RIP, UWP We hardly knew ye, and never cared.

Way back in 2017, I wrote a post that I titled, "UWP is a failure, and Microsoft knows it."

Nearly two years after releasing Windows 10 and UWP into the world with dreams of marketplace dominance dancing in their heads, Microsoft themselves are only now bringing their 2nd-biggest software product [i.e. Office] to their own store. And it isn't a native UWP version of the program, either; it's a port, brought over via the Project Centennial Desktop App Bridge (henceforth referred to as PCDAB).

That's right: Windows 10 and UWP have flopped so hard that Microsoft themselves can't be bothered to develop natively for the platform.

If Microsoft can't be bothered to develop natively for UWP, then nobody else is going to, either, ever, and that means that UWP is effectively dead on arrival. The only programs that Microsoft will see on its storefront from here on out will be PCDAB ports, none of which will perform as well as Win32 executable versions of those same programs, and even that assumes that developers bother to do that much; with the Windows 10 store being such a shit-show, and the added costs involved in maintaining a 2nd version of their software, all in service of lining Microsoft's pockets, I suspect that most developers simply won't bother to port their programs over in the first place.

Worse yet, a dearth of quality UWP apps means that Windows 10 users are spending this crucial time in the platform's life-cycle locking software-buying habits that exclude the Windows store almost entirely. That's not reversible; if even Windows 10 users are thoroughly trained to buy their software elsewhere, then developers have even less reason to develop for UWP, and that is self-reinforcing. It's a vicious cycle, with the lack of adopters resulting in a lack of apps, which ensures not only a slower rate of adoption, but also ensures that new adopters of Windows 10 don't adopt the storefront along with the OS, resulting in ever fewer apps...

At this point, Microsoft would probably love to be faced with a simple chicken-and-egg problem, rather than this rapidly increasing inertia [...] It seems to be that only one question remains: is this vicious cycle now so well-established that Microsoft is simply unable turn it around?

That was then; this is now. And here in the now, we have the answer to this 100% rhetorical question, as reported by The Verge:

Microsoft had a dream with Windows 8 that involved universal Windows apps that would span across phones, tablets, PCs, and even Xbox consoles. The plan was that app developers could write a single app for all of these devices, and it would magically span across them all. This dream really started to fall apart after Windows Phone failed, but it’s well and truly over now.

Microsoft has spent years pushing developers to create special apps for the company’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and today, it’s putting the final nail in the UWP coffin. Microsoft is finally allowing game developers to bring full native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store, meaning the many games that developers publish on popular stores like Steam don’t have to be rebuilt for UWP.

“We recognize that Win32 is the app format that game developers love to use and gamers love to play, so we are excited to share that we will be enabling full support for native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store on Windows,” explains Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer. “This will unlock more options for developers and gamers alike, allowing for the customization and control they’ve come to expect from the open Windows gaming ecosystem.”

That's right; UWP is definitely dead, and I fucking called it, two years ago.

Who's the man? I am.

Microsoft's ongoing struggles with QA and Edge

After a terrible month of QA issues with Windows 10's 1809 update, and following revelations that those issues aren't actually over yet, even after 1809's re-release, comes news that Microsoft's other flagship product has similar issues. As reported by betanews:

Microsoft's update procedure for Windows 10 has been a little, er, wobbly of late. The Windows 10 October 2018 Update proved so problematic that it had to pulled, and even the re-released version is far from perfect.

Now it seems the cancer is spreading to Office. Having released a series of updates for Office 2010, 2013 and 2016 as part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has now pulled two of them and advised sysadmins to uninstall the updates if they have already been installed.

In both instances -- KB4461522 and KB2863821 -- Microsoft says that the problematic updates can lead to application crashes. While this is not as serious a problem as, say, data loss, it does little to quieten the fears that have been voiced about the quality control Microsoft has over its updates.

So, the bad news is that Microsoft's attempts to reassure consumers and Enterprise customers that their quality assurance procedures really are up to the challenge of delivering software-as-a-service seem to be failing. What's the good news?

Apparently, the good news is that Edge has failed so hard that Microsoft is now collaborating with Google and Qualcomm to bring the Chrome browser to Windows 10's ARM version. Yes, really.

Microsoft tap Phil Spencer to fix the Windows Microsoft Store

The Windows Store has been a wasteland of shit ever since Microsoft first launched it alongside Windows 8. Married to a Universal Windows Platform that never did take off, it has long been a developer- and customer-forsaken place; intended as the channel through which all applications would flow, to both desktop and mobile devices, it's instead become something of an albatross: an awkward, burdensome reminder of Microsoft's monopolistic sins.

This is at least partly why Microsoft rebranded the Store last year; Windows Store had negative connotations for consumers from which they wanted to distance themselves, in much the same way that the Windows 10 name was intended to put more distance between the current Windows version and the wildly unpopular Windows 8. Microsoft only changed the name, though, apparently hoping that a re-brand would be change enough.

Consumers, however, weren't fooled; when they remember to use the new name, it's normally as an afterthought. And, critically, nothing else about the Store was changed; it's still a developer- and customer-forsaken place, where it's both easier and more desirable to search for TV shows than software. This is especially true of games; even when they're running Windows 10, PC gamers use Steam, not Microsoft's terrible storefront, unless they're given no other choice. And Valve is working hard to ensure that they have other choices in most, if not all, cases.

The situation was clearly untenable for Microsoft, and it seems they've finally decided to do something about it: they're tapping the one person in their senior leadership team who seems to understand what consumers want, and to understand that it's important for a business to provide what consumers are asking for, to finally fix the thing. As reported by WCCFTech:

Phil Spencer, previously Head of Xbox at Microsoft, was promoted last year into the Senior Leadership Team where he now reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella as the Executive Vice President of Gaming. Spencer has since suggested that gaming isn’t the proverbial red-headed stepchild at Microsoft anymore, thanks to the importance placed by Nadella himself in this growing market.

We haven’t heard much from him after E3 2018. However, he briefly appeared on yesterday’s Inside Xbox: X018 Special live from Mexico City to make a few statements, the most interesting of which directly addressed the state of Windows 10 gaming on PC.
When asked about what will come next, he expressed the intent to focus on improving the Windows Store (now formally now as Microsoft Store) so that it can be properly tailored towards gamers.

No, Microsoft, it won't. It really, really won't.

From Simon Sharwood at The Reg:

Microsoft says 'majority' of Windows 10 use will be 'streamlined S mode'
Which is just-about an admission Win 10 is a mess

No, Microsoft, it won't.

I mean, we've known for a while that Microsoft would really, really like for S mode, and thus their digital storefront, to be the way that a majority of users experience Windows; this has always been the plan, so it's no surprise that MS see this as the best possible outcome... for them. The only surprise is that they're finally speaking openly about their desire to make this happen, in spite of the fact that consumers' rejection of this vision of personal computing has been pretty much total, up to this point.

Consumers have made it very plain that they do not want this. So much so, in fact, that Microsoft's latest aborted attempt to push it on them anyway has now been walked back. But don't expect MS to stop trying. Forcing every PC user on Earth into their walled-garden Microsoft Store ecosystem is, very plainly, MS's entire plan for Windows, and they will try again.

The Reg's reporting doesn't include anything much that Thurrott.com didn't already cover yesterday, apart from this bit of editorializing:

"We expect the majority of customers to enjoy the benefits of Windows 10 in S mode," Belfiore wrote. Which is hardly a ringing endorsement of Windows 10 in its dominant configuration!

Which is completely accurate - after all, MS wouldn't be having to push WX so hard if it were good enough to sell itself on the product's merits. That isn't, however, the point. The point is that MS want "S mode" to supplant a Windows in which consumers retain control over their PCs, and the software that gets installed on them, and instead relies on Microsoft to serve up everything. The point is raw, naked greed; it's MS wanting to be Apple, with their own iOS-style App Store.

The fact that MS want it to happen, however, doesn't mean that it will happen. Because for all its issues, Windows 10 is still better than its "S mode" counterpart, which is why Windows 10 S flopped in the first place. Making S mode an option for all WX users doesn't do anything to make it more attractive to those users, or alter the fact that the "Universal Windows Platform" has utterly failed to be a thing. The "benefits" of S mode are non-existent; the experience of using S mode is shit, and there's nothing happening which will alter that in any way at all.

Sorry, Joe.

LOL. Microsoft store denied! by Google.

Well played, Google. Well played.

As reported by The Verge:

In a surprise move, Google has published Chrome in the Windows Store this week, but not in the way you might be expecting.

Google has simply packaged an app for Windows 10 that opens itself to the Chrome download page. Downloading Chrome will then open up the link in your default Windows 10 browser. It’s a hilarious snub of the Windows Store, and makes it clear Google isn’t planning to bring its browser to Microsoft’s store any time soon.

There are many reasons Google won’t likely bring Chrome to the Windows Store, but the primary reason is probably related to Microsoft’s Windows 10 S restrictions. Windows Store apps that browse the web must use HTML and JavaScript engines provided by Windows 10, and Google’s Chrome browser uses its own Blink rendering engine. Google would have to create a special Chrome app specifically for Windows 10 S, much like it would have needed to do to support Windows Phone years ago. It’s extremely unlikely that Google is even considering the work involved in such a project.

It's good business, and good trolling, all in one tiny gesture. This "app" won't help anyone on Windows 10 S who wants to use Chrome, of course, but there are so few of them that it's not especially likely that Google gives a shit.

Or, as Mehedi Hassan at Thurrott.com puts it:

At the end of the day, the Google Chrome Installer is still very, very pointless — the only functionality of the so-called installer is to open the download link for Chrome on your default browser. It basically removes the need for you to open Internet Explorer (or Microsoft Edge) and manually go to the Chrome download page everytime you set up a new Windows 10 installation.

-5/5 stars.

That's not pointless at all; that's some solid value. If there's anything pointless in this picture, it would have to be the Windows Microsoft Store itself.

Oh, well. Maybe next year...

UPDATED DEC. 20th:

Aaaaaaaand it's gone. From The Verge:

Google published a Chrome app in the Windows Store earlier today, which just directed users to a download link to install the browser. Microsoft isn’t impressed with Google’s obvious snub of the Windows Store, and it’s taking action. “We have removed the Google Chrome Installer App from Microsoft Store, as it violates our Microsoft Store policies,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge.

Citing the need to ensure apps “provide unique and distinct value,” Microsoft says “we welcome Google to build a Microsoft Store browser app compliant with our Microsoft Store policies.” That’s an invitation that Google is unlikely to accept.

[...]

The Verge understands Google created this installer app to combat the fake Chrome apps that can be found in the Windows Store, a problem Microsoft has been trying to address for years. Google’s workaround has now been removed from the Windows Store, so Windows 10 users will have to continue using Microsoft Edge to access the download site for Chrome if they want to access Google’s browser.

Wow. You'd almost think that Microsoft lack a sense of humour about their horrible digital storefront.

No, Windows 10 S doesn't "deserve a chance."

Oy, vey.

From Napier Lopez at TNW:

Windows 10 S gets a bad rap, in part, because of Windows RT. That OS could only run touch-friendly ‘Metro’ apps – which further had to be compatible with ARM processors.

There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, but it meant developers had to write completely new apps for an OS they weren’t sure would have any legs. It was a kind of self fulfilling prophecy: Developers didn’t make Windows RT apps because nobody would use Windows RT. Which of course became true, because nobody would make apps for it.

Windows 10 S, on the other hand, has the crucial difference that it can run most of the old-school apps – known as Win32 programs – you’re already using. At a basic level, all developers have to do is repackage the apps to make them available on the Windows Store.

Wow, that sounds really great! Just one little problem... it's mostly bullshit.

Windows 10 S only runs programs that have been installed from the Windows Store, and the Win32 programs that you're already using cannot be installed from the Windows Store. The developers of those programs might choose to use the Project Centennial Desktop App Bridge (PCDAB) to port those programs over to the Windows Store, so that you can purchase them again through Microsoft, with Microsoft taking a cut of the proceeds, but it is developers who must do this; consumers cannot PCDAB their own apps. Unless and until that happens, the software "you're already using" simply will not work with Microsoft's gimped OS.

This is the defining quality of Windows 10 S. It is the thing which sets it apart from vanilla Windows 10, and from every other iteration of Windows.... except for Windows RT, of course. Which means that Win10 S's bad rap is entirely deserved, for the simple reason that it really is Windows RT Redux. The only difference is that Microsoft is using security-based scare tactics to sell 10 S, instead of relying on the short-lived "touch" fad that was the driving force behind Windows RT... and Windows 8, which was its fuller-featured cousin.

Yet again, I find myself unsure whether this is a falsehood (i.e. the result of simple ignorance or incompetence), or a lie (i.e. the result of intentional deception). Either way, though, Mr. Lopez should be ashamed of himself. This is not hair-splitting; it is quite literally the most important thing that a consumer will want to consider, when weighing the decision to buy (or not to buy) a machine with Windows 10 S installed, and TNW couldn't be bothered to get it right. Excelsior!

I can hardly wait to see how many other lazy, ignorant hacks pick up this piece of apologist tripe, and run it verbatim, without bothering to check any of its facts.

The Iron Chef of missing the point entirely

From PCGamesN:

When the Steam Sales are on, everyone wants to fight back against the massive attention it gets with their own offers and deals. Microsoft have just waded in with their offering: the Ultimate Game Sale.

So, what’s on offer? You’re probably assuming it’s most things, being an Ultimate Game Sale, but some big first-party hits, such as Forza Horizon 3, have no discounts at all. Ultimate.

Forza Horizon 3 is almost a year old, but you still have to pay $59.99 to play it on PC, which is just ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad, but there's not all that much else on the store. You'd think Microsoft would offer something on first-party games.

I'm getting daily emails from Steam listing the 47 games that are on sale just from my wishlist, most for 50% off or more, and that's after I bought everything that had already been marked down below CAD$5.00. Meanwhile, Microsofr's Ultimate Game Sale puts a grand total of 5 games on sale, all for $29.99 (except ROBLOX, which I guess is free2play because it only offers in-game discounts).



Honestly, can someone please sell Microsoft a clue?

Q: Is it time for Microsoft to rethink Windows 10?

Spoiler alert! The answer is, "Yes." Yes, it is.

Wayne Williams at Betanews has a more detailed answer, though:

It’s easy to understand why Microsoft took the decision to take Windows 8 in a new direction. PC sales were falling, and people were transitioning to iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Microsoft felt it needed to do something radical to remain relevant in this changing world, and an operating system that could run on PCs, tablets, and smartphones seemed like a smart move.

The problem, of course, is the Start menu-less Windows 8 was too radical an approach for PC owners -- the bulk of Windows users -- and the OS itself was simply too half baked. There were too few decent non-PC devices around, and Microsoft had to build a Windows Store from scratch -- not easy.

Fast forward to 2015, and Microsoft brings out Windows 10. On paper, this had everything going for it. It was replacing a disliked predecessor, it offered what seemed like the best features of Windows 8.x combined with the best features of Windows 7, and it was free. What was not to like? Plus, like Windows 8.x, it could run on PCs, tablets and phones.

But Windows 10 hasn’t been the sure fire hit it was expected to be. It will be on 1 billion devices by 2018, Microsoft crowed. But even forcing users to upgrade to it didn’t get the OS any nearer to hitting that magical number. Windows 10 has a market share of around 25 percent now, which isn’t bad, except that’s half of what Windows 7 has, and people have stopped upgrading.

Williams then goes on to discuss why people have stopped upgrading in more detail, basically boiling it down to two main issues.

First, and apparently foremost, is Windows 10's focus on apps:

And here’s the biggest problem with apps -- they’re now universal, and designed to run on any device running Windows -- PCs, tablets, smartphones -- but who has a Windows smartphone these days? Pretty much no one. The whole point of Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps is you can install them on any Windows device you own, but if you only own a PC they why would you want to install an app when you could install a more powerful program, and enjoy greater choice?

Second, mentioned only in passing, is the non-stop advertising:

The main issue people are -- rightly -- hating on in Windows 10 at the moment is the adverts that Microsoft has peppered the OS with. These, for the most part, are to push apps, but I doubt the Windows Store has enjoyed a huge uptick in downloads as a result of them -- it’s just another annoyance Windows 10 users have to put up with.

Weirdly, Williams spends several paragraphs discussing the problem of apps, and only one talking about the adverts. Yes, both the Universal Windows Platform's anti-consumer approach, and the relentless drive by to monetize their Windows user base in any way they possibly can, are problems. But I think they miss the point, somewhat. These things are problematic, in and of themselves, but they're not the root of the problems; they're symptoms of more serious underlying issues.

Microsoft's entire approach to a Windows user base that has thrived on choice and freedom is to limit choices wherever possible, and coerce users when they can into behaving in ways that benefit Microsoft as a corporate entity. Only when the backlash has proved too intense has Microsoft backed off on these two strategic imperatives, and they never back off for long. 

That's why the Creators Update will once again include a setting that allows users to block the installation of Win32 software -- something which has been built into Windows 10 from the beginning, and which was initially turned on by default until the PR backlash forced Microsoft to back down.

That's why the Creators Update will once again be auto-downloading itself, even over metered connections, long after Microsoft apologized for doing that, and appeared to reverse course, after terrible PR forced them to admit that there were problems with the practice they hadn't considered. Apparently, they've reconsidered, and now think the practice is just fine. This, in an update which also allows users to postpone restarting after updates are installed, something else they had to implement because of terrible PR.

The major underlying issues here are trust, and choice. When Microsoft altered the behaviour of the "close window" button to force Windows 10 upgrades, it undermined trust, just as discovering that Windows 10 includes a built-in keylogger, again enabled by default, undermines trust. 

Removing the option to disable Cortana, even though Cortana monitors everything the user does and uses cloud-based services to perform even local hard drive searches, limits choice and undermines trust, as does locking Cortana to Edge and Bing, a combination of software and service that the market has resolutely refused to use when offered the choice.

Pushing ads through the OS, a behaviour that's seen in no other operating system, undermines trust, even as it attempts to influence users' choices.

Every time Microsoft denies security updates to people running Windows 7 on 6th generation SkyLake CPUs, it undermines both choice and trust... choice, because people who've bought and paid for Windows 7 explicitly have the right to run it on any one PC of their choosing, and trust, because Microsoft are now violating that agreement to unilaterally force users onto a new product that those users have repeatedly refused.

This is why people aren't switching to Windows 10 anymore, even though they can still do so for free, something which we're all supposed to pretend is some sort of secret even through everybody already knows who cares to know. They don't trust Microsoft to treat them and their choices with any kind of respect at all; they don't trust Microsoft not to spy on them; they don't trust Microsoft to keep their own given word. Darth Microsoft have altered the deal one too many times, now, going back to bad practices again and again, for anything they say to be believable anymore.

Does Microsoft need to rethink their Windows 10 strategy? Yes. Yes, they do. Desperately. Now would be a good time; in fact, they may already have left it too late. 

They need to change course, here. But will they? Probably not unless and until they're forced to. 

The Shilling Continues!Microsoft is now actually pre-loading unwanted apps in Windows 10, not just previewing them.

Not that long ago, Microsoft tried to convince us that blocking installation of Win32 programs was an anti-bloatware feature that they were adding to Windows 10 for users' benefit. That was, quite simply, a lie. Although many Windows users will, over time, end up installing, and then forgetting about, any number of programs, neglecting to uninstall them and thus adversely affecting system performance, that hit to performance doesn't make those programs bloatware. Programs which you choose to install are not bloatware; only software which is installed against the user's wishes can count.

And the simple reality of Windows 10 is that the single biggest source of bloatware isn't Win32 programs of any description. The single biggest source of bloatware in Windows 10 is Microsoft. And, as if to hammer this point home, they're upping the ante on this practice again.

From The Verge:

I’ve sat back and witnessed the development of Windows 10 and appreciated the speed of new feature releases, but it seems there’s a price to pay for this new “Windows as a service” world. Microsoft has gradually been infesting Windows 10 with annoying ads. The first emerged on the lock screen as “tips,” and then there was the bundling of Candy Crush with the OS, and now Microsoft has started blasting notifications into the task bar and File Explorer.

Windows 10 users have been complaining vocally in recent weeks about OneDrive notifications in the File Explorer, encouraging them to pay $6.99 for an Office 365 subscription. The task bar notifications that prompt people to switch to Edge when they use Chrome, or install Microsoft’s Personal Shopping Assistant for Chrome, have been appearing for months. Microsoft even decided to use notifications to warn Chrome users about battery drain. These types of notifications not only spoil the experience of using Windows 10’s built-in features, but they’re an annoying distraction.

Now Microsoft is planning to preload another app in Windows 10: Sling TV. While only US Windows 10 users will get Sling TV preloaded without the necessary subscription, it will sit alongside Candy Crush and Solitaire as other examples of what will soon be described as bloatware. Thankfully, it’s easy to uninstall these unnecessary apps, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft won’t add more to the mix in the future. Microsoft used to blame its OEM partners for bundling lots of useless apps on Windows PCs, but now it has itself to blame for doing the same to Windows 10.

[...]

Microsoft added a notification center to Windows 10 for a reason. If it feels the need to blast its loyal users with irritating prompts then these should be channeled into that notification center, not wedged into the File Explorer or on top of the task bar. You shouldn't have to dig deep into a settings panel to disable these; they shouldn't be there in your File Explorer in the first place. Microsoft already had to walk back its aggressive Windows 10 upgrade prompts last year, so hopefully the company will come to its senses and rethink these annoying ads and bloatware in Windows 10.

Pre-loading apps that a user has expressed no interest in, whatsoever? That's what bloatware looks like, Microsoft. Do you want to know why Windows 7 users are in no hurry to adopt Windows 10? Bullshit like this, is why.

Microsoft to finally start giving users what they want

With Windows 10 stagnant, Windows 7 users digging in deeper while growing in numbers, and even PC gamers apparently abandoning the new OS for the eight-year-old one, it seems that Microsoft have finally decided to acknowledge the obvious, and start giving consumers what they want. Kinda.

From Gordon Kelly at Forbes:

In a new official blog post Microsoft has admitted Windows 10 needs to improve in these areas and that significant changes are on the way:

“Prior to the Creators Update, Windows 10 made most of the decisions for you regarding when updates would be installed and didn’t provide ways to tailor the timing to your specific needs,” explained John Cable, Microsoft Director of Program Management within the Windows Servicing and Delivery (WSD) team. “What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates. We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time.”

[...]

Cable’s solution? With the Windows 10 Creators Update (coming next month) users will get far more options:

“For example, you can specify exactly when you want an update to occur (including the ability to reschedule an update if your original choice ends up being less convenient than expected), or ‘hit the snooze button.’ The ‘snooze’ capability allows you to pause the update process completely for three days when you need uninterrupted time on your device. In addition, we are widening the ‘Active Hours’ time so Windows doesn’t install an update at times when you want your device to be ready to use.”

[...]

But the Microsoft confessions don’t stop there. In the same blog post Michael Fortin, CVP of Windows and Devices Group Core Quality, also stressed that “new privacy-centric features [are] coming in the Creators Update. This new functionality will make it easier to choose the privacy and diagnostic data collection settings that are best for you.”

Was it just yesterday that I was asking when Microsoft would start correcting course on their Windows 10 bullshit? Apparently these changes will be available to Home users, too, which is another change: previously, this sort of control, however limited, was limited to users with Pro and higher licences.

Kelly notes, and I agree, that this is really just a good first step, and that Microsoft still need to do a lot more, on both fronts, if they want to lure users from Windows 7 to Windows 10. He also asks the obvious question: why now?

Again it’s commendable but this sort of control really should have been in from the start. And what motivated all these about-turns? Cynics will point to the stagnation of Windows 10 adoption since Microsoft began charging for upgrades, but those more forgiving will at least be pleased to see the platform slowly heading in the right direction.

Yes, the high cost of moving to Windows 10 just got a little lower…

Yes, the cost of moving to Windows 10 is ever so slightly lower now. Is it low enough to convince deeply dug in Windows 7 users to make the switch? 

Somehow, I doubt it. 

More than a year and half after launch, over six months after the official end of Windows 10's free giveaway period (although unofficially you can still get Windows 10 for free, if you want to), and after at least a year of unrelentingly bad PR resulting from their own anti-consumer bullshit, I suspect that Microsoft will need to do a lot more than these half-measure to repair the damage done to the relationship with their long-time customers.

So, what do Microsoft need to do?

1. Telemetry needs to be something users can opt out of, completely. After a year and a half of harvesting users' metadata and sharing it with third parties, and without telling us what data they were collecting, why they were collecting that data, specifically, where they were sending it, or who they were sharing it with, there is zero trust on this issue. Ideally, telemetry would be opt-in, and turned off by default, even for Home users.
2. Updates must revert from the current "roll-up" bullshit to the itemized list they used to be, complete with descriptive Knowledge Base articles on each included update item, so that users know what Microsoft is installing on their systems and why. Updates also need to stop reinstalling Microsoft's own bloatware that users had uninstalled, and they need to stop resetting users' privacy and security settings without users' knowledge and explicit consent. Any changes that Microsoft want to make to users' settings as part of an update need to be explained. 
• Also, stop adding the "compatibility" updates (KB 2952664, KB 2976978, KB 2977759, etc.) to Windows 7's update queue. Windows 7 users are using Windows 7 because they do not want to switch to Windows 10, and given how aggressive the GWX campaign was, it's taken no small amount of effort to avoid being switched over. These users aren't just procrastinating, they're actively saying "no!" Take a fucking hint, already, and stop pushing.
3. Cortana must revert to something that users can turn off, if they don't want to use the service. I don't care that Microsoft think this is the big marquee feature of Windows 10. The numbers don't lie; Cortana is not enough to sell Windows 10, and its big-brotherly omnipresence may be keeping users away. 
• Cortana also needs to be able to work with Google and Chrome, rather than being locked to Bing and Edge. Nobody likes Bing, and nobody uses Edge, and it's time to stop trying to make "fetch" happen.
4. Speaking of, which, Microsoft need to stop pushing Edge and Bing on users who have clearly expressed a preference for a competing product, and to stop pushing the Windows Store and the Universal Windows Platform. No more scare-mongering from the start menu or tool bar, and no more pushing Microsoft-branded extensions and add-ons for Chrome from the start menu or tool bar, either.
• It would also help if Microsoft fixed their fucking browser, but that's a secondary issue; more than anything else, Microsoft need to start respecting users' choices, here.
5. The same applies with the Windows 10 Store. Does anybody really believe that Microsoft wanting to lock out Win32 apps and restrict users to the Windows Store is about bloatware? Build a better store, advertise it outside of the OS itself, and maybe the customers will come. But stop trying to push us to your broken storefront. The market has clearly spoken, on this one. Seriously, stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

That's really what all of these points boil down to: respect for Windows' users, respect for their clearly and repeatedly expressed choices and preferences, respect for the fact that PC users clearly intend to go on owning their own machines, and controlling what gets installed on them (and when, from where, and by whom).

Microsoft have been desperate to change the paradigm of Windows from an open, user-controlled one, into a walled garden: a closed ecosystem where control resides exclusively with Microsoft, where the entire PC software marketplace is transmuted into an iPhone-style App Store, and where users will do what Microsoft say, how they say, when they say it. Windows 8 was based around this walled garden approach, and PC users avoided it like the plague. Windows 10 softened the messaging a bit, but its central design philosophy was identical to Windows 8's, and users have clearly rejected it again. 

Microsoft need to recognize that simple reality, and turn Windows 10 into the user-controlled experience that PC users are clearly demanding, and on which they're clearly unwilling to compromise. This latest move looks to be a promising baby step in the right direction, but that's only meaningful if they follow it up with more steps. If this is the only step they're planning to take, if they're just trying to figure out what the absolute minimum is that they can get away with doing, then it's not going to be enough.

Microsoft want you to block non-Windows Store apps from installing on Windows 10

Blocking "side-loading," as normal program installation is now know, was something that Microsoft was wanting to do by default as far back as Windows 8, and originally had done with Windows 10 before public outcry forced them to back down. That was then, though, and this is now, and in the now, the Windows 10 Store is not winning many converts, so Microsoft is apparently planning to re-reverse course on side-loading.

From The Next Web:

It appears Microsoft wants users to start relying on its Windows Store a lot more in the future. The software titan is currently testing a new functionality in Windows 10 that prevents you from installing any desktop apps – unless they come from the official store.

MSPoweruser reports the feature will notify users with a warning anytime they attempt installing desktop apps. The notification will be accompanied by a message reminding users the Windows Store is the only “safe and reliable” place to satisfy your software needs.

While as of now the feature is disabled by default, users can head to the Apps and Feature category in Settings to enable it.

You will have the option to allow or block the installation of Win32 apps altogether, as well as the alternative to give priority to Windows Store apps without blocking standard desktop software – this will likely prompt you to approve installation any time you try running non-store apps.

Actually fixing the Windows 10 Store so it doesn't suck, and fixing UWP so that Universal Apps run at least as well as their Win32 counterparts, apparently aren't options that Microsoft has much interest in doing.

MSPoweruser, by the way, are carrying water for Microsoft on this one, calling this "a brand new feature to Windows that will help prevent installation of bloatware in Windows 10." It isn't either of those things, of course: it's not new, and it's not about bloatware. Because the thing about bloatware is that it comes with the PC, from the factory, or bundled with the OS itself.

You see, OEMs like Compaq and Dell are not installing programs one-by-one on every new PC they sell; they're copying a disk image to each new hard drive from one with everything already installed, and then just activating the new Windows key. Preventing users from installing Win32 apps doesn't slow them down at all. Even disabling Win32 app installation by default woudn't stop the OEMs, who would only need to enable it once, install all their bloatware, and then disable it again, before copying their bloated hard drive image to every new PC they sell.

And Microsoft's own unwanted apps are, naturally, part of Windows, and thus Microsoft certified by default (and probably available from the Windows Store as well, in some cases), so this "new" "feature" doesn't do anything about unwanted Microsoft apps, either.

No, this isn't about bloatware. It's about pushing users to the Windows 10 Store, and while it's very carefully being made opt-in for the moment, don't forget that Windows Update can reset that without your knowledge or consent at any time.

Cue the Tim Sweeney meltdown in 3... 2... 1...

UPDATE:

I'd somehow missed this tidbit about the Windows Store, back when it first surfaced.

From HowToGeek, via Slashdot:

Microsoft’s Windows Store is a mess. It’s full of apps that exist only to scam people and take their money. Why doesn’t Microsoft care that their flagship app store is such a cesspool?

It’s now been more than two years since Windows 8 was released, and this has been a problem the entire time, and it is getting worse. If Microsoft was trying to offer a safe app store to Windows users, they’ve failed.

Update:

Since this article was published and spread around the world, Microsoft has done a lot of cleanup in the Windows Store, removed 1500 scam applications, and has pledged to keep it clean.

We’re happy that they responded and cleaned things up, but only time will tell if they will keep it clean or not. Note: there’s still a lot more scam applications that they haven’t yet removed, so continue to beware until this mess is fully clean.

So... yeah. Maybe keep side-loading enabled for now, and allow users to disable the Windows Store instead. Something which Windows 10 Pro customers used to be able to do, until Microsoft took that control away from them.

Yes, Valve really is serious about fixing Steam

Windows 10's storefront is still struggling to lure users into buying their software through Microsoft, and UWP has been basically awful for the PC gaming experience thus far, but it does appear to be having one significany impact on the PC gaming marketplace. Valve, apparently (and correctly) seeing Windows 10's Store as a direct competitor, have been stepping up to improve their Steam service, in order to better compete.

Tackling CS:GO and TF2 skins gambling and addressing abuses of Steam's user review system were their first steps in the direction of addressing the service's long-standing issues, but the elephant in the room remained: Greenlight. Once a promising program for enabling indie developers to find supporters in the community, Steam Greelight has long since devolved into an open sewer, rife with lazy Unity asset-flips, "games" with no detectable game-play, and scammers. Something has needed to be done for a long time, and some have been advocating for Valve to simply kill Greenlight and replace it with something else.

Well, today Valve announced that they're doing exactly that.

From Kotaku:

After years of saying they’d do it, Valve is finally getting rid of Steam Greenlight, Steam’s user-driven service for admitting smaller games to the Steam store. They’re replacing it with something called Steam Direct.

Here’s how it’ll work:

“We will ask new developers to complete a set of digital paperwork, personal or company verification, and tax documents similar to the process of applying for a bank account. Once set up, developers will pay a recoupable application fee for each new title they wish to distribute, which is intended to decrease the noise in the submission pipeline.”

So basically, no more courting users to get their precious upvotes. Games will instead be admitted directly onto the store. According to VentureBeat, Valve will do a quick check to make sure game files run and contain, well, games, but beyond that, anybody will be able to get onto Steam. It might sound like Valve is asking for an even bigger flood of shitty games than they’re currently dealing with, but they think the current Steam algorithm, bolstered by the two recent Discovery updates, is up to the task of separating the cream from the crap.

Valve added that while Greenlight helped lower the barrier to getting games on Steam, it revealed nasty rot in Steam’ core. “Greenlight also exposed two key problems we still needed to address: improving the entire pipeline for bringing new content to Steam and finding more ways to connect customers with the types of content they wanted,” said Valve.

Some of the important details are still TBA, like the cost to list a game on Steam Direct (anywhere from $100 to $5,000), but very few people will be shedding tears over Greenlight's imminent demise. Stopping the flow of crap into their marketplace can only be a good thing -- even with the details somewhat up in the air, it's hard to see how Steam Direct can be anything but an improvement over the status quo. 

Valve have spent years being infamously unresponsive to community concerns over Greenlight and other issues, but they're clearly awake now, and working to make Steam better, which will make life harder for all of their competitors. Steam basically own PC gaming, right now; it looks like they're finally getting serious about ensuring that they continue to hold onto the loyalty of PC gamers.

Why I don't expect much from Microsoft's new "gaming mode"

I've been seeing reports about this for at least a week, now, and was waiting for Microsoft to confirm its existence before weighing in.

Well, it looks like they've finally confirmed it, according to Softpedia:

Microsoft has officially acknowledged that it’s working on a gaming mode for Windows 10 that would have the operating system prioritize resource allocation for certain processes, while putting less critical ones in standby mode to improve gaming performance.

The recently-released Windows 10 build 15007 came with an early implementation of the so-called Game Mode, but just we told you yesterday, it doesn’t do much at the moment.

After the company remained tight-lipped on its efforts to launch a game mode, a post on the Xbox blog this morning set things straight and officially confirms that such a feature is in the works.

“Our goal is to make Windows 10 the best Windows ever for gaming. With the Creators Update, we’re introducing a new feature called Game Mode,” Microsoft says.

“Windows Insiders will start seeing some of the visual elements for Game Mode this week, with the feature being fully operational in builds shortly thereafter. Our vision is for Game Mode to optimize your Windows 10 PC for increased performance in gaming. This is a big update for Windows; we’re looking forward to Insiders getting their hands on this new feature for further testing, and we’ll have much more to share on what it is and how it works soon, so stayed tuned.”

So, what does this really mean for gamers?

First, you can expect this to affect UWP games only.

Seriously, I'll bet money on this: Game Mode will optimize for UWP only, and not be accessible for normal executables like you get from, e.g., Steam. Since UWP games currently perform worse than their Steam (or Origin, or BNet, or UPlay, or GOG) counterparts pretty much across the board, this won't mean boosted performance for games in Windows 10 so much as long-overdue parity between native UWP games and games bought from other platforms.

You can expect this to make little difference, if any, to how PC gamers buy their games.

It might help sales of Microsoft titles launched on Windows 10, but since it won't affect Steam games at all, don't expect gamers to abandon Steam for the Windows 10 Store for their game purchases. Microsoft dropped the ball when it came to the UWP gaming experience, resulting in bad experiences for most of the native UWP titles released to date, from missing functionality and sub-par performance in games like Quantum Break to miserable sales and resulting non-functional multiplayer in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. That bad taste won't be going away anytime soon.

Since Game Mode isn't going to improve Steam users' gaming experience with the Steam games they already own and play, most of them probably won't even notice the difference. And since most of those same users are already thoroughly turned off the Windows 10 store already after a number of sub-par or outright terrible game purchasing experiences, I'm not expecting them to stampede to the Windows 10 Store in order to buy native UWP games with which to test Windows 10's new Mode.

Don't expect developers to start developing native UWP versions of games.

With gamers reluctant to drop cash on native UWP versions of new games, developers will have little, if any, incentive to spend extra money making and optimizing native UWP ports of their titles. It's much easier and cheaper to use the Centennial Bridge to simply put a UWP wrapper around a Windows 7/8 executable in order to get it on the Windows 10 store front; and since Game Mode isn't going to optimize performance for anything except native UWP games (seriously, count on it), games ported over via the Bridge won't benefit.

This was part of Microsoft's UWP strategy, remember: the extra cost of developing native-UWP software was supposed to combine with the year-long free giveaway of Windows 10 to push developers into developing native UWP games at the expense of Windows 7/8 (i.e. Steam) versions, making the UWP marketplace larger and thus more attractive to developers wanting to maximize profit while minimizing costs. Bur Windows 10 Mobile was a big part of that, and subsequently failed to happen, while GWX turned Windows 7 & 8 users off completely, meaning that UWP only reaches 25% of the PC market, and isn't actually a better bet than just releasing a normal executable.

Add in UWP's gaming-specific issues, and you get a failure to launch in spite of Windows 10's remarkable penetration of the Steam user base (well above its share of the PC market as a whole), and a pretty clear sign of how badly Microsoft have fucked this up. Most Steam users are using Windows 10, but very few of them seem to be using the Windows 10 Store for their gaming purchases, and even those few are only using Microsoft's storefront to buy Microsoft-published games. The only developers who aren't going to Steam, i.e. where the players are, are those who are trying to push players to their own, competing, storefronts; EA is unlikely to promote Microsoft's walled Windows 10 garden over their own Origin service.

Bottom line:

Unless Microsoft make Game Mode optimization available to non-UWP games, don't expect Game Mode to have much of an impact on the games you play, or the way you buy games in future. That makes Game Mode a nothingburger -- a weaksauce feature that Microsoft is bringing to the table a good year and a half too late to make any difference.

UPDATE:

It might be a good thing that nobody took me up on that bet, because Microsoft are now saying that Game Mode will work with both Win32 and UWP games, at least according to Racing Junky:

Microsoft just revealed everything identified with gaming that is expected with the Creators Update. They began with the rumored Windows 10 Game Mode. Mike Ybarra, Head of Platform Engineering for Xbox, affirmed that Game Mode will be accessible for both Win32 and UWP games.

Mike Ybarra likewise said that upgrades to the Windows Store, still disliked by numerous gamers, are accompanying this release and others later on. As per the blog entry, Windows Insiders will begin seeing the principal visual components (likely UI related) of Game Mode in an upgrade coming soon. Furthermore, the element will turn out to be completely operational in consequent forms. It will likely improve execution while gaming. Microsoft didn’t give more subtle hints on how it intends to accomplish that objective. Be that as it may, they said all of it will be talked about soon.

Whether Microsoft can still convince gamers to ditch Steam for the Windows 10 Store remains to be seen (although I think it's unlikely), but the UWP gaming experience certainly needs a lot of work, and if Game Mode improves the experience for Steam &c. gamers as well, then it might have more of an impact than I'm expecting.

Of course, it may just kill non-UWP game streaming at the same time, if it undermines all background applications in favour of the game in the foreground, so I'm still not completely sold, but I'm now a little more interested in what the details will ultimately end up being. Because the devil is in the details, and Microsoft have a long history of failing at the details of PC gaming, going all the way back to Games for Windows Live.

Other reasons not to get too excited about Game Mode being enabled for Win32 games:

1. Win32 might only mean XBox 360 backwards-compatible titles through Play Anywhere, and not 64-bit Windows 7 & 8 titles through Steam; in order to include current-gen Steam titles, Game Mode will also need to apply to Win64;
2. I've been unable to find a 2nd source quoting Mike Ybarra's supposed confirmation of Win32's inclusion in Game Mode;
3. Mike Ybarra is the head of platform engineering for XBox, and not directly responsible for PC;
4. The Game Mode feature is still under development, so many of its details are still To Be Determined.

If Game Mode works for Win32 games, and if it improves performance for, e.g., Steam gamers, without undermining their ability to stream games to the likes of Twitch, then it could be a good thing for gamers. But if it just turns PC gaming into a more restrictive, XBox-like experience, then it could be every bit the nothingburger that I'm currently anticipating.

Your move, Microsoft. You've disappointed me over and over again for the last two years, so my expectations are pretty low, here. Time to impress me, and other users and gamers like me.

Microsoft will try again to unify Windows 10 & XBox gaming

From neowin:

For years now, Microsoft has been diligently working on a strategy to converge its gaming ecosystems on Xbox and Windows. Though we’ve seen bits and pieces of these efforts show up, it won’t be until the launch of Xbox Scorpio next year, when the company’s vision fully comes to life.

The company’s struggles and strategy to bring together Xbox and Windows gaming are bundled together in a single strand, codenamed Project Helix. Originally publicized by Kotaku earlier this year, Project Helix involves creating one platform, that allows easy access and performant tools for developers to craft games, while giving varied choices and mobility to the player base to move around in the ecosystem.

If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because you might be thinking of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). That’s the runtime that Microsoft developed for all of its Windows ecosystems, which has largely the same mission statement as Project Helix. And that’s by no means an accident, seeing as the UWP is an integral part of the company’s gaming ambitions.

Yes, it looks like Helix = UWP 2.0. The fact that UWP already needs a 2.0 should tell you just how badly it's failing. So far, UWP is Games for Windows Live all over again; Microsoft seems to be banking on Helix, and the Scorpio console that will be the de facto standard for XBox going forward, to turn this trend around, but I have my doubts.

Or, as neowin put it:

The unified ecosystem will all be based around the UWP platform and run through the Windows Store, though XDK will still be highly important. As this comes to pass, Microsoft will finally have a unified, integrated ecosystem, capable of sustaining its users across all platforms.

Whether this succeeds in any meaningful way in the market remains to be seen. Steam is still the dominant platform on PC, and for good reason. Microsoft’s recent missteps with the launch of the latest Call of Duty as a Universal app, have highlighted the nascent platform’s weakness. If users continue to ignore the Windows Store and Microsoft fails to entice them, Project Helix may be little more than an technical achievement. But you don’t get any Gs for trying.

With Steam now working hard to improve their service, and thus retain their customers' trust and loyalty, Microsoft's hill just got tougher to climb, and the steady drip of UWP failures like CoD will only make that harder. The fact that Microsoft is doubling down on a strategy that isn't working now is probably a solid sign of them not having a plan B, either.

Microsoft keep trying to "integrate" everything inside of their walled garden, with them as gatekeepers and sole arbiters of what will (and won't) be allowed on users' PCs, but it's becoming increasingly clear that PC users mostly don't want that, just like they didn't want it in Windows 8. Unless Microsoft stop trying to be Apple, and stop trying to make Windows 10 into iOS, they're going to continue to struggle with this.

Well, that answers that question

Gamers are just about the only group of Windows PC users who've mostly switched to Windows 10, with only a little grumbling. I suspected that this was mainly because gamers are used to being shit on by the big corporations in their lives, and just sort of rolled with it when Microsoft did the same. They weren't jazzed about Windows 10, and they weren't planning to switch from Steam to the Windows Store for their gaming purchases -- they were just convinced that Microsoft was going to find a way to force Windows 10 on them anyway, so they got the switch over with.

Well, today, we got a pretty clear demonstration of that being exactly what's happened. Our case study: Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

From Motherboard:

Every year, Activision releases another Call of Duty and gamers across the world scramble to get their hands on the new shooter. Fans love the single player campaign, but the game’s polished, fun, and fast-paced multiplayer mode is the real draw.

Of course, it only works if you have other people to play with. A few gamers who bought Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare through the digital storefront built into Windows 10 have discovered they can only play with other gamers who also bought the game from Microsoft. Xbox One players can only play with other Xbox One players, and PlayStation 4 players can only play with other PlayStation 4 players. This has always been the case. The trouble is that this time not all PC players can play with other PC players. For unknown reasons, Windows 10 Store customers are segregated from customers who bought the game from Steam, which is by far the most popular platform on PC.

That’s like buying a game from Target and learning you can’t play with people who bought it from Best Buy. Call of Duty fans who made the unfortunate of mistake of giving Microsoft their cash are left sitting in lonely multiplayer lobbies waiting for games that’ll never start.

However, it appears that Microsoft is giving out refunds.

Microsoft is doing everything they can to promote the idea of cross-play between different Windows 10 platforms, so this is mostly likely a decision by Activision, but even so, it means that implementing cross-play between different Windows PC versions was so problematic that a developer with Activision's resources didn't bother doing it for something as important to them as this year's CoD.

That's not a good sign for the Universal Windows Platform initiative. The fact that not enough Windows 10 users bought the game from the Windows 10 store to make a multiplayer mode viable, in spite of the fact that there are at least 60 million of them (they're over half of Steam's 125M user base, remember), is also not a good sign for UWP.

Good on Redmond for giving refunds for this, but still, it has to be a double-plus un-good sign of something when the most "enthusiastic" (I use the term very lightly, here) Windows 10 users are avoiding the Windows 10 as if it's leprous, or something. Microsoft really needs to give this strategy a sober second look.

UPDATE: CoD's Infinite Warfare fiasco isn't doing Activision any good, either.

It's currently being outsold by Farming Simulator 17. Ouch.

From Destructoid:

Is this the end for Call of Duty?

That's right, Farming Simulator 17, a game about being a modern farmer and driving expensive tractors is currently destroying the just-released Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare on Steam, at least numbers wise. According to Steam's own stats, Farming Simulator 17 is number 23 on the top 100 games list (at the time of writing) with 26,044 players today, while Infinite Warfare is number 36 with over 10,000 less at 15,436 players. Obviously not a terrible debut for most games, but pretty bad for one of the world's most popular series, at least on PC.

Farming Simulator 17 has been out for weeks, of course, and has a much lower price point, both of which will be helping its sales, but still... this is CoD we're talking about here. Up until Ghosts, Activision's flagship franchise reliably brought in a billion dollars of revenue for the company with every annual release, but now... 36th??? With performance like that, Activision may well stop making CoD games, or at least scale back to bi-annual releases the way Ubisoft is doing with Assassin's Creed.

Reminder: UWP is a broken mess, especially for gaming

Seriously, I couldn't make this shit up.

From polygon:

Maybe don’t buy Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare from the Windows 10 Store

Windows Store copies don’t play nice with other platforms

Call of Duty players who purchase a PC copy of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered from the Windows Store on Windows 10 won’t be able to play with people on other platforms, like Steam, according to an update on Activision’s support website.

Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered won’t support cross-platform play between Windows PC and Xbox One — the titles aren’t part of Microsoft’s Xbox Play Anywhere program. That’s not much of a surprise; the majority of Xbox Play Anywhere supported titles are developed or published by Microsoft.

More surprising, however, is the lack of cross-platform compatibility on PC. Buying the games for Windows 10 from the Windows Store will apparently restrict players from playing with PC gamers who purchase it elsewhere. From Activision’s support website, via NeoGAF:

Can I play Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered for Windows 10 on Windows Store with my friends that are playing on another PC platform?

No, you can only play these titles with other users of Windows 10 on Windows Store.

Q: Why would anyone buy games from the Windows 10 Store? They always seem to have some weird issue that the Steam/Windows 7 version just doesn't have, and they're never better.

I stand by my theory of yesterday: Steam users may have mostly switched to Windows 10, but it's not out of any great love of Windows 10. They all just figured they'd be forced to switch anyway, so they got it over with. They're not loving the new OS, they're not loving Universal Windows Apps, they're not loving the Windows 10 Store's offerings, and shit like this is not helping to change any of that.

Windows 7, 8, and 10 all gained market share in October

Last month, tech bloggers were gobsmacked when Windows 10 actually lost market share, while Windows 7 and Linux both gained. Well, NetMarketShare's October stats are out, and the good news for Microsoft is that Windows 10 has managed to tick upwards slightly, as has Windows overall, with Linux & MacOS both ticking downwards, and Windows XP finally falling behind Windows 8.1.

The bad news for Redmond's strategy is that Windows 7 & 8.1 are also up, and both are up by more than Windows 10.

Here are September's stats:

And here are October's: 

Listings of 0.00% or less are not included.

October was the last month when Windows 7 & 8.1 PCs would be available for sale, and Windows PC sales overall have been flat for some time now, so it might not be much of a surprise to some that the older Windows versions had a strong showing this month, but the big takeaway for Microsoft appears to be clear: whatever their Windows 10 strategy might be, it isn't working.

I'll update this post with any reactions to the month's market share stats (as soon as there are some), and I'm also watching for updated Steam Software Survey numbers (Windows 10 lost ground to Windows 7 there last month, too, so it'll be interesting to see if that trend continues), but right now, I'm most interested to see what Microsoft does next. 

MS removes over half of the apps from Win10's store [UPDATED]

From MSPowerUser:

Earlier this year, Microsoft sent out emails to Windows developers, warning them that they would be removing apps from the Windows Store which did not update their apps to include new app age ratings.

That process only started a few weeks ago, but according to WindowsBlogItalia has already removed 100,000 apps, at least in the Italian version of the store, with the number of apps dropping from 329507 apps on the 26 September 2016 to 239216 apps on the 19th October 2016.

...

While it is often hard to separate apps which are genuinely abandoned, vs apps when have not been updated for a long time but are still being monitored by the developers to fix new bugs etc., most would consider developers who do not respond to Microsoft’s warnings as no longer interested in the fate of their app.

When the makers of 100,000 apps can't be arsed to spend five minutes adding an age rating, it's probably fair to say that they aren't exactly excited about Microsoft's UWP vision.

MSPU try to spin this as good for the Windows Store in the longer term, but seeing the number of apps in their Store dropping, rather than rising, probably wasn't something that Microsoft was hoping to see, or expecting to see, just over a year in. If those apps had been selling, then their developers would've taken the time to update them; clearly, though, for 100K of them, the lost units of sales from the Windows 10 Store wasn't significant enough to worry about.

In other news, Microsoft have finally patched Centennial/desktop bridge so that non-UWP apps that get ported to the app store won't brick your PC anymore, so that should help, but still... total apps dropping by 100K isn't exactly a sign of a thriving ecosystem.

UPDATE: It appears those first 100,000 apps were just the beginning.

From Softpedia:

A few hours ago, we told you that Microsoft removed approximately 100,000 apps from the Windows Store because they had no age ratings, but it turns out that the number is actually bigger than that.

According to a report that was published in German media, Microsoft actually pulled half of the Windows Store apps, at least from the German Store, as part of the same cleaning process.

It appears that the number of apps available for download experienced a dramatic drop from 328,639 to 164,436, which means that no less than 174,203 apps were removed because of the age rating rule.

The affected apps didn't include any of the "big names," and de-listing an app only removes it from the Store, leaving it installed on PCs, so it may be a while before the change would normally become noticeable to the average user. Still, when over half the apps on your year-old storefront are "orphans" whose developers don't care enough fill out a five-minute questionnaire to keep them up for sale, its a pretty clear sign that your ecosystem is far from healthy, and the problem is clearly worse than anyone expected.

Microsoft's crisis of confusion

While writing my previous blog post, I found my way to another op/ed by John Brandon at Computer World, which is also well worth a read:

Microsoft is a gargantuan company.

They have 114,000 employees. They make a popular gaming console, the only viable operating system used by more people than anyone by far, and have their toes dipped in every conceivable market segment, from consumer chatbots to social media for business. There’s no question the company competes easily with Apple and Google for the top crown of all technology, assuming you can forgive them for Windows 8.

Yet, they have a major problem in the age of immediate access from anywhere. Bowing out of the smartphone market is not as troubling as a much more serious issue related to usability: Microsoft has a crisis of confusion.

Here’s a good example. Let’s say you want to play the game Gears of War 4 on your PC. Anyone who pre-ordered the game for Xbox One can play starting today, and Play Anywhere means you can download the game on Windows for free. But where do you find it? You can search using the Xbox app, but that doesn’t work. You can try going to Microsoft.com or Xbox.com and checking there, but that doesn’t work, either. In fact, the only way to find the game is through a rat’s nest. You have to go to the Windows store app, login with your Xbox account (not your Windows account), and then click a tiny avatar icon. (By the way, this icon is for Windows, not for Xbox.) There’s an option called My Library in that menu, but it’s not a tab on the main screen. Then, you have to select all apps, because only a few are listed. Finally, you find the game.

[...]

This maze of confusion is just as startling if you try to figure out how to use a new app like Microsoft MyAnalytics, which is designed for personal productivity data. Hashtag irony. It doesn’t help at all that the name used to be Delve Analytics. How do you get the app? Don’t ask me, I have no idea. It’s included for free in something called the Office 365 E5 plan and in the Office 365 enterprise suite. I’m pretty sure Office 365 is an estimate on the number of days you need to allocate to figuring this all out.

[...]

It makes me wonder if anyone at Microsoft ever thinks about making the ecosystem work better. In other words, more like the one for Apple and Google. If I own Gears of War 4, and if the price includes dual platform support on Windows and Xbox, I shouldn’t have to figure out which icons to click. For a massive, iconic company like Microsoft to stay massive and iconic in the coming age of immediate mobile access, they will have to figure out how to make this work smoother. On a desktop, you click around until you find the right option. On a mobile device while you’re waiting for an Uber to show up, you don’t have time. Things either work right away or you move on.

Microsoft, are you listening?

No, John Brandon, I don't think they are. In fact, I think that all of Microsoft's problems in the last year can be explained up by Microsoft not listening: not to users' privacy concerns about Windows 10; nor to users' clearly and often-expressed wishes to not upgrade to Windows 10 in the first place; nor to users' desires to control their PCs' privacy settings and update cycle; nor to users' desire to install updates individually, rather than in a single, monthly, inadequately-tested and bug-ridden lump.

Microsoft is a gargantuan company, and they clearly think that being that large means that they can do whatever the fuck they want, regardless of what their customers want or need. Only time will tell whether or not they're right about that; whether or not they really are too big to actually fail. As someone who's been actively rooting for them to fail for months, now, I'm hoping that Microsoft are wrong about this; I'm hoping that their cavalier attitude towards what their customers are clearly telling them results in more lost market share for their flagship product. Either way, we'll know in a few weeks.

I do need to correct Mr. Brandon on one point: Microsoft may make the most viable desktop (and laptop) OS, but they don't make the OS "used by more people than anyone by far." Since 2015, Google's Android has had the largest installed base of all operating systems (OS) of any kind; it's been the best selling OS on tablets since 2013, and it's dominant by every metric on smartphones. As Brandon himself notes, the mobile market counts, and Microsoft isn't even a player there, let alone the dominant player.

Brandon's entire piece is still well worth reading, though, so go give the man some clicks.