Microsoft tests ‘Suggested Actions’ in Windows 11. Insiders: Can we turn it off?
- Reference: 1652362543
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/12/windows_suggested_actions/
- Source link:
[2]Build 25115 was released to the Dev Channel last night, marking the end of the period where Dev and Beta channels were synchronized and Insiders could switch between the two.
The new Dev Channel means Microsoft can start adding back the features it removed while knocking the operating system into shape ahead of a potential release. It also added some that might raise an eyebrow or two.
[3]
The first is Suggested Actions: "a new feature in this build for making everyday tasks quicker in Windows 11 through inline suggested actions," according to Microsoft.
[4]
[5]
If you copy a phone number, for example, a box will pop up suggesting you might want to call it. This could perhaps be through Windows' Teams "or other installed apps that offer click-to-dial call functions."
[6]Build 22621 went to the Beta Channel and contained little more than a few fixes, hinting that Microsoft is close to declaring this as the final version (aside from the inevitable slew of patches that trail any Windows release).
The continued absence of the build watermark is a further clue, although the team insisted "this doesn't mean we're done."
[7]Engineer gets Windows 11 working on a Surface Duo
[8]Windows 11's tablet-friendly taskbar pulled from Insider builds
[9]Microsoft fixes Point of Sale bug that delayed Windows 11 startup for 40 minutes
[10]Windows Insider builds are back for Lenovo PCs in China
The same applies to copying a date and/or time. Users doing this will be asked if they'd like to create an event using Outlook or "supported calendar apps."
Exactly how one gets third-party apps into these pop-ups isn't entirely clear. We asked Microsoft what steps a third party would need to take to get on the guest list (perhaps a simple association?) but the company has yet to respond.
Other updates included a return for the Sound Recorder app (replacing the Voice Recorder) replete with whizzy new visualizations and a variety of fixes.
[11]
As with all Dev Channel features, there is no guarantee that the updated audio recorder will make it to release, but with it being documented as part of Microsoft's [12]"reimagining" of the Windows 11 inbox apps, it seems likely.
Unfortunately, Windows Insiders on ARM64 PCs hoping to join in the Dev Channel are out of luck this time since the build is not on offer.
Then again, if a release is skipped, but almost nobody is using the hardware for it, can it be said to have been skipped at all? ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/barbbowman/status/1524438449129984001
[2] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2022/05/11/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25115/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yn0vJaqiMYj3hUVbFYwYhQAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yn0vJaqiMYj3hUVbFYwYhQAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yn0vJaqiMYj3hUVbFYwYhQAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2022/05/11/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-22621/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/04/windows_11_on_duo/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/03/tablet_taskbar_windows_11/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/windows_11_patch/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/19/windows_insider_lenovo_china/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yn0vJaqiMYj3hUVbFYwYhQAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2022/05/10/reimagining-the-apps-included-with-windows-11/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Just. Stop.
Fucking. About. With. Your. OS.
Clippy
Please tell me you can add a Clippy Animation to this...
Re: Clippy
Please tell me you can't. Seriously. I'm begging you.
Re: Clippy
I think they might call it “Bob”
Re: Clippy
More likely to be HAL…
Re: Clippy
...in a handbasket.
Oh god, no...
I already have enough trouble fighting with Excel to get it to accept what I type in verbatim, rather than trying to interpret it as a date / currency / phone number. Visual Studio has a few of these as well, where the oh-so-helpful suggested action is handily obscuring the bit of code that I actually want to change on the next line down. The last thing I want is having to dismiss half a dozen inane suggestions from the OS just because I'm copy-pasting stuff from one form to another.
Help offered when not needed is no help at all.
Re: Oh god, no...
I'm surprised by the current popularity of VS-derived editors even where the user has no ties to Microsoft (eg platformio).
It was this misfeature that made me hate the editor so much when I was introduced to it that I've never gone near it again.
Re: Oh god, no...
I'm surprised by the current popularity of VS-derived editors even where the user has no ties to Microsoft (eg platformio).
Presumably vscode - MS have put a lot of effort in to vscode, its mainly open source, and quite extendable. That makes it easy to roll-your-own editor.
It's like that 12 year old kid who keeps "making linux distros" - its so easy to make a Ubuntu derived distro, just edit a few files, and here's your ISO image.
Re: Oh god, no...
This could break macros with interesting consequences.
MS > M uppetry S quared
Re: Oh god, no...
Agreed. The latest evidence of too many mediocre programmers with nothing productive to do at Microsoft is the "Show suggested replies in chat" that they recently snuck into Teams. (Very bottom of Settings --> General if you want to turn it the fuck off.)
Re: Oh god, no...
I couldn't find a specific "turn the fuck off" button, but I've unchecked the box. Thanks for that, one less annoyance to deal with.
"But we're not finished"?
If you release software, any software in general but an entire OS in specific, you had damn-well better make sure it's as bug tested, bug removed, security holes fixed, & as stable as you can possibly make it. Anything less than your best is tantamount to a bunch of Howler Monkies screaching & flinging shit at your audience.
Please release good code & stop flinging shit at us.
It already exists
"Suggested Actions" can already be said to exist thanks to the "magic" of right-click context menus. You remember those, right, Microsoft??
So why are you trying to reinvent the wheel you already invented years ago?? Just add another choice to the context menu and be done with it.
Re: It already exists
So why are you trying to reinvent the wheel you already invented years ago?
Because they're still not sure what colour it should be. The B Ark crashed at Redmond.
What does it say ...
if you start downloading a Linux iso ?
If you copy a phone number, for example, a box will pop up suggesting you might want to call it.
This is already seriously fucking annoying on Android which is, at least, on a phone...
Date/time
The same applies to copying a date and/or time. Users doing this will be asked if they'd like to create an event using Outlook or "supported calendar apps."
Not with that gawdawful never-been-fixed-in-3-decades Excel date abomination.
Burn it with fire
testers love it so much they are already asking how to turn it off
This is a common and rational response to most new Windows and Office 'features.'
"Exactly how one gets third-party apps into these pop-ups isn't entirely clear. We asked Microsoft what steps a third party would need to take to get on the guest list (perhaps a simple association?) but the company has yet to respond."
Well, in a nutshell, you don't without paying MS a lot of $$$. That's the traditional way. Misquoting RDJ's Iron man...
"That's how Microsoft did it! That's how America does it! And its worked out pretty well so far for the shareholders."