iCloud for Windows

Today I decided to install iCloud for Windows. Recently I write article about backing up Apple devices to iCloud without photos and I thought that perhaps iCloud app allows to manage it better or save some time. Anyway, I downloaded it and started installer just to see that my Windows 10 is too new for iCloud for Windows and it requires older version. That was weird and decided to investigate it.

After some investigation I found that it is possible to install with some tricks, but application actually does not work on Windows 10 October 2018. And that’s exactly version I have. Something is wrong here.

What is great about Microsoft Windows that they spend enormous amount time on compatibility. It is very important to Microsoft. Of course, they could not achieve 100% compatibility but there are quite close. You still can run few applications released in 1997 and they still work. And I’m telling it from my long development experience with Microsoft Windows. Usually all application just works in new versions even they contain bugs that were not visible in older versions. Only application that use undocumented features or strange ways to get something are broken in next version of Windows and again in many cases Microsoft can find solution for this problem.

Also, Microsoft doing quite long previews of big Windows updates that started from early development so anyone can test their application and report bugs in Microsoft. And obviously Microsoft will not change something critical that affect application’s compatibility week before release.

As result I start to suspect that Apple simply don’t care and do not test their application with preview versions of October 2018 update. And when they found that it simply didn't work they just disabled installation of iCloud on such systems.

Then I actually did install iCloud for Windows on another computer that wasn’t updated yet. I didn’t find anything interesting there and I decide to uninstall it. So, I opened Apps & Features, found iCloud but Uninstall button is disabled. I was stuck for few seconds and then I realize that there is Modify button. So, I pressed it and there was option to uninstall application.

As bottom line I think Apple just don’t care about Windows at all. They did something that’s works but I think instead of hiring proper Windows developers I think same people who developed it for Mac were developed Windows version and as result it wasn’t great. And similar story happens with iTunes application. It has very unusual interface, it behaves unusually for Windows. It feels alien for Windows. And we are not talking about some kind of startup company here. Apple is huge company that definitely can afford to create nice looking application for any platform. It is kind of sad.