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Windows Microsoft Operating Systems Software Build

Microsoft Removes 'Sets' Tabbed Windows Feature From Next Release (groovypost.com) 133

Posted by BeauHD from the still-in-development dept.
The much-anticipated Sets feature has been pulled from the newest Windows 10 Redstone 5 build and there's no word when it will return. As groovyPost reports, "The Sets feature is a tabbed-windows experience that lets you group together different apps on your desktop." It's like having different tabs open in your browser, but for apps and File Explorer. From the report: Details on why it was removed and when it will come back have been vague. Microsoft made the announcement about Sets in [yesterday's] blog post about preview build 17704: "Thank you for your continued support of testing Sets. We continue to receive valuable feedback from you as we develop this feature helping to ensure we deliver the best possible experience once it's ready for release. Starting with this build, we're taking Sets offline to continue making it great. Based on your feedback, some of the things we're focusing on include improvements to the visual design and continuing to better integrate Office and Microsoft Edge into Sets to enhance workflow. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it as of today's build, however, Sets will return in a future WIP flight. Thanks again for your feedback."
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Microsoft Removes 'Sets' Tabbed Windows Feature From Next Release More

Microsoft Removes 'Sets' Tabbed Windows Feature From Next Release

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  • by who? any time I see a client with a windows 10 workstation. I shake my head and say "to bad you should have stayed with windows 7 pro"

    Just my 2 cents ;)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      by who? any time I see a client with a windows 10 workstation. I shake my head and say "to bad you should have stayed with windows 7 pro"

      Just my 2 cents ;)

      10's UI is fine, for the most part. It is not all that different from 7 with some minor changes. Windows 10 has a few features that annoy me though.

      1. Advertisements/crapware/junk. Don't include crap. Don't put little things to interact with the user for stupid reasons.
      2. Telemetry.
      3. Cloud drive storage by default.
      4. Microsoft logins by default.
      5. Metro stuff, which has a separate configuration as near as I can tell. Just fix theming. Any time you have a foreground color, for whatever reason, you sho

      • Re:Anticipated (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @10:24PM (#56863322)

        My biggest gripe is updates going on in the background and thrashing the hard drive for a few hours.

      • 1. Advertisements/crapware/junk. Don't include crap. Don't put little things to interact with the user for stupid reasons.

        I’ve been using W10 for over a year and have never seen an ad. Of course, I customized my start menu without the Windows Store app.

        3. Cloud drive storage by default.

        Also have never run into this.

        4. Microsoft logins by default.

        It is literally one click to skip this. Apple does the exact same thing with iCloud whenever you update your Mac.

        You make valid points otherwise, but as someone who came from a “never Win10” camp, it is annoying to continue to see the FUD.

    • OK, you, out! All Windows users should be bent over and ready to take that 3.5" floppy up their One Microsoft Way! Satya knows what's best for you, even if you don't, and whatever's dreamed up this week by the hipsters doing human experimentation on Windows 10 users is what's good for you. Until the following week, when a different hipster decides what's good for you.

  • Sad they're getting even worse at developing... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by greenwow ( 3635575 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @08:05PM (#56862878)

    software. They can't even add a simple feature to the most commonly used tool on Windows. You'd think at least one team there could be productive considering how siloed they are. My best friend from high school got a job with them when their HQ was in Bellevue (think that was in 1980) and many more people I know have worked there over the years, and they've all complained about things never improving. You'd think by chance some group would figure-out how to make better software then others would copy what they're doing.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      siloed

      This. Worked hard on a project for nearly a year after it was canceled since my boss and his boss that was a director didn't know the project had been canceled. Microsoft upper management often makes decisions that aren't communicated down the chain or especially to other groups.

      My new roommate that moved here less than three months ago is probably going to be laid-off since his team is moving to their new building in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft paid him about $10k in moving expenses. That's incredibly in

      • My new roommate that moved here less than three months ago is probably going to be laid-off since his team is moving to their new building in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft paid him about $10k in moving expenses. That's incredibly inefficient to go to the hassle of interviewing people and flying them in for interviews plus to pay relocation expenses for the five people they recently hired.

        From the same company who fired their entire Denmark division of Nokia because they were "too white?" The real news in your post seems to be that Microsoft is fleeing the country to dodge taxes.

        • They're fleeing the country because H1-B visas are now a PR problem for a company staffed and run by Indians.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      It's not simple because it's trying to make the header consistent across apps, when many apps recreate their own header. It would be simple if Microsoft forced everyone to use a standard OS header, but then they'd be evil.

  • "much-anticipated" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mcswell ( 1102107 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @08:06PM (#56862880)

    Not here, I barely even remember hearing about it, and can't figure out what it would be good for. I am, however, anticipating further improvements to the Windows Linux subsystem.

    • Precisely! Ever since Windows 7, there was no reason to upgrade. Windows 8 did have an interesting internal reason - a brand new kernel that had microkernel properties, but Metro totally ruined the user experience. Windows 10 fixed that by splitting it into desktop and tablet modes, but the things now so frequently break make it a nightmare.

      After several months of a break from PC-BSD which had become unusable, I recently bought a TrueOS 18 DVD, and think it has stabilized. Now I use it, as well as my

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        > frequently break

        You are correct about that. We buy only Dell since 1997 and keep track of support tickets by service tag. Five years ago we averaged one ticket per laptop just under every three months. IIRC, in 2006 we were at about one ticket every two months with XP so Microsoft was getting better. So far this year with Dell Precision 5520 laptops with Windows 10, we're averaging more than one ticket per laptop per month. We've increased our It staff by 20% but even that isn't enough to keep up

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by N1AK ( 864906 )
          I'm not saying it isn't, but the numbers you quote aren't evidence that windows update is causing more problems; for example if the problems relate to hardware problems then device type and age, how you test and deploy updates, other applications used on the devices, user expectations and amount of use, all could impact on this.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

      I think the KDE Linux desktop has had the ability to group windows from different apps into a tabbed set for many years. I tried it once, and saw no practical use for it. I don't even know if that feature is still there.

      • You may be referring to KDE's Activities. Or maybe even virtual desktops. The former always seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem, while the latter has been a useful part of the X Window system for decades.

        • One useful thing in Activities that I've found so far is that you can have separate power management settings. For programs that don't properly disable power saving (in my case, a video game emulator), you can move them to an activity that has power management turned off.
      • Fluxbox supports it, I use it all the time; for example, I'll launch a windowed program from a terminal, then tab that terminal to the running window. Can switch to see the line output then, i.e., if something is amiss; or keep a SSH terminal open to a server tabbed to a browser on that servers web interface. Just a matter of CTRL-dragging one onto the other.

  • Something that groups programs together according to your preference.

    It seems like we used to have something like that in Windows

    • If only somebody could invent something to manage all your programs...

  • MicroIncompetents (Score:3)

    by sproketboy ( 608031 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @09:12PM (#56863132)

    MicroIncompetents can't implement an obvious feature from the 90's since their devs are Visual Beginners. Fucking sad

    • It's almost like implementing a feature that works with every customization anyone's done the title bar in the last 25 years is a wee bit more difficult than shitposting on the internet.

      • Keep apologizing.

        • Who's apologizing? Microsoft has made it clear from when this was first announced that the feature might not ever make it in to a release version.

          It's a very nice idea, but executing it well is non-trivial. Executing it poorly is easy, but who wants that?

  • Stop changing the UI (Score:5, Interesting)

    by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @10:30PM (#56863336)

    Stop, please just stop.

    Don't move buttons around. Don't add weird auto-width-changing scroll bars. I don't care how much time all these things might in theory save in the future, but if you change the UI too frequently, all that is lost to the reduction in efficiency when people try to figure out how to do the things that they used to do.

    • Re:Stop changing the UI (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29, 2018 @01:06AM (#56863704)

      Nah, if they stopped doing this sort of pointless deckchair shuffling and focussed on the OS core we'd have, what, XP++? I mean sure the reliability would be vastly improved over anything we have now, it would be blisteringly fast from decades of optimisation, security would be better, and all of the settings would still be neatly filed away in control panel rather than vomitted all over the damn place, but it wouldn't be shiny, synergistic, dynamic, reactive, proactive, leading edge, bleeding edge or even at the coal-face... and we all know that that's what really matters.

      • I mean sure the reliability would be vastly improved over anything we have now, it would be blisteringly fast from decades of optimisation, security would be better, and all of the settings would still be neatly filed away in control panel rather than vomitted all over the damn place

        This is a good thing......but ironically, if you do that, if you have careful design that focuses on making things better and not just.....random, then it would be easier to have this:

        shiny, synergistic, dynamic, reactive, proactive, leading edge, bleeding edge

        You can make a button shiny and look good without reorganizing the interface.

    • Nothing is changing in the UI. In fact all they are doing is bringing the same UI you are using right now (tabs) to applications. And if you disable sets it looks identical to every other Windows.

      Get a hold of yourself man.

      • "bringing the same UI into applications".... eg *changing* applications. Its probably a fine idea - but its a change and that means that for a while things will be slower because my work flow will change. By the time I'm familiar with the new scheme, there will be yet another.

        Yes I can disable it, but like the ribbon it will eventually become universal.

        There is a fantastic Arthur C Clarke story: Superiority. Discusses this issue better that I can.

        • Its probably a fine idea - but its a change and that means that for a while things will be slower because my work flow will change.

          Ok, you haven't seen this at all have you? Absolutely zero of your workflow will change if you don't want it to. Just like tabbed browsing doesn't mean you can't revert to the 90s and open up a different window for every website.

          By the time I'm familiar with the new scheme, there will be yet another.

          Yet another what? The windows UI has been a prime example of stability in user interaction for applications. Other than the colour and shading there has been practically no changes in the past 23 years. Window controls are still top right, icon control availble top left, border cont

    • Part of their mission is a familiar and consistent UI. So far it's been great and hassle free.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

      Stop, please just stop.

      Don't move buttons around. Don't add weird auto-width-changing scroll bars.

      But enough about Ubuntu...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bondsbw ( 888959 )

      You must have hated when web browsers added tabs.

    • At least, previously they only changed the UI between major versions, but since it seems there won't be any more major versions we can get changes in the UI whenever Microsoft feels like it.

  • MDI reborn. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    YES. Bring back a polished MDI, PLEASE.
    This is one of the few things that would convince me to use Windows 10. (maybe)
    A fully global MDI API that a program could use would be great.
    This way literally any program could add support for it, which most would since this is a feature that targets people with heavy workflows across multiple programs, AKA business, their biggest business! No way would any application developers miss out on support.

    Being able to double-click a button, "Media Editing", and have i

  • True Innovation (Score:3)

    by bobbuck ( 675253 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @11:32PM (#56863476)
    This is truly innovative copying of screens from the Amiga Workbench circa 1985. Good job, Microsoft!

  • microsoft is too busy... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    making more ways to spy on users, deliver ads, and force-feed unwanted apps, to actually bother making new features people might actually want.

  • The media has gotten lazy. It is quite impossible to pull something from a release that was never announced for a release. Sets has been in the wild only in Redstone development builds. It didn't have a shipping date.

    The only thing Microsoft has done is confirm that it won't make the upcoming Windows 10 update. Nothing has been pulled.

    • Correct. FTR, I tried sets and tabs; It was a drag om my dev machine. Tabbing took seconds with alt-tab. All my embedded links would open in edge instead of my default browser. It was a mess IMO.

  • It's called the Task Bar.

    • Sets included things like tabbed explorer, which would be pretty convenient for me and, I assume, others.
  • 20 years after Linux did, M$ still can't understand the concept of virtual desktops [wikipedia.org].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ModelX ( 182441 )

      20 years after Linux did, M$ still can't understand the concept of virtual desktops [wikipedia.org].

      That's not completely true. There seems to be some support for the feature in windows already because there have been a handful of utilities that enabled the feature on Windows 7 (with some bugs attached).

      However, I don't get it why Microsoft doesn't add this feature to the regular windows interface. In my opinion it would be the most productive feature added. If they just repackage Windows 7 with addition of virtual desktops and call it Windows 11 they will sell a lot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swb ( 14022 )

      It's been an official Windows 10 feature since its release and I think there was a MS PowerToy for it going back maybe as far as XP and who knows how many third party implementations.

      I've used all of them from time to time, but I always wonder why people find it so compelling. I kind of find myself with a blended set of virtual desktops over a period of time, losing whatever logical distinction I made between them originally.

      • This is a half-truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        Until Windows 10, Microsoft Windows did not implement virtual desktops natively in a user-accessible way. There are objects in the architecture of Windows known as "desktop objects" that are used to implement separate screens for logon and the secure desktop sequence (Ctrl+Alt+Delete). There is no native and easy way for users to create their own desktops or populate them with programs.[4] However, there are many third-party (e. g. VirtuaWin, Dexpot and others) and some partially supported Microsoft products that implement virtual desktops to varying degrees of completeness.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by N1AK ( 864906 )
        No virtual desktops are one of the few things that make me miss using Linux more. For me the benefit was that I could set up full screen layouts for a handful of contexts I work in often and swap between them instantly. Reports of a service outage? Switch to a desktop that has our monitoring services open and windowed nicely. Someone comes in and asks a question about data on our BI portal? Swap to a desktop with the web based interface and management application ready. Working on putting together the depar

  • This feature has been present in fluxbox for decades. Any set of open windows can be tabbed together. Wish all window managers had that.

  • Display splitting is the feature we need for 4k displays.

    I have a 43" 4k display (which is basically the display size where 4k has a useful native dot pitch) and while that much screen real estate is useful for some visual applications (drawing, etc), most of the time it's not efficient for single windows. Manual sizing and moving is a nuisance.

    I use "Display Fusion" which can do basic monitor splitting (so zoom/minimize, etc) treat split regions as separate displays. But things that want to go "full scre

    • It would be very nice if they allowed a program's fullscreen viewport to be containerized. I suspect you are like me, I like my pixels (text need merely be legible, and raster graphics need to be 1:1 pixel registration, or it's pointless) and information first (the more the better, not 80% whitespace), smoothness a distant second. Microsoft seems to want to push to make things smooth (i.e. high DPI). I'd certainly accept some loss of features/teething problems if it was possible/reasonable to port open sour

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        I'm actually kind of puzzled why this isn't an obvious display adapter/driver feature. It seems like presenting Windows with 4 virtual monitors shouldn't be that big a deal because each one just represents a slice of a larger memory buffer and I'd wager there's some kind of MMU on the graphics card that could manage virtualizing a virtual display's space without a problem.

        It used to be a feature back in the old days of going the other way around -- telling Windows your monitor was much *bigger* than it rea

        • If one doesn't mind using somewhat antiquated tech, the closest I can think of in hardware would be the IBM T220/T221 monitors (occasionally showing up on eBay for $1000)... their interfaces lacked the bandwidth to individually drive the full 3840x2400 px panel (sadly nobody seems to make panels at this size anymore), so it divided up the screen into several segments, with apparently a fairly high level of flexibility (including 4x DVI connections @ 1920x1200, and an actually somewhat decent 48Hz refresh
        • I also recently revisited my old love for desktop panning when faced with the nuisance of modern software (non-collapsible UI elements leading to a ridiculously small viewport) on a 1920x1080 monitor, working on 1920x1080 content. There is a less-than-well-known feature of MS RDP called 'superpan', and if you can bear with the limitations and occasional glitchiness that come with remote desktops, you can pan a desktop up to 4096x4096 from a remote machine. Why this very, very useful capability was dumped fr

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by swb ( 14022 )

            I've never understood why if RDP can do panning and downscaling why those features aren't part of the basic UI/screen resolution.

            Plenty of times I've defined RDP sessions with a remote desktop larger in resolution than my physical screen but scaled down. Much of the time it's useful, even if for monitoring or reference purposes.

            The stupidity of modern UIs really is a problem, especially web ones and their pointlessly excess whitespace.

            • The stupidity of modern UIs really is a problem, especially web ones and their pointlessly excess whitespace.

              You and I are clearly of one mind there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pikoro ( 844299 )

      Hold the windows key and press the Left or Right arrows to "full screen" dock the window to the left or right half of the monitor, respectively.

  • I've been using insider builds in which it was supposed to be enabled, but it never was. All the settings for it were missing. I used a tool to force it on in one build, but it didn't carry over when I updated so I gave up.

  • Haiku's tabs are glorious, and would be a great addition to Windows.
    https://haiku-os.org

  • We already had tabbed browsing for the desktop. It was called the Taskbar. Then Microsoft tried to copy the OSX Dock principles of combining multiple functions under one button and they broke everything.

    Maybe they should focus on making Explorer more like Total Commander or Directory Opus. I can't believe how difficult it still is to copy files back and forth, forcing you to shuffle windows around or have one full-screen window open at a time. Oh, and bring back Quick Launch while you're at it.

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