How would you make Windows 7 better?

[fix-this!]

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.

yes i really digg openoffice 3 over office 2007. it's faster, does pretty much everything and it's free. office 2007 seemed pretty slow to me.

[Ke0]

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.

That is how it should look all the time, is there a timeframe on Directwrite? I'd assume it'll take quite some time to implement into Windows?

[GamblerFEXonlin]

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)

Why do we need DirectWrite and Direct2D API? I thought WPF was already vector, hardware accelerated and able to define pixel tight lines (so a line doesn't look blurry if it is 1,5 pixels wide).

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Why do we need DirectWrite and Direct2D API? I thought WPF was already vector, hardware accelerated and able to define pixel tight lines (so a line doesn't look blurry if it is 1,5 pixels wide).

Because not everybody can or wants to write managed code.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Why do we need DirectWrite and Direct2D API? I thought WPF was already vector, hardware accelerated and able to define pixel tight lines (so a line doesn't look blurry if it is 1,5 pixels wide).

Full screen zoom in Windows 7 gives pixellated output even for WPF apps. I hope they'll consider adding in a billinear filter to make the zoom as smooth as those found on OS X/Compiz Fusion.

[jjrambo]

yes i really digg openoffice 3 over office 2007. it's faster, does pretty much everything and it's free. office 2007 seemed pretty slow to me.

Problem with Office 2007 is MS attempt to do everything with it. When you create email message it gets created in html format. For simple text you get such crappy html code...pages of crap ms puts in there.

[br0adband]

Here's something I personally would love to see done with WMP12 - make the mousewheel functional. Right now, in almost all other media players (Media Player Classic/Home Cinema, VLC, etc) scrolling the mousewheel changes the volume, which might not seem like a big thing to a lot of people, but it's so tremendously useful sometimes. Instead of giving an app focus and then having to go cursor to volume control, you'd save the last step just giving the app focus and rolling the wheel up or down as required.

Yes, I do have a keyboard with volume controls on it, but but but... the mousewheel is there for a reason, and other media players put it to very good use, so why not WMP this time out...?

[Snowl]

Heres something that I would love to see implemented.

The "BRAND" New UAC Dialog.

When you launch a new program, that needs privileges, there is a tick box saying []Would you like to save this configuration

If you tick it, and press yes then it always launches in Elevated under the .exe . BUT. I know your thinking, viruses could manipulate this program and make it so it launches the virus code.

If microsoft implemented some kind of check (etc. MD5) every time it ran, if it matched the original dialogs MD5 then it will run without the prompt and if it doesnt then it will launch the UAC prompt. It also needs to be in the exact place for it to pass.

[micro]

Heres something that I would love to see implemented.

The "BRAND" New UAC Dialog.

When you launch a new program, that needs privileges, there is a tick box saying []Would you like to save this configuration

If you tick it, and press yes then it always launches in Elevated under the .exe . BUT. I know your thinking, viruses could manipulate this program and make it so it launches the virus code.

If microsoft implemented some kind of check (etc. MD5) every time it ran, if it matched the original dialogs MD5 then it will run without the prompt and if it doesnt then it will launch the UAC prompt. It also needs to be in the exact place for it to pass.

As bulletproof as that sounds, it wouldn't be that hard to get past those security measures.. MD5's can be faked fairly easily.

[Snowl]

As bulletproof as that sounds, it wouldn't be that hard to get past those security measures.. MD5's can be faked fairly easily.

Then another type of security? I was using an example (:

[Examinus]

Is it just me, or does the Start Button look completely unimportant?

[Kyang]

Is it just me, or does the Start Button look completely unimportant?

It doesn't look completely unimportant, but I sort of agree. In terms of appearance, the Start button has been pushed a bit into the background, starting with Vista, and now Windows 7.

I like how it looks in Vista. It's not as prominent as it used to be with the huge word, "Start", but how it sort of sticks out a little bit over the taskbar makes sure it isn't completely lost.

For new computer users, it's definitely less discoverable, since there's no longer a completely obvious place to, "Start" using the computer, and this is probably going to carry over into Windows 7 as well, but I think it isn't any harder to become familiar with than any other interface.

[Preppy Veteran]

Here's something I personally would love to see done with WMP12 - make the mousewheel functional. Right now, in almost all other media players (Media Player Classic/Home Cinema, VLC, etc) scrolling the mousewheel changes the volume, which might not seem like a big thing to a lot of people, but it's so tremendously useful sometimes. Instead of giving an app focus and then having to go cursor to volume control, you'd save the last step just giving the app focus and rolling the wheel up or down as required.

Yes, I do have a keyboard with volume controls on it, but but but... the mousewheel is there for a reason, and other media players put it to very good use, so why not WMP this time out...?

As opposed to how the mousewheel already is functionally used for scrolling the library?

You named two library-less players as comparison. "Scroll in view" is the default logic for what a scrollwheel does. If you somehow decided that the mousewheel should *not* activate those slider bars, you'd rightly leave people very confused about the noncohesive design.

[Examinus]

It doesn't look completely unimportant, but I sort of agree. In terms of appearance, the Start button has been pushed a bit into the background, starting with Vista, and now Windows 7.

I like how it looks in Vista. It's not as prominent as it used to be with the huge word, "Start", but how it sort of sticks out a little bit over the taskbar makes sure it isn't completely lost.

For new computer users, it's definitely less discoverable, since there's no longer a completely obvious place to, "Start" using the computer, and this is probably going to carry over into Windows 7 as well, but I think it isn't any harder to become familiar with than any other interface.

When I say "completely unimportant" I mean in context with other Taskbar items. Everything has been made bigger and bolder, but the Start Orb has just been left. Nothing about it says "Click here to start" - the only visual clue that it's special comes when you hover over it, by which time it's already been clicked on. In Vista, it sticks out and has a kind of glass bubble look, but in Win7 it just looks dull (and squashed) compared to the rest of the Start Menu.

[jjrambo]

And IE8 will still suffer from crashes like IE7 suffers.

[shakey_snake]

When I say "completely unimportant" I mean in context with other Taskbar items. Everything has been made bigger and bolder, but the Start Orb has just been left. Nothing about it says "Click here to start" - the only visual clue that it's special comes when you hover over it, by which time it's already been clicked on. In Vista, it sticks out and has a kind of glass bubble look, but in Win7 it just looks dull (and squashed) compared to the rest of the Start Menu.

The position of it, still indicates it's importance. Fitt's Law assures us of that.

However, with the this new taskbar and quick launch system, the importance of the start menu is decreased.

[sourbake]

It would be cool if you could unlock the task bar and move the icons into any position you wanted to along the task bar, then lock it to keep them there. :)

[Examinus]

The position of it, still indicates it's importance. Fitt's Law assures us of that.

How so (I'm not arguing, but would actually like to know!)?

[Kyang]

It would be cool if you could unlock the task bar and move the icons into any position you wanted to along the task bar, then lock it to keep them there. :)

You can. :) .

[Denis W. Veteran]

How so (I'm not arguing, but would actually like to know!)?

http://www.xvsxp.com/interface/fittslaw.php

Screen corners guarantee an 'infinite' target with almost no precision or dexterity required. Just move your mouse mindlessly in one direction and click.

[Linkinfamous]

And IE8 will still suffer from crashes like IE7 suffers.

Unlike when another browser such as Firefox crashes, IE8 will only close the offending tab, not the whole window or all of the windows.

[MeDieViL02]

i would love to see the longhorn sidebar return

[sourbake]

You can. :) .

Nope, you can't move the icons to the middle or far right of the task bar and lock them there. :)

[Calum Veteran]

Nope, you can't move the icons to the middle or far right of the task bar and lock them there. :)

You can if you fill the taskbar with icons, can't you? ;)

I know what you are saying though, it might make more sense to let us move the icons to the middle (or right) if we wanted. It would make the taskbar tidier to have the icons centre aligned, I reckon :)

[Kyang]

Nope, you can't move the icons to the middle or far right of the task bar and lock them there. :)

Woops, that was a mistake. I meant that you can move icons into the taskbar, but, you're right, you can't lock them anywhere.

If the items were locked to the center of the taskbar, then in terms of appearance if really would be something like a dock. :laugh: .