Missing pieces: What Microsoft failed to deliver in the Windows 10 Creators Update

[CrAKeN]

All these omissions are an embarrassment for what is otherwise a very good Windows 10 update.

 

If the Windows 10 Creators Update had worked out as Microsoft had promised, we all would be taking 3D selfies, importing them to Windows, and then sharing them among our closest friends and coworkers via Office presentations and mixed-reality headsets.

 

Microsoft sold us that vision as part of the Creators Update launch last fall. But somewhere between then and the Creators Update rollout announcement April 29, key pieces went missing. Microsoft previously said that its My People experience would be left for the “Redstone 3” update in the fall. The company never warned us, however, that we wouldn't see the Windows Capture app, which creates 3D objects simply by tapping your smartphone. If there’s a way to share 3D objects within the Holotour app within the HoloLens, I haven’t seen it. And, of course, neither the HoloLens nor the third-party mixed-reality devices are commercially available yet.

 

The ironic thing about the Windows 10 Creators Update is that, even lacking all that, it’s arguably the most significant update since the launch of Windows 10. Those features that made it into the shipping code, including game streaming, e-reading, Game Mode, Beam streaming, Game Mode, and dozens more, collectively elevate the Creators Update. 

 

But it could have been so much more.

 

Missing: Capture 3D, 3D PowerPoint, HoloTour

 

Over the last few weeks, I found myself obsessing over one simple statement. The very first feature that Microsoft introduced at its reveal of the Creators Update last fall was this concept of 3D content. Microsoft’s Megan Saunders walked on stage and declared that, in the Creators Update, “3D is for everyone.”

 

“If we truly want to make 3D for everyone,” Saunders said,” then we need to make 3D creation as simple as taking a photo or a video on your phone.”

 

3D content capture with Windows Capture 3D looks so easy.

 

Saunders then whipped out an HP Elite x3 Windows phone, launched what she called the Windows Capture 3D experience, and walked around a small model of a sand castle as the app seemingly constructed the 3D model, live, on her phone, in seconds. Voila: real-world object, Microsoft app, 3D construct. Cue the applause. 

 

Watch the video  for yourself to see how simple Saunders made it look. Tell me that app doesn’t look ready to ship, especially as she seemingly uses it live on stage. But no, it’s not available. Was Saunders’ performance sleight of hand? A movie? Did Microsoft hold back Capture 3D until it could be ready on Android and iOS as well? Microsoft hasn’t said.

 

Trying to scan this wooden horse’s head took hours to set up and configure a Kinect with the Windows 10 3D Scan app...

 

What makes that statement so important is that, Paint 3D aside, scanning real-world objects into Windows is almost ludicrously difficult. (Unless you're using an HP Sprout.) You’ll need Microsoft’s 3D Scan app, a PC with a decent GPU, a Kinect depth camera, a massive adapter, some sort of rotating table, a tutorial, and a great deal of patience. I spent several hours, muttering and cursing, and got something that looked like a flying saucer taking a dump. Brian Posey, a Microsoft MVP, tried out 3D Scan for Redmond Magazine and gave up halfway through.

 

...And all I ended up with is this mess.

 

It goes on from there. As part of the launch event, Microsoft’s Heather Alekson introduced the ability to import 3D objects into PowerPoint and other Office apps. To date, that feature isn’t available either in Office or in the Office Insider program. Paint 3D within the HoloLens? Importing 3D objects into the virtual space? Neither, apparently, is here. Microsoft tells me that “Windows Mixed Reality [formerly known as Windows Holographic] will be available on Windows 10 PCs with the Creators Update so that developers can start creating content,” implying that regular users will have to wait for access.

 

A rendering of the Acer Mixed Reality Developer Edition headset.

 

We can’t ignore the lack of mixed-reality devices, either. Yes, the responsibility for delivering mixed-reality devices on time for the launch of the Windows Creators Update falls on hardware partners like Acer, Asus, and Dell. (Did Microsoft’s Terry Myerson promise mixed-reality devices by the Creators Update launch? Decide for yourself.) But Microsoft has developed its own hardware for years, and has a tight working relationship with each of these vendors. 3D-capable, mixed-reality hardware was part of Microsoft’s 3D vision, and it hasn’t been delivered. 

 

The gaping holes in Microsoft’s 3D vision overshadow everything else Microsoft promised last fall. But a number of other features Microsoft promised for the Creators Update haven’t appeared, either.

 

Missing: My People

 

Microsoft already quietly announced that it’s postponing the My People experience. My People, which sounds like it might be either replacing or supplementing the existing People app within Windows 10, will allow you to pick five close friends or family members and customize your experiences around them—putting icons in the taskbar, auto-suggesting them as email contacts and to chat, and allowing them to send you emoji via what Microsoft calls “shoulder taps”.

 

My People: a casulaty of the Microsoft development process.

 

Microsoft, though, plans to hold My People for “the next major update to Windows,” which is due out in the fall.

 

Missing: Xbox Arenas

 

One of the features Microsoft showed off in the Xbox gaming space (which has its own Creators Update rolling out now) was Arenas, player-configured tournaments. “The Xbox team is still working hard to bring custom gamer-created Arena tournaments to the Xbox community, though it will not be releasing alongside the Windows 10 Creators Update,” Microsoft said in a statement.

 

Missing: Groove Music Maker

 

Though it was never officially announced, the Groove Music mixer app appeared in a “sizzle reel” of other Windows 10 CU features at the launch itself, as well as Microsoft’s general Windows 10 Creators Update video. I haven’t seen it in the Windows 10 CU itself, nor the Microsoft Store. 

 

Microsoft representatives said that they had “nothing to share” about the fate of Groove Music Maker.

 

Missing: Tabs as Reminders

 

One of the smart features that Microsoft added early to the Windows 10 CU was the ability to tie an Edge tab to a Cortana reminder, a handy jumping-off point to research a wedding cake, explore potential campgrounds, or dig through tax regulations. In November, though, the company canceled it.

 

I’m aware that companies over-promise and under-deliver, delay products and cancel commitments. Sometimes they just slide into a niche and never recover. You know these names: Half-Life 3, Duke Nukem Forever, HD DVD, StrongARM, the Itanium chip. Market demands change.

 

Simply excluding My People or Capture 3D or Arenas from the Creators Update certainly doesn’t mean that we’ll never see them again. I’m betting we'll hear much more about mixed reality in a month or so at Build, as a run-up to Windows’ next major update this fall. I said it in my review and I’ll say it again, though: I’d call the next “Redstone 3” release the “Windows 10 Creators Update 2.” It’s a mouthful, but it’s also an important way for Microsoft to save face.

 

Source

[csmdew]

Not a single one that I will miss, who really needs that junk.

[Pete 12]

A much more stable Windows Update would be very welcome...............

[bpeddicord]

Tried Creator's Update 3 times and all 3 time start menu went inactive and  not correctable. I'll stick with 1607 at least it works.

[Pete 12]

" A much more stable Windows Update would be very welcome............... "....................like I said ....

[virge]

Wow, seriously.. no one cares about those add-ons. What user's want is a more secure, stable environment, not apps, games or video tools. I would like to option to uninstall Cortana, Edge. Windows Store and all Windows apps. Less crap, the better.

[Sylence]

Good stuff

[knowledge-Spammer]

i like them  to fix the bug with some updates i mean days ago i updated windows 10 and my wifi went down and pc was stuck  and then windows defender offline start to scan my pc ?

then i had to  reinstall as it was stuck  in a loop thanks Microsoft and this is not the 1st time i have had this problems

[stylemessiah]

All nonsense that isnt anything to do with a Desktop OS

 

More reasons why Windows 10 is a dead entity

 

 

[dac]

With all the technology in the world you would think that after all these years another operating system better than Windows would have been developed by now.

[csmdew]

What is wrong with it, don't have any problems using it as intended; an OS, not a damn toy to do everything in the world for you. If you can't use it then it must be user error.

[virge]

4 hours ago, dac said:

With all the technology in the world you would think that after all these years another operating system better than Windows would have been developed by now.

Because Microsoft has agreements with all the major pc makers to install Windows on the new desktops/laptops, not to mention most Windows has most of the market share. Apple, Linux and Chome contain the rest  It would be very expensive and very difficult for any company to have a new operating system compete against Microsoft. It's like developing a car that can get 100mpg, sure it can be done, but they would get squashed by the big boys.

[pc71520]

9 hours ago, stylemessiah said:

All nonsense that hasn't anything to do with a Desktop OS.

That the bitter truth...