Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Oh dear. My stock, clean Windows install with its default config absolutely poops the bed when trying to perform basic search/retrieval tasks (I'm talking things like launching an app I started to type the name of after hitting the windows key). Whenever I've dug into what it's doing, I've found it busy doing more important things like indexing my temp directories, or node_modules, or ensuring that all of my malware service executables are eliminated.

It's a nice headline feature but I really can't see it having a positive impact on the default Windows user experience.



Mine usually is pretty responsive about it, but the results searching in the start menu are strange. I start typing the name of something, what I want pops up, I type one too many characters (still a substring of the correct name) and suddenly it decides something completely different is the best match.


that's a huge pet peeve of mine too, and i can't even begin to guess what they heck they're doing. maybe an unstable sorting algorithm?

  "tel" -> "telegram"
  "tele" -> "telegram uninstaller"


I always assumed there was some logic like "well I presented 'telegram' and they kept typing so 'telegram' must be incorrect" even if the time between those was less than human reaction time.


This actually makes sense, although it's absurd behavior.


  "teleg" -> Web search for "telegraph"
  "telegr" -> Search for "telegr" in Outlook Web Emails
  "telegra" -> Web search: did you mean "Telstra"?
  "telegram" -> No results found


Try having a non-English Windows.

Now you have to divine the English name of a Windows app or feature, because although its name is localized when you‘ve already found it, search may or may not only look for the English name.

Or vice versa.


This was very useful when I supported a German office... search up the settings you need in English!


mmc no results .. put a period after it and suddenly it realizes you want to open mmc


That search is terrible, but I find that the indices stabilise in use such that search returns consistent results quickly.

I could do [ Win; [ O | T | E ]; Enter ] and get [ Outlook | Teams | Excel ] every time, for example. (ugh, glad I left that job)

Do you see any improvement after regular use?


imo it's embarrassing that the ux was better with windows 2000 up through 7, using windows key + first 3 letters + enter gave me reliable way to jump into an app

I install startisback on any windows machine i have power over, of course on my work machine i just have to suffer but at least im getting paid while i wait for the search to settle on a result

https://www.startisback.com/


>default Windows user experience

Oh god the search is so bad, I can't even.

Default Windows user experience is so shit I basically can't believe they tested or focus-grouped any of it. And it's constantly going backwards.

Now they hide important right-click options that people use all the time under "more options". Who asked for this?

My guess is that they're rewriting parts of it, but only implementing the absolute basic functionality.

They even took away the ability to not group taskbar items between Win10 and 11.

Absolute hot garbage and getting hotter and garbagier with every forced update.


Clearly you need more AI in your pc /s




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: