There’s been a whole lot of web chatter not too long ago concerning the revelation that the Format drive window in Windows 11 hasn’t solely not been modified for 30 years – however it was imagined to be a short lived interface. While this 30-year-old piece of Windows legacy is in some methods a part of Windows 11’s charms, it’s additionally emblematic of Microsoft’s issues with its operating system.
For these of us who nonetheless use the Format drive function in Windows 11, it’s little shock that it appears nearly equivalent to when it first appeared again in 1994. With a easy interface that provides you all the fundamental options you have to erase and format a drive shortly, in some respects you might argue it is a nice instance of ‘if it isn’t damaged, don’t repair it.’
However, posting on X, former Microsoft developer Dave Plummer revealed that the interface of the Format function, which he created in late 1994, was imagined to be momentary, with a extra ‘elegant UI’ for WindowsNT ultimately changing it.
I wrote this Format dialog again on a wet Thursday morning at Microsoft in late 1994, I believe it was.We had been porting the bajillion strains of code from the Windows95 person interface over to NT, and Format was simply a kind of areas the place WindowsNT was completely different sufficient from… pic.twitter.com/PbrhQe0n3KMarch 24, 2024
Maybe repair it anyway
There is one thing comforting about having sure instruments or home windows remaining unchanged for many years. However, whereas it could be pleasing to some outdated farts (like me), having a contemporary working system peppered with 30-year-old apps is much from supreme – particularly if these apps had been solely imagined to be momentary.
The incontrovertible fact that the Format function hasn’t modified for 3 a long time explains why there are some odd issues that stay. It’s unlikely that anybody today wants to regulate the ‘Allocation unit size’, but that choice stays. Formatting a drive to make use of the FAT file system additionally stays restricted to 32GB, regardless that – as The Verge explains – FAT helps volumes of as much as 2TB. With Windows 11 sticking to the outdated Format drive interface, there’s no official method of making FAT volumes in Windows 11 which can be bigger than 32GB.
It’s these little quirks which have led some folks to consider that the rationale why Microsoft hasn’t modified the Format drive interface isn’t as a result of it thinks that it’s good – however just because it has forgotten to.
That’s definitely an amusing idea, and I think about that the Format drive function is without doubt one of the least-used components of Windows 11. Still, I discover it onerous to consider that Microsoft has forgotten about it. Instead, I believe it merely doesn’t care. And that’s worse.
Blame it on Windows 8
Now, it’s at all times enjoyable accountable all the pieces on Windows 8. Microsoft’s failure to come up with a decent smartphone to take on the iPhone? Windows 8’s fault. The incontrovertible fact that the long-lasting Start menu is now largely ineffective? The rot began with Windows 8. Your automotive breaks down simply earlier than you have to get someplace urgently? You’d higher consider that’s Windows 8’s fault.
However, there’s a main problem with Windows 11, exemplified by the 30-year-old Format drive interface, that I can legitimately blame on Windows 8.
If you possibly can’t keep in mind Windows 8, then let me fill you in on one among Microsoft’s worst working system missteps.
Launched in 2012 and following on from the extremely popular Windows 7, Windows 8 introduced an bold, although flawed, overhaul to the Windows interface. Ditching the normal Windows desktop format of a taskbar alongside the underside and the long-lasting Start menu that had been a cornerstone of Windows releases since Windows 95, and changing it (sort of) with a big-buttoned ‘Start screen’ that was designed with contact display gadgets in thoughts, and taking cues from cellular working programs like iOS and Android, Windows 8 was arguably the most important revolution since Windows 95. It was additionally a little bit of a catastrophe.
While the brand new Start Screen might need regarded good and labored effectively on touchscreen gadgets, for conventional laptop computer and desktop PCs, which had been by far the vast majority of gadgets working Windows 8, it felt fundamental, garish and unintuitive.
Even worse, Microsoft didn’t absolutely commit to creating Windows 8 a mobile-first working system. This meant that the touchscreen-friendly Start display was clunkily overlaid on high of a extra conventional desktop interface. This meant desktop customers needed to put up with the Start Screen, whereas touchscreen customers needed to fiddle about with sure apps and screens that had been designed for use with a mouse and keyboard. By attempting to attraction to conventional Windows customers in addition to cellular customers, Windows 8 ended up annoying everybody.
This is maybe the worst legacy of Windows 8. Since that OS, Microsoft has scaled again on its touchscreen ambitions, however it has continued to maintain some extra trendy, simplified, components alongside extra conventional Windows components.
This has led to post-Windows 8 variations of Windows nonetheless feeling like a clumsy mixture of two completely different working programs. Not solely does it make utilizing trendy Windows, together with Windows 11, really feel clunky, however it’s complicated as effectively. It’s why Windows 11 nonetheless has the Control Panel, an app containing a number of choices that has been round since Windows 1.0’s launch in 1985, however it additionally has the Settings display, which basically does the identical factor, however with a contemporary look (and debuted with Windows 8). At first having Control Panel and Settings was merely redundant as they do the identical factor, however Microsoft is slowly moving parts of the Control Panel to the Settings app.
This has made issues worse, for my part, because it’s now unclear the place I must go to get to a sure setting in Windows 11. It additionally seems like I’m utilizing two completely different working programs at occasions.
The reality is Windows 11 has an identification drawback. Is it a contemporary working system that has developed together with how folks now use their PCs, or is it a secure, acquainted, legacy working system that does the job however doesn’t wow folks? It can’t be each and which means for the way forward for Windows, be that Windows 12 or one thing else solely, Microsoft goes to should make some powerful choices.
That might imply chopping all these outdated components of the working system out and ranging from scratch. Do a Windows 8, however absolutely decide to it. Unfortunately, attributable to Windows 8’s unpopularity, Microsoft is likely to be too timid to essentially revolutionize Windows. If that’s the case, then Windows 8’s legacy can be even worse than I assumed.