These are the things Microsoft needs to improve in Windows 10

I have used Windows 10 in one form or another ever since Microsoft released the first public preview build of the operating system.

While I like it more than Windows 8, it feels like an incomplete operating system in several regards as if Microsoft rushed the operating system to get it out in time for the Holiday season.

Windows 10 has some glaring issues with privacy probably the one overshadowing everything else.  We have talked about privacy in length here on Ghacks and while things are definitely worse than in previous versions of Windows, most of them can be fixed with privacy tools.

This article is not about privacy but about features or programs that feel incomplete or disappoint because of a lack of functionality.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft's Internet Explorer replacement lacks many options and features that have been part of mainstream browsers for a long time that it is difficult to list them all in a single article.

It lacks customization options, settings in general, management options to control things like cookies on the system, or tools to display information about sites you visit.

And that does not even take into accounts features such as extensions that were not the strong suite of Internet Explorer.

Microsoft is working on Edge and one of the things that the company will release soon is extensions support. It is still too early to tell how this will look like and how well it will work though.

Windows Apps and Store

If you run Windows apps regularly on your system then you have probably experienced crashes, slow downs and other issues related to apps already.

We have covered this before in Microsoft needs to fix Windows Store and the universal app platform already.

The whole universal apps system seems highly unstable at this point in time. Two of the apps crashed constantly of the ten or so applications I reviewed today for this week's best of Windows apps article over on Betanews so that I gave up on them and did not mention them in the article.

Windows Store offers similar functionality as Google Play by displaying curated lists on the frontpage and in categories which reduces a user's ability to discover apps greatly.

The problem that Windows Store has is one of size (availability of premium apps) when compared to other big stores out there plus it is largely ignored by desktop users who have often access to better choices in form of programs or web applications.

The Start Menu

The start menu is an improvement over Windows 8's Start Screen, at least on the desktop. As a desktop user however, I find it lacking in many regards.

First, these tiles don't make a whole lot of sense on the desktop regardless of whether they are live tiles or static tiles.

I don't need big squares in the start menu as I can move and click precisely where I want using the mouse.

I can see the advantage on mobile devices where you use your finger to activate these but on the desktop, they are not useful in my opinion.

Live tiles are fairly useless on the desktop as you need to open the start menu first to see them at all. Even then, you are probably not opening the start menu to find out what's new in the Pictures application or News, as there are better ways to do so. Plus, you would have to keep the start menu open if you want to get a constant stream of updates.

The start menu lacks customization options apart from that. Why is the All Apps link above the "power" options link? Why cannot I resize the start menu to my liking (there is a limit that you cannot go beyond)? Why cannot I reorder items?

Settings and Control Panel

Two tools to manage settings of the operating system. This is just confusing and will get even weirder once Microsoft decides to move more Control Panel tools to Settings.

There should only be one central tool to manage core System settings. I never found the Control Panel to be very appealing and would not mind using Settings completely, but Microsoft should make up its mind and stick with that decision.

Search is broken

Search in Windows 10 fails to work at times for some users. It is unclear why and how, only that it is an issue that is affecting more than just a handful of users. While there is a fix for the issue, it is only temporary and needs to be applied whenever search fails.

Since searching is essential, it is quite the problematic bug.

Now You: What's your take on Windows 10's overall state?