Windows 10: Which classic Microsoft default apps should be killed?

Windows 10: Which classic Microsoft default apps should be killed?
Based on what we’ve seen in Microsoft’s Windows 10 preview editions, here’s our take on which classic apps should be kept and which should be killed when the final version of Windows 10 ships.

Windows 10
One of the most important features in Windows 10 will be the ability to run Windows Store apps in resizable windows on the desktop environment. This will also cause redundancy with many of the classic default apps that have come preinstalled on previous versions of Windows. Based on what we’ve seen in Microsoft’s Windows 10 preview editions, here’s our take on which classic apps should be kept and which should be killed when the final version of Windows 10 ships.

Classic Calculator: KEEP
Windows 10 will have a new Calculator app with a revamped GUI to accommodate for resizing it in the desktop environment. It will have the same functions as the one that comes with Windows 8/8.1 (standard and scientific calculating, a unit converter), and add a mode for programmer calculations. Yet it still won’t be as full-featured as the old desktop Calculator application, which additionally has a statistics mode, and some extra tools, like for date and mortgage calculation. This trusty desktop Calculator is in Windows 8/8.1, but hasn’t shown up in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview.

Notepad: KEEP
Most users who compose lines for the Windows command prompt appreciate the bare-bones and fast-running nature of this application. Sure, there are lots of third-party clones of Notepad that have more features, but if you really need such a thing, then you should be using a simple word processor anyway. Notepad has appeared in the Windows 10 Insider Preview, and it’ll probably be in the final release of the OS, which we think it should, as a callback to the history of Windows.

Paint: KEEP
Along with Notepad, this is the second classic Windows desktop application that we think should appear for the sake of tradition in the next Windows and versions beyond into infinity. (Microsoft added Fresh Paint to Windows 8/8.1, and it will probably return in Windows 10, but this painting app is really for touchscreens.) And, odd as this may sound, we hope Microsoft doesn’t change a thing at all about Paint: Its charm is its consistent lack of sophisticated features and simplicity throughout the years. Even though its tools are limited, the pixel art that talented people have managed to make with them have a retro appeal and cult following nowadays.

Silverlight: KILL
Microsoft’s streaming video technology never matched use numbers in the marketplace against Adobe’s Flash, but it was at one point the required plug-in for watching content protected by DRM on major sites, like Amazon and Netflix. Despite this, Microsoft no longer develops it and will cease support for it. Silverlight wasn’t pre-installed on Windows 8/8.1. What happened?

Over the last few years, there’s been a move away from relying on the closed, proprietary Flash and Silverlight, and, instead, using open formats to stream video. This includes an open standard for streaming DRM-locked video, which is supported by Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and even Internet Explorer.

Sound Recorder: KILL
This dead-simple desktop application has just one button to press to start and stop recording audio from your device’s mic. The app version of Sound Recorder works about as simply, and also includes a basic tool to edit your audio clips. Both versions of Sound Recorder come with Windows 8/8.1, and were also together in the early builds of Windows 10 Insider Preview, but the latest Insider Preview no longer has this old desktop application version.

Windows Fax and Scan: KILL
There’s an app named Scan in Windows 8/8.1 and the Windows 10 Insider Preview, it doesn’t do the same thing as this desktop app. Scan is for scanning in images from a scanner. Windows Fax and Scan is for sending and receiving faxes, and scanning in documents with your scanner to send out as faxes. It’s so old school that it requires your computer be plugged into a telephone line. Yes, that’s right: Your computer needs to have a dial-up modem. (To be fair, alternately, you can connect your computer to a fax server.) So, surely, Windows Fax and Scan will not return for Windows 10? We wouldn’t count against it. This application has shown up in the Windows 10 Insider Preview.

Windows Journal: KILL
Here’s a good example of a classic Windows desktop application that should be retired to let its better Windows Store app successor fully take over. The OneNote app effectively does the same things as Windows Journal, and more. OneNote has been preinstalled in the Windows 10 Insider Preview -- but so has Windows Journal. Windows Journal’s name perhaps failed to convey accurately what it was designed for: jotting down handwritten notes, and sketching doodles, with a digital pen. Although typed text can be entered onto a note, you do so by first adding a graphical element (a text box) and then typing. This application’s GUI also muddled perceptions of how you’re supposed to use it since it looks like one for a text editor.

Windows Media Player: KILL
At one time, Microsoft angled for this media player to be the main application in their grand vision of a Windows home media center. Now, it’s pretty much hidden under the Windows Accessories folder/group of Windows 8/8.1, which also comes with two apps for playing media. The simply named Music and Video also let users buy music, movies and TV shows as downloads or streams. The current Windows 10 Insider Preview includes new versions of these apps, called Music Preview and Video Preview. Since both apps will run under Windows 10 in resizable windows in the desktop environment, Microsoft should probably not include Windows Media Player in the final Windows 10 release.

WordPad: KEEP
Along with Notepad, WordPad is the other text editor that has been in recent versions of Windows including the Windows 10 Insider Preview. It’s a surprisingly capable, basic word processor. It has a decent font selection; line, paragraph and spacing adjustment; plus the ability to insert images into your document; and to save documents in RTF or Microsoft Office DOCX formats. It’s probably safe to assume that WordPad will be in Windows 10.

XPS Viewer: KILL
Like Silverlight, XPS was devised by Microsoft to compete against another Adobe format (this one being PDF), and, obviously, never achieved widespread adoption. Unlike Silverlight, Microsoft hasn’t officially stopped developing XPS, though they haven’t talked it in over six years. Both an application for viewing XPS documents (XPS Viewer) and a driver to print documents into the format (XPS Document Writer) come with Windows 8/8.1 and appear in the Windows 10 Insider Preview. We think it’s time that Microsoft quietly admit defeat and get rid of both things. When’s the last time, if ever, you’ve looked at an XPS document… or even knew what XPS was before reading this?

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Microsoft touts two next-gen Office editions for Windows

Will preview long-awaited touch version next month

Microsoft this week set a loose release date for its next iteration of Office on the desktop and announced that the long-awaited touch-enabled Windows apps will launch around the same time.

The touch-enabled apps will go out as a preview in February when Microsoft debuts Windows 10 for smartphones.

Office 2016, the moniker chosen for the next edition of the classic desktop suite, will launch in "the second half of 2015," said Julie White, who heads Microsoft's Office product management, in a Thursday blog.

The name was in line with previous labels for the bundle, which was last upgraded to Office 2013 in January of that year.

White gave little information about Office 2016, which will be the choice for Windows users who work with keyboard and mouse, other than the wide release window. It's almost certain that Microsoft will offer a public preview of some kind, probably within the next few months, and start selling the suite at the same time it rolls out Windows 10.

Windows 10 has been tagged with various launch itineraries, including "early fall" by Microsoft's chief operations officer, and most recently, "later this year."

Nor did White discuss pricing or packaging, but Microsoft commonly defers those details until near the ship date. Microsoft has promised to continue to sell perpetually licensed copies of Office -- those customers pay once and can use the software as long as they want -- so the dual models of buy-once and Office 365's rent-not-own will continue.

Office 365 subscribers can upgrade to Office 2016 free of charge when it appears.

Last year, Microsoft also teased a new Office for the Mac, which has not been named -- and said then that it, too, would go on sale in the second half of 2015. Microsoft has already previewed Outlook, the email client for the new Office on OS X, to Office 365 subscribers, and updated it earlier this week.

It's probable that Microsoft will start selling both Office 2016 for Windows and the new, still-unnamed edition for the Mac at the same time, which would be a break with precedent. In the past, the Mac edition has followed the Windows version by several months at minimum.

But White used most of her post to trumpet "Office for Windows 10," a suite of touch-first apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. The latter will sport both email and calendar functionality, as does the desktop version.

Office for Windows 10 will be pre-installed on new Windows 10-powered smartphones and tablets with screens smaller than 8-in. It will also be available for larger-screen devices -- tablets and touch-ready notebooks -- from the Windows Store.

Sticking to its practice of dribbling out information to keep customers interested -- and its wares in the news -- Microsoft did not spell out whether the apps would be free to customers who already have a smartphone or tablet and who upgrade their devices to Windows 10. The company also did not say how much the apps would cost to install on larger tablets or touch laptops.

Unless Microsoft turns its Office business model completely inside-out between now and the apps' release, it will give smartphone and smaller tablet owners Office for Windows 10 for free, perhaps limiting the apps' features in some ways for larger tablets and touch PCs, and tie full functionality on the latter pair to an Office 365 consumer or corporate subscription.

Users who want to use the apps for business purposes -- no matter the device -- will need an Office 365 small business or enterprise subscription.

Those are the licensing terms for Office on the iPhone and Android smartphones, and for the iPad and the impending version for Android-based tablets.

Touch-based Office apps for Windows have been on Microsoft's to-do list for years.

In September 2011, then-CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that the company was working on "Metro-izing" Office, telling Wall Street analysts, "You ought to expect that we are rethinking and working hard on what it would mean to do Office Metro style." Metro was the brand that Microsoft once used to describe the tile- and touch-based interface that debuted on Windows 8 in 2012.

More than a year ago, Ballmer -- by that time on his way out -- promised "what I would call not just a touch-enabled, but a touch-first user interface ... for Windows 8," and set the release order as Windows first, iPad second. Ballmer's replacement, Satya Nadella, flipped the order when he introduced Office for iPad in March. Since then, Windows users have been waiting for word on something similar for them.

Microsoft's White said that a sneak peek of Office for Windows 10 -- not Office 2016 -- would be partnered with a Windows 10 Technical Preview update "in the coming weeks," which fits with what operating system chief Terry Myerson said Wednesday was a February timetable for a first beta of Windows 10 for smartphones.

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The best office apps for Android

Which office package provides the best productivity experience on Android? We put the leading contenders to the test

Getting serious about mobile productivity
We live in an increasingly mobile world -- and while many of us spend our days working on traditional desktops or laptops, we also frequently find ourselves on the road and relying on tablets or smartphones to stay connected and get work done.

Where do you turn when it's time for serious productivity on an Android device? The Google Play Store boasts several popular office suite options; at a glance, they all look fairly comparable. But don't be fooled: All Android office apps are not created equal.

I spent some time testing the five most noteworthy Android office suites to see where they shine and where they fall short. I looked at how each app handles word processing, spreadsheet editing, and presentation editing -- both in terms of the features each app offers and regarding user interface and experience. I took both tablet and smartphone performance into consideration.

Click through for a detailed analysis; by the time you're done, you'll have a crystal-clear idea of which Android office suite is right for you.

Best Android word processor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Mobile Systems' OfficeSuite 8 Premium offers desktop-class word processing that no competitor comes close to matching. The UI is clean, easy to use, and intelligently designed to expand to a tablet-optimized setup. Its robust set of editing tools is organized into easily accessible on-screen tabs on a tablet (and condensed into drop-down menus on a phone). OfficeSuite 8 Premium provides practically everything you need, from basic formatting to advanced table creation and manipulation utilities. You can insert images, shapes, and freehand drawings; add and view comments; track, accept, and reject changes; spell-check; and calculate word counts. There's even a native PDF markup utility, PDF export, and the ability to print to a cloud-connected printer.

OfficeSuite 8 Premium works with locally stored Word-formatted files and connects directly to cloud accounts, enabling you to view and edit documents without having to download or manually sync your work.

Purchasing OfficeSuite 8 Premium is another matter. Search the Play Store, and you'll find three offerings from Mobile Systems: a free app, OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter; a $14.99 app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro + PDF; and another free app, OfficeSuite 8 Pro (Trial). The company also offers a dizzying array of add-ons that range in price from free to $20.

The version reviewed here -- and the one most business users will want -- is accessible only by downloading the free OfficeSuite 8 + PDF Converter app and following the link on the app's main screen to upgrade to Premium, which requires a one-time $19.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all possible options, giving you the most fully featured setup, no further purchases required.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android word processor: Google Docs
Google's mobile editing suite has come a long way, thanks largely to its integration of Quickoffice, which Google acquired in 2012. With the help of Quickoffice technology, the Google Docs word processor has matured into a usable tool for folks with basic editing needs.

Docs is nowhere near as robust as OfficeSuite 8 Premium, but if you rely mainly on Google's cloud storage or want to do simple on-the-go writing or editing, it's light, free, and decent enough to get the job done, whether you’re targeting locally stored files saved in standard Word formats or files stored within Docs in Google's proprietary format.

Docs' clean, minimalist interface follows Google's Material Design motif, making it pleasant to use. It offers basic formatting (fonts, lists, alignment) and tools for inserting and manipulating images and tables. The app's spell-check function is limited to identifying misspelled words by underlining them within the text; there's no way to perform a manual search or to receive proper spelling suggestions.

Google Docs' greatest strength is in its cross-device synchronization and collaboration potential: With cloud-based documents, the app syncs changes instantly and automatically as you work. You can work on a document simultaneously from your phone, tablet, or computer, and the edits and additions show up simultaneously on all devices. You can also invite other users into the real-time editing process and keep in contact with them via in-document commenting.

App: Google Docs
Price: Free
Developer: Google

The rest of the Android word processors
Infraware's Polaris Office is a decent word processor held back by pesky UI quirks and an off-putting sales approach. The app was clearly created for smartphones; as a result, it delivers a subpar tablet experience with basic commands tucked away and features like table creation stuffed into short windows that require awkward scrolling to see all the content. Polaris also requires you to create an account before using the app and pushes its $40-a-year membership fee to gain access to a few extras and the company's superfluous cloud storage service.

Kingsoft's free WPS Mobile Office (formerly Kingsoft Office) has a decent UI but is slow to open files and makes it difficult to find documents stored on your device. I also found it somewhat buggy and inconsistent: When attempting to edit existing Word (.docx) documents, for instance, I often couldn't get the virtual keyboard to load, rendering the app useless. (I experienced this on multiple devices, so it wasn’t specific to any one phone or tablet.)

DataViz's Docs to Go (formerly Documents to Go) has a dated, inefficient UI, with basic commands buried behind layers of pop-up menus and a design reminiscent of Android's 2010 Gingerbread era. While it offers a reasonable set of features, it lacks functionality like image insertion and spell check; also, it's difficult to find and open locally stored documents. It also requires a $14.99 Premium Key to remove ads peppered throughout the program and to gain access to any cloud storage capabilities.

Best Android spreadsheet editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
With its outstanding user interface and comprehensive range of features, OfficeSuite 8 Premium stands out above the rest in the realm of spreadsheets. Like its word processor, the app's spreadsheet editor is clean, easy to use, and fully adaptive to the tablet form.

It's fully featured, too, with all the mathematical functions you'd expect organized into intuitive categories and easily accessible via a prominent dedicated on-screen button. Other commands are broken down into standard top-of-screen tabs on a tablet or are condensed into a drop-down menu on a smartphone.

With advanced formatting options to multiple sheet support, wireless printing, and PDF exporting, there's little lacking in this well-rounded setup. And as mentioned above, OfficeSuite offers a large list of cloud storage options that you can connect with to keep your work synced across multiple devices.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android spreadsheet editor: Polaris Office
Polaris Office still suffers from a subpar, non-tablet-optimized UI, but after OfficeSuite Premium 8, it's the next best option.

Design aside, the Polaris Office spreadsheet editor offers a commendable set of features, including support for multiple sheets and easy access to a full array of mathematical functions. The touch targets are bewilderingly small, which is frustrating for a device that's controlled by fingers, but most options you'd want are all there, even if not ideally presented or easily accessible.

Be warned that the editor has a quirk: You sometimes have to switch from "view" mode to "edit" mode before you can make changes to a sheet -- not entirely apparent when you first open a file. Be ready to be annoyed by the required account creation and subsequent attempts to get you to sign up for an unnecessary paid annual subscription.

Quite honestly, the free version of OfficeSuite would be a preferable alternative for most users; despite its feature limitations compared to the app's Premium configuration, it still provides a better overall experience than Polaris or any of its competitors. If that doesn't fit the bill for you, Polaris Office is a distant second that might do the trick.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android spreadsheet editors
Google Sheets (part of the Google Docs package) lacks too many features to be usable for anything beyond the most basic viewing or tweaking of a simple spreadsheet. The app has a Function command for standard calculations, but it's hidden and appears in the lower-right corner of the screen inconsistently, rendering it useless most of the time. You can’t sort cells or insert images, and its editing interface adapts poorly to tablets. Its only saving grace is integrated cloud syncing and multiuser/multidevice collaboration.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly mediocre: It's slow to open files, and its Function command -- a vital component of spreadsheet work -- is hidden in the middle of an "Insert" menu. On the plus side, it has an impressive range of features and doesn't seem to suffer from the keyboard bug present in its word-processing counterpart.

Docs to Go is barely in the race. Its embarrassingly dated UI makes no attempt to take advantage of the tablet form. Every command is buried behind multiple layers of pop-up menus, all of which are accessible only via an awkward hamburger icon at the top-right of the screen. The app's Function command doesn't even offer descriptions of what the options do -- only Excel-style lingo like "ABS," "ACOS," and "COUNTIF." During my testing, the app failed to open some perfectly valid Excel (.xlsx) files I used across all the programs as samples.

Best Android presentation editor: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
OfficeSuite 8 Premium’s intuitive, tablet-optimized UI makes it easy to edit and create presentations on the go. Yet again, it's the best-in-class contender by a long shot. (Are you starting to sense a pattern here?)

OfficeSuite offers loads of options for making slides look professional, including a variety of templates and a huge selection of slick transitions. It has tools for inserting images, text boxes, shapes, and freehand drawings into your slides, and it supports presenter notes and offers utilities for quickly duplicating or reordering slides. You can export to PDF and print to a cloud-connected printer easily.

If you're serious about mobile presentation editing, OfficeSuite 8 Premium is the only app you should even consider.

App: OfficeSuite 8 Premium
Price: $19.99 (via in-app upgrade)
Developer: Mobile Systems

Runner-up Android presentation editor: Polaris Office
If it weren't for the existence of OfficeSuite, Polaris's presentation editor would look pretty good. The app offers basic templates to get your slides started; they're far less polished and professional-looking than OfficeSuite's, but they get the job done.

Refreshingly, the app makes an effort to take advantage of the tablet form in this domain, providing a split view with a rundown of your slides on the left and the current slide in a large panel alongside it. (On a phone, that rundown panel moves to the bottom of the screen and becomes collapsible.)

With Polaris, you can insert images, shapes, tablets, charts, symbols, and text boxes into slides, and drag-and-drop to reorder any slides you've created. It offers no way to duplicate an existing slide, however, nor does it sport any transitions to give your presentation pizazz. It also lacks presenter notes.

Most people would get a better overall experience from even the free version of OfficeSuite, but if you want a second option, Polaris is the one.

App: Polaris Office
Price: Free (with optional annual subscription)
Developer: Infraware

The rest of the Android presentation editors
Google Slides (part of the Google Docs package) is bare-bones: You can do basic text editing and formatting, and that's about it. The app does offer predefined arrangements for text box placement -- and includes the ability to view and edit presenter notes -- but with no ability to insert images or slide backgrounds and no templates or transitions, it's impossible to create a presentation that looks like it came from this decade.

WPS Mobile Office is similarly basic, though with a few extra flourishes: The app allows you to insert images, shapes, tables, and charts in addition to plain ol' text. Like Google Slides, it lacks templates, transitions, and any other advanced tools and isn't going to create anything that looks polished or professional.

Last but not least, Docs to Go -- as you're probably expecting by this point -- borders on unusable. The app's UI is dated and clunky, and the editor offers practically no tools for modern presentation creation. You can't insert images or transitions; even basic formatting tools are sparse. Don't waste your time looking at this app.

Putting it all together
The results are clear: OfficeSuite 8 Premium is by far the best overall office suite on Android today. From its excellent UI to its commendable feature set, the app is in a league of its own. At $19.99, the full version isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for, which is the best mobile office experience with next to no compromises. The less fully featured OfficeSuite 8 Pro ($9.99) is a worthy one-step-down alternative, as is the basic, ad-supported free version of the main OfficeSuite app.

If basic on-the-go word processing is all you require -- and you work primarily with Google services -- Google's free Google Docs may be good enough. The spreadsheet and presentation editors are far less functional, but depending on your needs, they might suffice.

Polaris Office is adequate but unremarkable. The basic program is free, so if you want more functionality than Google's suite but don't want to pay for OfficeSuite -- or use OfficeSuite's lower-priced or free offerings -- it could be worth considering. But you'll get a significantly less powerful program and less pleasant overall user experience than what OfficeSuite provides.

WPS Mobile Office is a small but significant step behind, while Docs to Go is far too flawed to be taken seriously as a viable option.

With that, you're officially armed with all the necessary knowledge to make your decision. Grab the mobile office suite that best suits your needs -- and be productive wherever you may go.

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Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com