How would you make Windows 7 better?

[jjrambo]

Behind the scenes windows 7 is much improved from vista, it's pretty evident by how stable a pre-beta is. Actually using it day to day helps too. Maybe you don't care about GUI that's actually useful and makes things easier, but other people do.

It's not any more stable then Vista is.

[JOHW]

Vista was stable for me (used since Beta 2). Windows 7 (6801 and 6956) is stable too. Can't really compare them when you have 100% stability for both OS

[fix-this!]

vista will only get better and faster with sp2.

[Athernar]

Full Retail version of Vista Ultimate was $400. Windows 7 = Vista SP2. I don't give **** about GUI, underneath is the same ****.

Vista will get IE8, DX11, WMP12, and other things.

O RLY?

:rolleyes:

[fix-this!]

O RLY?

:rolleyes:

yay for non-working links

[Owen W Veteran]

Full Retail version of Vista Ultimate was $400. Windows 7 = Vista SP2. I don't give **** about GUI, underneath is the same ****.

Vista will get IE8, DX11, WMP12, and other things.

LOL...you're stupid if you think that.

Trust me, to keep incentive for Win7 they won't be bring anything other than IE8 to vista (oh and maybe a feature cut version of DX11 - betcha ;) )

[:: Lyon ::]

yay for non-working links

Works for me

[afusion]

vista will only get better and faster with sp2.

I would like to think that but something has me thinking that it's not the case as it was with XP.

[jjrambo]

LOL...you're stupid if you think that.

Trust me, to keep incentive for Win7 they won't be bring anything other than IE8 to vista (oh and maybe a feature cut version of DX11 - betcha ;) )

Full version of DX11 (confirmed by MS) is coming to Vista + IE8 and WMP12. There is nothing significant new in Windows 7 in my book except new GUI which is just redesigned. Speaking of which with cracked theme there will be exact mimic of Windows 7 GUI on Vista with no performance penalty.

My point is MS should not charge people $400 for Ultimate Retail copy of Windows 7.

O RLY?

:rolleyes:

He just said Windows 7 is Vista code based, no major changes. Case Closed.

[fix-this!]

I would like to think that but something has me thinking that it's not the case as it was with XP.

im really liking vista now, seems very stable for me running 4gigs and x64.

[neo1911]

Full version of DX11 (confirmed by MS) is coming to Vista + IE8 and WMP12. There is nothing significant new in Windows 7 in my book except new GUI which is just redesigned. Speaking of which with cracked theme there will be exact mimic of Windows 7 GUI on Vista with no performance penalty.

My point is MS should not charge people $400 for Ultimate Retail copy of Windows 7.

He just said Windows 7 is Vista code based, no major changes. Case Closed.

I feel something big is coming especially in terms of GUI

2000 -> XP -> Vista all had significant GUI changes in final stages of the beta

[Ci7]

I want $300 back from Microsoft for Vista. Now they are going to sell Vista SP2 cough cough Windows 7 for $400 again?

Where the f morale is there.

Win7 has nothing to do with Vista SP2

Full Retail version of Vista Ultimate was $400. Windows 7 = Vista SP2. I don't give **** about GUI, underneath is the same ****.

Vista will get IE8, DX11, WMP12, and other things.

nobody forced you to buy windows , you payed for what you got

My point is MS should not charge people $400 for Ultimate Retail copy of Windows 7.

they are free too charge whatever they like ,the last time i checked windows® is there property

when you become Microsoft CEO you can deduct what they should/shouldn't

enough said.

[Calum Veteran]

It's not any more stable then Vista is.

He just said Windows 7 is Vista code based, no major changes. Case Closed.

It doesn't mean there aren't some new major features! It's just the kernal and codebase which is the same! He never said there wouldn't be major new features.

We have seen from the PDC and information from builds people have that there are a fair few new features, the new taskbar being one of them. How could you not know this and you still persist that it is only a change of GUI

I would explain all the other new features but there are too many and I've said it all before to other ignorant people like you, so please read some of Long Zheng's recent blog posts (since the end of October) and then you will realise how many new major features there actually are! Hopefully then you will stop being so ignorant and saying it is just a GUI change!

Long Zheng's blog: www.istartedsomething.com

Thank you!

[Athernar]

He just said Windows 7 is Vista code based, no major changes. Case Closed.

But it's not the same either, so your post was wrong. Case closed. :rolleyes:

[temple_treefrog]

But it is full featured. The things that Ultimate has which aren't in Home Premium are things that Apple charges extra for too (like $300 just for Remote Desktop).

How am I misinformed? We were talking about the OS updates like 10.5, 10.6, etc. They all cost about $130 and that's the only price you'll find it at.

the service packs for leopard are free right ? that's what i was referring to. i agree about UAC in 7 but for now i use "tweak UAC" in vista to keep it enabled but in quiet mode.

i would never pay for service pack updates, are you sure about this ? i mean i had osx86 installed before and the update manager asked me if i wanted to install 10.5.4 or something like that but it didn't say anything about having to pay for it. :blink:

Of course you don't have to pay for it.. It's an update.

[br0adband]

Brandon, I know this might be a minor thing but to some of us out here using Win 7 (ok, using it and shouldn't be but using it just the same), any chance of telling the developers or whatever that we'd really like a nice activity icon in the Tray for the Network activity? I see that icon there in 6956 and it looks like a monitor, an actual screen monitor, nothing to do with network activity, and it just sits there... doing Jack Squat... and I'd really prefer not to install 3rd party software just to see network activity nor half to keep turning my head over to my cable modem (mounted on the other side of the room).

Aside from that one little niggling thing, I'm diggin' 6956 right now, definitely better performing than 6801 and I fully expect even more performance boosts as time goes by. But that icon sitting there, doing nothing... I mean, what's the point? And yes, I know I can hide it but that sortakinda defeats the purpose altogether...

That's one thing I'd do to make Win7 better, at least a simple thing that can make a difference to me and many others.

[Owen W Veteran]

But it's not the same either, so your post was wrong. Case closed. :rolleyes:

Thanks for that - I'm glad someone agrees!

[Calum Veteran]

openoffice 3 ftw !!!!

Erm... nope! Microsoft Office 2007 is still much more functional, much more intuitive and gets the job done quicker. Not to mention the different effects which mean you can make your documents look beautiful. Also, the amazing UI really is very attractive.

Win7 has nothing to do with Vista SP2

nobody forced you to buy windows , you payed for what you got

they are free too charge whatever they like ,the last time i checked windows? is there property

when you become Microsoft CEO you can deduct what they should/shouldn't

enough said.

^ I couldn't have said that any better! ^:))

[Simon Veteran]

Erm... nope! Microsoft Office 2007 is still much more functional, much more intuitive and gets the job done quicker. Not to mention the different effects which mean you can make your documents look beautiful. Also, the amazing UI really is very attractive.

I think his point was that OpenOffice can do most of what Office 2007, for infinitely less price wise. For opening documents, it'll do just fine. For hardcore business people who make documents for a living, Office 2007 would be much better, but it's a few hundred dollars more than OOo.

[crazlunatic]

I know I mentioned this in another thread but I'll mention it here again since the thread is more specific on improving Windows 7.

After trying out 6956 I think Aero Peek needs to activate itself much quicker. When hovering over the show desktop button, I could get the job done quicker by clicking it, actually going to the desktop, then clicking it again to restore the windows.

As someone who always wants to be quick in everything he does, I also find the following too slow:

- The amount of time for the windows list to show when hovering over an application icon

- The amount of time it takes to peek when hovering over a window

Personally for me, I would just click on the window to look at it, then alt+tab back to get back to my current window. I never have group icons on because I never have so many windows open that I can't differentiate which is from which by looking at the first few letters of the bar in my taskbar.

So "personally" for me, it would be better if all these peeking features worked a bit faster. But for the normal user, it might be too fast for them. What do you guys think?

[Calum Veteran]

I think his point was that OpenOffice can do most of what Office 2007, for infinitely less price wise. For opening documents, it'll do just fine. For hardcore business people who make documents for a living, Office 2007 would be much better, but it's a few hundred dollars more than OOo.

I completely agree with what you said and if you're looking at it from the point of the average user or 'value for money' then OpenOffice 3.0 would be the way to go, however, I didn't get why he put that as he didn't say why "openoffice FTW!" lol and if you don't care about cost or just having basic functionality then Microsoft Office is better :)

If he did mean what you said he meant then that is fair enough, I take my comment back :) It would just have been nice if he'd have backed up hid claim that "openoffice FTW!" with some sort of reason :)

Edited December 8, 2008 by cJr.

[Preppy Veteran]

all i want is stability ....

(rest deleted)

What's the fault data for the stability problem you're seeing?

Full version of DX11 (confirmed by MS) is coming to Vista + IE8 and WMP12. There is nothing significant new in Windows 7 in my book except new GUI which is just redesigned. Speaking of which with cracked theme there will be exact mimic of Windows 7 GUI on Vista with no performance penalty.

My point is MS should not charge people $400 for Ultimate Retail copy of Windows 7.

He just said Windows 7 is Vista code based, no major changes. Case Closed.

A: If you're going to make stuff up, party on. It's hard to argue with "I'll Make Up Whatever Rumors I Want". :) I will note that parts of your comments (as regards WMP12) are certainly speculation at best.

B: My point is that whatever you do should be sold or worth $0.50 because that's how I understand the work and effort put into it. O_o

It comes as a great surprise to me that people like to undervalue or devalue the work of others pursuant to their own biases. That does seem like a rather boring discussion, though. Wouldn't you rather talk about what's good or bad about the system? :)

C: You're greatly misinterpreting what was said, deliberately or not. But if your argument that Windows 7 doesn't represent a substantial value to you, don't use it. That's your choice. I'd think that the teams involved are working hard at making things better, compelling, and interesting. If they don't meet your bar, walk away.

But I suspect that this should be a pretty compelling upgrade. :)

edit: disclaimer of course is that I work for Microsoft. I just personally think that this may be one of the better releases from MS.

[Ke0]

How to make it better (for me and a few others)

Actually give half a damn about Asian characters. The windows platform suck complete ass at rendering Kanji / Hanja / Hanzi :(

Pretty much one of the few reasons I still even have a Macbook. Meriyo is a solid start, but still not enough. The UI still uses craptastic Bitmaps everywhere making it an absolute pain. They need to get off this bitmap crap.

[LTD]

How to make it better (for me and a few others)

Actually give half a damn about Asian characters. The windows platform suck complete ass at rendering Kanji / Hanja / Hanzi :(

Pretty much one of the few reasons I still even have a Macbook. Meriyo is a solid start, but still not enough. The UI still uses craptastic Bitmaps everywhere making it an absolute pain. They need to get off this bitmap crap.

OS X wuvs Azn languages. Stick with it. ;)

[Denis W. Veteran]

How to make it better (for me and a few others)

Actually give half a damn about Asian characters. The windows platform suck complete ass at rendering Kanji / Hanja / Hanzi :(

Pretty much one of the few reasons I still even have a Macbook. Meriyo is a solid start, but still not enough. The UI still uses craptastic Bitmaps everywhere making it an absolute pain. They need to get off this bitmap crap.

You're dead on right.

The good news is DirectWrite will solve this and finally bring great Asian font rendering to Windows. (see the demos in Neowin's PDC coverage for examples, or pop on the Engineering Windows 7 blog)

The bad news is almost 90% of today's apps which use GDI will still continue to have crappy arse fonts. :/

Even on Linux, the font rendering is a bit sketchy for Western fonts, but Asian fonts look damn good.

(side note: I can't write in Chinese, though that's my background. But there's a handful of people on my contact list who do use Asian fonts, and they look ugly.)

edit: Here's an example. Take a look at the font rendering on the icon's previews.

Edited December 10, 2008 by rm20010