Since I installed PowerToys[0] and activated Run, I barely use the taskbar to start any program. It works like alt+f2 on Ubuntu, which is the experience I find most useful.
Powertoys feels like one arm of Microsoft to fix windows’ shortcomings due to the other arm via an independent app rather than fixing the actual component because doing so is too fraught with politics and incentives.
So Microsoft does know how to fix the problems with Windows, but simply chooses not to because of internal politics? Because I keep wondering how such a big, well-established company full of smart people can create such a piece of crap as their flagship product.
I wasn't speaking to the quality of their decision making. A lot of their new UI fails to satisfy anything but the simplest of use cases but I'm sure it took a very long time and lots of meetings for it to get approved and deployed.
The Frankenstein period of old/new settings UI coexisting is further evidence of how painful ripping out OS functionality can be. I doubt anyone wanted to keep those dialogs around.
If you look at it from their incentives (serving you adds, getting you to use their products over competitor's, etc...) then it makes sense. Uniformity and Usability appears to be a secondary concern.
> This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows.
Thats all I get in the project description.
How can I find out more on what it does without installing it? If Raymon Chen blogs about some "desktop enhancement software", it must be popular, at least among powerusers/devs.
It failed once recently after an system update. Blank desktop with no shell. Had to ctrl-shift-esc and manually download latest `ep_setup.exe` and run it to get the desktop back. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20230324-00/?p=10... Raymond did not point out which "desktop enhancement software" it was but I suspect this is it.
> We have to hope that enough of the users whose systems are crashing realize that it’s due to the “shell enhancement” program (rather than blaming Windows itself, which is the more likely case)
I would 100% blame Windows (or Microsoft, rather) for making the shell so awful that people have to resort to these tactics.
You can't cripple the steering wheel on a car and then blame people for not finding perfect aftermarket substitutes.
>Unfortunately, these patchers also cause Windows customer satisfaction numbers to plunge every time an update goes out,
I've refused/blocked updates for as long as I remember since long before Explorer patchers were a thing, because updates break my shit and waste my fucking time.
I've had more of my time and nerves wasted by updates breaking my shit than "all the bad guys trying to take advantage of unpatched systems". Saying my system is "insecure" is concentrated snake oil.
Seriously, fuck updates with a rusty spork.
I only run Windows Updates once a year or two when I've set aside a few days to work out all the inevitable borkages, and I damn well like it that way. My computer is a tool and an appliance, not a mentally ill schizophrenic who changes their personality every hour.
but i'm afraid that your computer is indeed a 'mentally ill schizophrenic' which is here to stay, because fixing it would shift the focus/blame back to the operators.
Ah I miss the youth. Now that my PC holds passwords to all of my accumulated wealth, even a tiny risk of being owned is not something that I’ll live with, if it can be prevented.
For me, once a day it crashes Explorer.exe which promptly restarts by itself and life carries on without harm. Takes one or two seconds to rebuild the taskbar when it happens and it's fun to watch.
No data is lost. No program closes. It just restarts the taskbar process.
[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/