How would you make Windows 7 better?

[Mordkanin]

But about Secure Desktop: has there EVER been any proof of concept code that allows an app to hijack the UAC dialog?

No. Because the secure desktop makes it not possible.

[Denis W. Veteran]

No. Because the secure desktop makes it not possible.

Sorry, I meant when Secure Desktop's disabled.

I don't mind Secure Desktop being there, but I would like a more elegant solution to the hard flicker.

[Dapen]

Betcha it wouldn't.

Begin rant.

At the moment, my pet peeve is glass on maximized applications. The whole point of making an application's title bar and the task bar turn black when an application is maximized is to pull focus to that application, which I think it does very well. However, Microsoft have bent to the will of the small number of very loud people who don't seem to understand this and have changed the behavior in Windows 7 so that maximized applications retain their glass title bar, which looks absolutely stupid. Why can't they just implement a check box: "I like things that look flashy and I don't understand interaction design principles".

End rant.

Other things I'd change:

• Develop a clear media strategy. Ship it with either WMP or Zune. Whilst I prefer Zune, I would prefer a singular media strategy even more
  
• Fix the clock in Media Center, in the PDC build in appears seemingly randomly
  
• Fix the included MP4 and AVI splitters, they don't correctly handle multiple audio tracks (they play both tracks simultaneously)
  
• Ship with a reading application, something that can read most major document and image formats
  
• Fix IE8 performance problems. Here's a hint, the biggest performance issue is when opening a new tab, which takes ages
  
• Support ID3 v2.4. It allows Unicode, and is among other nice improvements
  
• This will get me crucified but anyway, undo the changes to UAC, or at least make the highest security level the default. They've swung the security pendulum too far back in the other direction
  

I'm sure there are others, but that will have to do for the moment.

Id like to see Windows 7 go even further with keeping the glass effect as atm it is stupid, when the window is maximised keep the window curves like when some apps open the full size of the screen but not as maximised. If that makes any sense. Now all I can hope is for Bill Gates to look through this thread and read this post.

[crazlunatic]

No. Because the secure desktop makes it not possible.

Where did the secure desktop go? I don't see it when I get my UAC prompts

[Brandon Live Veteran]

I would like to agree, but consider that the new default UAC setting in Windows 7 was nonexistent, at least to the user, in Vista. It was a black and white situation: either prompt everything, or don't prompt at all. Now only downloaded apps get the prompt, which would also include any malware that silently downloaded itself to the user's system.

I'll still keep the slider at the second highest level... I don't really trust myself to do things correctly the first time. :p

ANYTHING in the pre-beta is not final, the UAC settings included.

But about Secure Desktop: has there EVER been any proof of concept code that allows an app to hijack the UAC dialog?

Do you mean without the Secure Desktop? There are specific attacks in mind that it is designed to mitigate/prevent. If there were not, it would not be the default setting (nobody likes it, but it's needed to make the prompt secure). Obviously, discussing specific attack methods isn't something I'm too keen on right now.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Where did the secure desktop go? I don't see it when I get my UAC prompts

Secure Desktop's only available at the highest setting. For now at least.

ANYTHING in the pre-beta is not final, the UAC settings included.

I know, just saying. :)

Since the default setting's set to only prompt for downloaded apps, I'm sensing a better solution is in the works right now.

[crazlunatic]

Secure Desktop's only available at the highest setting. For now at least.

I really don't see why it cannot be included within all the settings. If an application manages to manipulate UAC, that is big trouble.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Since the default setting's set to only prompt for downloaded apps, I'm sensing a better solution is in the works right now.

Actually even in the M3 build, the default was to prompt for anything that wasn't a Windows-signed binary in a trusted location.

[jjrambo]

To be honest whole UAC thing is hard to implement. It took me two years to get used to. Only place where it bothers me is my startup. I have everest and evga precision tool on startup so UAC pops out twice when i login. It's a bit annoying.

[jjrambo]

I love this kind of comments :D, you probably don't know a thing about file systems in general or NTFS in particular. You couldn't name one bad thing about NTFS. Yet somewhere someday you heard someone say that NTFS is bad and you keep repeating it over and over again hoping it makes you sound smart.

Well sir, it doesn't ;)

I will give you one thing? Need for defragmentation. Windows Search application as solution to overcome terrible file/folder organization etc, silent data corruption etc

[Denis W. Veteran]

Actually even in the M3 build, the default was to prompt for anything that wasn't a Windows-signed binary in a trusted location.

Ahhhh. Didn't know that.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

I will give you one thing? Need for defragmentation. Windows Search application as solution to overcome terrible file/folder organization etc, silent data corruption etc

Rotating hard disks suffer from fragmentation, it's not a file system problem. That problem basically goes away with solid state disks (in fact I believe Windows 7 disables fragmentation on SSDs).

Are you suggesting that the file/folder organizational model that every operating system uses needs to be replaced? Why? With what?

Besides, who cares what the physical layout of the data is... that has nothing to do with how it is presented to the user.

And what the heck does "silent data corruption" mean?

[Mordkanin]

I will give you one thing? Need for defragmentation. Windows Search application as solution to overcome terrible file/folder organization etc, silent data corruption etc

What on earth does 'terrible file/folder organization' have to do with the filesystem?

Every filesystem suffers from that equally, hence why we have indexed content.

[Inctye]

To be honest whole UAC thing is hard to implement. It took me two years to get used to. Only place where it bothers me is my startup. I have everest and evga precision tool on startup so UAC pops out twice when i login. It's a bit annoying.

Two years? I gave up on UAC within a month, almost as soon as I figured out where the on/off setting was deep inside the control panel. I gave it another shot after SP1, but still not worth the extra click(s). With Win7, will just have to wait and see how the final improvements and setting controls are.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Two years? I gave up on UAC within a month, almost as soon as I figured out where the on/off setting was deep inside the control panel. I gave it another shot after SP1, but still not worth the extra click(s). With Win7, will just have to wait and see how the final improvements and setting controls are.

I really have to wonder what you people do all day that makes UAC add a significant number of "extra clicks." What software do you use on a regular basis that requires elevation?

[phot0nic]

To be honest whole UAC thing is hard to implement. It took me two years to get used to. Only place where it bothers me is my startup. I have everest and evga precision tool on startup so UAC pops out twice when i login. It's a bit annoying.

Two years to get used to it? Really? Anyways, to solve your startup problem, simply add the programs to your task scheduler to come on at startup and check the "run with highest privileges" box. Really, the software devs should just fix their software, but if they won't, this trick will get around having to click the dialog boxes.

I will give you one thing? Need for defragmentation. Windows Search application as solution to overcome terrible file/folder organization etc, silent data corruption etc

For starters, all file systems have fragmentation. Also, recent versions of NTFS don't need defragmentation. Any performance drop in NTFS due to fragmentation is largely negligible, and that negligible drop is then fixed by Vista's defrag running on a schedule. In short, there are no fragmentation issues in NTFS that affect the user.

Secondly, "need for search to overcome blah blah blah" and "silent data corruption"? You really need to elaborate, and point out who fills your head with this stuff. The first doesn't even make sense and the second has no ounce of truth to support it.

[jjrambo]

Thanks for a tip. Totally forgot about scheduler.

[fix-this!]

as long as 7 will run on my new laptop ill buy it. i refuse to buy a new desktop or laptop though just to use it.

[jjrambo]

as long as 7 will run on my new laptop ill buy it. i refuse to buy a new desktop or laptop though just to use it.

Smart choice for your laptop. I picked up Athlon 64 X2, really didn't want to pay for Intel's 32bit only bull****.

[Mordkanin]

Smart choice for your laptop. I picked up Athlon 64 X2, really didn't want to pay for Intel's 32bit only bull****.

What are you going on about? Intel's mobile Core 2 Duos fully support x86-64. Their last 32-bit mainstream mobile processor (Not counting the Atom. That's not a real laptop processor.) was the Core Duo, over 2 years ago.

[jjrambo]

What are you going on about? Intel's mobile Core 2 Duos fully support x86-64. Their last 32-bit mainstream mobile processor (Not counting the Atom. That's not a real laptop processor.) was the Core Duo, over 2 years ago.

I was talking about Core Duo and compared it to Athlon X64 because they are in the same class.

[LTD]

I was talking about Core Duo and compared it to Athlon X64 because they are in the same class.

No they aren't. The Core Duo is 32-bit (although the highest iteration of that architecture), while the Athlon X64 (AMD64 family) is natively 64-bit.

The Core Duo is dual-core, and so is the Athlon X64. But not all dual-cores were 64-bit. ;)

Edited December 4, 2008 by LTD

[Ambroos]

I really have to wonder what you people do all day that makes UAC add a significant number of "extra clicks." What software do you use on a regular basis that requires elevation?

You never know what Neowinians do on their PC's. I don't mind UAC. The half second it adds for each prompt (if I even get prompted) with highest settings. After the initial setup most people do the number of promts is greatly reduced.

[Ci7]

Two years to get used to it? Really? Anyways, to solve your startup problem, simply add the programs to your task scheduler to come on at startup and check the "run with highest privileges" box. Really, the software devs should just fix their software, but if they won't, this trick will get around having to click the dialog boxes.

For starters, all file systems have fragmentation. Also, recent versions of NTFS don't need defragmentation. Any performance drop in NTFS due to fragmentation is largely negligible, and that negligible drop is then fixed by Vista's defrag running on a schedule. In short, there are no fragmentation issues in NTFS that affect the user.

thanks for the tips

Secondly, "need for search to overcome blah blah blah" and "silent data corruption"? You really need to elaborate, and point out who fills your head with this stuff. The first doesn't even make sense and the second has no ounce of truth to support it.

all it need is someone keep repeating the lie on himself till he believe it lol

[Tomoko]

Rotating hard disks suffer from fragmentation, it's not a file system problem. That problem basically goes away with solid state disks (in fact I believe Windows 7 disables fragmentation on SSDs).

What? Fragmentation has nothing to do with whether the disk is rotating or not. What would that have to do with anything? Solid state media can become fragmented as well. It is indeed because of the way the file system saves files.