Tag: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Article

Edit URL item in Favourites context menu

Windows 10 Tip: Edit any URL in your Microsoft Edge Favorites | Windows Experience Blog

My Comments

A situation that can affect many Web users is to have a “favourites” or “bookmarks” list with out-of-date links in it. This can be brought about by a Website moving to a new domain or its link directory being reorganised. The latter situation can be brought about due to implementation of a new content-management system or substantial renovations to the site layout.

Most Web browsers have the ability for you to edit a Web address in the Favourites or Bookmarks list, typically through you right-clicking on a link, selecting an “Edit” option, and manually editing the Web address.

But the Microsoft Edge Web browser that is part of Windows 10 didn’t have this kind of in-place editing functionality. It was in a vain attempt to achieve a reduced-clutter user experience for viewing Web pages on your Windows 10 computer. This would have caused you to navigate to the resource’s new location, add it as a Favourite then delete the old reference from the Favourites list.

Microsoft has added in-place link editing to their Edge browser that is delivered with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update onwards. Now what you can do is to right-click on the resource’s link in your Favourites list, then select “Edit URL” in the context menu to make the Weblink for the resource editable.

If you are using a touch-only arrangement like a 2-in-1 convertible laptop in a “tablet”, “presentation viewer” or “tent” position, you need to dwell your finger or stylus on the Web resource’s link until a square or circle appears, then remove your finger to expose this context menu. There are some stylus implementations that may have a button that you use to enable the context menu.

But now you can revise that Web link in Microsoft Edge’s Favourites list without having to add the new link then delete the old link.

Articles

Windows Paint – here to stay but will be available through Windows Store

Microsoft Paint isn’t dead yet, will live in the Windows Store for free | The Verge

Classic MS Paint is coming to the Windows Store, for FREE! | Windows Central

From the horse’s mouth

Microsoft

Windows Experience Blog

My Comments

Recently the computer press has been awash with articles that Microsoft was killing the Paint app that always came with Windows since 1.0 . But they are keeping it available for Windows users to continue working with by allowing them to download it for free from the Windows Store.

The Paint app was simply a basic bitmap-driven graphics editor that allowed users to get used to using a mouse for creating computer graphics. It was based on ZSoft’s PC Paintbrush which was the PC’s answer to the various baseline graphics editors that came with every mouse-driven graphical user interface since 1984 when that kind of computing came on board with the Apple Macintosh.

This app ended up being the answer for any basic computer-graphics work at home or in the office, whether it be children creating computer drawings through to designers creating rough prototypical images of what they are designing in the office. I have infact used Paint as part of creating screenshots for this Website by editing the various screenshots whether to redact private information or to call out particular menu options that I am talking about in the accompanying article. This was thanks to an easier learning curve that this software implemented from Day 1.

A common fear that I would have expressed in relation to the press coverage about Microsoft abandoning or paying less attention to Paint and other bundled or cost-effective graphics tools (remember PhotoDraw?) is that they could end up stripping down their application-software portfolio of titles seen to be less valuable. Then they would just focus their efforts on the popular premium business software like the “Office” essentials such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

At least those of you who buy a computer with Windows 10 Fall (Autumn) Creators Update in situ don’t have to miss that basic Paint app because it’s not delivered “out of the box”. Rather they can raid the Windows Store and find this app.

But could this be the path for evergreen software that was always distributed for free as a standalone package or with operating systems like graphics or sound editors by the major operating-system vendors?

Article

There is the risk of over-promising and under-delivering when there is a short time between major operating system updates

Where do we stand with features for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update? | Supersite Windows

My Comments

An increasing trend for regular-computer and mobile operating systems is for them to be updated on a regular basis along the model of “software-as-a-service”.

With this model, the companies behind these operating systems will typically license the operating system with new hardware, but not require the user to pay to acquire newly-developed functionality. It is in conjunction with making sure that all bugs and security exploits are removed from the system.

A problem that has been found with this method of delivery is that it can be easy to over-promise and under-deliver as what Microsoft commonly does. This has shown up more so with the Fall Creator’s Update of Windows 10 where Microsoft removed Windows Timeline and Cloud-Powered Clipboard, two highly-promised features, from the feature list for that update.

What is underscored here is the frequency of major updates that add significant amounts of functionality to an operating system, along with calling out the promised improvements for these updates. Apple and Google implement a yearly cycle when it comes to delivering major operating-system updates that are about adding extra features while Microsoft undertakes this on a six-monthly basis.

The advantage of the long lead-time that Apple and Google run with is that they can deliver on their promises by writing in the code and subjecting it to a long debug and optimisation cycle including delivering it in publicly-available beta-test packages. This is conversant with Microsoft calling out features for a major functionality update and having to have all of them work to expectation by the time the update is considered “feature complete”.

But how can Microsoft and others who implement the short lead times for major functionality updates avoid the issue of over-promising? Here they could announce that some features are being destined for the upcoming functionality update while others are being destined for the subsequent update.

Similarly, they could deliver the functionality in an “out-of-band” form such as free-to-install apps provided through the platform’s app store, a practice Google is undertaking with the Android platform. In the case of functionality dependent on a particular peripheral class, it may be delivered as part of the onboarding process that the operating system performs when that peripheral is connected for the first time.

Personally, I would like to see some effort put towards fine-tuning the peripheral and network interface software code to encourage more “driver-free” peripheral connectivity that occurs in a secure stable manner to the latest specifications for that device class.

What is being highlighted here is the risk of over-promising and under-delivering when it comes to delivering major functionality updates for an operating system.

Articles 

Windows 10 preview build protects your files from ransomware | Engadget

Windows 10 will hide your important files from ransomware soon | The Verge

Microsoft previews new ransomware protection feature | Bit-Tech

From the horse’s mouth

Microsoft

Windows Experience blog post

My Comments

If you have heard the news over the last few month, you will have heard about ransomware activity in the form of the WannaCry and Petya ransomware variants getting at major installations including the NHS and the Victorian traffic-camera infrastructure.

But Microsoft has attacked this problem in a different way by providing application-level control for the next major update for Windows 10 – the Fall Creator’s Update. It is part of refining the Windows Defender security software that is part of the operating system for improved business-tier data security.

It is a very similar process to what Android and iOS do in relation to allowing the user to control what apps have access to what resources and features on their smartphone or tablet. It is also in contrast to how regular-computer operating systems work when it comes to controlling the level of access granted to a computer’s file system, where users or groups of users are typically granted particular levels of access to folders or files.

Here, once you enable the Controlled Folder Access function, applications can’t add, modify or delete files in folders where this control exists unless the app is part of a user-defined whitelist.  The routine for adding an app to the whitelist will be very similar to what you do on your iPhone or Android phone when it comes to allowing that app you newly downloaded to have access to a particular resource on your smartphone and could occur during installation or when you first use that app after enabling Controlled Folders.

By default, this feature would be enabled for the Documents, Desktop, Pictures and Videos folder trees but you can enable this feature for other folders such as “ad-hoc” work folders created on the system disk or other fixed storage on your system. I am not sure is this is also to apply to removable storage like USB hard disks, USB memory keys or SD cards, or whether this can also apply to network and online storage like your NAS shares or your Dropbox folder.

A question that can also be raised is whether the Controlled Folder feature will also provide a way to limit access to other system resources by apps. Here, it could range from access to network and Internet resources to prevent spyware from “phoning home” or to limit access to your computer’s Webcam and microphone to limit use of these resources as a surveillance tool.