Windows Notepad is in the Microsoft Store (it requires Windows 10 version 18943.0, a.k.a. 20H1 due around April 2020, or higher. Sure, this is a simple application that shouldn't seemingly need frequent updating. There is, after all, Visual Studio Code to provide a free, feature-rich editing experience that is frequently updated.

Why is this a positive move? In addition to out-of-band updates when issues arise, it is one more item decoupled from the Windows operating system. It will allow for a cleaner computing experience for those that don't use Notepad. But it goes deeper than that. It is an approach to managing each application on its merit, including features, platforms supported, frequency of updates, etc. Long term branches for Windows 10 can still benefit from application-specific updates. Microsoft has made several updates recently over the last year. Perhaps there are more updates to come?

This approach is in line with other existing applications including Paint 3D, Windows Calculator, Windows Terminal, Microsoft Remote Desktop, eventually the new Chromium-based Edge web browser, etc.

It creates an increased relevance to the Windows Store, already enhanced by familiar user experiences with the Apple and Google stores.

OneNote for Windows still doesn't have a key feature present with OneNote 2010, 2013, and 2016. That is the ability to change the date and time of a note. You can delete them, but not edit them. Duplicating an old note keeps the old date and time. Huh. Creating pages that make up a manual, with versioning on a per-page basis, makes it difficult to identify what has changed. If you feel the same way, check out https://onenote.uservoice.com/forums/327186-onenote-for-windows/suggestions/34027090-changing-the-page-creation-date-or-time-in-onenote and vote for this feature.

Here is another example of Microsoft just not being polished or attentive to details. Office 365 icons have changed, but they didn't get all web pages. And the order of the office icons is different. The top page links directly to the bottom page shown in the picture.

While Windows 10 1903 has many nice new features and improvements, they can't seem to get some of the basics working smoothly. Almost daily, I get the following error. Sometimes I can click "Fix Now", some windows popup, and it self repairs. Some times it never seems to resolve and I just ignore it for that day (not a great experience). Nothing appears to be logged in the Windows Event log. The actual account having the issue isn't displayed. Very unhelpful. I have heard other technologists state that Microsoft needs to reward fixes, not just new features. I agree. This is along the line of having a higher weight for quality than quantity.

Emojis in Windows 10 - press the Windows key and then Period (Win+.).

Bringing back memories! We have a copy of Windows 1.01 on 5.25" floppies (no way to read them right now). And... manuals (paper books that came with software back in the day 😊).

https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/windows-1-0-to-10-the-changing-face-of-microsofts-landmark-os

SharePoint Online has a threshold limit of 5000 for a list or document view. This cannot be changed (unlike on-premise SharePoint). For an enterprise-based SaaS solution, this is too small. Vote to increase the Threshold via https://sharepoint.uservoice.com/forums/330318-sharepoint-administration/suggestions/35017195-increase-the-threshold-to-list-views

Windows 10 configuration has been a mess since 2015 and is still present today. Microsoft needs to get a handle on Control Panel vs Settings, consolidating and having extensible. It should have been a priority at least 2 years ago. It is time to reward developers for making Windows usable, not just adding new glam.

Since Microsoft hasn't been updating the NuGet packages for BingMapsRESTToolkit (they have updated the code base, but it doesn't compile, at least with Visual Studio 2019, without a minor change), posted a .NET Standard version that has the updated models. Now able to call their Postal Code service to get the associated Time Zone.

See https://www.nuget.org/packages?q=BingMapsRESTToolkit to check out the packages.

See https://github.com/RecursiveGeek/BingMapsRESTToolkit/blob/master/README.md to get more details.

In Outlook for iOS and Android, without support for HTML email signature, that is a deal breaker. They have had years to implement this feature, making it consistent with native apps and consistent with desktop apps. It has been requested many times and specifically rejected (e.g., https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/293349-outlook-for-ios/suggestions/8632618-html-signatures). When will they listen to the customers?

The new Microsoft Edge Browser Insider Preview (https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com), overall, is working great. With its ability to use Google Chrome Extensions (and some Edge Extensions) and synchronize favorites, it works well on a daily basis (a couple of times a month Google Chrome is still needed for some sites).

There has been talk recently about Microsoft “modern OS”, a yet unconfirmed competitor to Chrome OS. It could support 5G, linger battery life, background OS updates that don’t interrupt the workflow, cloud connected, support for touch and pen, gesture support (on screen, facial, ...). Rather than calling this Windows Lite, how about just calling it Microsoft OS? 😏

After attending the Visual Studio 2019 launch last week at the Microsoft Office (even got into the video during the event), a number of us were excited to check it out. I have installed it on 4 development machines, successfully side loaded with Visual Studio 2017. So far, we haven't run into any issues with our current projects. The biggest win out of the box is how fast it launches. We are testing it to see if we no longer need ReSharper (R#), a longstanding valued, but additional cost, tool.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment in Azure DevOps Pipelines, while it takes some effort to set up, is great and significantly helps with quick deployments of web applications on-premise and in Azure.

Oh Microsoft... What is with the current Office 365 icons? They are ugly and hard to see on a high DPI screen.

Interested in testing the latest Microsoft Edge Browser based on the Chromium engine that will run on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10? An insider version is now available via https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com