My Wishlist for Microsoft

[gohpep]

Windows

• Get rid of the taskbar or merge the metro UI elements with the taskbar (merge the taskbar and app switcher, merge the status bar with the charms bar)
• Cortana
• Unify the Windows Store and Microsoft Update (without the horribleness of Windows 8.1)
• Merge the nokia camera app, windows phone camera, and photosynth with the camera app
• Unify Windows Phone calendar with Windows Calendar
• Reminders
• Make desktop Internet Explorer and Immersive Internet Explorer's separateness less confusing
• Make good windowed metro apps that look like Office 2013 (no chrome or borders)
• Make the maximize button create a new virtual desktop, since the taskbar is already set for that
• Each app or snapped app side by side is a virtual desktop
• Add something like Continuity
• Merge OneDrive and File Explorer, but don't make it childish like OneDrive is, make it ready for power users
• Merge the desktop and start screen (I mean the visible desktop on your wallpaper)
• Revamp the legacy components in windows, like the icons, old windows and dialogs
• Merge the share and devices charms together
• Folders on the start screen
• Make the start screen act like Windows Phone's start screen, especially the grid they have, it is less confusing
• Make a unified trackpad experience on windows devices
• Optional: make all apps provide data snippets that all other apps are compatible with, if you don't understand, ask me more on this

Internet Explorer

• Manage the mess webkit has made and support stuff that web developers are too lazy to code for support for all platforms
• Update the settings, downloads, and favorites to make them more modern
• Add reading mode on the desktop and other features that are on metro IE

Office

• Nothing much, maybe just ship a limited version of Office on x86, to replace wordpad
• Maybe make notepad a little bit better without destroying its simpleness

Windows Essentials

• Actually make a good studio suite for movie and music making
• Compete with apple products in that area

Xbox

• Stream game console to Microsoft devices
• Maybe make people be able to play games from their Xbox on their PC

Xbox Music

• Did Microsoft buy Nokia Music? that thing was sweet (also mixradio)
• Windows Phone needs to be more like the Windows version

Xbox Video

• Make it more like Netflix

 

What else do you think Microsoft should release for the Windows 9 wave of products?

[Hum]

I wish Microsoft would ask a large sample of Windows users what THEY would like.

Make Windows as customizable as possible.

Have separate versions for Tablets, Desktops, and Businesses.

[Ian W]

I wanted to reply to this sooner, but didn't really have the time as I was focused on other things. I am probably only concerned with Windows as that is essentially the heart of Microsoft. This list is not exhaustive . . . I am sure I will think of more items later. I won't include symbolic relationships between Windows Store applications because it seems that this feature will be enabled thanks to rumored virtual desktops feature.

Windows

• A Trusted Computing Base.
• Application tile consistency. Why can't I make the PC Settings application tile Large, for example?
• Built-in application diagnostics.
• Built-in applications that function as rich, client versions of Microsoft websites (MSDN, TechNet, etc).
• Cortana.
• Drag-and-drop for items on the Start screen and right-hand column of the Start menu.
• More consistency with the Windows 8 design and the desktop.
• Improvements to the Reset and Refresh features.
• Improvements to the Start screen (Date and time on the Start screen; disk space information for partitions pinned to the Start screen; more contextual options such as Rename for pinned items, Eject for pinned removable devices, etc; Jump List-like drop down menus).
• Larger Show Desktop button.
• Live Icons for the taskbar.
• More privacy options similar to these.
• New options in the PC Settings application.
• Powerful notifications platform. They don't have to be hosted on a (now removed) Windows Sidebar, but there's no reason why they couldn't be as customizable. I want to be able to customize the duration that they stay on screen, for example. A notification archive would be also be very nice.
• Reinstatement of features removed in previous versions of Windows.
• Task Manager improvements including the reinstatement of features that were removed during the transition of the old to new version.
• The ability to remove the Camera and OneDrive Windows Store applications.
• Windows Activation improvements.
• Windows Defender improvements (including the addition of a Windows Defender Windows Store application).
• Windows Update improvements. Show me more information about an update in the right-hand column before I install it.

[The_Decimator]

If they're going to try and bring Metro to the desktop in Threshold, what I really want them to do is go all out with it.  Make it come with more WinRT replacements for various Win32 software, such as Windows Explorer, Task Manager, Computer Management, Registry Editor, etc.  Maybe have more integration, like how Windows Explorer today can have Windows Media Player content played right within it, but do it with the Metro Videos and Music apps instead.  I don't know how much they'll actually go with this, but I'm starting to really be curious about what they have to say in September.

[Ian W]

I've thought of more improvements for the Start screen that I would like to see in Windows vNext.

Currently, the Start screen allows users to search for their applications based on name, date installed, frequency of use, and application category. To help users narrow down particular applications, one can click on a category to bring the applications included within that category into focus. In this screenshot, for example, I have selected the "date installed" category and can narrow down my results by specifying the time period.



The next screenshot illustrates what happens after I filter the results by "earlier this week". Although the current behavior attempts to bring applications within a given category into focus, it does not filter out applications that are not part of the category. In other words, if I search for applications that were installed earlier this week, other applications that are not within that time period are still included within the search results, or at least appear on the screen. This can be disorienting if you have a lot of applications installed that belong in a particular category and your search results are not as narrow (e.g., if you search for applications based on their name).



I believe a better solution would be to include only the results that are included within a specific category so that the applications within that category are front-and-center, as the following screenshot illustrates.



Finally, for mouse and keyboard users, I propose an option to select all items simultaneously within an individual category, either by pressing down on the Shift key and right-clicking the first or last application in a category with the mouse, or by right-clicking on the category title itself. As it stands, users are required to press and hold the Ctrl key and select each application individually. This is a shame since the Start screen in Windows 8.1 offers an option to simultaneously pin multiple applications to the Start screen or taskbar at once (at least while holding down the Ctrl key); this is a feature that is not available in Windows 7.

[iniside]

My list is much shorter:

1. Possibility to create multiple taskbars. Each taskbars can have different applications pinned.

2. Application grouping on taskbar. Where you can stack several application shortcust into single tile, and after you click on tile it will show all grouped applications. Similiar to Stacks from OS X or Bins.

[Orange Battery]

Keep the taskbar, give power users more options on it.

Thumbnail view for folders gives a full thumbnail covered icon.

Fix the status bar so it once again shows collective file sizes without having to select all files.

Remember power users love detailed control and can easily cope with having to find the hidden option in order to turn it on.