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What do YOU want to see in Windows 8?
Windows 7: Done. On to the next.
I’m interested in seeing what all of you want to see happen in Windows 8. Myself? There are only 2 things I would personally like to see changed (and before Windows 8, preferably):
Folder Views: I can’t vent my frustration enough about Windows automatically selecting views for me, even when I tell it that I want to view ALL of my folders a certain way. ARGH, SO FRUSTRATING!
Desktop Click + Shift + Click Select: Why on this green earth would Microsoft let you click and drag to select items on your desktop, control + click to select any number of items randomly, but automatically select whole rows of items for you if you click on an item, hold shift, then click on another item even 1 item up in the same column? Truly baffling.
About a month ago, I posted my opinion of Windows 7 up to this point and those were my only two gripes. Feel free to check out the comments of others to see if you experience their issues as well. Anyway, nothing major here. I know Windows 7 still hasn’t officially been released, but I just thought I’d throw something out there to see if any of you guys and gals who are already well-seasoned Windows 7 users had some thoughts for what you would like to see happen in Windows 8!
[rant] Oh, and to the anti-Windows Mac/Linux users. Let me go ahead and get your irrelavant prattle out of the way so that you don’t waste your time or ours: Windows needs to do what Linux can already do graphically, it needs to be impenetrable and it needs to be free. Also, Windows needs to make its users feel like they matter in life and are cooler than everyone else and Microsoft needs to stop being the big, bad bulley in the marketplace. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I think that about sums it up for the folks who – even if Microsoft catered to their laundry list of issues – wouldn’t use Windows even if hell froze over. So why do they even complain in the first place? It makes you wonder… [/rant]
-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com
i see why it selects icons on the desktop. it acts just like word would. if you put the cursor at the beginning of a sentence, shift clicked a line or 2 down, the entire line would be selected. not saying it's right, though.
i'd get rid of full row select in explorer.
let me resize my explorer windows sizes differently, like every other previous version of windows.
fix search so it finds what i want, instead of what microsoft thinks i should be searching for.
I felt sure the shift-click on the Desktop bug (and it is a bug) would be fixed at least in Windows 7 but, nope, still there. It's inexplicable.
Gave up on Explorer long ago. I think it's good that it keeps getting worse as it'll make more people discover the far-better alternatives.
The folder-view crap does still bug me when I use the common file dialogs (File->Open etc.), though.
I hope they completely redo some interface elements:
4) A better start menu (without the recently used programs.)
3) A new look and feel (maybe without Aero)
2) Similar to what happened to paint and wordpad, they could also create a new version of the color dialog, print dialog, download dialog,… (they are literally the same since Windows 95)
1) New buttons. I hate the buttons in Windows vista and 7. They're ugly and boring…
And, although they won't do it, I still hope they change the taskbar back to its original shape. I don't like it. I especially liked the look and feel of the original taskbar in build 6801 (PDC08)
I hope we hear something about Windows 8 soon. And I hope we don't have to wait a year before we'll get our first build leak… (The first build of Windows 7 leaked more than a year after Vista's release …)
This year's PDC will probably be all about Windows Mobile 7. I'm excited for that one (I still use a regular cell phone…)
I personally would it welcome, if we'll get some features of Windows Vista back.
- "Stack by" feature in Windows-Explorer, introduced in Windows Vista.
- Windows-Defenders "Software-Explorer" as part of the control panel to manage auto start programs.
- The ability to arrange my files and folders in Windows-Explorer as I wish
- I'd like to see the "Sortbar" in every view, instead of detail-view-only.
- Advanced Search Pane: Was very useful imo and easy to use, even for not so experienced users.
- The ability to use the start menu search efficient as "run…". Don't say this is working properly, check it out: "control userpasswords2". Windows Vista show results, Windows 7 doesn't.
- I want "Windows-Energy" and "Windows-Logo" screensavers back
- The useful "notes" Gadget, too.
- It's not directly a "feature" that I wish, but: Fix inconsitence between all Windows applications. Open WMP12 and Windows Photo Viewer and compare each ui side-by-side. WPV has Glass on the buttom, WMP12 doesn't. WPV is using the old UI Buttons, WMP12 doesn't..
I'd like to see some of the basics that should already be there. For example, environment wide spell checker. Also, native ability to mount .iso images. Some of the partioning/restore flexibility of OS X would also be nice. On the UI side, I still don't love the look of the new taskbar and the ribbon use is still inconsistent.
More generally, I'd like to see them aim to beat OS X. Not simply to make a better Vista.
* Built in PDF viewer
* Built in ISO mount tool
* Spell checker API (and integrated into IE)
* IE9 with improved javascript performance
* Trusted Third Party updater – no more separate update tools for Adobe, Apple, Google, etc.
* Applets/utilities that utilize the power of WPF (this might apply more towards Windows Live Essentials)
One more:
UI Customization lost when Vista came out.
For example, I like a very dark blue for menu & file highlight/selection. I don't like the light blue color and this is one of my main gripes!
The option to pin files and folders to the taskbar instead of the app's jump list.
I find it annyoing that you can't pin a specific folder to the taskbar, as it always adds it to explorer's jump list (and explorer always opens in My Computer)
I would like to see the media player team, media centre team, zune team and xbox team all get together and create 1 app for the PC and make it work with all their devices.
-Proper IA64 support. Microsoft left Itanium users for dead when they abandoned XP-IA64 shortly after release. Even if they don't release a new Itanium client, they could work on the server version not sucking (eg proper hardware support.)
-Gradual replacement of cmd with PowerShell.
-Hypervisor for improved sandboxing and crash handling.
-A version of .NET that doesn't require the side-by-side-versions crap that exists now.
These may not be things that you can put in commercials and impress the easily-impressed, but IMHO they would improve Windows.
I would like some goddamn command line, like unix, that remembers commands, that can use shortcuts.
The very same topic in russian:
http://blogs.technet.com/eldar.....77349.aspx
My wishes (in random order):
1. No focus stealing.
2. Modal dialogs should not lock parent window. Parent window should remains movable, resizable minimizable.
3. Advanced window manager. Aero Snap is cool, but don't stop on it, go ahead! More control on windows: control z-order, resize or move with keyboard modifiers by any point, not only exact border or caption like in some *nix window managers.
4. Copying in Windows Explorer should not stop on first error. It should collect all issues for the whole process and show summary at the end. And buttons show detailed log and retry. Copying should also be pausable.
5. If file cannot be deleted because it is used by another process explorer should show the name of this process (and pid and command line by clicking details button) and buttons “Switch to” and “End Process”. The same for unmounting flash stick.
6. If copying to FAT explorer should check and inform me that file > 4 Gb cannot be copied at very beginning, not after 100Gb of other smaller files already copied.
7. Totaly remove MAX_PATH=260 limitation. Several times I used to have mystical compilation errors after moving project folder to somewhere like My Documents.
8. Automatic copying queue. If I start second copy to USB drive it should queued until current copy ends. Queuing should be smart and used only if it really speeds up operation or reduces file fragmentation.
9. Themes!!! Creating theme should not be a kind of hacking. Themes should not be necessary signed by Mycrosoft. The UAC warning about the theme is unsigned and comes from 3rd party is enough. It should not be required to patch system files to install custom theme. Themes should be XAML based and not limited to only replace some bitmaps. Custom themes creation should be well documented on MSDN, guides and examples should be provided. WPF should be able to use the actual system theme, not only mimicry it.
10. Profiles for network connection settings. I have notebook. I have static IP (from ISP LAN) + VPN for internet access in my parents’ home. I have another static IP in my home. I have DHCHP at my work. I have problem if I move my notebook from one place to another. I need overwrite settings each time for new place. I wish I can preserve current settings untouchable in profile and auto switch to it when needed. OEMs provides special tools for their hardware, but from my experience this tools introduces their own problems and not perfect solve the original problem.
11. New tab in taskmanager to see active keyboard and mouse hooks with option to disconnect particular hook and disable hooking at all. Hooks should never affect system responsiveness. I have some helpful programs that use hooks: automatic keyboard layout switcher and mouse gestures handler. But also I have negative experience when once I installed new version of video driver that also provides keyboard+mouse shortcuts for some features. I have thinking several days why mouse freezes for a second while window is animating after clicking window minimize button. Then I discovered this feature in driver. But no tool can say is there active hooks and who installs them, probably virus.
12. Windows should not have language specialization for license for any edition. All languages should be available for all editions regardless language used for installation, like for Ultimate edition. I dislike Russian translation in software; even Russian is my native language. But I can't bought notebook with English installation in Russia and I can't change language of OEM preinstalled Windows. Also I'm afraid I eventually will have to use Russian Visual Studio. I don't think that translation quality is poor. But it uses my usual Russian words in such perverted meaning and context! I already got accustomed to computer talks with me in its’ own computer language. And it breaks my brain if it tries to talk in my native language.
13. And much more.
Hi Andrey Titov, for network profiles, I use Mobile Net Switch (www.mobilenetswitch.com). Includes more then only DHCP/Static IP
My Windows wishes (I will try not to repeat Andrey Titov ones as he made many good points to my opinion):
- Having a "Always on top" option in all windows context menus (please!)
- No focus stealing (unbearable)
- Not crashing a system (BSOD) because of a USB webcam driver or whatever USB device driver (it seems to me that now the GPU drivers are less likely to crash the system than sh##y USB devices, crazy)
- I would like to be able to [Shift]+[Click] a taskbar window preview of a multiple window application so that the previews stays opened thus allowing me to activate other windows of this application without having to hover or click the taskbar application again and again (which is so painfull when having multiple window applications like PuTTY terminals and you want to set them all in front, arggg!) This behaviour was available in Windows XP Start Menu where you could [Shift]+Click a shortcut which would run it and keep the Start Menu opened
- Update Aero Snap to allow corner snapping (a quarter of the screen)
- Provide me with a quick access to the Users\Public folder by default
- Stop taking minutes to perform a Windows Update search (not that I stay there performing these manually, but why are they so long though I can search within hundred thousands of files in less than a couple of seconds, where's the logic there?)
- Impeach Windows Search indexes and some other files from fragmenting! Preallocate space, auto defrag them regularly, do whatever you want
- Windows Desktop shortcuts placement kept all time (saved per resolution maybe or whatever). Even though I am now trying to keep my desktop free of any icon (if not two or three temporary ones, I guess most people don't). Using the Switch User thing or other actions goes on reseting icons placement in some circumstances
- All the file copy stuff as Andrey said, on top of all the queueing not to stop on error or to end with a 2kb/sec transfer on USB key (which I handle with the TeraCopy freeware) or this annoying file in use error
- As I have just seen on a ZDNet article: having a default installation creating two partitions, one for the system, one for the profiles and data (creating custom install images if nice, but this should be the default to me)
- Allow install themes without hacking system files
- Give me back the sidebar, and please clean up the mess on your Gadget online Gallery, you are killing a potentially great feature to me. I like monitoring resources usage, online stuff and having cool tools at end thanks to gadgets, and I don't mine reserving them 130 pixels or so on a 1920 pixels screen (pressing [Win]+[G] is nice but does not do the work for me)
- WMC: Why can I share a TV tuner to an extender but not to another Media Center PC without using third party software?
- And others…