TR Forums

From Ars:

The example Microsoft gives is of a student working on a paper for class. The main application she'll be using is Word to write her paper, but she'll also have other resources—a OneNote notebook from her class, various Web pages with useful information—that are all related but secondary. With Sets, she'll hit the new tab button in Word and open up OneNote with the class notebook as a tab; hit new tab again and perform a Web search. These tabs become part of the Word window. Close the Word window, and all the tabs close with it. Open the window again, and it'll ask if you want to recreate all the tabs at the same time.

In this way, Sets adds a kind of task-oriented grouping in addition to Timeline's time-based one. Sets can be tied to particular documents—open the document and the related tabs will come with it—or particular applications. For example, a Minecraft window could also have tabs for various wikis and YouTube tutorials, so that all your Minecraft stuff is handled together.

The way Microsoft will be developing and delivering Sets is a little different from what we've seen from the Windows Insider Program in the past. The next Insider build will have Timeline available to everyone. But Sets, at least initially, will be limited. Insiders will be randomly opted into the Sets test, and the new features won't be available to everyone at first.

I haven't read ALL the info about Sets yet, but I hope they open it up to third parties. I don't want this to be only "Windows" apps. Oh you mean I can't use this with Chrome, Firefox, and Foobar? Get rekt MS.

Nah, it looks pretty cool. Hopefully it works as smoothly in practice as it does in the video they put out.

Interesting, wouldn't mind trying it out for a while to see if it changes how I work. This would be way better if people could choose to be in the test, I bet there would be a ton of people wanting to give it a spin

DancinJack wrote:

but I hope they open it up to third parties. I don't want this to be only "Windows" apps. Oh you mean I can't use this with Chrome, Firefox, and Foobar? Get rekt MS.

Good point.

When they mentioned "browser" I just assumed they were referring to Chrome - sounds dumb but Chrome has been my default browser on Windows for ages.

So lemme get this straight. Sets allows you to group windows from various [MS] programs into one icon on your task bar? It seems the benefit of this is going to be very niche. I personally don't see myself ever needing this feature instead of the traditional model.

Also, they'd better support the feature of dragging a tab out of your "Set" and allowing it to occupy its own window.

I like the idea. Group items by task.

I sometimes do something similar on my work Mac. I'll assign Chrome Canary to a specific task and assign it to its own desktop and then bring in different Word/Excel/terminal/email/etc windows that relate to that task.

Oh, God.

I am imagining being on the other end of a remote support call from e.g. an EA or an elderly parent, unable to screen-share and having to have them talk me through "the problem".

Read that title and was thinking:

"Oh great. The OS is fully "set" - like cement. Like a brick. Like your Windows machine has "bricked"."

End User wrote:

When they mentioned "browser" I just assumed they were referring to Chrome - sounds dumb but Chrome has been my default browser on Windows for ages.

Most people would probably make the same assumption. Dumb would be not allowing a user to include Chrome or Firefox in their "set".

The UX is questionable, but I guess so long as they're not obnoxious about it(Hey, put me in a Set. It's cool. You should do it. Now. Really. You won't believe it. Do it.), and it's not something which can be done easily on accident(Hey! Where'd my programs go?), then it'll probably be just another feature most people won't ever use.

I could definitely use this at work. At home, not so much, but for a business environment for power users, this could be great.