nathanjfield

Notes on Windows 11

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I’ve been using Windows 11 for a couple of months now, having resisted the urge to upgrade earlier so as to avoid a bug-filled experience (but more on that later). Now, as someone who still remembers battling with various horrors throughout the iterations of Windows, from NT to ME and Vista, any niggles with this current version feel somewhat inconsequential. Nevertheless, the niggles are there, along with some niceties, and from a business perspective, both are worth noting.

The Design

First, the main thrust of the Windows team’s marketing efforts have seemed to centre around the attention that has been paid to the design of the UI. A Twitter poll back before the official release date revealed that the feature most users were looking forward to was…rounded corners. So is it really that much better?

Well yes. And no. Certainly there are some really nice touches. I’m sold on the rounded corners, and impressed with how many elements of the UI have been updated to match. Windows Explorer in particular feels like a sleek web app rather than a desktop mainstay, with crisp icons and a redesigned toolbar requiring just a little retraining of the old muscle memory.

In some instances, it’s obvious that real consideration has been made into Windows users workflows, such as the improved taskbar notifications area. In a funny way however, this makes it even more jarring when a part of the interface doesn’t work. For example, why have a nicely designed WiFi network selection flow, and then not replicate it for Bluetooth devices?

Along a similar vein, there’s the new taskbar button that enables you to view open apps and switch desktops. This is a welcome addition which highlights an often underutilised feature, and leads onto the next key point, which is quite a unique selling point for Windows 11.

Upskilling Users

I’ve been a Windows user my whole life, so you’d think I’d have as good a handle as anyone on most features, and the quickest way to use the OS. But I’ve been really surprised at how much I learned about Windows within the first few days of the upgrade. Some of these features have been available in Windows 10 (and potentially previous iterations), but I was either not aware of them or failed to use regularly.

Depending on your expertise with Windows, these may be underwhelming for you, or they may be revelatory, as they were for me. The ones that immediately spring to mind are:

  • Removing the Recycle Bin from the desktop (I love that uninterrupted wallpaper!)
  • Switching between thumbnail and list view in Explorer via the bottom right icons
  • Keyboard shortcuts detailed alongside their respective actions in context menus

That last addition was particularly striking the first time I right-clicked on the desktop. It shows that Microsoft has an interest in helping its customers to get the most out of the OS. When I first watched the unveiling of Windows 11 back in June, I was surprised by how many of the ‘new’ features, were upgrades of existing ones. But in this iteration, the Windows team have ensured that those capabilities are easily accessible, and it is to their credit.

Put simply, as someone who works in IT management, I’m looking forward to rolling out Windows 11 because of how much better it’s going to make my coworkers in their use of the OS.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

This all sounds good, but there is a catch. I didn’t watch or read many opinions of at the launch, but the Verge had a particularly good review, which advised that while much of what Microsoft was trying to do had been successful, where they failed was in the places that they didn’t go far enough. ‘The unfinished OS’ is a charge that has been levelled against Windows 11, and when old menus from Windows NT and 2000 appear alongside transparent menu bars and sleek 3D icons, it’s an accusation that’s hard to argue with.

For my part, I’ve also found the OS surprisingly buggy. Explorer in particular repeatedly hangs for a few seconds at a time. Many an hour has been wasted trying to get my Bluetooth headphones and webcam to work at the same time (I’ve since given up and resorted to a wired pair for video calls). Microsoft Teams of all programs, functions particularly badly, with some messages not loading without a restart.

The Verge estimated that Windows 11 would probably be ‘finished’ in a year’s time, once all the old menus and bugs had been ironed out. As such, most of these issues won’t be a problem for the majority of Windows 11 users, as IT departments like mine wait for the dust to settle before initiating the migration. There are regular reports of Microsoft both fixing the frustrations and releasing new features, so I’m hopeful that rather than the finished article, it’s still very much a work in progress, a minimum viable product if you will.

Whatever the case, once you’ve made the upgrade, there’s no going back. Windows 11 is basically the same as Windows 10, but just better enough in every way that the thought of a downgrade is completely untenable. At least this is the last Windows migration us IT pros will have to manage, right?

Don’t Panic

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In the past two years, I’ve had four jobs. That might make you think I’m eminently employable or unemployable, take your pick. Whatever you decide it does mean I’ve had recent experience in that most awkward of processes: settling into a new company. And I thought it worthwhile to share one major difference I’ve seen in my employers, and how it’s affected my work.

Before starting my current position, I worked at two ‘fast-paced’ companies. Now, I could argue about whether or not those businesses had reason to be ‘fast-paced’, but the main takeaway I’ve taken away from my experience at these companies for 6-12 months each, is that a calm and collected approach to work is a far better method of getting stuff done.

Going from those environments to my current company, which has a couple of decades of experience behind it, and several personnel with even longer working histories, has been something of an eye-opener in this regard. I’ve even heard people talk about giving new starts up to six months to settle in! This is a far cry from the mentality of six-month contracting so common nowadays.

The so-called ‘fast-paced’ mentality is just a part of hustle culture. With more and more people creating side-hustles (what used to be called moonlighting), the pressure to produce results faster continues to build. Business leaders and owners see how technology has progressed at a frightening pace, with billion-dollar business built seemingly overnight, and assume their workers are simply not producing enough.

But ‘seemingly’ is the important word here. My knowledge of most of the so-called overnight successes of the tech world is that they were actually born out of a potent mixture of failure and long hard graft. Panic in the business world is rarely rewarded positively, and yet in so many businesses, I have seen a management style that fuels panic. It’s continual aim is to unsettle employees with jibs when work isn’t completed fast enough, withering comments when outcomes aren’t met, and witch-hunts when things go wrong.

So, the next time you find yourself in an interview situation or looking for a new job, my advice is to check as much as possible if you might be entering a ‘panic-culture’. There are a few obvious warning signs to look out for: a late interviewer, which will often lead into a rushed or disorganised interview. A lack of clear communication about what the company is doing and what you’ll be expected to do, or indeed what the next steps are. These should all ring warning bells which should be heeded.

That said, if you find yourself currently in an panic-stricken environment, and you can’t or don’t want to leave, my advice is to simply not allow yourself to give in to panic. There are some great resources on how you can do this, from Stephen R. Covey’s seminal work The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, through to Fegus O’Connell’s What You Need To Know About Project Management. Books like these promote a more healthy approach to work, even in companies with bad working practices, which in turns leads to better decisions, and better results.

That’s been my main takeaway from the last three months with my current company. My family and friends will testify to the fact that I’m generally happier, less stressed, and yet also highly focussed, and definitely far more productive. Now that just might be me and my personality talking, but I’d highly recommend you try taking a less frantic approach to work, and let the results of a panic-less working life speak for themselves.

No-Code, Low-Code, Mo-Code

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( inspired by real people on Twitter )

This title is as close to clickbait as I fear tread. Relax, this is not a treatise to abandon all thoughts of using low-code or no-code solutions.

However, my work with CastAlum has required the development of two small custom apps. As it happens, the one use case seemed a good fit for the Microsoft Power Platform, specifically, linking Power Apps with SharePoint through Power Automate. The other required transitioning from a historic Access database (which I built as an apprentice), to a more powerful and feature-rich web app built using the MERN stack (plus a little shout-out for Meilisearch). 

Disclaimer: I’m aware Power Apps could be classed as low-code or no-code depending on how you use it, but for the purposes of this article, I’ll refer to it as low-code. And I use hyphens wherever possible because it annoys my boss.

This presented an interesting opportunity to compare a low-code development process to a full-stack one. If you think it’s a little bit bizarre that one person is doing both at the same time, you’re probably right, but such is life in an SMB…and I love it.

If you want a TL:DR, below are the three points I’d like to make:

  • Low-code doesn’t necessarily mean easier.
  • Low-code doesn’t necessarily mean low-cost.
  • Microsoft forums consist of MVPs talking to each other. 

(I’m not actually going to talk about that last one, I just find it humorous.)

Low-code doesn’t necessarily mean easier

I have been really surprised by just how fiddly the Power Platform is! Now, yes there may be some use cases that really allow you to use Power Apps as a no-code solution, but then you’re basically describing a form that feeds into a table. In this case you’re probably better off avoiding Power Apps altogether (as I have done in the past).

I’ve had issues with Power Apps and Power Automate not talking to each other without proper synchronisation. I’ve found features that have been stuck in an experimental state for years without any progress. And I’ve been amazed how much I’ve needed to turn to Googling for random forum answers, sites, and YouTube videos, as the documentation doesn’t provide the answers I’m looking for.

The reason being, that much of what you can do in Power Apps involves ‘hacking’ it. Effectively, if you want to do anything more complicated than capture and read information from a SharePoint List, then you’re likely going to need to get your head around someone else’s code to make your square peg fit the round hole that is Power Apps.

Oh and on that last point, one of the real difficulties that I’ve found while Googling is the iterative nature of the product’s development. Meaning that a solution that worked two years ago (when Flow was Power Automate by the way), may not be the best way to achieve your goal in the current product, as Microsoft could have added or removed features in the meantime.

Low-code doesn’t necessarily mean low-cost

The complexity I’m referring to leads onto this point: don’t be lulled into thinking that no developers = no cost. On the contrary, keeping my app free on the Power Platform, was one of the trickiest parts of the whole process.

There’s a few reasons for this, which effectively revolve around Microsoft trying to find a way to get you to pay for their services as much as possible. Why else would they allow you to convert to a PDF as a OneDrive action, but not a SharePoint action? This leads to the very common hack: { Copy to OneDrive > Convert to PDF > Copy back to SharePoint }

Oh, but there is an option to convert to PDF in SharePoint. Except you have to pay for it. And here’s the kicker: if you link a Power App to a Power Automate flow that has a premium connection, everyone who uses the app has to have a premium license.Yeah, that was my facial expression too. And once you start paying for licenses, low-code platforms get really expensive, really quick.

Now, I’m being slightly facetious in all of this, because if I was so sceptical about the validity of the Power Platform, I just wouldn’t use it, end of. However, the point is this: it does not follow that just because something can be done in the Power Platform, it should be. It’s not necessarily going to save you time and money, and in fact it might even cost you more than some others.

In the instance I’m working with, it’s pretty perfect, because I already have the technical skills to hack it to do what I want without paying additional licensing fees, and the fact that it ties in so nicely with SharePoint as a backend, makes my job even easier. Oh, and the app can be deployed and used instantaneously on the factory floor using a tablet as a data capture and reference device. *chef’s kiss*

Just be sure before you go down the Power Platform route that there’s a good reason for it. Because I can tell you that at least in the development process, my full-stack app has given me a lot more highs than low-code.