back to article Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

So, Windows 10 isn't the saviour of the PC industry after all – and is beginning to look more like a Windows Vista than a Windows XP. PC growth predictions have been revised down by IDC. A range of companies including HP Ink and Northamber blame Windows 10 for flagging sales. "We have not yet seen the anticipated Win10 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't blame users for the UI

    The incoherence in Windows 10's UI is a direct result of that wonderful in-house team not listening to what users wanted when designing and testing Windows 8. It was pretty well inevitable that the headlong retreat from that UI disaster would also have to involve pandering to the poor bloody users this time around, with all their diverse requirements and preferences, and that the result would be a bit of a mess. Would Windows 10 have been any better if Microsoft's team had designed the UI in splendid isolation? Possibly, but Windows 8 suggests otherwise.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't blame users for the UI

      Yes, don't blame them for the Windows 10 UI. Praise them for it.

      It works scarily well from phone to tablet to surface to desktop for the vast majority of people that only use 10 or 20 applications at the most. What it doesn't cater for so well is the IT bod who wants several hundred programs easily accessible from a hierarchical menu. That's what happens when you listen to people and give the majority what they want.

      1. keithpeter Silver badge
        Windows

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        And we don't need another significant change in the UI right now thanks. Training/supporting people going from Win7 to Win10 is just about supportable as long as we don't have to do it again next year.

        1. Bob Vistakin
          Facepalm

          Re: Don't blame users for the UI

          Needs more of this. Much more.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Don't blame users for the UI

            The Insider program. Perhaps it's cynicism, but cynicism based on long experience, particularly with the Microsoft newsgroups, to expect that the majority of participants would be Microsoft fanbois. Otherwise there would be a reasonable no. of users who enjoy beta testing so are not necessarily Microsoft bootlickers, but many are likely obsessives - like the kinds who have a morbid fear of being a day or two late to get the latest definitions for this or that anti-malware offering; or early-adopters of all stripes.It does seem as if more users ran the Technical Preview than previous betas, but whatever demographic that was an increase of, obviously it wasn't from the overwhelming majority Windows 10 is actually aimed at. Perhaps it was a smattering of fanbois, obsessives - and those like myself.

            I'm not going to attempt to classify my own 'type', beyond that we tend to read The Register; if we're obsessive about tech, nonetheless retain an open, rational mind, and have no affiliation. We are probably the minority participants who ideally would be the majority (given there not being a chance in hell the majority market for the end product is ever going to consciously beta test).

            You might even - in our almost-legalistically even-handed way - consider Microsoft's intentions running the Insider program of being honourable, if naive.

            However, I never saw one single example of Microsoft acting, or even expressing the intention to act on any suggestion or complaint that would involve doing anything differently. The cynic would suggest that, no, Microsoft weren't being naive; that they assumed from the same long experience that the majority of Insiders would be those for whom Microsoft can do no wrong, and those who simply have to run the very latest tech but have no opinion. If so, the Insider program would be a cynical marketing ploy presumably designed to make the target market think that Microsoft 'listened' to it's customers when developing Windows 10; while having an army of those ordinary 'customers' proclaiming to the world how great it is.

            So call me 'cynical'. But, considering that since April last year Microsoft have been engaging in the most cynical marketing ploy in home computing history, so far culminating in bundling Win 10 advertising in a Security update; that the only way to decline is to decline the Security update...I for one conclude that the Insider program is what it ultimately felt like, to me: a cynical marketing ploy. Apologies to my fellow even-handed beta testers if I've strayed into 'biased'.

        2. Hans 1
          Windows

          Re: Don't blame users for the UI

          >Training/supporting people going from Win7 to Win10 is just about supportable as long as we don't have to do it again next year.

          XP EOL'd April 8, 2014, when did you train people going from XP to 7 ?

          Imagine, you had migrated to Linux iso XP, Gnome or KDE, no matter, both versions (or clones thereof) are still actively supported. Imagine you migrate to Linux iso 10?

          1. keithpeter Silver badge
            Windows

            Re: Don't blame users for the UI

            "Imagine, you had migrated to Linux iso XP, Gnome or KDE, no matter, both versions (or clones thereof) are still actively supported. Imagine you migrate to Linux iso 10?"

            @Hans 1

            In my dreams, but, if pigs were seen flying in formation over Birmingham, and cats were cohabiting with dogs &c with a few tweaks to an image we could have This or This and minimal re-training (system already has OpenOffice/GIMP/Inkscape).

            Yes, XP -> Win7 did involve training.

            1. AlbertH

              Re: Don't blame users for the UI

              Yes, XP -> Win7 did involve training.

              Strangely, W7 -> KDE didn't require any significant training at all. We just relabelled "Writer" as "Word Processor" and so on. The users got over their Monday morning shock by lunchtime!

              It was only a week or so later, when the users realised how little time log-in took and how some of the "extras" we'd given them worked, that the general uptake of the "new system" was fully approved. The company have saved a potload on licencing and now employ a (smaller) support desk staff who are clueful and useful.

              There has also been a mass migration of laptops - including many personal ones - as the users realise just how well their gear is supposed to work!

              1. Adam Inistrator

                Re: Don't blame users for the UI

                I changed one user from Windows to Ubuntu experimentally and about a month later I heard that the other four users in the office were miffed they "hadn't been upgraded".

              2. UKSP

                Re: Don't blame users for the UI

                Yes, Linux Desktop makes a terrific word processor!

          2. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

            Re: Don't blame users for the UI

            The two boxes I have to use at my place of gainful employment still run XP. And Office 2003. Any questions?

          3. Chika
            Mushroom

            Re: Don't blame users for the UI

            when did you train people going from XP to 7 ?

            There were sufficiently few changes to the UI that required a large amount of retraining in the general workplace when shifting between systems prior to Windows 8. Every version from W95 up to W7 was an evolution, not a paradigm shift and the changes that did occur were more of a problem for support than for users. Even on the support side things weren't that bad.

            The only big problems tended to be where applications broke because of underlying changes made by Microsoft, and even there it was often something that could be worked around except on a few occasions where the software itself was heavily flawed (so-called "dirty coding" has always been a problem and not just in the world of Microsoft).

            So training was quite often trivial as long as things weren't mucked about with too much. In my experience of XP to W7 rollouts, very few people really noticed much difference in what they were doing. W8 and W10 broke all that.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Don't blame users for the UI

          And we don't need another significant change in the UI right now thanks. Training/supporting people going from Win7 to Win10 is just about supportable as long as we don't have to do it again next year.

          The obvious answer, which Microsoft instantly dismissed, was give us back the nice Windows 7 full-colour and gradients Aero GUI, and use icons people can recognise, instead of ones drawn by a three-year old.

          1. a_yank_lurker

            Re: Don't blame users for the UI

            @ AC - "a three-year old" - I think a three-year would do better.

            Slurp seems to be ignoring 50 years of UI research. The research indicated that for large screen devices which have a full keyboard the classic "WIMP" interface is the best for users. On hand-held devices which will not normally have a full keyboard, the touch interface works best. The basis of both GUI systems is human anatomy which has not changed in a long time.

      2. Michael Sanders

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        Exactly. No user in the preview wanted the color scheme or for aeroglass to go away. And everybody was confused about where to go for control panel settings. This was a microsoft, done by committee special.

      3. Palpy

        Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..."

        1. I don't use Win 10, it's various Linux and Mac at home and Win 7 at work.

        2. HOWEVER: what I have heard from friends who updated to 10 from 7 is that they are lukewarm at best.

        If it is good for "the vast majority of people" then why does regular-user S. tell me "it's frustrating to use" (and he's a Win fanboy), regular-user G. say he uses Win 10 because he has to but "likes Windows 7 better", and enterprise-user D. (retired) says he has a Win 10 machine for his kids to game on but finds it annoying, and bought a Mac for his own use?

        Again, I have no direct experience of Win 10 so I really am not gain-saying your opinion. Just that others seem to think differently. Must say, I am in the "older user" set, so maybe that has something to do with it. I've gotten a bit less patient with some software, though I also distro-hop and despite my Windows background find it pretty easy to get along with various interfaces.

        Perhaps it's a matter of what a given user finds interesting and worth exploring, and what a user just wants to work without bothering him.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

          As you have never used Windows 10 all you need to do is go into PC world (sorry horrible thought, but you don't need to talk to the staff except to say "no thank you"). Have a play on a tablet, a surface and a non touch screen laptop or desktop all running Windows 10. As you have some experience of different UI's I expect you will find all three incredibly easy to use. Although like me you may find the Surface (or any other hybrid) that supports both touch and keyboard weird at first when you find your self using both the keyboard and touching the screen to get things done. I've only had the pleasure of using one of these for 10 minutes but when I went back to using my own non touch laptop I kept touching the screen trying to do things the "touch" way before laughing and using the mouse.

          People don't like change, but no change is no progress.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

            "People don't like change, but no change is no progress."

            No change is also not breakage. Sorry to take the Bombastic Bob route but IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT.

            Apart from that the real problem isn't in the interface, it's in what you don't see unless you go and read the privacy statement and try to find the limits MS impose on themselves.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

              If it ain't broke don't fix it is a nice statement, but if we were to follow that Ford would only have model T's in their showrooms and sales figures would be disappointing. Often you only know its broken after it has been fixed.

              As far as the privacy argument goes, I don't think Microsoft has a cat in hells chance of getting anything tangible out of the data it pulls back other than usage statistics. Certainly nothing that's going to be materially damaging to me. They just aren't that good. Google by contrast has an excellent track record of hoovering up our personal data and making use of it by slinging adds at us that might just get us to waste money on something we don't need. Sadly like most people I have never read the Google privacy statement which I suspect they change whenever they feel the commercial need.

              1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                If it ain't broke don't fix it is a nice statement, but if we were to follow that Ford would only have model T's in their showrooms and sales figures would be disappointing. Often you only know its broken after it has been fixed.

                You may not have noticed AC that not too long after the Model T, the motor car industry pretty much settled on a standard arrangement of accelerator, clutch, brake and gear shift. MS seems intent on shifting these around in a somewhat random fashion (for our "convenience"). Unsurprisingly, many resent this.

                Fortunately, there was no Apple equivalent suing the pants off anybody who dared to use the same locations as their vehicles.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply ? @Pompous Git

                  Well yes they did sort of standardise cars with accelerator, brake, clutch) after the model T. Of course I suspect you, given the way you worded your comment (but not everyone here) will know that the model T pre-dated this with the middle peddle engaging reverse. Of course automatic transmission changed the "standard" layout in a very significant way, and some people like it though others prefer the more conventional way of driving. This will change again with self driving cars, and people are going to bitch about that too. Will a self driving car be an improvement on a model T?

                2. Bill Ashley

                  Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                  In fact, Ford had to bust the ALMA which had the exclusive license from patent troll George Selden and the Electric Vehicle Company.

                  1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                    @ Bill Ashley

                    Didn't know that! Two new things learned in 24 hours. And they say you can't teach old dogs new tricks ;-)

                3. KeithR

                  Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                  "not too long after the Model T, the motor car industry pretty much settled on a standard arrangement of accelerator, clutch, brake and gear shift."

                  The final arrangement - as we've come to accept it - had SWEET FA to do with the Model T's incarnation.

                  In fact it was a Cadillac that first hit on the "modern" layout: and the Austin 7 that took it and made it stick.

                  In short - you've failed across the board to make the point you seem to be trying to make.

                  1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                    Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                    In fact it was a Cadillac that first hit on the "modern" layout: and the Austin 7 that took it and made it stick.

                    In short - you've failed across the board to make the point you seem to be trying to make.

                    Precisely where did I state that it was the Model T Ford arrangement that was adopted? You would appear to have a reading comprehension problem.

                  2. Richard Plinston

                    Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                    >> "not too long after the Model T,

                    > had SWEET FA to do with the Model T's incarnation.

                    That is why he said: AFTER the Model T

                4. a_yank_lurker

                  Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                  @ Pompous Git - For any device there is an optimal range of layouts for users. Slurp has forgotten that human anatomy is fixed and will be fixed for a long time. The layout of controls has taken into account that the standard human equipment includes two legs with feet, two arms with hands with opposable thumbs, \two forward facing eyes, and two fixed ears on the side of the head. Forget that and the user experience will be disastrous. AC and others seem to be ignoring there is something called human anatomy that limits one's options.

                  1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                    Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                    @ Pompous Git - For any device there is an optimal range of layouts for users. Slurp has forgotten that human anatomy is fixed and will be fixed for a long time.

                    That is somewhat dependent on how much the Microserfs are willing to go to piss their customers off. I know I've had days where I would cheerfully have sawn off various of their appendages -- without anaesthesia. Like when my Small Business Server was an open relay for two whole fucking weeks while I waited for a patch to fix it!

                  2. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                    Slurp has forgotten that human anatomy is fixed and will be fixed for a long time.

                    But.... Microsoft is trying to get all desktop users to devolve slightly by making us have Gorilla Arms from using our 26-inch desktop touchscreens all day long.

                    1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                      Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                      But.... Microsoft is trying to get all desktop users to devolve slightly by making us have Gorilla Arms from using our 26-inch desktop touchscreens all day long.

                      But it's just so "convenient" spending half the day cleaning the greasy fingerprints off that monitor by wiping it on your jeans ;-)

              2. julian.smith

                Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                "As far as the privacy argument goes, I don't think Microsoft has a cat in hells chance of getting anything tangible out of the data it pulls back other than usage statistics."

                So that's why they moved from charging about $100 per copy for W8.1 to giving W10 spyware away ... the "products" (formerly known as customers) are worth more than the previous revenue from selling the Operating System - although in your case they probably got a bad deal!

                LMAO

            2. KeithR

              Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

              "No change is also not breakage"

              Absolute baloney.

              As everything else changes around it, an OS *has to* change to keep up: not many 64 bit apps gonna run on Win ME, are they?

              1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                As everything else changes around it, an OS *has to* change to keep up: not many 64 bit apps gonna run on Win ME, are they?

                You're a bit arse about there. I had to move from PageMaker to InDesign when I upgraded from WinXP to Win7. (An excellent move as despite PageMaker being more than good enough, InDesign was what PageMaker should have been from the start.) IIRC Win32 applications arrived long after 32 bit processors replaced 16 bit processors, not the other way around.

                And who the fuck ran WinMe voluntarily?

          2. Palpy

            Re: @ AC: @ palpy: Try it, it's OK...

            I expect you're right, and I would have little problem with the interface. If I did I could easily install stuff like ClassicMenu.

            I won't bother with Windows on my personal machines, though:

            1. Because security.

            2. Because privacy.

            3. Because control. (Though yes, one gives up considerable control over one's machine just by using modern chipsets, BIOS, etc. But for most of us there is no choice there.)

            4. Because money. The upgrade to 10 is free, but what about the next one? And the next?

            Better to just to step off the MS merry-go-round.

            But back to the topic: my puzzlement is about people I know who have installed Windows 10 and don't much like it. My friends don't respond with the bitter hatred and repudiation they had for Windows 8. However, some people who greeted Windows 7 with "Yeaaaah!!!" are now saying "Well, I guess I'll use it if I have to" about Windows 10.

          3. itzman
            Paris Hilton

            Re:No change is no progress

            Ohmigawd! The bacon I have for breakfast hasn't changed in Years darling! so much for progress!

            Without Progress, my breakfast might stay the same for Years!

            Let''s face it, I didn't start eating Breakfast because I was hungry, but because I was so fashionable...

            Sorry fans, gotta rush off to my third sex change operation. Progress .....progress.

          4. Chika
            Mushroom

            Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

            People don't like change, but no change is no progress.

            And it's thoughtless comments like this that drive changes for their own sake. Yes, change can be a good thing if that change has visible benefits but a change for its own sake rarely benefits anyone.

            If you look at the changes that happened between XP and Vista, Vista and W7, W7 and W8.x and W8.x to W10, you can see examples of where a change has occurred that actually benefitted users and you can also see changes that benefitted manufacturers. Then you see changes that benefitted nobody. XP wasn't perfect when it was first released and users of W2K and W98 were happy enough to stay where they were though WMe users couldn't wait to jump ship. Once XP was stabilised a bit, the shift happened naturally enough.

            The biggest reason, however, why W10 is having such a bad time, data slurp and other such bothers aside, is that it hasn't gotten past the early XP bit and unlike XP there isn't a group that is in such a desperate hurry to shift from earlier versions. W7 is stable, familiar and operable and, like W2K years before, it has plenty of life left in it despite Microsoft's increasingly bullying attitude toward it. Actually, if anything, Microsoft's current attitude could do more harm to the industry than good with people with reasonably recent machines sticking with W7 until the hardware goes bad. Then, of course, should Microsoft continue with this attitude, alternatives to W10 may await the Redmond weary user.

            The only real way of dealing with this, as far as I can see, is for Microsoft to back off, fix their product, remove the slurp, restore a reasonable update client, stop pressuring the W7 and W8.x users and lie low for a couple of years until the current bad press has died down.

            Certainly continuing the nagware, sending the shills and fanboys out to publish their bull and pressuring the users to move off older systems by employing industry bullying tactics and making changes for change's sake will only further decrease their standing.

            1. Philip Lewis

              Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

              Apparently, the actual OS on Win8-10 is a significant improvement over Win7 in resource usage and performance.

              What sucks donkey balls is the UI that is imposed in Win8-10, a UI reasonably suitable for touch devices but fucking awful for the desktop. I can live without every TIFKAM application, now and in the future I expect. What I want is the Windows7 interface on my desktop without constant intrusion of the Win8-10 bollocks.

              Like everyone else, I have many years (and $) invested in Win and software, but Win8-10 is so fucking awful (and yes I have used it) that I have drawn the line in the sand.

              I have had a MacAir for over 5 years now, but my home server remains Win7 - but I have installed Cinnamon now, and at expect at some point I will make the switch.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                Apparently, the actual OS on Win8-10 is a significant improvement over Win7 in resource usage and performance.

                What sucks donkey balls is the UI that is imposed in Win8-10

                I wonder if there's a relationship between these.....

                You know, come to think of it, I could make Windows 7 run faster with less resource usage by setting the display to 800x600 in 16 colour.

                That would mean, of course, that there might not be any real performance improvements over Win 7.

                1. Pompous Git Silver badge

                  Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

                  You know, come to think of it, I could make Windows 7 run faster with less resource usage by setting the display to 800x600 in 16 colour.

                  That would mean, of course, that there might not be any real performance improvements over Win 7.

                  About a year ago, out of curiosity, I ran Winword 2 under Windows 3.11 in a VM using one core and spent some time working on a document. I finished the document in Word 2010 on Windows 7 running on bare metal (four cores). There was absolutely no noticeable difference in speed. So it goes...

                  Have an upvote for using your noggin.

        2. pmartin66

          Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..."

          For me and my friends and family, Windows 10 has been the absolute best OS that MS has ever published. Super fast, stable, runs all our software and games included. Six second boot times, what's not to love?

          BEST user OS. Most easy to maintain as well.

          Not owning it yourself and preaching hearsay is really a BAD thing to do. You propagate FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) where there should be none. Just because you are a Linux lover.

          And that just makes the Windows user hate Linux users more... You propagate your own crap in other words. It HURTS you and your community to weep and wail so hard against MS.

      4. illiad

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        trying to make the SAME OS run on BOTH a phone and a PC with a giant screen???

        thoroughly stoopid idea...

      5. twilkins

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        "from phone to tablet to surface to desktop"

        That's nice, for the few hundred users who use Windows 10 on desktop, surface and phone. For the others who use Windows desktop, iOS phones and tablets, or Android phones and tablets and Windows 10, it's not much of a draw. Hence the disappointing sales.

      6. Mpeler
        Mushroom

        What it doesn't cater for so well is ---

        "What it doesn't cater for so well is users who want/need to do real work".

        There. FTFY.

      7. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        Whether they run 10 apps or hundreds of apps, I doubt that many existing Windows 7 or XP users welcome the need to learn the new incompatible Windows UI.

        In embarking on the Windows 8 UI Microsoft was not aiming to make its install base of Windows users happier. It's obviously trying to grow into the huge and growing market of cell phone and tablet users where a small touch screen is required. MS wants to leverage its PC dominance as a competitive advantage in those new growth areas.

        Historically, MS has done this with its office app UIs too. They didn't care much about impact to their existing users. Now they prioritize compatibility across widely diverse hardware platforms ("Windows everywhere") far above version compatibility on a given platform.

        1. pmartin66

          Re: Don't blame users for the UI

          Please explain how the GUI is "incompatible" because that really makes ZERO sense. Old apps still work, what is your point? That users have to click on the start button, then 'All Applications'????

          Seriously? That's your gripe?

    2. Goatshadow

      Re: Don't blame users for the UI

      To me the Insider Program looked like a lot of legitimate issues getting ignored, amidst a sea of unhelpful one-liner feedbacks. The Insider feedback application itself was a poorly designed mess, barely functional even across a few updates. When they decided that the wildly unfinished 10240 was release I gave up on it.

      1. Grimmyn

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        Agree.

        Andrew said Microsoft listened to the Insiders. The Windows 10 Insider Preview was an exercise in "democratic design," ?! Any example of that?

        Interesting that the insider feedback app had no area for feedback on UI and Security. I left the insider last year because there was no point as no one listened. And I don't mean that all my feedback should be no 1. I voted and commended on a lot but as said... no point

    3. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: Don't blame users for the UI

      "The incoherence in Windows 10's UI is a direct result of that wonderful in-house team not listening to what users wanted when designing and testing Windows 8"

      etc.

      NOT LISTENING is DEFINITELY the point. Over on the insider forums, MANY of us (myself, included) CONSTANTLY pointed out "the wrong", from 2D FLUGLY ['flat ugly', aka the Sinofsky look], to the inefficiency of the "the METRO" apps(sic) and the app store, and WORST OF ALL, the TRACKING and ADVERTISING.

      NO WAY was Microsoft listening to *CUSTOMERS* when they did all that. NO WAY!

      Now, listening to a select crowd of SYCOPHANTS... I could see THAT and COMPLAINED ABOUT IT _OFTEN_, on their insider forums.

      But Microsoft's forum manager decided to SANCTION those who most loudly spoke out against their decided direction. Threads were heavily edited, prominent users were banned for only the *slightest* hints of alleged TOU violations, and *I* was even threatened with a ban over my WRITING STYLE. Yeah, who knew?

      So I suggest that Microsoft was *ACTIVELY* *SILENCING* the opposition to what Windows 10 ended up being. Hardly "listening" at all.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Don't blame users for the UI

        The only major training we needed for xp to w7 was the ./ for local accounts (as the domain drop down vanished). Classic desktop theme took care of the rest. W7 to w8.1 was a nightmare.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Don't blame users for the UI

          Most users I know use Windows for a few seconds after it has booted and logged in, and before they launch their app. Thereafter the only Windows intervention is flipping between apps on the bar at the bottom, locking screen/unlocking screen and shutting down.

          It's all about the applications because it is in the applications where the productivity happens, not the OS. Some people couldn't even tell you which version of windows they are "using", they don't even care, or even need to care.

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