Windows 11 is a confusing mishmash of old and new – and that means Microsoft needs to make some difficult decisions

There’s been lots of web chatter lately in regards to the revelation that the Format drive window in Windows 11 hasn’t solely not been modified for 30 years – but it surely was presupposed to be a short lived interface. Whereas this 30-year-old piece of Home windows legacy is in some methods a part of Windows 11’s charms, it’s additionally emblematic of Microsoft’s issues with its operating system.

For these of us who nonetheless use the Format drive function in Home windows 11, it’s little shock that it seems to be nearly similar to when it first appeared again in 1994. With a easy interface that offers you all the essential options it’s essential to erase and format a drive shortly, in some respects you would argue it is a nice instance of ‘if it isn’t damaged, don’t repair it.’

Nonetheless, posting on X, former Microsoft developer Dave Plummer revealed that the interface of the Format function, which he created in late 1994, was presupposed to be momentary, with a extra ‘elegant UI’ for WindowsNT finally changing it.

Perhaps repair it anyway

There’s something comforting about having sure instruments or home windows remaining unchanged for many years. Nonetheless, whereas it might be pleasing to some outdated farts (like me), having a contemporary working system peppered with 30-year-old apps is much from superb – particularly if these apps have been solely presupposed to be momentary.

The truth that the Format function hasn’t modified for 3 a long time explains why there are some odd issues that stay. It’s unlikely that anybody nowadays wants to regulate the ‘Allocation unit measurement’, but that choice stays. Formatting a drive to make use of the FAT file system additionally stays restricted to 32GB, though – as The Verge explains – FAT helps volumes of as much as 2TB. With Home windows 11 sticking to the outdated Format drive interface, there’s no official approach of making FAT volumes in Home windows 11 which might be bigger than 32GB.

It is these little quirks which have led some individuals to consider that the explanation why Microsoft hasn’t modified the Format drive interface isn’t as a result of it thinks that it’s good – however just because it has forgotten to.

That’s actually an amusing idea, and I think about that the Format drive function is among the least-used components of Home windows 11. Nonetheless, I discover it onerous to consider that Microsoft has forgotten about it. As an alternative, I believe it merely doesn’t care. And that’s worse.

Blame it on Home windows 8

Now, it’s all the time enjoyable guilty all the pieces on Windows 8. Microsoft’s failure to come up with a decent smartphone to take on the iPhone? Windows 8’s fault. The truth that the long-lasting Begin menu is now largely ineffective? The rot began with Home windows 8. Your automobile breaks down simply earlier than it’s essential to get someplace urgently? You’d higher consider that’s Home windows 8’s fault.

Nonetheless, there’s a main situation with Home windows 11, exemplified by the 30-year-old Format drive interface, that I can legitimately blame on Home windows 8.

In the event you can’t keep in mind Home windows 8, then let me fill you in on considered one of Microsoft’s worst working system missteps.

Launched in 2012 and following on from the extremely popular Windows 7, Home windows 8 introduced an bold, although flawed, overhaul to the Home windows interface. Ditching the standard Home windows desktop structure of a taskbar alongside the underside and the long-lasting Begin menu that had been a cornerstone of Home windows releases since Home windows 95, and changing it (type of) with a big-buttoned ‘Begin display’ that was designed with contact display units in thoughts, and taking cues from cellular working techniques like iOS and Android, Home windows 8 was arguably the largest revolution since Home windows 95. It was additionally a little bit of a catastrophe.

Whereas the brand new B
egin Display might need regarded good and labored nicely on touchscreen units, for conventional laptop computer and desktop PCs, which have been by far nearly all of units working Home windows 8, it felt primary, garish and unintuitive.

Even worse, Microsoft didn’t totally commit to creating Home windows 8 a mobile-first working system. This meant that the touchscreen-friendly Begin display was clunkily overlaid on high of a extra conventional desktop interface. This meant desktop customers needed to put up with the Begin Display, whereas touchscreen customers needed to fiddle about with sure apps and screens that have been designed for use with a mouse and keyboard. By making an attempt to attraction to conventional Home windows customers in addition to cellular customers, Home windows 8 ended up annoying everybody.

That is maybe the worst legacy of Home windows 8. Since that OS, Microsoft has scaled again on its touchscreen ambitions, but it surely has continued to maintain some extra fashionable, simplified, components alongside extra conventional Home windows components.

This has led to post-Home windows 8 variations of Home windows nonetheless feeling like a clumsy mixture of two completely different working techniques. Not solely does it make utilizing fashionable Home windows, together with Home windows 11, really feel clunky, but it surely’s complicated as nicely. It’s why Home windows 11 nonetheless has the Management Panel, an app containing a choice of choices that has been round since Home windows 1.0’s launch in 1985, but it surely additionally has the Settings display, which primarily does the identical factor, however with a contemporary look (and debuted with Home windows 8). At first having Management Panel and Settings was merely redundant as they do the identical factor, however Microsoft is slowly moving parts of the Control Panel to the Settings app.

This has made issues worse, for my part, because it’s now unclear the place I have to go to get to a sure setting in Home windows 11. It additionally seems like I’m utilizing two completely different working techniques at instances.

The actual fact is Home windows 11 has an id downside. Is it a contemporary working system that has developed together with how individuals now use their PCs, or is it a secure, acquainted, legacy working system that does the job however doesn’t wow individuals? It might’t be each and meaning for the way forward for Home windows, be that Windows 12 or one thing else completely, Microsoft goes to should make some powerful selections.

That would imply slicing all these outdated components of the working system out and ranging from scratch. Do a Home windows 8, however totally decide to it. Sadly, as a result of Home windows 8’s unpopularity, Microsoft may be too timid to actually revolutionize Home windows. If that’s the case, then Home windows 8’s legacy can be even worse than I believed.

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