What You Would Like To See in Windows 7

[firey]

The ability to run ISO's with installs without requiring any extra software (Daemon Tools, PowerISO, etc).

[cell2007]

I'd also like to see the Built-in Compiz Fusion-like (Beryl) or 3D Cube effects & screensavers as found in Ubuntu or something would look somehow like those images below. But i don't think they'll have time to implement this feature till Windows 8.

[CloudEngineer]

I'd also like to see the Built-in Compiz Fusion-like (Beryl) or 3D Cube effects & screensavers as found in Ubuntu or something would look somehow like those images below. But i don't think they'll have time to implement this feature till Windows 8.

yeah well if they do i hope they have an option to disable it as i find it annoying & unproductive.

[Shadrack]

1. A way to set the wallpaper for each individual monitor that is connected.

2. Remove those stupid video overlay features. I'm so tired of going to presentations and the presenter can't get the video to play properly on the projector...it is so ridiculous and MS needs to address this issue.

3. The built in disk defrag utility needs to be useful. If you've ever tried a good 3rd party defragger they always do so much better for my system performance than MS's built in defragger. MS needs to make one on par with these 3rd party folks.

4. One location for applications that start. The whole boot-up and startup paradigm needs to be revamped so that it is easy (and safe) for end users to configure. The "startup" program folder should be the only place 3rd party programs are allowed....or something like that.

5. Rip off the Apple's Mac OS X .app approach to installing (and more importantly uninstalling) programs. It is brilliant. Installers are evil and shouldn't be needed. Uninstallers rarely fully remove a program...traces of everything are left behind when they shouldn't.

6. Taskbar/Superbar spread across multiple monitors w/o 3rd party programs like Ultramon.

I know some of these are just not going to happen with Windows 7. But, that is what I could think of off the top of my head.

Excited to get my hands on Windows 7 retail. Definitely going to be getting it for my desktop...and possibly my netbook too. Does anyone know what the upgrade costs are going to be?

[jjrambo]

The ability to install other browsers from the DVD such as:

1. Firefox.

2. Opera

3. Google Chrome

4. ...etc!

IE should not be the only choice. That is the sole reason that it has the market share that it does. MS is a monopoly and should practice fair business practices.

And what Microsoft has to do with Firefox, Opera? It's not their product. I think somebody in US and in EU forgot what's monopoly. It is not Microsoft fault why IE is used by i don't know 90% people out there. I would agree with you if Microsoft somehow forbids installation of Firefox, Opera etc. Anybody can install those browsers and set them as default. Heck sometimes i do when i test my code in VB.NET, so when i run it Firefox lunches. (I need to program for IE, Firefox).

But since Microsoft doesn't care what you gonna run on Windows, to me there is no issue but just bunch of bull****.

Let me put it this way. Imagine some company which makes Turbo for Sports Car sues Mitsubishi Company because Mitsubishi doesn't give option to their customers between Turbo made by Mitsubishi for their Lancer Evolution care and some 3rd party company.

WTF is that...What you just said up there and others is just ****ing stupid. Microsoft is owner of Windows and any code they write and as such they have no ****ing obligations to anybody. As I said anybody can install Firefox, they are free to do so. So, what you want them to pay for additional DVD in order to ship ****ing Firefox? WTF is that. Microsoft is not 'Tech Red Cross' to do so. Microsoft already does fair business practice by allowing them to be able to install their alternative browsers into OS.

Nobody is forced to run any Microsoft product. Look below. I run Mandriva 2009 on my laptop. It is my choice, and everybody has a choice.

Edited February 24, 2009 by jjrambo

[yakumo]

It is not Microsoft fault why IE is used by i don't know 90% people out there.

LOL. Most users still don't know what a browser is, they just know the big blue E that came with their computer is the internet. Firefox'sincreasing market share is a sign that that is changing but it's a very slow process.

I'm not sure if it's because of the bundling, or because their applications genuinely needed ActiveX (perhaps for want of alternatives at the time), but either way it's also Microsoft's 'fault' that most businesses still run IE.

Edited February 24, 2009 by yakumo

[jjrambo]

LOL. Most users still don't know what a browser is, they just know the big blue E that came with their computer is the internet. Firefox'sincreasing market share is a sign that that is changing but it's a very slow process.

I think most people know but they just don't care about other browsers.

[insanelyapple]

new color picker, new notepad (like notepad2), new sounds, virtual desktops (like spaces in osx), new rewitten wmp, standalone address book, better consistency in gui projecting, superbar like in longhorn concepts - here and REAL photorealistic icons

[bradavon]

The return of the WMP toolbar.

[rakeshishere]

new color picker, new notepad (like notepad2), new sounds, virtual desktops (like spaces in osx), new rewitten wmp, standalone address book, better consistency in gui projecting, superbar like in longhorn concepts - here and REAL photorealistic icons

I still dont get why virtual desktops is still not thought about

[bradavon]

Having Firefox part of the installer will just mean people install an old version.

I find it odd there is absolutely nothing mentioned about Windows Live Essentials during install, not even a desktop shortcut to the website. It would be a good idea to ask during install if you want to install it. That way, if you don't, just click No. It should then download/install the latest version.

[Fox-HTV]

Here are some good ideas from my friend:

Navigation: Colliding Explorer windows

In Win7 the ability to drag a window to the side edge of the desktop to make it tile vertically was introduced.

Futhering this option, it would make it even better if one could, after tiling a window against a side, could then 'collide' another window with the edge of that one to add another vertically tiled window.

Perhaps a maximum of 4 vertically tiled windows could be allowed, 2 per each half of the screen. A possible optimization to this could be to make the navigation bar (on the left side of each explorer window) 'roll-up' to the side when windows are 'collided' in order to have adequate space in each window.

|

V

Navigation: Size for folders

It would make navigation more efficient to add the size of a folder's contents to the size field when the 'Details' view is used in Explorer.

Security: Password Protected Folders

It would be an improvement in security if it would be possible to Password protect a folder with it's own independent password.

[hotdog666al]

Up button.

Square Back/Forward buttons.

Not an Orb Start button.

Customizable Explorer Toolbar.

I can keep dreaming though, haha.

[Fox-HTV]

Navigation: Esc to Exit

It would help to have the ability to press Esc when a particular Explorer window is selected to Close that window.

Additionally, this option in other Windows programs such as WMP and Picture Viewer would be good.

[Eric Veteran]

id like to see firefox be bundled with 7. IE just plain sucks IMO.

also the less bloatware the better, let us choose what we want and do not want to install.

Wouldn't adding Firefox bundled make it bloatware?

[stockwiz]

I'd like to see them turn OFF by default the automatic restart of the computer from installing updates. I got so irritated when windows 7 suddenly shut down without any sort of warning right in the middle of a long message I powered down the laptop forcefully and the update failed to install. Turns out firefox saved the entire message up the the point where it shut down so no harm was done, but man did that annoy me!

(turns off auto restart nonsense)

[theyarecomingforyou]

I'd like to see them turn OFF by default the automatic restart of the computer from installing updates.

Installing updates is actually very important and it gives a prompt asking if you want to postpone it to a time more suitable. Not automatically restarting has the potential to put your system as risk in the event of a serious flaw. But it could be improved by fully saving the state of applications and restoring them upon restart, as that would avoid potential data loss.

[Fox-HTV]

Wouldn't adding Firefox bundled make it bloatware?

I think it definitely would, as much as I love FF.

Lets face it, the less the better as far as additional apps will make Win7 better, bar the essentials of coarse.

Here's another idea from me:

System: Service Demand

Optimising the code for Explorer (explorer.exe), Desktop Windows Manager (dwm.exe), the Service Host that controls the DWM (svchost.exe) and the Service the runs the Gadgets [formerly the sidebar] (sidebar.exe), is definately necessary as each service takes an average of 50MB, making the 4 services alone take 200MB of system memory at any 1 time.

[Fox-HTV]

Here's some other ideas:

Navigation: File Zoom Previews

It would make it easier for one to choose the image/document if an option was added to allow zoom previews to be shown in Explorer when one hovers the mouse cursor over a document or image file.

Navigation: Animated Desktop Icon support

It would be a nice cosmetic enhancement to have Windows 7 introduce support for animated icons, similar to GIF images, that would allow applications makers create more dynamic icons, where one could hover a mouse cursor over a desktop shortcut and a short repeating animation would activate.

Navigation: Animated GIF Avatar support

It would be a nice cosmetic enhancement to have Windows 7 introduce support for animated GIFs to be used for the User Account Avatars.

Have you guys got any feedback on these sugestions? :huh:

If you like them, please copy and paste them into the Windows 7 Feedback window and send it to Microsoft, to let Microsoft know that many people want the particular feature. ;)

[bobbba]

Quote - "Fox-HTV"

@Gary7

We all know realistically that including 3rd party apps would gives more problems than solutions and MS wouldn't do such.

Why, you ask? Who would say what is included and what isn't? Who wouldn't want to sue if they're excluded? It just wouldn't work.

Suing MS to try make them include 3rd parties is just not reasonable, rather if MS puts less of it's own software maybe, but beyond that... any company would fight it, and with good reason.

I don't think they should be sued either but the EU and the EC are doing just that.

Thanks for the FUD, the EU/EC are suing MS for bundling their own browser/media player and NOT for not including 3rd party software in Windows. There's a world of difference.

Next you'll be saying that there should be an option to install Linux on the Windows DVD...

[blehbleh]

2. Remove those stupid video overlay features. I'm so tired of going to presentations and the presenter can't get the video to play properly on the projector...it is so ridiculous and MS needs to address this issue.

4. One location for applications that start. The whole boot-up and startup paradigm needs to be revamped so that it is easy (and safe) for end users to configure. The "startup" program folder should be the only place 3rd party programs are allowed....or something like that.

5. Rip off the Apple's Mac OS X .app approach to installing (and more importantly uninstalling) programs. It is brilliant. Installers are evil and shouldn't be needed. Uninstallers rarely fully remove a program...traces of everything are left behind when they shouldn't.

+1, +1 and +1

Using two monitors and some fullscreen programs is still really pathetic, you often have to switch primary and secondary monitor to run videos or fullscreen-apps on the monitor you'd like. I don't see any reason why "fullscreen"-apps behave so different than normal ones. Many programs can run in fullscreen without taking over the entire device(press f11 in explorer/firefox for example). Bad examples is Windows media center that starts flickering both screens and takes over 5seconds to switch from window-mode to fullscreen.

Installing programs is also a nightmare, first of all: why should a program require FULL administrative rights just to place itself in a folder on the computer? Just give it a sandboxed folder where it is allowed to store program data, settings and other stuff. And of course let it access user files.

Second, what are all those folders for, today a program has tons of folders: Program Files, Program Data, User\Appdata\Roaming, User\Appdata\Local Default\Appdata Roaming, Default\Appdata\Local, Registry\HKLM\Software\bla\blabla\, Registry\HKCU\Software\bla\blbla

I'm probably missing some but just look at that cr*p - even I, who consider myself a very experienced windows-user, have trouble knowing what all of those mean.

Deleting a program without the uninstaller is impossible, often not even the uninstaller removes everything properly.

Seriously...the fact that programs even requires home-made installers+unistallers must mean that the OS way of handling programs by definition is completely flawed.

Edited March 20, 2009 by blehbleh

[Fox-HTV]

I couldn't agree more.

[crazlunatic]

Navigation: Animated Desktop Icon support

It would be a nice cosmetic enhancement to have Windows 7 introduce support for animated icons, similar to GIF images, that would allow applications makers create more dynamic icons, where one could hover a mouse cursor over a desktop shortcut and a short repeating animation would activate.

Animted taskbar icons wouldn't be a bad idea also

[Zickar]

There is a feature I was thinking about and I though it would be cool to have , Its basically like a peep hole , It is placed in the title bar of every window by default when any window is opened , it basically lets you see through an open window without minimizing it , it acts just like a peep hole and it can even look like one , Its a small circular hole in the window (about 10 px radius), it can be moved around simply by dragging it and its size can be increased or decreased using a mouse button combination , for example pressing the right button and scrolling up and down the scroll wheel ... It will also let you interact with whatever appears through the peep hole as well just like the window you have open is not there ... I thought it would be a good idea to implement in web browsers like IE8 which will help people stay on their browsers and all works in favor of moving your desktop to the browser ... While on the subject I think having a mute button on tabs would be pretty cool so you can mute the sound coming from one tab and have the sound running normally on other tabs , Also a pause button would be cool so if you are loading a page and you want to stop loading it for now but you want to continue loading it later you can just pause it instead of canceling the whole thing or refreshing ...

[dirka]

Maybe this has been said before, but I would love if you hover over the network icon in the taskbar for it to display my internal and external IP address

This doesn't really tell me anything.