Windows 7 Wish List

[Gerowen]

Take a solid Linux distro like Mandriva, Fedora, Slackware or Ubuntu, with a fully updated KDE 3.5, then add full, native support for Windows executables and DirectX so I can play Windows games and use Windows software and things without worrying about whether or not the next update is going to work well in wine. That, would be the ultimate operating system.

[qdave]

People that talk about trashing the registry never have a clue how it actually works.

here is a good resource :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry

:D

[Seager]

This bootscreen for a start

And it should work like this

GOD only knows why microsoft decided to scrap the Longhorn concept it absolutley rocked!

Edited August 7, 2008 by Seager

[aboi]

FREE PORN. That's my windows 7 wishlist :whistle:

[Seager]

FREE PORN. That's my windows 7 wishlist :whistle:

Get your dad to take off the parental controls on your pc and you won't have to wait for windows 7.

LMFAO

[Geranium_Z__NL]

A windows that doesnt need adjusting to its software everytime u add new hardware

[XerXis]

I never was into the type of security such as breaking in through code or using special equipment. I meant that when installing applications, you wouldn't do the install routine we do now, you would just use a self-contained application that did not depend on the registry. Security without the registry using UAC would be more flexible because you would never need to touch system files being a self-contained application, now if it was an antivirus, they could run that as admin, stuff you trust would not need permission, stuff you trust to keep your system running is a different thing. The way Windows Vista was (I mean leaving beta...) with deleting files was completely absurd, 8 clicks is way too many. Everything is out of order these days, granting permission to applications that should never need it is like giving a key to your neighbor if they ever need it when they won't ever need it. Applications should never need permission as they should be self-contained and be in your folder and your folder you have permission to built-in. I find applications such as uTorrent my favorite because they are self-contained and the way it should be.

you're not making any sense, i can perfectly write an application that uses config files stored in the appdata folder instead of using the registry. It's not because windows has a registry that it is impossible to make self-contained applications, in fact it is very much possible. Also it has nothing to do with UAC, writing or reading from the hkey_current_user section of the registry does not trigger UAC as that section is not system wide. You have no idea what the registry is used for, and you have no idea how it works. Read up a bit more on that ;). I can't blame you, most people on this forum have the wrong idea about the registry and say it should be removed without knowing a thing about it.

[Sem XL]

i pray windows 7 will have a decent interface

aero is so poor its one of the reasons i dont use vista

[ViperAFK]

i pray windows 7 will have a decent interface

aero is so poor its one of the reasons i dont use vista

What's wrong with aero? It works great for me, I have run it on cards ranging from an x200 to a 9600GT and it's been smooth. It takes load of the CPu and looks decent. It also gets rid of windows tearing and a lot of the graphical glitches/ niggles xp has. All it really does is a use a bit of ram.

[Sem XL]

its nothing to do with the resources it uses and i also like the fact that it doesnt tile and is smooth etc

the problem i have with it is the colour scheme and just the general style of it

it tries to be too flashy for its own good

for example i hate the fact that alot of the text is black on a black background with a "white glow" on it to make it readable

not to mention in inconsistencies in the theme itself

i just hope windows 7 has a nice clean functional interface that doesn't try to be too smart or flashy

[ViperAFK]

its nothing to do with the resources it uses and i also like the fact that it doesnt tile and is smooth etc

the problem i have with it is the colour scheme and just the general style of it

it tries to be too flashy for its own good

for example i hate the fact that alot of the text is black on a black background with a "white glow" on it to make it readable

not to mention in inconsistencies in the theme itself

i just hope windows 7 has a nice clean functional interface that doesn't try to be too smart or flashy

You can turn off the glass/transparency which should fix the text/readability part.

[Sem XL]

nope

had transparency disabled anyway when i tried vista (nice idea but looks naff most of the time)

another poorly executed idea that i wish windows 7 will fix is aero dropping down to basic

i understand why it does it but say for example you have your colour settings in aero set to grayscale instead of blue

when you load a program that's incompatible with aero you go from having a grayish looking theme to a light blue theme

what they should have down is change the colour of the basic theme depending on what you set on aero so when it drops down to basic the colour scheme is at least some what consistent...

sigh.... :(

[Linkinfamous]

when you load a program that's incompatible with aero you go from having a grayish looking theme to a light blue theme

How many of these kind of programs still actually exist?

[toadeater]

A windows that doesnt need adjusting to its software everytime u add new hardware

How about a Windows that doesn't need to be rebooted for minor tasks? You shouldn't have to reboot after adding audio/video drivers or after installing software.

Better yet, why can't users reset their hardware config when it becomes corrupted instead of being forced to do an unnecessary repair install? Why can't Windows reset itself back to a default with default services and drivers instead of a doing a complete repair install for things that aren't broken? I say this because there are still ways to completely trash Windows by altering a single entry in the registry. A SINGLE ENTRY! For instance, delete the RPC service and watch Windows die. Or remove the disk controller driver and get an unrepairable BSOD at boot (the infamous error when switching motherboards).

[ViperAFK]

How about a Windows that doesn't need to be rebooted for minor tasks? You shouldn't have to reboot after adding audio/video drivers or after installing software.

Better yet, why can't users reset their hardware config when it becomes corrupted instead of being forced to do an unnecessary repair install? Why can't Windows reset itself back to a default with default services and drivers instead of a doing a complete repair install for things that aren't broken? I say this because there are still ways to completely trash Windows by altering a single entry in the registry. A SINGLE ENTRY! For instance, delete the RPC service and watch Windows die. Or remove the disk controller driver and get an unrepairable BSOD at boot (the infamous error when switching motherboards).

I agree here, you seem to have to reboot windows much more than *nix or OSX like after updates ect..

[Andre S. Veteran]

Please fix the search function! It is such a frustration at the moment. Let's take a real-world example, I'll perform this now. This is on a fresh Vista installation, I haven't tweaked any settings yet. This is the out-of-the-box, standard user experience.

I open foobar2000 and ask it to convert a few files to flac. Foobar2000 asks me to locate flac.exe.

So I hit the start button and enter "flac.exe" in the search area. Nothing shows up, except "Search everywhere" and "Search the internet". After waiting a bit, I click "Search everywhere."

A new window shows up, with no visible search button. It doesn't seem to perform any search at all, and immediatly tells me there are no search results. If I re-enter "flac.exe" and hit enter, nothing happens at all. I guess this view is completely useless. But there's an "advanced search" button so I'm probably supposed to click on there too.

So now I get a slew of options, one including "name", and a search button. Finally! Ok so let's type flac.exe in there. And hit search. Nothing seems to happen. I don't hear any disk activity, no apparent refresh of the window, no reaction at all. Oh now the top-right search field is updated to "flac.exe Name:flac.exe". I guess I'm not supposed to write the file name in the box "name" after all, it must be a tag for mp3s or something.

So let's leave "name" empty. Now, I will change the "locations" to "everywhere", and hit seach again. Now yipee it actually shows flac.exe! Only three tries before I got it right!

Also, the results are pretty inconsistent. It shows a seemingly random .flac file, although I have tons of them on the system.

The interface is also inconsistent: there is a checkbox for including non-indexed files, but what is the difference between checking this and selecting the "everywhere" location? Isn't everywhere really everywhere? Is it less everywhere when I don't check non-indexed locations? I check the box, click search again, and I get the same results. Also, what is the following supposed to do: searching in "indexed locations", but with the "include non-indexed locations" checked? This is absurd.

So, to summarize: I can't find a random file on the start menu search area. When I click "search everywhere" after my first try, it brings me to a completely useless view that won't display any more results, and as it doesn't even contain a "search" button or any button that looks like, it doesn't look much like a search area. But there's an "advanced search". The advanced search is confusing because the "name" field isn't meant to contain the name of the file. And by default it still searches in the limited indexed areas; but if I got there, it's because I can't find it in the indexed areas, so why default to that!

I think Windows should try to look in the indexed locations first but provide the user with a one-click option to search the WHOLE system, without opening a new window, without presenting him with confusing options. Or better, don't ask the user to make the distinction between indexed and non-indexed locations, just find the damn file on first try, like a big kid.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Dr_Asik

[Brandon Live Veteran]

This bootscreen for a start

Whoa, pretty sweet. A bit over-dramatic though :)

[BajiRav]

<<snipp>>

While I agree that search UI is kind of messed up your problems seem to be more of a user issue than anything. You failed to notice a very obvious refresh button, some finite time required to index and so on.

[Linkinfamous]

How about a Windows that doesn't need to be rebooted for minor tasks? You shouldn't have to reboot after adding audio/video drivers or after installing software.

Better yet, why can't users reset their hardware config when it becomes corrupted instead of being forced to do an unnecessary repair install? Why can't Windows reset itself back to a default with default services and drivers instead of a doing a complete repair install for things that aren't broken? I say this because there are still ways to completely trash Windows by altering a single entry in the registry. A SINGLE ENTRY! For instance, delete the RPC service and watch Windows die. Or remove the disk controller driver and get an unrepairable BSOD at boot (the infamous error when switching motherboards).

In my experience, most of the time that a driver or app requires you to reboot, it doesn't actually need to. It either works perfectly fine anyway, or was simply too lazy to manually start any of its own startup stuff.

[EduardValencia]

Ok for Windows 7 i would like these features to be implementes,and no, NONE has been implemented yet and they aren't usless for me!

-------------------------

- Animated log-on screen

- Show a clock on log-on screen

- Ability for animated flip instant account switch (No log-on screen intermediate process)

- Better file system (Better than NTFS) that won't require defragmentation.

- Internet Explorer : Full CSS 3.1 standards compliance,SVG support,HTTP Pipelining,Integrate multiple separate windows into tabs and viceversa,3D tab switching (optional,could work alongside Flip3d),spellchecker, in-line search, download manager,faster rendering engine,better add-on interface manager (similar to firefox).

- Strict 3rd party driver hardware installation policies,automatic driver diagnostic tool to determine the quality of the written driver.

- Option to restore default services running on memory configuration (services.msc )

- Preload similar services and applicatios from different accounts before user logs in the Welcome screen

(Reduced boot time)

- Ability to undock playlist from Windows Media Player. (More compact interface),more skins.

- Ability for synchornized work between perfomance features (Readyboost,Readydrive,Superfetch)

- Computarized service AI module,(this module will disable uneeded services based upon usability of the OS in time).

- Full modularity

- Constant hardware analisis and reports,adding it to the windows error reporting tool function process.

- Animated UAC prompt,less intrusive (fade effect?)

- Root out old windows icons and interfaces from future relases like windows 7, (istartedsomething)

[Guest xiphi]

How many of these kind of programs still actually exist?

I wouldn't really say Firefox 3.0.1 is one of them, but, somehow, going to http://www.nyjets.com disables DWM.

[anonymous_user]

Hmm, now thats an idea for Microsoft. I can see it now "Windows 7! Made with slow computers in mind!"

Yes! Vista should have scalability like some games (Unreal and Valve's games come to mind). If it can run decent on slower computers then it will fly on newer ones.

I know that you just can't transfer an application from computer to computer by just moving the application folder like on an apple. God, I can't imagine how nice that would be for backing up peoples applications before a format.

Just use portable applications. At least as many as you can.

How many of these kind of programs still actually exist?

I only know of one: SMPlayer (if you use DirectX renderer)

[Electric Jolt]

you're not making any sense, i can perfectly write an application that uses config files stored in the appdata folder instead of using the registry. It's not because windows has a registry that it is impossible to make self-contained applications, in fact it is very much possible. Also it has nothing to do with UAC, writing or reading from the hkey_current_user section of the registry does not trigger UAC as that section is not system wide. You have no idea what the registry is used for, and you have no idea how it works. Read up a bit more on that ;). I can't blame you, most people on this forum have the wrong idea about the registry and say it should be removed without knowing a thing about it.

I do not know the registry very well but I am trying to show a reason why it can be more secure, and I also did mention uTorrent as a self-contained application. I find security less annoying if every application was like how they are on Mac OS X and no registry was used. I know that some applications including Adobe's software have some ugly installer you need permission for to install Photoshop on Mac OS X, but most applications for Mac OS X are self-contained applications. They are not as annoying because they are self-contained and are not a problem when it comes to installing, checking for updates, etc.

Well I remember I thought I could copy my user folder to another copy of Windows Vista and expected everything to work. Of course it didn't because Windows is complex and uses the registry and components need registered, properly installed, and so on. Its just with Mac OS X and using Time Machine, backup is extremely simple because you just use the migration assistant to transfer anything you like such as your home folder. Any applications you had were inside your home folder somewhere (or were in the main Applications folder) and no matter what, your data for the applications were in your Library. You could just drag and drop the Applications folder and there you go, your set.

Ok for Windows 7 i would like these features to be implementes,and no, NONE has been implemented yet and they aren't usless for me!

-------------------------

- Animated log-on screen

- Show a clock on log-on screen

- Ability for animated flip instant account switch (No log-on screen intermediate process)

- Better file system (Better than NTFS) that won't require defragmentation.

- Internet Explorer : Full CSS 3.1 standards compliance,SVG support,HTTP Pipelining,Integrate multiple separate windows into tabs and viceversa,3D tab switching (optional,could work alongside Flip3d),spellchecker, in-line search, download manager,faster rendering engine,better add-on interface manager (similar to firefox).

- Strict 3rd party driver hardware installation policies,automatic driver diagnostic tool to determine the quality of the written driver.

- Option to restore default services running on memory configuration (services.msc )

- Preload similar services and applicatios from different accounts before user logs in the Welcome screen

(Reduced boot time)

- Ability to undock playlist from Windows Media Player. (More compact interface),more skins.

- Ability for synchornized work between perfomance features (Readyboost,Readydrive,Superfetch)

- Computarized service AI module,(this module will disable uneeded services based upon usability of the OS in time).

- Full modularity

- Constant hardware analisis and reports,adding it to the windows error reporting tool function process.

- Animated UAC prompt,less intrusive (fade effect?)

- Root out old windows icons and interfaces from future relases like windows 7, (istartedsomething)

Hey Brandon, can you explain why Windows Vista (xp too) has some issue and takes forever to switch users? It flickers the screen so many times, and does all these tasks in the background when you press that switch users button. With Mac OS X, you just choose the account (or login screen) you want to switch to and it does some cube effect and there you are. This is what turns me off the most about Windows, issues with fast user switching that isn't that fast, flickering of the screen when changing screen resolutions when a fadeout would be nice, and so on.

[EduardValencia]

I do not know the registry very well but I am trying to show a reason why it can be more secure, and I also did mention uTorrent as a self-contained application. I find security less annoying if every application was like how they are on Mac OS X and no registry was used. I know that some applications including Adobe's software have some ugly installer you need permission for to install Photoshop on Mac OS X, but most applications for Mac OS X are self-contained applications. They are not as annoying because they are self-contained and are not a problem when it comes to installing, checking for updates, etc.

Well I remember I thought I could copy my user folder to another copy of Windows Vista and expected everything to work. Of course it didn't because Windows is complex and uses the registry and components need registered, properly installed, and so on. Its just with Mac OS X and using Time Machine, backup is extremely simple because you just use the migration assistant to transfer anything you like such as your home folder. Any applications you had were inside your home folder somewhere (or were in the main Applications folder) and no matter what, your data for the applications were in your Library. You could just drag and drop the Applications folder and there you go, your set.

Hey Brandon, can you explain why Windows Vista (xp too) has some issue and takes forever to switch users? It flickers the screen so many times, and does all these tasks in the background when you press that switch users button. With Mac OS X, you just choose the account (or login screen) you want to switch to and it does some cube effect and there you are. This is what turns me off the most about Windows, issues with fast user switching that isn't that fast, flickering of the screen when changing screen resolutions when a fadeout would be nice, and so on.

Duly noted,Windows 7 MUST have a much much faster and instant 3D user account switching.

It's essential

[Linkinfamous]

- Better file system (Better than NTFS) that won't require defragmentation.

If you can't name any complaints other than defragmentation (Especially as there may be a minor performance benefit to pushing the defrag off to a regular schedule task), then why would you want to get rid of NTFS? It's a pretty decent modern filesystem compared to some of the others out there (HFS+, ext3, etc.)