Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps

Hellfire103@lemmy.ca to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 253 points –
Microsoft releases a new Windows app called Windows App for running Windows apps
arstechnica.com
27

As somebody who has to work with deploying this software for consultants that use W365 Cloud PCs, fuck this name. If there is an error or an issue with it, good fucking luck trying to Google a solution because searching for "Windows App Error" gets you nowhere fucking useful.

And for their next office platform, they decided to settle with the name of ERROR.

Remember that RTS game called Z? I tried searching for that back in the BBS days, and the search results included literally every zip file available. Good times…

Let me get on my tinfoil hat: I'd wager that Microsoft views this as a feature, not a bug. They voluntarily tank their SEO so that you have more incentive to use their shitty LLM assistant.

I asked ChatGPT if it knew of that, and even with it's heavy microsoft influence it was confused.

To save people the click

Microsoft announced today that it's releasing a new app called Windows App as an app for Windows that allows users to run Windows and also Windows apps (it's also coming to macOS, iOS, web browsers, and is in public preview for Android).

On most of those platforms, Windows App is a replacement for the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, which was used for connecting to a copy of Windows running on a remote computer or server—for some users and IT organizations, a relatively straightforward way to run Windows software on devices that aren't running Windows or can't run Windows natively.

The new name, though potentially confusing, attempts to sum up the app's purpose: It's a unified way to access your own Windows PCs with Remote Desktop access turned on, cloud-hosted Windows 365 and Microsoft Dev Box systems, and individual remotely hosted apps that have been provisioned by your work or school.

so, without this app, it will only be telemetry and ads? 🤔

Microsoft and terrible naming conventions, name a better duo...

Xbox: Good, short, sweet, memorable. Xbox 360: Odd, but different name, referring to the console being meant to be used as an all in one media center. Xbox One: Confusing since people were calling the original Xbox the Xbox 1. Xbox Series X: whyyyyy

Playstation: Just increment the number, mate.

Remote Desktop clients for Linux got good enough that they felt the need to replace it with a new protocol with no linux clients?

You mean standard RDP clients? This is a VDI client to connect to an azure instance for example. It replaces another azure client named "Remote Desktop" (yeah...i know). It's different from the native by default rdp client you run by typing mstsc.exe. they suck with naming.

I see. Sort of. They do say it's (also) a complete replacement for "Remote Desktop Connection" which does appear to be about connecting to PCs. I don't know anything about MS products, just thought it odd that they chose to support "macOS, iOS, and Android."

So one of the two things Windows is good for - acting as a terminal for remotely accessing better operating systems, is getting a new name that obscures exactly that most useful use case. Yeah, that tracks.

Microsoft must be feeling the need to shore up the walls so their remaining users can't leave as easily.

(Sarcasm/Serious: Let's say 50/50. I am actually aware that some people have other uses for Windows.)