Switched to windows 10 a month or so ago just for ease of use with video games and mods. Man does windows suck ass. Wants to open random web pages, use dumb AI tools and give me useless info on every empty inch of screen space . At the end of the day it works but quality of life is low.
it needs to check your license and onedrive files for DRM compliance. every click
I had to test it. That is wild.
ExplorerPatcher https://github.com/valinet
Been using it for a few months, quite happy. Does not seem to spike CPU with my settings
My pc "spikes" from 6% to 11% but was only noticeable when I raised the update speed to high
Is that the spiking, and are other people seeing more?
Yeah, about 5-6%.
Oops I pit my mouse in the bottom left now its loading 50 web pages filled with ads under the guise of being a widget
here’s a bandaid: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
There's also open shell if you like pre-W10 interfaces https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
This kept breaking with updates I am so glad I wiped it and single booted linux
Don't they have like 9 graphics libraries and frameworks accross 4 languages already?
It's actually at least 13.
I remember people arguing that Linux having two main toolkits were holding it back back in 2000-2010 but then Microsoft invents a few billion UIs just for itself. Even the one big megacorp can't be bothered to keep things consistent.
They need to scrap all this shit and take a massive step back and start over. Absolute bollocks.
Ironically, this is the result of various people at Microsoft at various times declaring "we need to scrap all this shit and start over"
There's some logic behind each, but each time assumes they don't have to do anything to port forward the previous approach to new UX standards as those will just die out. If it was roughly 13 screenshots of different developer experience, but consistent looking and behaving UI for the actual user, everyone could just shrug, maybe developers getting a bit grumpy about Microsoft's inconsistency.
reminds me of this story: “Temporary” disk formatting UI from 1994 still lives on in Windows 11 - Ars Technica
And that's one of their best UI. You understand everything with a single glance, no need to press shift to get more things, there are no more things, that's all there is.
It's an interesting piece of tech ephemera, but devils advocate here, I'm not sure that I agree with the implication that this is a bad thing. The UI works. It gives you all the options you need with no major downsides or pain points. In this case, I think there's something to be said for: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Agreed, I just find these instances of unintended longevity really fascinating :) The other day I was reading an article about how some infrastructure in Western countries still runs from floppy discs:
And in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won't start up each morning unless the staff in charge pick up a floppy disk and slip it into the computer that controls the railway's Automatic Train Control System, or ATCS. "The computer has to be told what it's supposed to do every day," explains a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA). "Without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software on a permanent basis."
This computer has to be restarted in such a way repeatedly, he adds – it can't simply be left on, for fear of its memory degrading.
In some sectors, the legacy use of floppy disks is being phased out. In 2022, a Japanese politician "declared war" on the ongoing use of older media. Subsequently, earlier this year, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that the government would no longer require businesses to submit official forms and applications on floppy disk. The Japanese government finally declared "victory" by scrapping the rules in July 2024.
Imagine having to submit official forms on floppy disks even last year 😂
Nothing is as permanent as a temporary fix!
What MS needs is a new unifying framework and then they can change everything to that new standard. Call it Framework 927.
Oh, but it absolutely is true. Microsoft really did decide to use React Native for parts of the Windows 11 Start menu. They're also using it in sections of the Settings app.
The technical reality is even more absurd than the meme suggests. Microsoft is currently maintaining eight different UI frameworks for Windows, including their own .NET MAUI and WinUI 3 that were specifically built for their OS. Yet somehow they thought, "You know what this native operating system needs? A JavaScript framework originally designed for mobile apps."
The CPU usage spikes aren't necessarily from React Native itself being particularly heavyweight, but rather from the fundamental architectural choice of running a web-based rendering engine for core system UI elements. Every time you click Start, you're essentially launching a mini web application just to display a menu.
What's particularly galling is that Microsoft has acknowledged WinUI's performance issues for years, to the point where they recommend their partners use the older WPF for performance-critical applications. So instead of fixing their native framework, they decided to add another layer of abstraction.
This is what happens when corporate development teams prioritize "developer experience" and trendy frameworks over system efficiency. Richard Stallman's expression in that image perfectly captures the appropriate level of technical horror at this decision.
The old world built operating systems. The new world builds web apps that pretend to be operating systems.
Is it really? Does microsoft have no faith in its own user32 UI API?
Yeah, windows apps, even official ones are just a mix of react native apps.
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
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