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Patrick Lawless's avatar
Patrick Lawless
Brass Contributor
Nov 30, 2017
Solved

Windows 10 v1709 AMA - Why has Creators Update Fall treated creators so badly?

I'd like to know how the incomprehensible change in stylus behaviour, which severely impacts those who primarily input with pen, was ever considered a positive?   The multiple adverse effects are...
  • Adam Lein's avatar
    Adam Lein
    Dec 07, 2017

    Please please provide an off switch for the new pen scrolling/panning feature. It breaks SO MANY things! 

     

    The work-around with having to hold the right click pen barrel button is really awful because: 1. That's supposed to open a context sensitive menu.  2. Having to hold the button means having to hold the pen differently.  3. Some Windows 10 tablet pens (such as the Samsung Galaxy Book) do not have a right-click barrel button so in those cases many functions are actually impossible.  4. It's extremely unintuitive. Previously, I could tap & drag everything with ease... move files, rearrange start menu tiles, resize calendar appointments, drag/drop whatever.  Now doing those types of things are much more difficult and much less efficient. It's a huge crutch on our workflows.

     

    The new behavior also interferes heavily with the Wacom drivers used in Wacom pen displays, the Wacom MobileStudio Pro, and the new HP Zbook x2.  Thankfully, those devices have a checkbox in the driver to disable "Windows Ink", however when the Windows Ink is in use, the new pen scrolling behavior causes major problems.  For example, an easy repro scenario is to right click the address bar in Micosoft Edge using the pen's barrel button (Wacom hardware with Windows Ink on)... The whole system will become unresponsive after that right click.  I've reproduced this on 2 devices as well as a workstation with a pen display plugged in.  It affects other things too like not being able to move objects in InDesign, causing hangs in Adobe Bridge, etc.

     

    I've also got a few tablets that use the Microsoft N-Trig pens and those have issues as well, but do not have the advantage of being able to switch off "Windows Ink".  It's really made the pen interface into a terrible user experience.

     

    There are a http://pocketnow.com/2017/07/29/windows-10-fall-creators-update in back in July when this new behavior was first being introduced to Windows Insiders. Some of those were fixed somewhat, but it still shouldn't have been released without an off switch.  It should have been an Opt-In feature I think. 

     

    I hope an off switch will be available before the "Current Branch for Business" gets the Fall Creators Update!

     

    Here's some more feedback hub links:

    https://aka.ms/Cth1bj

    https://aka.ms/Nm2ba8

    https://aka.ms/Senlr6

    https://aka.ms/U7g3yd

    https://aka.ms/Rx0k5l

    https://aka.ms/L3qw8q

     

    This one is very important: "Always provide off switch for terrible new features"
    https://aka.ms/Fg7wme

Gareth Pitman's avatar
Gareth Pitman
Copper Contributor
Jan 05, 2018
Patrick Lawless wrote:

I'd like to know how the incomprehensible change in stylus behaviour, which severely impacts those who primarily input with pen, was ever considered a positive?

 

The multiple adverse effects are cropping up via user complaints, which a quick web search will reveal. Rather than provide a summary list I can illustrate the ill-thought out nature of the change using just one example.

 

Pen flicks and navigation has been rendered completely unusable but yet is still a component part of Windows 10. Personally I've relied on pen flicks as a productivity tool for as long as I've been a pen user - which is now over ten years. At a stroke, ironically, this feature has been broken through incompetence or neglect - either fit so take your pick.

 

Please provide an answer or even better a timetable for reversing this calamity.

 

Regards

 

Patrick

 

P.S. Any typos entirely the fault of the 2nd incomprehensible decision to replace the fully featured on-screen keyboard with a finger friendly but condensed keyboard. Doesn't the Windows 10 engineering team have any pen-centric members on board?


Hi I want to chime in here too. I am just a plain old user not a creator or professional. I want Microsoft to know that this change on the pen is not just an inconvenience to the pro's who use the pen for a living its effecting the consumer who were happy highlighting text in a variety of apps. You have turned a $130 pen into a mouse. If i want to click and drag I will pull my windows 95 pc out of my storage shed and click and drag with my mouse all I want but here in 2018 i would like to go back to using my surface and pen. But to do that you need to give us back what you took.
Thanks

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