My wishlist for Threshold - and it's nothing big

[Orange Battery]

There are still things from previous versions and other OS?s that would make me upgrade to the next/best just for convenience ? maybe MS could almost do a ?best of? feature set to get back some old time enthusiasts as well.

 

Folder thumbnail preview ? in XP you could add ?Folder.jpg? in order to see a full size thumbnail preview for your folder or you could just see a selection of folders ? in future version you only get to see half a thumbnail preview or simply a stack of your images which are in no way as clear as XP?s precise view of what you was looking for visually.

 

More control over the taskbar: With older versions I could use the Quick Launch toolbar to keep static icons in place, following versions move icons as you open multiple windows within the shortcuts application ? my brain knows where its icons are and always liked to go to the same point to select them.

 

Allow us to make the taskbar non transparent ? I?m so sick of seeing items that are half way off my screen still visible when I?m editing another document in full screen mode whilst using Win 8.

 

Allow me to organise non html based shortcuts in IE ? I know there is currently a bug report in place  - https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/808697/ie11-favorites-bar-bug-local-html-file-links-are-automatically-pushed-to-the-bottom-of-the-list - but come on, it should be sorted by now ? you are Microsoft!

 

Put everything that requires change as a simple icon in the control panel ? why do I have to go to obscure settings in order to make changes?

 

Some things you do are so great, why take away features or make it so unintuitive that even long term users become frustrated and annoyed.  What basic features would you like to see?  Im sure most of us don't want the world, just simple little things that make us love Windows.

[Studio384]

I don't get your "more control over taskbar" item. What's the problem with pinning? The icons don't move places, they are always in the same order.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Allow us to make the taskbar non transparent ? I?m so sick of seeing items that are half way off my screen still visible when I?m editing another document in full screen mode whilst using Win 8.

Here's a small app that I use http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.199 (works on Windows 8.1 as well) and has a very small footprint.

 

 

 

There's also a x64-bit version and a ported version that makes it resident (stays in memory after explorer crashes or restarts).

[George P Global Moderator]

Seeing as they got rid of transparent windows I find it odd how they kept the taskbar the same.  I would be a bit shocked if they didn't remove transparency from the taskbar in the next major version or at least give us the option like you said.

[Dot Matrix]

Yeah - Don't destroy the Metro foundry of the new OS.

[Ian W]

There are still things from previous versions and other OS?s that would make me upgrade to the next/best just for convenience ? maybe MS could almost do a ?best of? feature set to get back some old time enthusiasts as well.

 

Folder thumbnail preview ? in XP you could add ?Folder.jpg? in order to see a full size thumbnail preview for your folder or you could just see a selection of folders ? in future version you only get to see half a thumbnail preview or simply a stack of your images which are in no way as clear as XP?s precise view of what you was looking for visually.

 

More control over the taskbar: With older versions I could use the Quick Launch toolbar to keep static icons in place, following versions move icons as you open multiple windows within the shortcuts application ? my brain knows where its icons are and always liked to go to the same point to select them.

 

Allow us to make the taskbar non transparent ? I?m so sick of seeing items that are half way off my screen still visible when I?m editing another document in full screen mode whilst using Win 8.

 

Allow me to organise non html based shortcuts in IE ? I know there is currently a bug report in place  - https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/808697/ie11-favorites-bar-bug-local-html-file-links-are-automatically-pushed-to-the-bottom-of-the-list - but come on, it should be sorted by now ? you are Microsoft!

 

Put everything that requires change as a simple icon in the control panel ? why do I have to go to obscure settings in order to make changes?

 

Some things you do are so great, why take away features or make it so unintuitive that even long term users become frustrated and annoyed.  What basic features would you like to see?  Im sure most of us don't want the world, just simple little things that make us love Windows.

This is a nice topic, Orange Battery.

As for a list of basic features, I'd love to see some of the more minor elements of Windows "Longhorn" reemerge in "Threshold". Some of the features I am thinking of include notification timers and a notification archive. I also hope that "Threshold" replaces more of the traditional 'balloon' notifications.

It would be wonderful for me if an Eject option was added to the context menu for removable devices pinned to the Start screen. I'd also like it if partitions pinned to the Start screen provided disk space information.

These are just a few ideas that I've had lately. I know I've thought of some things for Explorer, but I don't remember what they were . . .

I do miss features that were present in Windows XP and/or Windows Vista. Perhaps I'll create another post with details.

[Aergan]

Some consistency would be nice.

[Orange Battery]

Here's a small app that I use http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.199 (works on Windows 8.1 as well) and has a very small footprint.

 

SNAG-0001.png

 

SNAG-0002.png

 

There's also a x64-bit version and a ported version that makes it resident (stays in memory after explorer crashes or restarts).

 

Thanks.

 

Wish there was a little app that could do this for folder previews as well.

[Orange Battery]

AS I work my way through setting up Win 8.1 I'm finding more:

 

Internet Explorer ? Allow me to drag a link from the address bar onto the desktop without creating the annoying .website link and reopening the site for no reason.  A simple .URL shortcut was fine and very easy to manage ? if you really want to have this feature then give me the option to switch it off in settings ? not just insist on a Shift-and drag

 

Hyper-V ? I?m reliably informed that this is much better than the humble VirtualPC but as a normal home user all I miss is shared cut and paste along with shared copy and paste ? I?ve now moved to VMware player which is nowhere near as good as VirtualPC ? I would have paid MS  for it as they done it so well.

[Dot Matrix]

Virtual PC was only meant as a temporary upgrade solution. It was never meant to be a lasting standing feature.

[George P Global Moderator]

There's a few things I'd like to see, like a new/upgraded taskbar, if they're going to redo the start menu/start screen and integrate metro and desktop more then it's time for the taskbar to get an upgrade.

 

A notification center is a plus, and if they add that then I'd hope it takes over the systray as that is then less needed or not needed at all.

 

There's other little things to but I can't think of them all right now and no real reason to repost everything at this point.  I'd like to wait and see what they're actually working on before I go off on things I'd like to see added/changed.

[+Cryton Subscriber²]

I want tabs in Windows Explorer

[Dot Matrix]

I fail; to see what's better about tabs, than open windows side-by-side?

[LimeMaster]

Hyper-V ? I?m reliably informed that this is much better than the humble VirtualPC but as a normal home user all I miss is shared cut and paste along with shared copy and paste ? I?ve now moved to VMware player which is nowhere near as good as VirtualPC ? I would have paid MS  for it as they done it so well.

Assuming you were using Hyper-V to run older OSes, you might want to try this since you prefer Virtual PC: :)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1157536-installing-virtual-pc-2007-sp1-on-windows-8-rtm-64-bit/

[+Cryton Subscriber²]

I fail; to see what's better about tabs, than open windows side-by-side?

Because I often work in multiple folders and having 10 copies of Explorer open is a PITA. 10 tabs in one Explorer would be awesome and allow me to work so much more efficiently.

[Orange Battery]

Assuming you were using Hyper-V to run older OSes, you might want to try this since you prefer Virtual PC: :)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1157536-installing-virtual-pc-2007-sp1-on-windows-8-rtm-64-bit/

Thanks, I've already successfully implemented this, I just wish we didn't need to.

[Zac Bowden]

I just want a 'desktop first' approach in Threshold. I'm not a bad person. I promise.

[satysin]

What Windows needs is up to date (I would say modern but I don't want metro apps, proper desktop apps please!) for Notepad, Paint, Photo and Video management, music management, etc.

 

One of the strongest things about OS X to me is how it comes complete out of the box with some great apps such as iTunes (hate it all you want, it does its job well), iMovie, iPhoto, etc. I really miss the completeness of OS X when I use Windows. They made some progress with adding new modern apps in Windows 8 to do some stuff but they are still crappy. Windows Media Player has had no love over the past few years. Manageing multimedia formats is a pain in the ass on Windows. Sure iTunes isn't perfect but at least it is something that is functional. I can't even edit MP3 tags in WMP anymore. I don't want to have to go and get third party apps to do these basic tasks. Why can't I easily trim a video I took and re-encode it to a smaller file size out of the box? Why can't I manage my 10,000 photo library? Why can't I organise my 30GB music library easily? Why is Notepad still basically the same app that came with Windows 95? Why does it not have spell check? Why is there no dictionary app built into Windows? Why is Paint still basically the same as what came with Windows 95 (with the exception of now it has the ribbon)?

 

Windows as an experience is very lacking in my experience and opinion. I would love to see Microsoft provide a full consumer computeing experience out of the box with Windows 9 rather than just an operating system.

[satysin]

AS I work my way through setting up Win 8.1 I'm finding more:

 

Internet Explorer ? Allow me to drag a link from the address bar onto the desktop without creating the annoying .website link and reopening the site for no reason.  A simple .URL shortcut was fine and very easy to manage ? if you really want to have this feature then give me the option to switch it off in settings ? not just insist on a Shift-and drag

 

Hyper-V ? I?m reliably informed that this is much better than the humble VirtualPC but as a normal home user all I miss is shared cut and paste along with shared copy and paste ? I?ve now moved to VMware player which is nowhere near as good as VirtualPC ? I would have paid MS  for it as they done it so well.

 

Try out VirtualBox, it is free and has lots more features over Virtual PC. If you want the ultimate in desktop VMs though check out VMware Workstation. Nothing is faster or more feature-full :)

[Orange Battery]

Another one for the 'It's available elsewhere by MS and could be so handy" - Multiple clipboard entries - Turned off by default for the basic users but such a great tool for the more experienced.  Options like removing formatting, text only or limited entries to store would make it ideal.  The current clipboard managers are so full of bloat and junk - something along the lines of the old ClipX would be great.

 

 

Try out VirtualBox, it is free and has lots more features over Virtual PC. If you want the ultimate in desktop VMs though check out VMware Workstation. Nothing is faster or more feature-full :)

 

Wasn't a huge fan of this when testing it a few weeks ago - copy and paste between VM and desktop wasn't reliable and so VMWare Player beat it - thanks for your help tho, could have worked out :-)

[The_Decimator]

notification archive.

Isn't that in Android and iOS? lol.

[Quillz]

I just want some UI consistency. I really don't understand why there are still 9x-era icons in Windows, or Control Panel applets that still open in their own window. Or the usage of battleship gray here but not there. I understand Windows has thousands of icons, but what I don't understand is why they don't seem to employ a graphics team that simply creates a system-wide sense of consistency.

[Studio384]

What Windows needs is up to date (I would say modern but I don't want metro apps, proper desktop apps please!) for Notepad, Paint, Photo and Video management, music management, etc.

 

One of the strongest things about OS X to me is how it comes complete out of the box with some great apps such as iTunes (hate it all you want, it does its job well), iMovie, iPhoto, etc. I really miss the completeness of OS X when I use Windows. They made some progress with adding new modern apps in Windows 8 to do some stuff but they are still crappy. Windows Media Player has had no love over the past few years. Manageing multimedia formats is a pain in the ass on Windows. Sure iTunes isn't perfect but at least it is something that is functional. I can't even edit MP3 tags in WMP anymore. I don't want to have to go and get third party apps to do these basic tasks. Why can't I easily trim a video I took and re-encode it to a smaller file size out of the box? Why can't I manage my 10,000 photo library? Why can't I organise my 30GB music library easily? Why is Notepad still basically the same app that came with Windows 95? Why does it not have spell check? Why is there no dictionary app built into Windows? Why is Paint still basically the same as what came with Windows 95 (with the exception of now it has the ribbon)?

 

Windows as an experience is very lacking in my experience and opinion. I would love to see Microsoft provide a full consumer computeing experience out of the box with Windows 9 rather than just an operating system.

I can tell you that we probably won't see any updates to Notepad and Paint and any other Win32 app other then File Explorer and Internet Explorer anytime soon. I wouldn't be surprised if all Win32 apps will be gone in some release in advance of their WinRT counterpart. Microsoft wants to bring Modern UI apps to the desktop, no doubt that this also means that developers will be able to make their app resond to that and give a responsive interface, making it a mous and keyboard friendly app when run on the desktop.

[Active.]

I fail; to see what's better about tabs, than open windows side-by-side?

You don't use tabs even in your browser?  :huh:

[Dot Matrix]

You don't use tabs even in your browser?  :huh:

I use tabs in my browser, but File Explorer isn't the same has a browser.