccuping, and giving “Something bad happened. Unknown layout specified in manifest.” error. And the tiled view of files in explorer has a weird empty spacing, though I can’t really say if that is intented design or just botched.

Others report about night light feature being broken with certain Nvidia drivers and Realtek audio drivers having trouble.

I jumped previously straight to using RTM version of 1703 release, but this time I’m thinking to wait even couple months, so that MS can bugfix their ‘bugfix release’.

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anonymous wrote:

The Settings menu and classic Control Panel are still a mixed mess. I wished they would have by this release integrated at least most of the network features from Control Panel to Settings.

Control Panel and Settings serve different needs.  Control Panel was designed and built for a mouse-based UI, and if it were suitable for touch UI as-is, there would be no need for anything else.  The Settings app was built for touchscreens, and it forces mouse users to accept all of its limitations and foibles that may be necessary evils on small touchscreens, but are wholly unnecessary ones on larger screens with a discrete pointing device.

Why must there be only one or the other?  MS could easily have added Settings to accommodate the touch users while leaving CP alone for the large majority of Windows users who use a non-touchscreen pointing device (unless they want to use Settings, for some reason). This would be a far more elegant solution than the piecemeal way Microsoft has been migrating from CP to settings for five years, ever since Windows 8 first arrived.

It’s not what I would call a release-quality UI design that has most of the configuration options in two separate places, but with some of those options in only one, and some more in only the other, leaving it to you to try to remember where everything is.  Five years later, we’re still hobbling along with a half (or less) finished migration from CP to Settings.

When the migration is finally done, we’ll still be stuck with a touch-optimized Settings app (which is also an umbrella for many system dialogs that have entry points other than Settings proper) even though I’ll bet the majority of Windows devices (given that the Windows Phone is all but dead) will still be using dedicated pointing devices with a relatively large screen rather than smallish touchscreens.

While a lot of people seem to think that the future of the PC will be a touch-enabled one, I don’t think that will pan out.  While it may be true that laptop and desktop PCs may ship with touch-enabled displays, they’ll also continue to have conventional pointing devices like a mouse or a touchpad, and these will almost certainly get the lion’s share of usage for a simple reason: The ergonomics are terrible on touchscreens for non-handheld devices.  That’s not going to change in the next few years, since the limitation is in the human body, not the technology.

Now that Microsoft has all but abandoned the Windows phone, and along with it any realistic chance of selling non-convertible tablets, the future of Windows will be on devices that have discrete pointing devices.  Conventional desktops, small form factor desktops, conventional laptops, convertibles– all of them have a mouse or a touchpad.  The convertibles will use touch mode while undocked from the base, of course, but when they are in laptop mode, the touchpad (or an actual mouse supplied by the user) will, I think, continue to be the pointing device of choice for most people.

It seems to me that the desire to standardize on the touch version of everything is an idea that is years out of date.  I can see that MS once hoped it was going to have a significant presence in the touch-only mobile market, but it doesn’t seem like very many people have really thought that in years.  Even the attempt by MS to use Windows 8 to try to jumpstart their mobile ambitions seemed like a long-shot at the time, and that was half a decade ago.  It’s been seven years since Microsoft held its funeral for the iPhone (ouch), and it’s worse for Windows mobile now than it was then.   If MS really wants to remain in the OS business (and that’s a big “if”), it makes more sense to develop for the still massive number of customers they actually have rather than the ones they wished they had, but don’t (and nearly certainly never will).

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dononline, Rock, Cybertooth, AlexEiffel

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Excellent analysis.

It’s incomprehensible that Microsoft would keep annoying its massive non-touch Windows audience for the benefit of a virtually nonexistent touchscreen “base.” At what point do logic and reality finally get to win out over hype and wishful thinking?

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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dononline, Ascaris

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Frankly, I don’t want it any sooner then I have too.

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dononline

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The key here is nondisruptive upgrades.

Until Microsoft nails that one, new updates will instill fear more than joy on many.

It is hard to believe it will happen considering they don’t even seem to think it is an issue, resetting settings or changing group policies with apparently no second thoughts or any concern matching documentation and behavior or informing users unless maybe in cryptic circles, or by adding privacy invading features with default on.

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dononline, Ascaris

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