Windows 10 1903 'Welcome to Windows'

Steel Contributor

This page, shown to all users upgrading to a version of Windows 10, doesn't look good in Dev 77.0.211.3 on my 1600 x 900 screen:

 

WX-ED-Welcome-to-Windows.png

 

(The numbers are supposed to be in the top left bit of the graphics, not on top of and obscuring their captions.)

 

Perhaps the reason is to be found in the incredibly complex URL:

https://www.msn.com/spartan/dhpwinfre?country=gb&locale=en-gb&imgh=170&imgw=300&bcnt=3&templatetype=...

10 Replies

This is how it looks on mine using Edge Canary (77.0.218.0) on Windows 10 at a 3840 X 2160 Screen Setting:

Untitled.png

@Noel Burgess "This page, shown to all users upgrading to a version of Windows 10, doesn't look good in Dev 77.0.211.3 on my 1600 x 900 screen ..."

 

Very interesting.  The "Welcome back after upgrade" page renders very differently in EdgeChromium, EdgeHTML (Edge Classic) and Firefox, including different graphics and different action buttons.   

 

Windows Welcome Back after Update.jpg

 

If it was just the rendering (that is, the placement of the numbers and the text/line spacing), I'd think that the "Welcome" page was optimized for EdgeHTML, but it goes beyond that -- the EdgeHTML graphic is different from the one shown in either Edge Chromium or Firefox, and the action box wording is also different (Edge Chromium and EdgeHTML have a "See How" button, and Firefox has a "Learn More" button.  And just to make things even more incomprehensible, the text in each instance is also different -- Edge Chromium is "Control when you get updates", EdgeHTML is "Search the web or PC from one ..." and Firefox is "Control how you update your PC".  

 

So it can't just be a rendering engine issue.   It has to be that Microsoft is using different versions of the page, depending on the browser accessing the page.  Go figure.

 

I'm not sure that it makes any difference, but it looks to me that either Microsoft is overthinking the issue, or I am.  

 

 

It might be something that goes all the way back to the original Chromium Prime. This is how it looks on Google Canary Chrome (77.0.3852.0) which like Microsoft is the one step up from the original Chromium Prime version that they're open sourcing from.  

Untitled.jpg

Yeah, this is how it looks on Chromium (77.0.3853.0) which is the prime "right off the truck" version that comes before the Canary builds. It looks the same.  Although interesting that that Original Edge doesn't have that issue...what about Internet Explorer? Lets find out!

Capture.JPGCapture2.JPG 

With Internet Explorer 11 that first part of the page doesn't load on it:

 

Capture.JPG

@Anthony @Noel Burgess   Having looked at the different results (renders properly on EdgeHTML, but renders improperly on all Chromium-based browsers (Edge Chromium, Google Chrome and Edge Chromium, renders improperly on Firefox, and renders not at all on IE 11) it looks to me like the page was designed using EdgeHTML-specific elements of some sort.   

 

It probably isn't worth worrying about -- it isn't an Edge Chromium problem -- but Microsoft should take the time to rework the code so that the page renders properly on Blink, EdgeHTML and WebRender engines.  Website design 101.

@tomscharbach - Yeah I see what you're saying now. Thus probably why it looks fine on Edge but the other browsers it looks the way it looks. I'm guessing they will at some point have to adjust that so the web page appears properly on the new edge browser. I don't use IE 11 anymore at all since 2016 (and I was one of those using IE since IE 1.0 came out). But seeing it didn't appear at all in IE indicates what you were saying. I guess like anything else it's all a work in process since Microsoft is starting over from scratch with Edge. 

@Anthony 

"I'm guessing they will at some point have to adjust that so the web page appears properly on the new edge browser."

 

Yes, it will. It looks like Edge Chromium is going to be in-built into Windows 10 (replacing EdgeHTML) starting with the Spring 2020 (20H1) feature update, so everything Microsoft (including WebView, which powers web integration in Windows 10 apps) is going to have to be ported over to work with Edge Chromium by then.

 

"I guess like anything else it's all a work in process since Microsoft is starting over from scratch with Edge."

 

I hope that Microsoft, this time around, will follow Web Design 101 principles and rework its websites/pages so that the websites/pages work with all the standard rendering engines (Blink, WebRender, Webkit and so on).

 

If nothing else, the "Welcome" web page issue demonstrates the folly of writing code that is browser-specific.

 

Microsoft has a habit of doing that -- the myriad of issues created by IE-specific coding come to mind, keeping Microsoft stuck with supporting the legacy (and risky) browser-specific elements of IE come to mind -- and Microsoft should just stop doing it.  The days of proprietary browsers is over.

 

While web technology moves on and requires web developers to constantly update -- think about the issues created by Google Earth's ties to depreciated PNaCl -- developing around browser-specific elements invites unnecessary problems.

I was kind of hoping they kept both versions active. Being each is it's own browser but of course from a reality and consumer sense I know it wouldn't be logical. The new version of Edge is good and will stand on it's on. As long as people know the new Edge is the new Edge and not the old Edge simply mildly revamped. I sometimes wonder if it's better to just give it a new name not to confuse the new version with the old one. For us or techie people we know but the average home Windows or at work user may not know (or bother to look into it) and just believe the new Edge is a revamp of the old. So I guess this is where Microsoft marketing side has to hit town with marketing the new Edge as a Chrome competitor yet also a Chrome family browser. Personally although I can be wrong I think if this does happen it will give Microsoft a nice chump of browser share back or put them tied or with Google and pretty much knock Firefox out for the punch. I can download the new Edge and use Chrome apps and vise versa which is what will hit Firefox.

I think overtime they probably will fix their websites to work on other engines. If Microsoft follows Google's method than we will continue to be able to use and beta test browsers like Dev and Canary even after Edge goes stable release, as Google has the same insider like program for their browsers going for 11 years. Firefox has the same thing too with Firefox Dev and Firefox Nightly browsers. 

I agree with you about IE. I know they're trying to hold on to IE because some facilities and business still use it, but at the same time it should be let go and retired out for good. It was a great browser for it's time but the time has come for IE to retire for good. And I'm someone that's used IE since IE 1.0 and it was main default browser when you either used IE or Netscape. But that's just my personal opinion and could be swat. 

I guess like Google Chrome it's always going to be a work in progress. I get updates almost every other day with Google Canary Chrome testing something new or twiking something so I'm sure after stable release the journey of improving the browser will continue. 

But how can you get back to the "Welcome to Windows" page? https://www.msn.com/spartan/dhpwinfre?country=gb&locale=en-gb&imgh=170&imgw=300&bcnt=3&templatetype=...

only opens an msn.com page(albeit titled "Welcome to Windows")