On the contrary. I think desktop UI design needs lots of improvements. To me the peak was around Windows 7 but that's not "perfect" - it needs more improvements in the same direction. Probably KDE is a small improvement over Windows 7, but of course has some drawbacks by being exclusively on Linux. Still, it's my favorite modern desktop UI.
Windows 10 is much better than Win 7. IMO one reason, desktop search that works. Some may consider the reliance on search a UI failure, but I think it has become the dominant organizational principle. The other being pinned apps to the task bar.
> Some may consider the reliance on search a UI failure
No, it's brilliant, in principle. See: spotlight on Mac OS X.
The problem is that Windows Search just doesn't work. I install apps, it can't find them unless they have a start menu enry. I save documents, it can't find them. It does find plenty of irrelevant websites and spurious results from caches, but it misses files sitting directly in my documents folder. Sometimes it returns a result from a partial name hit but when I accidentally type the next character (correctly!) the hit disappears, and it doesn't come back when I remove the offending correct character. It's a mess.
I used to supplement Windows Search with launchy, but then launchy started bugging out. Now I use keypirinha, which intentionally configures bad defaults to encourage you to learn its config file format. Mega cringe. Once you do, though, it does actually work.
Interesting. I’ve never had a problem with desktop search in Win10. It’s all I use and it finds pretty much everything I try. I wonder if indexing issues can end up with vastly different experiences for users.
...interesting... my experience with Win10 search is the complete opposite, it's so broken that I'm really not sure why there is a search feature in Windows10 in the first place. The only way to "fix it" is to install an alternative start menu (like OpenShell) which has a search box which actually works (somewhat, but better than the default search).
Yes for example the new Snipping Tool. It is so slow when you click the save button. I just expect instant the save dialog, but there is a small time delay.
It just does not feel good. And yes, all Syytem Menus are a mess and what you want is allways somewhere hidden. No wonder you need a good search on your desktop, because without you wouldn't find anything.
Huh? How does it work for you, and how did you get it that way? To me it has been nothing but useless.
To those who are also looking for a better search solution on Windows: download 'Search everything'. It basically lets you grep on the filenames of all files on your machine, using regexp if you want. It's marvellous.
Problem is that it often doesn’t work. I can type in “calc” and get a list of web links instead of the calculator app. The search box in explorer also sometimes finds things and sometimes doesn’t without any rhyme or reason (at least none that I can figure out).
Design is features. The problem is that all designers trip over each other to win the high-visibility low-effort turf of top-level theming, when the work that actually needs to be done involves paying more attention to individual features, where there is actual progress to be made.
the windows 10 search bar is really good for finding local stuff. it's unfortunate that they decided to use it as another vector for pushing bing and edge. if it would allow me to use the search engine and browser of my choice for web results, it could be an extremely powerful feature. it's definitely a value add for me, but it's frustrating to think about how much was left on the table.
The parent was talking about UI, and he's right, the Win7 Aero and its Start Menu are superior to everything since. They could certainly bring back that UI with better internals, including Search.
However, Search Everything is the absolute best search tool for Windows, regardless of version.
