The big TPCR Windows 10 TP feedback thread

I finally after several days installed the Windows 10 TP on a virtual machine and I thought I'd post some impressions here. I could also use the feedback tool and talk to MS, but where would be the fun in that?

First observations:

- On the new start menu: I find seeing tiles that I cannot scroll to be kind of claustrophobic. Howsabout the little tile pane becomes scrollable, as if it's its own start screen? For that sweet WP8.1 feel, make it a vertical scroll. Allow us to use the scroll wheel to pan through the tile menu whenever the menu is open.

- I find it disorienting that Win-C opens the charms bar, except when a Modern app is open, in which case the app opens its own bling menu (or whatever weird name MS are going to give that one)

- I find the appearance of the alt-tab menu a bit jarring. For continuity it would be nice if they animated the open windows to swoosh into their lineup position on the alt-tab screen.

- As I suggested elsewhere, please don't take away the left-swipe to switch apps gesture. That thing's a beauty. It allowed you to flip from email to NYTimes to NGReader while never taking your hands off the tablet. With the new switcher (swipe to reveal alt-tab menu) you need to lift .. your .. hand .. to .. tap . ugh!

- As a workaround (also suggested elsewhere), keep 'swipe from top to close', but allow us to pause halfway the screen to reveal the task switcher. Lots of thinking to be done on this one to make sure desktop and tablet users could work with this.

- I really like the subtle shadow around the active window, but maybe along the top and bottom they could take it down a notch. It's bordering on looking smudged. (pun noted)

- Isn't it time that Windows would introduce some multitouch gestures? Two finger swipe from the edge to switch desktops? Four finger swipe on the screen to switch desktop? Four finger swipe up to show the start screen?

- Once the user sets an app to full screen, keep using it full screen unless actively changed. Even after rebooting. As it is, Modern UI apps come out of full screen when you so much as blink.

- I'd like to be able to close Modern UI apps with Alt-F4. Is there a 'close' shortcut? There are some nice new shortcuts available though.

- Boy do I miss touch snap. I often touch grab the Chrome title bar and swipe up to maximize. Doesn't work in Win10 TP, as others also noted.

- I can't wait for Cortana to show up on the TP. Once you've set up reminders with Cortana on WP8.1 you really want to be able to do the same on a much more powerful machine.

- I really like that search from the start menu gives a good ole' list of results. For some reason though, if I type pdf in the search box, only two files are shown at the top of the search results pane, even though many more pdfs are present. I'd like to resize the local search results section on the search pane.

- It's a bit inconsistent that right-swipe win leads to the start menu (not start screen), while right-swipe search leads to the search pane on the right. Shouldn't that open the search app or the start menu? Personally I'd like it if right-swipe win woudl open the start screen. Who other than tablet mode users would right-swipe?

- Whoohoo! Suggested words along the top of the touch keyboard!

And to wrap up, I think it's a smart move to bring back some semblance of the old start menu, and to have a grandpa-safe mode (none of these weird full screen apps, and a shutdown button!). I do wonder what they'll do with the tile layout. Two completely independent layouts for Start Menu and Start Screen?


Posted from Chrome Desktop on Windows 10 Tech Preview Build 9841

 

I just tried this out in the tech preview, and at least for now, the start menu tile layout is completely independent from the start screen layout. Makes sense to me. On the desktop I'd actually like to have only a single column with five key tiles visible, but it looks like the minimum width is 'wide', i.e. two medium tiles side by side.

Unrelated, is anyone else having trouble with the feedback tool? Whenever I start typing a suggestion, it can't connect to show me similar threads. Also, is there a place where we can see the stream of feedback? The feedback app states that this can be publicly posted, but I don't think the suggestions typed in the feedback tool go to the Win10TP forum. Are suggestions from within the feedback tool only for internal MS use?

 

The only place to see the stream of feedback is within the feedback app. I have the same issue with searching occasionally... it worked right at first but lately hasn't been (though I don't use Windows 10 as my daily OS so I'm only trying every couple days). But you should be able to scroll through and see some (all?) of the feedback posted in a category.

 

I think this is a really good idea:

http://www.neowin.net/news/with-gad...hould-give-us-pinned-live-tiles-in-windows-10

Can someone submit this via the feedback tool?

(Courtesy of NeoWin site)

 

It's already on uservoice, you can vote for it here:
https://windows.uservoice.com/forum...me-to-pin-interactive-live-tiles-on-the-deskt
I'd be surprised if they did it, but then again, I'm also surprised they have a non-scrollable tiles section on the start menu.

 

Joe: Thanks for the lead; I navigated over there and made my voice heard!