My Top 5 Feature wishes for Windows 10

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 3, 2018
Updated • Apr 3, 2018
Windows
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Microsoft released Windows 10 in 2015 and there were clear indicators back then that Windows 10 was a work in progress, something that Microsoft released to make people forget about Windows 8.

Windows 10 changed Windows dramatically. Microsoft established Windows as a Service which limited the support period of any version of Windows 10 to 18 months without updates, integrated lots of cloud features and Telemetry in the operating system.

While Windows 10 is not as controversial of an operating system as Windows 8 was, it is clear that a large part of the Windows userbase has no interest in upgrading machines to the operating system.

NetMarketShare's latest stats show Windows 10 at 33.83% of the desktop operating system market and the (nearly) decade old Windows 7 at 43.44%. Microsoft's free in the first year upgrade offer helped Windows 10 but it was rejected by the majority of Windows users even though the upgrade was free.

Windows 7 support ends in a couple of years and it is unclear what customers will do when that happens. Will they stick with Windows 7 in the same way that Windows XP is still used on a large number of systems despite not being supported anymore officially? Will they make the switch to Windows 10 and Windows as a Service? Or will they switch to a Linux distribution?

Here are my top 5 features for Windows 10 going forward. While I don't think that Microsoft will consider any of those seriously, I think that they could improve the public's perception of Windows 10.

1. Full Telemetry opt-out

Microsoft collected Telemetry and data in all of its operating systems but Windows 10 is the first that gives users no opt-out. You can set Telemetry to Basic or use third-party tools and modify system settings to block connections to Microsoft, but all of these are not suitable for the bulk of users.

Microsoft failed to address Telemetry head-on. The company began to explain what type of data it collects only recently, and will launch a Telemetry data browser in the Spring Creators Update but that is too little to late in my opinion.

What could help is an opt-out to block Telemetry collecting and transfers of the data to Microsoft. The opt-out needs to be listed on the privacy setup page and in Settings.

2. Improve Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is a basic browser when you compare it to Firefox or Chrome (or variants such as Vivaldi or Opera). It is okay for light browsing but you will quickly notice its shortcomings when you use it for longer or for activities that go beyond light Internet activities.

Microsoft appears to focus energy on making Edge an universal ebook reader instead of addressing major issues that hold the browser back.

You can check out my Microsoft Edge annoyances article for my main issues with the browser. A very basic example is that you can't plain text paste in Edge, and that the right-click context menu does not include options to reload a page.

3. Improve local search

windows 10 extended web search

Windows Search never really worked that well for me. This is true for all past versions of Windows and Windows 10 as well.

I don't need online search functionality or Cortana, but local search is really bad in my opinion on Windows 10.

  • Results are only displayed when you type the full file name and not a partial file name.
  • Sometimes, no results are returned even though there are some.
  • File search appears entirely broken in Windows 10.

I expect from a built-in search feature to find local files when I type the name. Programs like Everything have shown that this is indeed possible and very, very fast, for more than a decade but Microsoft somehow does not see search as a high priority (other than more Cloud integration).

Configuring Windows Search to search file contents

4. Improve quality of Windows updates

The quality of updates appears to have gone downhill in the past couple of years. Microsoft introduced cumulative updates for Windows 10 and a similar system for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

This year alone has been filled with updating issues on all versions of Windows. Patches that were pulled again, re-released, or updated, and it all resulted in a huge number of issues that included bluescreens, network connectivity issues, and other issues.

Cumulative updates and bundled updates make it more important, not less, to thoroughly test the updates before they are released to the general population.

5. Reduce feature updates to one per year

windows 10 fall creators update prompt

Microsoft releases two feature updates for Windows 10 per year. The last update was the Fall Creators Update released in October 2017, the next update is the Spring Creators Update in April 2018.

Apart from the silly naming scheme, it is quite the hassle to run major upgrades twice a year. Feature updates introduce new functionality and changes to the operating system that regular cumulative updates don't include.

If you look at the past couple of feature updates, you may notice the list of major features that they introduce is rather small.

Part of the userbase wants a system that runs well and does not change constantly. I for one would prefer a single feature update per year instead of the two that Microsoft is focused on.

Summary
My Top 5 Feature wishes for Windows 10
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My Top 5 Feature wishes for Windows 10
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Microsoft released Windows 10 in 2015 and there were clear indicators back then that Windows 10 was a work in progress, something that Microsoft released to make people forget about Windows 8.
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

  14. Raphael Benzo said on September 24, 2023 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Tank you for your help

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