4 ms·
Microsoft Remote Desktop will be renamed to Windows App
- ng-user 2y agoPlease tell me I can still "WIN + R" -> mstsc
- lousken 2y agoi am guessing this still won't run on linux?
- prmoustache 2y agoLooks like a copy of Gnome Connections with a worse name.
- dtx1 2y agoGreat Idea, I am sure that will make it much easier to Bing it when Issues arise. Right? Right?
- ThrowawayB7 2y agoEven though I'm well aware of HN's guideline against shallow dismissals, I still can't help but say it: Worst. Naming choice. Ever. Searching for documentation or assistance relating to "Windows App" will be effectively impossible.
- Spooky23 2y agoThat’s not even close. Microsoft churns out incredibly awful names. The “Defender” family is probably the most egregious example today. I’m sure the enterprise version will be Azure Windows 365 App for Business E3. But it won’t be compatible with one of the 4 hosted windows desktop solutions that Microsoft ships lol, but nobody will be sure of which one!
- netdevnet 2y ago"Windows App" is way worse. You won't be able to reliably find information about it
- Spooky23 2y agoWorse than what? Windows Defender? Defender for Endpoint? Microsoft 365 Defender? Defender for Office 365? Whatever the Defender that comes with the product formerly known as SCCM is called?
- ThrowawayB7 2y agoWindows Defender I'm willing to overlook; it defends Windows which is at least slightly explanatory. Windows App gives no hint about its purpose at all. If I wanted to connect to another Windows machine and saw a Windows App entry in the start menu, I probably wouldn't think to try it.
- beart 2y agoEven in this release they use the word "app" with a different meaning. I would love to know how they arrived at this name.
- 42365767567 2y agoMy favourite recent MS naming confusion is myapps.microsoft is a SSO type place similar to Okta, but apps.microsoft is a shop, some of which I might own.
- YesThatTom2 2y agoSometimes I think that when a Product Manager is feeling unimportant, they rename the product so that every. damn. department. from marketing, to sales, to all the peer products have to take notice. "Fear my importance! I'm changing the name of this product!"
- dmnmnm 2y ago> "Fear my importance! I'm changing the name of this product!" Well, the person who wrote the tech blogpost that was linked here is : >Hilary Braun >I'm a Senior Product Manager for Windows 365, focused on providing a great experience for people using Windows in the cloud with the Windows App. So, Bingo! It's indeed most likely a case of needing to feel important. After all, you're the manager of something absolutely nobody cares about, as long as it works as intended. The RDP features of Windows are the kind of thing you only notice if they do not work properly, if they work fine, they're just another tool in the box, no more exciting to look at or talk about than hammers and screwdrivers. I would even suggest watching paint dry is more entertaining than having to listen to a manager talk about their brand rebranding of the computer equivalent of a screwdriver.
- gwervc 2y agoMicrosoft is so bad with naming I suspect there is a bonus program for employees that can came with the most confusing names.
- vmandrade 2y agoMaybe the whole idea was that people would be looking for other things and accidentally discover that there was a 'Windows app'.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kergonath 2y agoIs there a particular reason why Microsoft is so terrible at naming things? What’s wrong with “Remote Desktop”?
- gwervc 2y agoInfiltred North Korean psyop to push people to Red Star OS. 2025 will be the year of Linux on the desktop thanks to the Great Leader.
- DreamFlasher 2y agothis year will always be the year of the Linux desktop
- Centigonal 2y agoFrom the same branding team that brought you Xbox One and ASP.NET, it's Windows App!
- CoastalCoder 2y agoAnd "Windows Subsystem for Linux". Which, to my continual surprise, is a subsystem of Windows, not of Linux. (Yes I realize this makes me sound rather dense.)
- deafpolygon 2y agoIt's almost like PR said "Windows" had to be prominent in the name.
- WorldMaker 2y agoTo be fair, "for" is one of the most overloaded prepositions in the English language. "for [use by]" and "for [doing/acting as]" are still both "for" in short hand, you need more context in English to distinguish, including verbal clues that don't exist in the written language (how you pause between words and/or how you emphasize the syllable "for"). English is a strange contextual language; it is still Microsoft's marketers fault for finding and relying on so many of the weird edge cases, but they didn't invent the weird edge cases in the language.
- RDaneel0livaw 2y agoI will NEVER understand how the name xbox one could have ever come to exist. Simply unfathomable.
- deafpolygon 2y agoMaybe start with the 360?
- mminer237 2y agoEven then, everyone expected the successor to be called the 720.
- zx8080 2y agoDoes anyone know the model of internal communications which allows such "interesting" decisions to arise in large corporations over time?
- rawgabbit 2y agoThese decisions are usually not based on technical considerations or based on daily/quarterly/yearly goals. They are usually very broad, long horizon, multi year "themes" that are handed down to top level directors who are asked to interpret-implement them. The issue is many of these themes are dropped before they are fully implemented. When Ballmer was in charge, his theme was that Microsoft should be "devices and services" company. My guess is that Microsoft now wants to be "services" company. In that light, "Remote Desktop" does not quite fit because in the future everything is an App which is a SAAS that we will pay a subscription to.
- bb123 2y agoI suppose this will become another instance of "Outlook" where finding documentation or support for your version of the product (the web service or the email application) is made needlessly more complex.
- hu3 2y agoUncharitable take warning. My bet is on a PM thinking: "Surely if the project has Windows in its name we can't get laid off". Also: https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts
- drewcoo 2y agoIt used to be called "terminal services." By your reasoning, it's possibly "career down" for a PM to name their project "terminal."
- nopassrecover 2y agoCompletely agreeing with the other comments but tangent looking at the reference screenshot, does anyone else remember the emotive excitement of building out a new Windows build back in the day, hacking customisation that wasn’t out of the box, and getting that first boot with an exciting new desktop and theme? What times. Separate observation, that comment trail in the article demonstrates everything about the corporate failure case that is our modern tech stack. If the most enthusiastic early adopters are getting immediately dismissed by the hypercare teams, what hope do the rest of us have. Where is the Netscape/Phoenix/Mozilla/Firefox for Desktop OS? When did we become so complacent about device monopolies?
- Refalm 2y agoMicrosoft Remote Desktop is a list of machines to connect to. It doesn't need to be more than that. It's a tool, it has to be functional first. People often have approximately 50 entries in there. They never asked anyone for feedback. Why are there big squares instead of a list in that screenshot? Why is there a button "All devices"? I want "All devices" right now, from the moment I open the thing. I certainly hope it won't suck, but it probably will.
- ThrowawayB7 2y agoMicrosoft Remote Desktop for the Mac is a grid of thumbnails already. There is a list view but it isn't the default.
- kyriakos 2y agoAndroid too
- walterbell 2y agoLooking forward to "Linux App".
- noisy_boy 2y agoMaybe it alludes to a future where you land directly at the Microsoft Store when you login and from there, everything including the desktop is an App - everything is on Cloud, you don't have any control over your machine (because there is practically nothing local) while simultaneously requiring you to have a 10ghz CPU to see partner-supported-mandatory-value-ad(d)s.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bborud 2y agoIf I were a senior executive at MSFT I would probably ask someone to send me the personnel files for the people who figured it was a good idea to pointlessly rebrand something from a descriptive name that is understandable to something pointless and generic. Because these are almost certainly managers who have nothing better to do and should be trimmed out of the org chart. I'm not kidding.
- kyriakos 2y agoPretty sure this came from a senior executive and the people under him were staring each other wondering..
- bborud 2y agoWell, then I guess the CEO ought to have a look.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago"... to pointlessly rebrand something from a descriptive name that is understandable to something pointless and generic" Seems like the point might be to obscure the nature of the executable, i.e., what it does. Why someone might want to do that is a question left for the reader.
- sys32768 2y agoHave you used the Windows App? Which Windows App? Google it! Oh, you mean the Windows App Store? No, the new Remote Desktop Windows App. You mean there's a new version of Remote Desktop? Yes, and it's called Windows App. Right, it's always been a Windows app. No! It's THE Windows App now. Get it? No, I don't get it.
- mike503 2y ago"do you use Outlook the application or outlook.com?" Do you have a Live account? Or Office 365? Do you open a web browser to sign in? I have had to ask non-technical people this and they're confused beyond belief.
- mminer237 2y agoDo you use Outlook or Outlook (new) which is just a webview to Outlook.com?
- mbreese 2y agoLook, I’m all for getting away from naming things Microsoft Enterprise Work Application for Students and Home Deluxe… but I think they may have gone a bit too far in the wrong direction.
- 486sx33 2y agoWindows as an App sounds like I’m going to connect to windows 365 on azure
- TiredOfLife 2y agoThats exactly what this is.
- throw273724 2y ago> The Windows 365 App will undergo an in-place update to transition to Windows App. I think the Windows 365 App is a different application than Microsoft Remote Desktop.
- TiredOfLife 2y agoDont let facts stand in the way of Microsoft bashing.
- xnhbx 2y agohttps://imgur.com/a/UXRyhRZ https://imgur.com/a/UXRyhRZ
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- josefritzishere 2y agoThis reminds me of Google Nest's three thermostat models: The Nest E, Nest Learning and the Nest. It's confusing even in their own marketing and support info.
- WhereIsTheTruth 2y agobillion dollar company, infinite cash, blind trust from government, and that's what they come up with? insane i'll say it again, if the west goes all in with microsoft, it'll collapse
- area51org 2y agoYou have to wonder if these people ever stop and think through these decisions. Start with: why are we even renaming this thing? Everyone already knows the name. The new name is not going to make us any more money. So what are we doing? Next: is there any chance "Windows App" will be confusing for, I dunno, practically everybody? (I realize everyone else here has pointed this out.) Maybe the decision to rename was made by AI. https://genius.com/Abbott-and-costello-whos-on-first-annotated https://genius.com/Abbott-and-costello-whos-on-first-annotat...