Which OneDrive? The one in my browser, the one on my desktop, or the wackadoodle half-Sharepoint mongrel I use at work? All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task, I might add.
Microsoft has been going hard in the direction of making OneDrive intrinsic to Windows, so what even is the "OneDrive experience" in contrast to the Windows 11 experience? Who writes this nonsense?
Are we going the other direction now, divorcing Windows 11 from OneDrive, thereby giving OneDrive a distinct "experience" again? Why wasn't this change in direction announced?
I swear it's like Microsoft is just 30,000 chatbots all bickering with each other in the most sanitized, gramatically faultless English imaginible.
Why Windows Entreprise PCs have 'Images', 'Videos' and 'Music' folders that can't be deleted is beyond me. If I want to store music on my work PC I can create a folder for that, but why force it on me??
To be fair, a lot of programs rely on those standard directories from the "Known Folders" specification - it would be hard to rip them out without breaking a lot of software. Even on linux it's hard to get away from these directories, as virtually every distro ships with xdg-user-dirs. Even if you use Arch, you'll probably install xdg-user-dirs with Gnome or KDE which creates those directories on login.
Agree 100%, though those folders on any Windows install are a train wreck. Anyone attempting to curate anything within them are met with an endless torrent of garbage being thrown into them by Microsoft and any other app that might be installed. Anyone who's PC I oversee, I always beg them to create their own "My Docs" folder and fill it on their own terms. The Windows user experience is such a mess and MS quit caring that it was a long time ago.
1. You can move those folders to other locations. I used to do that in the Windows XP days.
2. They are required because applications can ask Windows "what is the 'music' folder" and get back the path. Most of those applications won't expect a missing folder.
Because it's not about you, it's about grandma. And when Microsoft bakes these locations in as standard, they can't be deleted because applications are allowed to depend on them being there.
This is not the worst enterprise failure Microsoft has pushed from inadequate testing in recent memory. Around 2021, the Defender enterprise second tier plan pushed out under-tested defs that considered most desktop and start menu shortcuts to be "malware", and removed them silently. Users by the 100's/1k's freaked out when it looked like their apps were removed, causing nothing short a help desk sev 1 emergency.
It's crazy to me how MS continue to do stuff like this. Ads in the start menu, anti-user UX, spam apps, etc. Every time I think their behavior will change and I am always disappointed.
So it is genuinely crazy that they are still doing things like this.
Edit: I should also add that a migration away from Windows has a huge network effect so its important for them to stop the bleeding to prevent them hemorrhaging users later.
"We are incubating a new photos experience in OneDrive"
MS no longer build apps it seems, but instead incubate experiences...What a comms team.
It sounds like what an AI would say. Perhaps their Copilot has become Pilot.
I'm incubating my experience over on Linux
Which OneDrive? The one in my browser, the one on my desktop, or the wackadoodle half-Sharepoint mongrel I use at work? All of which have decidedly different UIs for the same incredibly simple task, I might add.
Microsoft has been going hard in the direction of making OneDrive intrinsic to Windows, so what even is the "OneDrive experience" in contrast to the Windows 11 experience? Who writes this nonsense?
Are we going the other direction now, divorcing Windows 11 from OneDrive, thereby giving OneDrive a distinct "experience" again? Why wasn't this change in direction announced?
I swear it's like Microsoft is just 30,000 chatbots all bickering with each other in the most sanitized, gramatically faultless English imaginible.
No-one is in charge of Windows.
Or more specifically, the people in charge of Windows have no clue about anything.
Satya Nadella has trashed Xbox and trashed Windows.
Most knowledgeable devs from Windows glory days have already retired, or were clever and moved into Azure.
Now they get interns that never heard of Petzold and can only do Web, hence the Webview2 all over the place.
Microsoft was always run by an army of warring program managers
They're clearly too busy making security the "highest priority"
Why Windows Entreprise PCs have 'Images', 'Videos' and 'Music' folders that can't be deleted is beyond me. If I want to store music on my work PC I can create a folder for that, but why force it on me??
To be fair, a lot of programs rely on those standard directories from the "Known Folders" specification - it would be hard to rip them out without breaking a lot of software. Even on linux it's hard to get away from these directories, as virtually every distro ships with xdg-user-dirs. Even if you use Arch, you'll probably install xdg-user-dirs with Gnome or KDE which creates those directories on login.
Agree 100%, though those folders on any Windows install are a train wreck. Anyone attempting to curate anything within them are met with an endless torrent of garbage being thrown into them by Microsoft and any other app that might be installed. Anyone who's PC I oversee, I always beg them to create their own "My Docs" folder and fill it on their own terms. The Windows user experience is such a mess and MS quit caring that it was a long time ago.
1. You can move those folders to other locations. I used to do that in the Windows XP days.
2. They are required because applications can ask Windows "what is the 'music' folder" and get back the path. Most of those applications won't expect a missing folder.
Because it's not about you, it's about grandma. And when Microsoft bakes these locations in as standard, they can't be deleted because applications are allowed to depend on them being there.
But grandma doesn't use an Entreprise version now does she?
No, but the IT guy likes to install software that depends on it, because it is very rare that Windows devs only target a specific OS variant.
Grandma has been using a smartphone as her primary computing device for over a decade.
I dearly hope Apple doesn’t fall for this and just lets the Preview app, well, preview files.
Incredible how far macOS and Linux ended up ahead experience wise by doing nothing and just letting apps do their jobs and nothing more.
> by doing nothing and just letting apps do their jobs and nothing more
Like the elaborate fuckups that included:
• destroying iTunes and the ersatz replacement Music/TV apps that no one asked for
• ruining iPhoto and forcing everyone onto Photos
• breaking backwards compatibility 80,000 times, including on their expensive Pro apps
• the Final Cut Pro X debacle
• nearly every change in iOS for the last five years
Butterfly keyboard
We need the year of Enterprise Linux
This is not the worst enterprise failure Microsoft has pushed from inadequate testing in recent memory. Around 2021, the Defender enterprise second tier plan pushed out under-tested defs that considered most desktop and start menu shortcuts to be "malware", and removed them silently. Users by the 100's/1k's freaked out when it looked like their apps were removed, causing nothing short a help desk sev 1 emergency.
Are we certain it's even the worst thing they've done this quarter?
Windows is malware
That's a non-response if I've ever seen one.
It's crazy to me how MS continue to do stuff like this. Ads in the start menu, anti-user UX, spam apps, etc. Every time I think their behavior will change and I am always disappointed.
what have you done to migrate to linux, or encourage others to do the same?
Why would you think that their behavior will change?
They are actively losing customers to less hostile options (mostly macOS, but also Linux).
They already know it's a problem: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/03/20/our-com...
So it is genuinely crazy that they are still doing things like this.
Edit: I should also add that a migration away from Windows has a huge network effect so its important for them to stop the bleeding to prevent them hemorrhaging users later.
I'm pretty sure that post is about SteamOS, since gaming is one of the only things keeping a substantial portion of the consumer population on Windows