With the success of the Windows Insider program, Microsoft now lets anyone give them formal feedback through the Windows Feedback app. In our new series we’re breaking down some of the most intriguing feedback and suggestions. We’ll do our best to dive into the lists of feedback rather than just have “dark theme everywhere.” This week we look at the Start Menu and Action Center.
Note that the links to feedback items work by opening the Feedback Hub in Windows 10.
Start Menu
The Start Menu, an iconic mainstay in Windows for decades (well except Windows 8 but they still had a Start… Screen?). It’s back in Windows 10 and some would say better than ever. The mixture of old school Start with modern apps has been a development process. We’ve seen some solid improvements over the last year in the Windows 10 Start Menu but there’s always more feedback that could help it improve. Here’s some of the best or most intriguing feedback we found about the Start Menu.
“Bring back Multi-selection of tiles so I can move, unpin, edit size, uninstall multiple tiles at once like Windows 8.1″
If you’re like me, you spend quite a bit of time customizing your Start Menu or screen on your various devices. Fitting your tiles together perfectly to create the exact feel you’re going for while also providing all the information you need is one of the great things about the modern Windows experience. The ability to select multiple tiles at once would streamline that process as well as help you clear out any old apps you want to get rid of. You can already move around groups of apps but there isn’t a shift click multi select or something similar.
“Transparent live tiles like in windows 10 mobile PLEASE”
I think this piece of feedback may be more geared towards tablets because transparent Live Tiles with a program running behind them seem pretty messy in my opinion. But plenty of people use Windows 10 on tablets or 2-1s that run tablet mode regularly. Being able to use that unique transparent live tile look on a tablet would be a great way to personalize the experience. Also, while we’re at it, can Microsoft please make all of their first party apps support a transparent Live Tile?
“Please add the option to change the color of each individual tile, Making every tile the same makes the start screen boring.”
This piece of feedback would make users of third party apps extremely happy but would also benefit anyone using a Start Menu or Start Screen. Being able to customize individual Live Tiles on a system level, rather than on a per app basis, would allow users to make beautiful Start Menus. It would also let users make certain apps feel more natural. For example, if you’re using a third party Twitter app it may be nice to make the Live Tile a nice blue color to match Twitter’s color scheme.
Action Center
The Action Center is a great feature in Windows 10. It’s getting a major buff in the Anniversary update with Windows Ink, improved notifications, syncing with phones and more. It’s even getting moved over to the lower right hand corner- more on that in a bit- because it’s becoming such a prominent feature. It’s a central hub for notifications and quick changes that people need to make. That being said, it’s not perfect. Microsoft is clearly investing time in upgrading it as seen in current insider builds but here’s some more feedback that could help it even more.
Add an option to drag and drop the Action Center Icon, and all those lower right hand icons
The actual piece of feedback reads “Please move the action center icon back to where it was .. The clock should always be on the bottom right.” Personally I prefer moving the icon to the right corner because I find it hard to find muddled between all the other icons. I also interact more with the Action Center icon as opposed to looking at the clock. But that’s just me. I think the easiest compromise is to just let people drag and drop everything in the lower right corner of the screen. You can already rearrange things like Wi-Fi and Sound, why not go all in and let us click and drag anything over there.
More customizable quiet hours
This person sums it up pretty well. To quote part of their feedback “You should be able to set which days of the week and to what times quiet hours should be enabled. You should also be able to decide what exactly ‘quiet hours’ does…” Windows Phone 8.1 had great quiet hour customization. It would be great to see that full feature set arrive on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.
That’s it for this week. There are plenty more pieces of valuable feedback. Share what you’d improve in the comments below and your thoughts on this feedback.
