Microsoft's Cortana turns its back on consumers as skills are stripped from Windows 10

The Register ^ | Mar 2, 2020 | Richard Speed

[chrisser]

The emphasis, according to Microsoft, will be on "productivity."

I about spit my coffee out when I read this. Windows 10? About productivity?

IMHO, Windows 10 has done more to eviscerate the productivity of IT departments supporting it than if we had gone back to DOS. It's constantly changing, it's constantly breaking, it's constantly malfunctioning (have they fixed search yet?). Back in the XP/7 days, we spent maybe 35-40% of our time supporting Windows and the rest supporting other apps and the infrastructure. Now it's close to 75% supporting Windows 10 and everything else is falling apart due to lack of maintenance. And it still sucks.

[wastedyears]

That’s why I won’t get rid of Win 7. I’m “happy” with it in that I built my PC and don’t have to worry about gigabytes worth of garbage slowing it down (which isn’t even Microsoft related). I also use Brave so I don’t worry about being bombarded with dozens of ads and trackers.

[yesthatjallen]

Tiles are amazing for touch screen users.

For TOUCH screens. Not PCs. They are to different interacting experiences. If you have a mouse the tile TOUCH feature is ridiculous.

[ro_dreaming]

Just a fancier version of Clippy!

[zeugma]

Wait, are you telling me the geeks at Microsoft are kicking *THIS* hottie out of bed???

Clippy got a new artist.

[rockrr]

I can’t tell you exactly but I do know indirectly who made the decision. Credit (or blame) should go to Craig Mundie.

It was about 1997 (or so) and I was working as a contractor for Mundie @ Microsoft’s Advanced Prototyping Team. This group was a think tank of sorts - visualizing future trends for the company. Mundie had come to form the team by way of the Consumer Platform division. His penchant was small devices like PDA’s, netbooks, and phones.

I remember a meeting where Craig announced a new project for the team, and eventually all of Microsoft. They wanted to standardize the Windows experience across all platforms. So if you moved from a desktop or tablet to a phone or even an embedded device in your refrigerator it would all look and function the same.

You can immediately imagine the limitations that small form-factor devices like phones would have - most phones could only offer a limited tab from hotspot to hotspot for navigation. Thus, everything needed to be organized into tiles for easier access. They actually forced the OS to accommodate the least versatile device at the expense of the most versatile.

As a result, navigating the menu system for accessing programs took a giant step backwards. We all suffered through it with Windows 8 and they relented to the overwhelming criticism of their customers and brought back the Start button (although compromised with a continued reliance on tiles) with Windows 10.

[dayglored]

Indeed!

[dayglored]

> I keep accidentally activating Siri. Once, when I did that, I said, “Siri, go away!” She responded, “Did I do something wrong?”

Cue the George Costanza "Was that wrong? Should I have not done that?" meme...

[dayglored]

> I have never used Cortana. In all new Windows Ten installations I remove it from the taskbar immediately.

Same here. The only times I talk to my computer is when I'm threatening to throw it out the freakin' window.

[dayglored]

> Right after she defrags mine.

Ooooh, kinky!

[Starcitizen]

That’s what kind of crap software you get since Microsoft absolutely refuses to hire qualified American software engineers, preferring unqualified lying and cheating Indian and Communist Chinese H1Bs.

I truly hope that the coronavirus decimates the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Bellevue and other King County locations.

[smileyface]

I use this.
http://www.classicshell.net/

[\/\/ayne]

Don’t use voice control until they come up with one that doesn’t give out any information.

[moovova]

Never used Cortana. Disabled Gibson or Bosley, or whatever the heck “assistant” Samsung has on my Galaxy phone. The Alexa button on the Firestick remote is collecting dust.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Windows 10 sucks so bad. I have to do five things to match the single action required in Windows 7.

Download and install Classic Shell. I love it.

[miliantnutcase]

You’re doing it wrong then.

[rarestia]

Are you ignorant to the fact that many laptops that are in production today have touchscreen? Or do you think that only Apple and android devices have touchscreen?

[Alas Babylon!]

Pearls before swine, Brotha.

I still wear a Band and use a Windows 8.1 phone. My phone is phenomenal, and I bought 10 Bands after they stopped making them (pennies on the dollar).

Not a fan boy, but fan of those products.

[yesthatjallen]

Thanks. I do. I have to reinstall with each update. Windows 10 demands I use tiles. It's a ridicules feature when you're not using a touch screen and you have a mouse. It's a touch screen feature not a pc feature.

Microsoft believes primary colored tiles are better than reading from a menu. Tiles are a dumb-down feature.

[Still Thinking]

Yes, but only Microsoft would be so inept as to break a good PC UI trying to provide a good UI to mobile device users.