Forum Discussion
Windows 10 v1709 AMA - Why has Creators Update Fall treated creators so badly?
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
I had to sign up to the Insider's program to get a newer build. It seems that from build 17xxx on they added a Registry key that can revert the pen behavior to Legacy. You have to add the key manually.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Pen]
"LegacyPenInteractionModel"=dword:00000001
I think the whole thing is a big mistake that will force another step back for creative Surface users.
An active pen can be a powerful tool for creative people. I realized that years ago, and my first notebook was a tc4200 Tablet pc which didn't even have touch, and that is before iPads and tablets.
Ultimately the tablet pcs failed Creators to favor business users, for which the pen is just a fancy, cool and eventually disposable accessory, but of course they got the money and they got the numbers, so they were a far better target than artists. The Tablet Pc line eventually died, and reincarnated years later as the Surface. And the same mistakes came back.
The potential of the Surface line to become the ultimate creator's machine is brilliant, but the facts have proven otherwise. Microsoft seems to be always looking for ways to make creative tasks harder to favor people that just need an expensive internet browser.
Most people don't draw, scribble, paint, compose music, design, lay out, edit video, animate. Most people are not ”creators” and there's nothing wrong about that. What is wrong is to give a forced update the appealing name of Fall Creators Update when there's nothing there to favor creative users. FCU is meant to make common users feel creative, and creators feel miserable.
It's a trap.
As the originator of this thread I'm sad to say I've finally received an answer to the question originally posed. It's not the one I wanted to hear but at least it's clarified the position.
I'm now happily resigned to an alternative, being a dedicated Wacom tablet for my heavy lifting photography work and Samsung's Galaxy Tab S3 for my daily computing needs. As a massive fan of Samsung's Note 5, with Outlook for Android boasting an exceedingly useful Focused Inbox, (which Windows Outlook has still to introduce) OneNote and MS Office I will finally no longer use Windows (having clocked up about 30 years use) while still having access to the Microsoft apps that are essential for business life.
I'll be wistful about leaving Windows behind, but having adopted Windows Mobile post Nokia purchase, then been thrown under a bus, not once but twice, by Microsoft as they left their users stranded on legacy devices as part of improving the platform (sound familiar?) the forced move to the Galaxy Note 5 made me realise that I should have made the transition at least a couple of years earlier. Suspect I'll feel likewise in less than six months time.
For what it's worth I've posted a reply to David A's update on Reddit, including a final closing question, which given the decision I've reached is entirely rhetorical.
https://www.reddit.com/user/panthonyl
Thanks to everyone who posted both here and at https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/issues/14277341/ and good luck to those pen using creators who, for whatever reason, will remain stuck on Windows. I hope Microsoft will experience a Damascene conversion but experience would not have me bet on it.
- I can't decode the continued "legacy win32 application" speak, but there seems to be hope going on over in the reddit forum. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/05/03/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-17661/ "If you go to Pen & Windows Ink Settings, you’ll find a new option that allows your pen to behave like a mouse instead of scrolling or panning the screen." https://www.reddit.com/r/Windowsink/comments/8gsjup/additional_control_for_pen_behavior_in_legacy/
