Microsoft finally gets a clue: Boot to desktop as default in Windows 8.1 update

According to leaked screenshots and secret sources, Microsoft will scrap ‘Metro’ and roll boot-to-desktop as the default in the Windows 8.1 update coming in March.

If you hated the Live Tiles presented as the default on the Windows 8.x Start screen, then Microsoft allowed users to tweak the setting in Windows 8.1 to bypass the "Metro" interface at boot and instead boot to desktop. But boot-to-desktop will be the default, according to leaks from Microsoft insiders and screenshots of the upcoming Windows 8.1 update. Rumor has it that the update will roll out on Patch Tuesday in March.

The Russian site Wzor first posted leaked Windows 8.1 test build screenshots showing the change enabled by default.

Leaked Windows 8.1 test build, no more Metro Start screen, boot to desktop as default
Then Microsoft insiders, or "sources familiar with Microsoft's plans," told The Verge that Microsoft hopes to appease desktop users by bypassing the Start screen by default, meaning users will automatically boot straight to desktop. "Additional changes include shutdown and search buttons on the Start Screen, the ability to pin Windows 8-style ("Metro") apps on the desktop task bar, and a new bar at the top of Metro apps to allow users to minimize, close, and snap apps."

Of course, Microsoft continues to lose millions upon millions of customers to iOS and Android. That desperation is likely what drove Microsoft to force a touch-centric operating system on customers. If customers can't easily use a Windows OS on a traditional desktop, then Microsoft hoped its "make-them-eat-Metro" strategy would force people to buy its tablet to deal with the touch-based OS. For Microsoft, it was like killing two birds with one stone. But despite the company's "One Microsoft" vision, we're not birds and we don't like having stones thrown our way.

Microsoft claimed that telemetry data justified the removal of the Start button in Windows 8, and then its return in Windows 8.1. That same telemetry data shows "the majority of Windows 8 users still use a keyboard and mouse and desktop applications." The Verge added, "Microsoft may have wanted to push touch computing to the masses in Windows 8, but the reality is that users have voiced clear concerns over the interface on desktop PCs."

"Microsoft really dug a big hole for themselves," Gartner's David Smith told Gregg Keizer, referring to the Redmond giant's approach with Windows 8. "They have to dig themselves out of that hole, including making some fundamental changes to Windows 8. They need to accelerate that and come up with another path [for Windows]."

Back in December, NetMarketShare stats showed that more people were still using the hated Windows Vista than Windows 8.1. January 2014 stats showed Windows 8.1 on 3.95% of desktops with Vista on 3.3%. Despite Microsoft warning about the evils of clinging to XP, and the April death of XP support, Windows XP, however, was still on 29.23%. Many people still hate Windows 8, which may be why the company plans to jump to the next OS as soon as possible.

Microsoft plans to start building hype for "Windows 9" at the BUILD developers' conference in April. The new OS is supposedly set to come out in the second quarter of 2015. While it seems wise for the company to want to ditch the hated Windows 8.x as soon as possible, Microsoft had better to do something to encourage developers as the expected boot-to-desktop change will mean folks won't see the Metro apps on the Start screen.

Windows 8.1 update leaked screenshot of test build
According to the test build screenshot, Microsoft is urging people to "switch to a Microsoft account on this PC. Many apps and services (like the one shown for calendar) rely on a Microsoft account to sync content and settings across devices." Note that "sign into each app separately instead" is "not recommended" by Microsoft. Of course, setting up a Windows 8 computer without it being tied to a Microsoft email account was "not recommended" either...but it can be done with about any email address or set up as a local account tied to no email address. If you use SkyDrive, aka the newly dubbed "OneDrive," then why not just log in when you need it?

Trying to keep its developers "happy," may be part of the reason Microsoft does not recommend signing into your Microsoft account on an individual app basis. Sure there's still the Windows Phone Store, but some people complain that the Windows Phone Store is full of junk and fake apps. Of course, since Windows 8's dueling tablet-PC interface was a flop, perhaps Microsoft will follow Apple's lead and come up with a separate OS for tablets. That move might help out Microsoft and developers; without developers, there's no apps. Without good apps, even a new OS for tablets won't help Microsoft from continuing to decline and falling into the abyss of irrelevancy.

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How Microsoft had a hand in inventing Google's glucose-sensing smart contact lens

Google X may have announced its smart contact lens project, but Microsoft Research says it worked on it first.

Do you recall how Microsoft claimed it invented, or invisibly runs, practically everything? Along those lines, Microsoft Research is claiming partial credit for the smart contact lens project that Google unveiled last week.Microsoft's hand in inventing Google's glucose-sensing contact lens

Google announced that it was testing smart contact lens that has "chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair."

We're now testing a smart contact lens that's built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. We're testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second. We're also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so we're exploring integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. It's still early days for this technology, but we've completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype. We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.

After Google's announcement, Desney Tan, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, was bombarded with questions about his "long-time friends and colleagues Babak Parviz and Brian Otis who declared "their intent to develop a glucose-sensing contact lens." Tan's "inbox and voicemail are stuffed with calls for comments and queries about the relationship of this project to the one Microsoft Research worked on with Babak and Brian a few years ago."

So Tan wrote:
As background, my team and I here at Microsoft Research had the pleasure of supporting and working with Babak and Brian and a number of other collaborators very early in this project. Babak and Brian were still full-time faculty at the University of Washington. In our collaboration, we demonstrated the feasibility not only of embedding displays in the contact lenses, but more importantly, of glucose sensing as well. As one would imagine, we tackled numerous hard problems around miniaturization, wireless power, wireless communications and biocompatibility.

What's occurred here is a great example of why we and others must continue to invest in basic research, pushing the boundaries of science and technology in an effort to improve the lives of as many people as possible. Most of the time here at Microsoft, we do this in partnership with our business group colleagues, who can take direct advantage of our work and deliver it directly to our customers. But there are other instances where we do this through partners, and sometimes even through competitors. Our open research and deeply collaborative model allows us to work with the best academic and industrial researchers around the world, and we will continue to do so as we certainly believe in the philosophy that "we" is smarter than "me." This open approach to working with and through others has consistently delivered outsized rewards for Microsoft and for the world at large.

I'm not faulting Tan, more power to him, just pointing out that Microsoft apparently had a hand in Google's glucose-sensing contact lens. After all, Microsoft has taken credit for inventing, or its software invisibly running, almost everything. To be fair, Microsoft Research has over 1,100 researchers who work on everything from privacy and security to healthcare.

In fact, Microsoft Research recently adopted an Open Access policy for all research publications.

Microsoft Research is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible because we recognize the benefits that accrue to scholarly enterprises from such wide dissemination, including more thorough review, consideration and critique, and general increase in scientific, scholarly and critical knowledge.

Like Microsoft, Google has a lot of power and money. However, unlike Microsoft Research, most of the "moonshot" research that goes on inside Google X, "Google's secret lab," is hush-hush . . . at least until the company decides to shock the world with its projects like Google Glass and the Google driverless car.

In the end, if you have diabetes and someone invents something to help you out, then you might not care whether it is Microsoft or Google in your eye.

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Google to Microsoft on Windows Phone 8 YouTube app blocking ads: Cease and desist

Mud slinging round one million: Google CEO Larry Page warned against companies being "negative," before claiming Microsoft is "milking" Google. Microsoft zinged back about the cease and desist letter Google sent.


Last week, Microsoft incorporated Google Talk into Outlook and SkyDrive to allow users "to chat with friends stuck on Gmail." Then Google CEO Larry Page criticized Microsoft for "taking advantage" of "interoperating" with Google, "but not doing the reverse." That's "really sad," Page said at I/O, "And that's not the way to make progress. You need to actually have interoperation, not just people milking off one company for their own benefit."

YouTubeIn return, Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw stated, "It's ironic that Larry is lending his voice to the discussion of interoperability considering his company's decision -- today -- to file a cease and desist order to remove the YouTube app from Windows Phone, let alone the recent decision to make it more difficult for our customers to connect their Gmail accounts to their Windows experience."Cease and desist

Google claimed that Microsoft violated Google's Terms of Service with the YouTube app. The Verge got its hands on a copy of that cease and desist letter that Google sent Microsoft. It demands that Microsoft "immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013." Google's real gripe stems from the fact that Microsoft's YouTube app has "features that specifically prevent ads from playing."

After the cease and desist letter went public, Microsoft responded by "saying it's happy to include advertising." However, ZDNet speculated that the Windows Phone 8 YouTube app might have been part of Microsoft's Scroogled campaign.

You wouldn't know all this background cease and desist drama from what Page said at I/O.

Every story I read about Google gives off a notion of "us versus some other company" or some stupid thing. Being negative is not how we make progress. The most important things are not zero-sum. There is a lot of opportunity out there.

Opportunities on "Google Island"
Gadget Lab's Mat Honan wrote about some of those far-out and freaky opportunities in a fictional piece about "Google Island." It's an interesting and trippy read. Honan talked about arriving at Google Island in a "driverless boat" to find Page's naked "Google Being" explaining "complete openness" made possible by experimenting on an island in which no pesky government's laws could get in the way with privacy.

At I/O, Page expressed an interest in setting aside a place "where people could experiment freely and examine the effects." Honan joked that the place is Google Island, where Page would claim, "As soon as you hit Google's territorial waters, you came under our jurisdiction, our terms of service. Our laws-or lack thereof-apply here. By boarding our self-driving boat you granted us the right to all feedback you provide during your journey."

Besides Google knowing everything about a user's health, "genetic blueprint" and even "the chemical composition of your sweat," Honan's fictional Page claimed that Google has "looked at everything you've looked at online. Everything. We know what you want, and when you want it, down to the time of day. Why wait for you to request it? And in fact, why wait for you to discover that you even want to request it? We can just serve it to you."

OK, so that was fiction...but it harkens back to a time when then Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches. We don't need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about." Schmidt later added, "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions...They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."

Taking a page from Page, that's "really sad." Schmidt's quotes were, in part, why Leave Google Behind recommended switching to Bing. "Believe it or not, Bing's privacy policy is superior to Google's. Opt out of personalized ads."

Google is all about ad revenue and the company will never allow Microsoft to block ads on YouTube. Meanwhile, speaking of YouTube and ads, Nintendo is scanning for fan-made YouTube clips that show footage of its games, such as how to get through a level, and then "hijacks" the ad revenue. Nintendo is not blocking screencaps that feature its intellectual property; however, by using content ID match to identify game footage videos uploaded by fans, Nintendo is adding advertising "at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips."

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