What features are you hoping to see in Windows 8?

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Grand Master

Ci7

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I love everything about Windows 7- the beautiful UI, Windows Search and WMP12 in particular. But I hope in Windows 8 ships with Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Security Essentials pre-installed. Also, built-in PDF-viewer, iso mounting and 7-Zip-like functionality will be great to have. Because I simply hate any third-party software. Microsoft FTW.

MS would happily included them , if you can convince the US DOJ and the EU to not sue MS left ,right and center

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Grand Master

Quillz

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I love everything about Windows 7- the beautiful UI, Windows Search and WMP12 in particular. But I hope in Windows 8 ships with Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Security Essentials pre-installed. Also, built-in PDF-viewer, iso mounting and 7-Zip-like functionality will be great to have. Because I simply hate any third-party software. Microsoft FTW.

If anything, Windows 8 will ship with even fewer built-in applications than 7, due to anti-trust issues.

But actually, there's many good benefits to not having built-in mail clients and what not. Look at Vista... How many people actually used Windows Mail? Probably not that many, due to the fact it was built-in and was never updated. It's far more useful to just download Windows Live Mail after installing Win7, and now that it will receive frequent updates. And not having built-in applications that see little use means the OS takes up less space on your HDD.

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Grand Master

Ci7

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If anything, Windows 8 will ship with even fewer built-in applications than 7, due to anti-trust issues.

But actually, there's many good benefits to not having built-in mail clients and what not. Look at Vista... How many people actually used Windows Mail? Probably not that many, due to the fact it was built-in and was never updated. It's far more useful to just download Windows Live Mail after installing Win7, and now that it will receive frequent updates. And not having built-in applications that see little use means the OS takes up less space on your HDD.

+1

can't wait for WL2010

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neo158

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I know what features i don't want to see.

I want MS to remove:

1. WEI

2. Homegroup

3. Make Tablet PC components optional (let me choose if i want it or not)

4. Fix folder/file structure under Users/Program Data

5. Superfetch -> useless since more and more people are switching to SSD

6. Windows Search -> useless. If you don't index folder Windows Search turns out to be pile of crap. MS neesd to come up with better method

7. Get rid of Registry

8. Game Explorer -> i have no idea what MS wanted to accomplish with this

9. Improve Backup. I want option to make image of all available drives not only C (System) drive

10. If they are not planning to make drastic changes to WMP, they should completely remove it cause WMP12 is utter crap.

11. Kill useless 32bit version cause it is waste of MS money and time.

So basically you want people to be using a 64-bit version of Windows 3.11

Go buy a clue before posting such idiotic rubbish.

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Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

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But actually, there's many good benefits to not having built-in mail clients and what not. Look at Vista... How many people actually used Windows Mail? Probably not that many, due to the fact it was built-in and was never updated. It's far more useful to just download Windows Live Mail after installing Win7, and now that it will receive frequent updates. And not having built-in applications that see little use means the OS takes up less space on your HDD.

WLM gets frequent updates? Maybe that's true, if by frequent, you mean once every minor ice age or so...

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Grand Master

M_Lyons10

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I would like to be able to boot from ANY VHD, not just Windows 7 on a Windows 7 host...

I would like to set an application to not prompt me with a "Do you really want to open this program" dialog every time I open it (Without turning off UAC)... I just don't understand why this doesn't go away once you've run an application once...

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Grand Master

Quillz

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WLM gets frequent updates? Maybe that's true, if by frequent, you mean once every minor ice age or so...

There are "Wave" updates. And they come far more often than any built-in application updates come. That's my point... It was redundant to have Windows Mail built into Vista when it was never updated and you could install far superior options like Windows Live Mail and Outlook. By taking Mail out of Win7, you cut down the size of the OS footprint, and you can still use any other mail client you want.

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Grand Master

x-byte

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After I got a USB headset I would love to be able to switch applications between audio sources. Now you have to choose the default audio device manually. But if an application is active it can't change it again by switching the default device.

Probably not a very good explanation, sorry.

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Owen W Veteran

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So basically you want people to be using a 64-bit version of Windows 3.11

Go buy a clue before posting such idiotic rubbish.

Glad there's another sane person around, eh :)

After I got a USB headset I would love to be able to switch applications between audio sources. Now you have to choose the default audio device manually. But if an application is active it can't change it again by switching the default device.

Probably not a very good explanation, sorry.

That's a Application Specific problem, not Microsofts.

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StudioFortress

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I'd like to be able to shutdown apps where rather then closing their memory is just written to disk and stored. When I reopen the app it comes back in the same exact state as when I closed it.

I'd then like that to be able to group those apps together. So if I'm doing web development I can click on one icon and it'll automatically open FileZilla, FireFox, NetBeans, Eclipse and some explorer windows of my work folders all still setup how I used them last.

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Grand Master

Roger H. Veteran

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I'd like to be able to shutdown apps where rather then closing their memory is just written to disk and stored. When I reopen the app it comes back in the same exact state as when I closed it.

I'd then like that to be able to group those apps together. So if I'm doing web development I can click on one icon and it'll automatically open FileZilla, FireFox, NetBeans, Eclipse and some explorer windows of my work folders all still setup how I used them last.

That's a good idea actually - one of the few here. For now i guess you can do that with a Virtual machine and just hibernate it to close it out. You can have different VMs for different projects and just said project and have all your apps exactly where you left off.

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Grand Master

Solid Knight

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I want MS to remove:

2. Homegroup

Yeah, get rid of the easiest method to share files at home!

3. Make Tablet PC components optional (let me choose if i want it or not)

It already is.

5. Superfetch -> useless since more and more people are switching to SSD

Yeah, get rid of a feature still useful to the majority of users.

6. Windows Search -> useless. If you don't index folder Windows Search turns out to be pile of crap. MS neesd to come up with better method

Really? If you don't tell it you want the content to be searchable it doesn't find anything there?

7. Get rid of Registry

And store our configuration data where? Thousands of .ini files? Brilliant. A slower and more cumbersome interface for the win.

8. Game Explorer -> i have no idea what MS wanted to accomplish with this

To group all your games in one area. I use it a lot.

9. Improve Backup. I want option to make image of all available drives not only C (System) drive

It can and has been able to do that for a long time.

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StudioFortress

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I disagree about removing the games explorer too. I mean for years when you install a game it's stored under Dice, EA, Bethesda or whatever. Why isn't it just entered under Battlefield 2 or Oblivion??? I shouldn't have to look up the developer and publishers name just so I can find a shortcut.

However I don't think it quite does the job in it's current state. When you open the startmenu you have lots of main button on the right (Documents, Control Panel, Run, Music, etc) so I think it would work better if games had it's own expandable section right there. Then I can avoid all startmenu apps and go straight to it.

So two more suggestions would be first easier configuration of those main startmenu buttons so I can add and remove my own. I don't use Video or Photos, I'd much rather add one for programming tools instead. My second suggestion might be some sort of tagging for apps. So I can just type 'programming' and all my programming tools are shown. Also the programs section of the startmenu would be built as a tree of these tags, with more encouragement from MS for apps to be shared in their various catergories.

The issue this solves is that currently most apps go in one of two places. Either at the top level where you now get tonnes of direct shortcuts all in one place (and so looks like a big mess), or in their own vendor specific folder on the startmenu (which is difficult to find or remember for apps you've rarely opened). I'd rather see my installed apps catergorised by the terminology I use to describe those apps. i.e. FireFox, Opera and IE should all be stored together under a 'web browser' folder, they shouldn't be stored seperately. You can already sort your startmenu manually today to be like this, but you'll have to re-do that whenever you install anything. It'd be nice if it was like this for me.

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Grand Master

Jan Veteran

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I'd like Windows 8 to completely change all it's old dialogs to updated ones. Also when you click a button sometimes it has a checkered black border around it, remove it. Also take advantage of current hardware and future hardware.

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Proficient

deactivated_

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Ah yes... proper multi-monitor support would be on my list.

Been running 2 monitors since XP, and 3 since Vista. I've never had an issue with multi-monitor support. Just curious, what doesn't work for you? It's flawless for me.

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Grand Master

-KJ

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- Make the interface prettier. Currently, if I bring the padding/border down, the corners get really rough and crusty. The start orb also looks rubbish in its current position (seems like an afterthought)... edges too close to taskbar boundary.

- Use the conforming glow found around the titlebar text of MS Word and such in other areas like Explorer. No need to have different text glow implementations throughout -- stick with one throughout (yeah, OCD).

- Just for the sake of laziness, be able to calculate simple equations through the Start Menu searchbox. For instance, if I type 3952/30 into the Start menu searchbox, I would like to see the answer to that problem as the result.

- Smarter transparency, especially for type. The titlebar text will automatically adjust in color/glow for best readability when taking into account the dominant color behind the text area.

Really, these feature requests are not really important at all, but I believe that every little detail -- every little improvment -- counts in the long run and will bring together an exceptional experience when packaged together.

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y_notm

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I'd like to be able to shutdown apps where rather then closing their memory is just written to disk and stored. When I reopen the app it comes back in the same exact state as when I closed it.

I'd then like that to be able to group those apps together. So if I'm doing web development I can click on one icon and it'll automatically open FileZilla, FireFox, NetBeans, Eclipse and some explorer windows of my work folders all still setup how I used them last.

Windows 7 does this, to an extent, already. If you install updates and Windows auto-reboots, the next time you login your programs will be restored to the state they were when the shutdown occurred.

I think this is the "FreezeDry" technology that debuted (?) in Windows Vista (though TBH I never saw it happen until I installed 7 so I'm not sure it made the cut for Vista)

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Neowinian

sharilewis

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Yes, the theming is atrocious. But WB does the trick nicely, so for me that's backburner. What i'd like to see is a complete revamp of the explorer. I'd like it to have much more customization options. I'm using Directory Opus now which is good but it lacks full explorer integration and it's buttugly.

What severely lacks is a way to select groups of files and do stuff to them, still have to resort to the cmdline to do complex file operations. Like 'ren f??bar*.mess *.good' or something like that.

Yuasa Batteries

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StudioFortress

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Windows 7 does this, to an extent, already. If you install updates and Windows auto-reboots, the next time you login your programs will be restored to the state they were when the shutdown occurred.

I think this is the "FreezeDry" technology that debuted (?) in Windows Vista (though TBH I never saw it happen until I installed 7 so I'm not sure it made the cut for Vista)

I don't want to just keep state when it reboots. I want to be able to set it to keep state on an app by app basis, on demand.

I've heard Windows 7 can install patches (or some patches) which require a reboot of the system, when it sleeps (which is kidna cool). So you can avoid the whole reboot and just never properly shut it down. I presume it must an extension of this Freeze Dry technology.

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LightShadow

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I'd like to be able to shutdown apps where rather then closing their memory is just written to disk and stored. When I reopen the app it comes back in the same exact state as when I closed it.

I'd then like that to be able to group those apps together. So if I'm doing web development I can click on one icon and it'll automatically open FileZilla, FireFox, NetBeans, Eclipse and some explorer windows of my work folders all still setup how I used them last.

If Windows 8 is anything like the Copenhagen concept video then we may see it. The video showed grouping files and apps together to a single icon on the Desktop. And they open as a group in the Taskbar/SuperBar/New Name for Windows 8

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