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Even the context menu in File Explorer has two entirely different styles in Windows 11 — the old style along with all the third party items you need hidden behi

by oefrha 5y ago

Even the context menu in File Explorer has two entirely different styles in Windows 11 — the old style along with all the third party items you need hidden behind a “Show more options”. UI consistency simply isn’t something they care about, the OS accumulates new inconsistencies with every release.

udbhavs 5y ago
I wonder if Windows or its UI will ever get a ground up rework considering how scared newer developers must be to touch the underlying legacy code base. That would probably require breaking backwards compatibility at some level and that doesn't look a principle MS is keen on abandoning. Windows 10X and RT both got abandoned. But on the other hand they can't keep piling stuff on top without fixing the core forever right? The context menu hack is already an example of the cracks beginning to show in this approach.
justsomehnguy 5y ago
> UI consistency simply isn’t something they care about While this is somewhat true (especially from Win8 onwards), one of the reasons you have "old-style" menu as a submenu is completely different: it is to make less calls to ContextMenuHandlers, used exactly for "all the third party items". It was a great addition in Win95. By the time of WinXP it was a source of many problems, but of course it was shitty Windows being shitty and not a 3rd party app problem.
- oefrha 5y ago
  It would be less jarring and defensible if the main menu and old-style submenu didn't have different font sizes, line heights (as a multiple of font size), icon sizes, margins, hover transitions, highlight colors, ctrl behaviors, etc.
concinds 5y ago
I'm glad that Microsoft agrees with Linus on: "Don't break userspace" The Apple way might have been to take away those old Config Panels with no replacement for years, or ever. Or breaking third-party File Explorer extensions and forcing devs to rewrite them.
- oefrha 5y ago
  Tell that to all the people who are furious about the Windows 11 taskbar changes.
  - WorldMaker 5y ago
    Many of us are blaming that on designers that use macOS as their daily drivers and are paying too much attention to Apple's bad examples. We can criticize Windows 11 for doing it wrong in one area (the Taskbar) and also support them for trying to do it right in another (making sure that the new context menu lives side-by-side the older one to not break older workflows and extensions that may never have a chance to update).

by oefrha 5y ago

udbhavs 5y ago

I wonder if Windows or its UI will ever get a ground up rework considering how scared newer developers must be to touch the underlying legacy code base. That would probably require breaking backwards compatibility at some level and that doesn't look a principle MS is keen on abandoning. Windows 10X and RT both got abandoned. But on the other hand they can't keep piling stuff on top without fixing the core forever right? The context menu hack is already an example of the cracks beginning to show in this approach.

justsomehnguy 5y ago

> UI consistency simply isn’t something they care about While this is somewhat true (especially from Win8 onwards), one of the reasons you have "old-style" menu as a submenu is completely different: it is to make less calls to ContextMenuHandlers, used exactly for "all the third party items". It was a great addition in Win95. By the time of WinXP it was a source of many problems, but of course it was shitty Windows being shitty and not a 3rd party app problem.

oefrha 5y ago
It would be less jarring and defensible if the main menu and old-style submenu didn't have different font sizes, line heights (as a multiple of font size), icon sizes, margins, hover transitions, highlight colors, ctrl behaviors, etc.

concinds 5y ago

I'm glad that Microsoft agrees with Linus on: "Don't break userspace" The Apple way might have been to take away those old Config Panels with no replacement for years, or ever. Or breaking third-party File Explorer extensions and forcing devs to rewrite them.

oefrha 5y ago
Tell that to all the people who are furious about the Windows 11 taskbar changes.
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  Many of us are blaming that on designers that use macOS as their daily drivers and are paying too much attention to Apple's bad examples. We can criticize Windows 11 for doing it wrong in one area (the Taskbar) and also support them for trying to do it right in another (making sure that the new context menu lives side-by-side the older one to not break older workflows and extensions that may never have a chance to update).