Microsoft to tailor Windows 10 setups based on how you use your PC

[Porthos]

Microsoft to tailor Windows 10 setups based on how you use your PC

Microsoft will soon offer different installation experiences when setting up Windows 10 based on how you plan on using the computer.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[britechguy]

Actually, not a bad idea. There are all sorts of options, settings, etc., that "the great unwashed" (and, yes, even techs) tend to lose track of when in a hurry or if they're unaware of them that can make life much easier when the computer is going to be used for certain purposes.

 

[HCHTech]

Actually, not a bad idea.

Agree - but as a tech, i would want to know exactly what the differences were for each choice. The install choice would then be based on actual functionality, not on the label they put on the choice.

 

[carmen617]

Actually, not a bad idea. There are all sorts of options, settings, etc., that "the great unwashed" (and, yes, even techs) tend to lose track of when in a hurry or if they're unaware of them that can make life much easier when the computer is going to be used for certain purposes.

I'd have a lot more respect for this innovation if they would also give back the opportunity to set the system up without a Microsoft account if you foolishly forget and connect to the internet during initial setup. How about "I'm an old lady and want to use it to surf the web, get my email, and use Zoom to visit with my grandkids".

Spoken by someone who spent an hour today trying to get a crappy HP low end laptop out of S mode that had been set up by a "friend" using a phone number for the Microsoft account, for a little old lady who didn't know the password (the pin didn't do it), couldn't install Zoom, and didn't even have an email address.

 

[GTP]

The only choice I'm happy to see here is "Skip".

 

[carmen617]

The only choice I'm happy to see here is "Skip".

I agree, it looks to me like just another opportunity for Microsoft to collect data about the end user and push targeted content at them.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@carmen617 The ability to setup without a Microsoft account is still right there...

The catch? You need to be using Win10 Pro.

 

[Porthos]

The catch? You need to be using Win10 Pro.

Big catch because most "home" users do not shop the business section of the OEM's

 

[Sky-Knight]

Big catch because most "home" users do not shop the business section of the OEM's

Yes, and Microsoft is busy trying to make tech that simply removes us from the equation. Think about your smart phone... you can't even start one of those up without the appropriate account attached to it. Do you think these same people remember their access to that?

We can't fix everything...

 

[britechguy]

Well, I don't think it's such a big catch to tell someone do your initial setup without connecting to the internet. It's a dirt simple workaround, regardless of whether that's turning off your modem-router, unplugging your ethernet cable, etc.

The value in a Microsoft Account is something worth considering, and a very great many who reject it do so because of incorrect presumptions. But it's still simple for a Windows 10 Home User to cut off the internet when setting up a machine/creating an account.

 

[britechguy]

Yes, and Microsoft is busy trying to make tech that simply removes us from the equation. Think about your smart phone... you can't even start one of those up without the appropriate account attached to it. Do you think these same people remember their access to that?

Actually, I think most do. If you have an Apple device that's going to be your Apple ID that's used for the whole Apple world, and if it's Android, it's going to be a Google Account you probably use frequently, most frequently for your email and other stuff.

These are the two things in my experience that I can actually expect folks to know, for the most part. That and their online banking and credit card credentials. Everything else, not so much.

 

[Porthos]

But it's still simple for a Windows 10 Home User to cut off the internet when setting up a machine/creating an account.

But they do not know that. They just follow prompts.

 

[Sky-Knight]

But they do not know that. They just follow prompts.

Yep... and we get paid to undo the stupid... I fail to see the problem?

I might like things to be different, but Microsoft is not going to change this. And if you want to know why, you can thank Apple and Google. Microsoft expects users to use a Microsoft account for all things Microsoft. Just like the other two.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Around these parts it's most probably a new Gmail account made up on the spur of the moment by whoever was in the shop at the time, unrelated to the ISP's email account that the user has had for fifteen years, and with the password written by hand on a random scrap of paper that got lost within days if they're lucky.

Google account password? No, I never had one of those.

Exactly! I've had to reschedule entire M365 deployments because of offices full of people that don't have Apple ID passwords, because you have to provide it to the Apple Store to install ANY APP. Android... just does it... so you can install it and use the thing forever almost forgetting that password.

It's all fun and games until the phone is lost / replaced. At least then the Android users that were on M365 have all their stuff synced into Exchange, so they don't lose as much.

Business owners do NOT like spending money on my time to reset a ton of personal passwords people "forgot".

 

[Porthos]

Yep... and we get paid to undo the stupid... I fail to see the problem?

I might like things to be different, but Microsoft is not going to change this. And if you want to know why, you can thank Apple and Google. Microsoft expects users to use a Microsoft account for all things Microsoft. Just like the other two.

Exactly. At least the ones who seek out assistance from us.
With both Google and YouTube "university" it has declined over the last few years.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Exactly. At least the ones who seek out assistance from us.
With both Google and YouTube "university" it has declined over the last few years.

That's one of the two major reasons why I gave up residential. This stuff is supposed to be used and supported by the end user. The market is designed to remove the need for professional assistance on that level. What's left is handled by Dell's warranty department.

Which... we can work for... if you like being broke.

 

[britechguy]

Google account password? No, I never had one of those. What's a Google account?

It's what you use to log in to any Google service. Generally most people think of it as their Gmail account, but it's way more than that.

You can log in to virtually all (probably actually all, but I don't know if I've done every Google service) just using the part that's in front of the @gmail.com and your password.

If you're setting this up spur of the moment, well, it is what it is. That's no different than an Apple account in the Apple store, etc.

Go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and try logging in if you have a Gmail account, but skip the @gmail.com part on the userid.

 

[Sky-Knight]

And that's exactly what we explain to our clients when they ask that question.

Unfortunately we're often not the first people to touch the device and that kind of thing is rarely done or documented properly by the people who do touch it first - usually whoever sold it in the first place. (The "whoever was in the shop at the time" I was referring to. Not us. Bad people. Or possibly otherwise good people who don't have the time, skills, incentive or inclination to do it right.)

What you mean the min wage earning counter clerks in the cellular store just trying to get them to leave?

The entire mess is a situation essentially designed to fail. Fortunately, the younger the crowd, the less of a problem this is. But it is still a problem... a huge one.

 

[britechguy]

What you mean the min wage earning counter clerks in the cellular store just trying to get them to leave?

The entire mess is a situation essentially designed to fail. Fortunately, the younger the crowd, the less of a problem this is. But it is still a problem... a huge one.

Exactly. The individuals in the stores are sales representatives, not technicians.

I, however, am not nearly as sanguine as you are about "the younger crowd." My observation is that there is a bell curve of understanding the "under the hood" of tech, even outside those of us who do this for a living (but to a much lesser extent), and that the core of that curve right now cuts off on the low end at about age 40 and tops out at around 70. That's the age demographic where a very great amount of personal technology was not fully automated - you had to know about device drivers and installing them, as but one example.

What I'm finding is that my younger clients are absolutely stellar end users of technology and tend to adopt and adapt very quickly - when it's all working "like it should," but when something breaks down, they're often like deer in the headlights.

As the tech we use has required less and less knowledge on the part of the end user (and I'm not criticizing that convenience, just noting it's been on an ever increasing trend line) such that it becomes very much like cars, as my favorite example. Most of us who can drive are quite skilled in using an automobile, but when something goes wrong most of us have no idea how to fix it. That's what I observe about how younger folks interact with most devices that cross their paths. That's why I get called every bit as much by college-aged individuals (or their parents) as I do by my senior citizen clients. I think the "very skilled end user, very unskilled troubleshooter" pattern is likely to be on a rising trend line, too.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy I've noted the same trends, but the younger group tends to be better about keeping tabs on their logins, because they're more likely to be using them for multiple social media platforms.