How Windows 10 Makes It Harder For You To Use Non-Microsoft Apps
WEB BROWSING. EMAIL. CALENDAR. MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10
DEFAULTS TO MICROSOFT’S OWN CHOICES, AND MAKES IT HARDER FOR NON-MICROSOFT APPS
TO COMPETE.
Most Windows users
don’t use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser (or "Edge," in
Windows 10), which means at some point they checked a little box to use Chrome
or Firefox as a default, so it would automatically open email and web links.
Now, Mozilla CEO Chris
Beard has issued an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, pointing out
that Windows 10 has made it harder to change apps away from Microsoft’s new
Edge browser in an update that also makes it harder to switch from Microsoft’s
default mail and calendar apps.
As he explains
in his letter:
We appreciate that it’s still technically
possible to preserve people’s previous settings and defaults, but the design of
the whole upgrade experience and the default settings APIs have been changed to
make this less obvious and more difficult. It now takes more than twice the
number of mouse clicks, scrolling through content and some technical
sophistication for people to reassert the choices they had previously made in
earlier versions of Windows. It’s confusing, hard to navigate and easy to get
lost.
Namely, companies like
Mozilla can no longer automatically preserve user defaults between a Windows 8
to Windows 10 upgrade. It’s up to the user to make those choices in the menu
system.
But worse still,
Microsoft has added a strange, second level of complexity to change any app to
a Windows 10 default app. Now, you not only check the old "make this app
my default" box that we’ve known for years. From that dialog, you’re then ushered
to a special settings menu with all of Microsoft's app defaults. And here’s the
kicker: Even though the user has already chosen to switch a non-Microsoft app
to their default, they need to re-select it again from a list.
See the full process
in action here:
The Verge speculates that the update could have benefits to
security, but Microsoft made no mention of such in their contentless statementthey’ve offered in response
to Beard’s letter.
While decisions around
default web browsers and other apps might seem like a very small quibble of
design, this particular topic has gotten Microsoft in trouble in the past with
both the U.S. and U.K., when they prevented computer manufacturers from
pre-installing web browsers that would compete with its own Explorer.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3049308/design-crime/how-windows-10-makes-it-harder-for-non-microsoft-apps-to-compete?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-codesign&position=1&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=08032015
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