What Do You Want from Windows 8?

how about less clicks to do something instead of more clicks...to share a folder in xp it takes exactly 4 clicks, same thing on a win vista/7 pc is 8-9 clicks! (not using homegroups bc of a mixed environment)

really i hate how things are buried in context menus. the amount of mouse clicks has nearly doubled for just about everything important in the newer versions of windows. for someone who regularly does the same repetitive tasks day after day, moving to a win7 box can greatly impact work throughput in a negative manner.

and how about fixing windows explorer...i hate how if you have a folder with lots of files in it there is no white space to drag a new file to because any time you mouse over a file the whole line for that file is selected. you have to drag to the location bar at the top. so the actual area where you can successfully complete a drag and drop action has been shrunken down to minuscule proportions. i honestly don't know how ths one made it through testing....it is such a pain in the ass when trying to organize a ton of files.

that's it for now...i am sure i can think of some other things though.
 
Hope the next version of IE will not try to force you to use "Bing", and allow the use of what ever search engine you want. If so, I might give up FireFox, and try IE again.
Not forcing "Live" products on us would be good too, but not much hope of that? Every time I boot up Win 7, I have to "Decline" using "live", so it won't install. No way to make it just "Go Away", and leave me in Peace?
 
Paul Ed said:
Hope the next version of IE will not try to force you to use "Bing", and allow the use of what ever search engine you want. If so, I might give up FireFox, and try IE again.
Not forcing "Live" products on us would be good too, but not much hope of that? Every time I boot up Win 7, I have to "Decline" using "live", so it won't install. No way to make it just "Go Away", and leave me in Peace?
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IE 7, 8 and 9 had/have a choice of search engines at the set up or on the first run. If you have 7 or 8 right click the search bar and change the default search engine. On 9 you just click the drop down and change the search provider. I've always had google, never used bing.

Live products are an optional install, it only comes up on windows update or if you download it. Dont download it and uncheck it from the updates, or right click and chose "hide update".
 
adonn78 said:
How about they get rid of the registry.
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You could use windows 3.1 that didn't have a registry :D It just had all these random files with settings in, like other OSs have. Though it could have improvements in some ways, like stricter writing privilegdes, I don't see the problem. It's a single go to place for loads of different issues rather than random files in random places. If I have an issue with a program I can search the registry for editables, rather than search 3TBs of HDDs for random 1kb files. Secondly you'd lose backwards compatibility with every other pre windows 8 program/game/whatever. Programs written to not use it would be fine.
 
DirectX 12 support. We need to keep Futuremark in business so we can estimate how many hundreds of FPS we'll be able to play our console ports at in DirectX 9.0C.
 
DeathPrincess said:
It just had all these random files with settings in, like other OSs have.
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How are property lists "random"?

DeathPrincess said:
I can search the registry for editables, rather than search 3TBs of HDDs for random 1kb files.
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Why would you search 3 TB of hard disks? Microsoft could make it mandatory that installed executables write configuration data into their own folder (and enforce a standard data scheme). You'd then be searching indexed files in a very limited number of locations. Again, you make the mistake of assuming that everything would be "random" — it wouldn't have to be. It's not like the only alternative to the registry is absolute chaos.
 
No registry would still break a great deal of software. To maintain compatibility with many programs written as recently as yesterday they would need to emulate a registry.
If they have to do that, why not just keep the registry? Individual property lists, would have been the correct way to go, when Win95 launched, but they did not go that way. It would be difficult for them to abandon the registry at this point. And if they were to drop it for Win 8, the crying we heard over Vista would sound like a whimper in comparison to the rolling around on the floor screaming bloody murder we would hear.

It would be nice if they were to start fazing it out though. Add property lists, and encourage their use. More strongly lock down the registry for Win9 to further encourage fazing it out. Maybe by Win 10 or 11 they could drop the registry.
 
Hels said:
Instant boot, it's about friggin time :( Also 64bit exclusive.
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One of the things I miss the most after giving up on the Amiga in 1997.. With a modern (1GB) hard drive, it booted more or less instantly..
 
Why would you search 3 TB of hard disks? Microsoft could make it mandatory that installed executables write configuration data into their own folder (and enforce a standard data scheme). You'd then be searching indexed files in a very limited number of locations. Again, you make the mistake of assuming that everything would be "random" — it wouldn't have to be. It's not like the only alternative to the registry is absolute chaos.
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Apps running as non-admin don't have privledges to write in "their own folder". And Windows can't enforce where apps read/write from - as long as the user the app is running as has permissions to read/write from that location, the app can read/write there.
 
I want the default picture viewer to play animated gifs, like in Windows XP.

I'd also like the Windows XP start menu back, and Windows XP folder, control panel, and control panel apps layouts back.

Screw it, just make Windows XP 2 - you'll sell more OS' anyway
 
PimpUigi said:
I want the default picture viewer to play animated gifs, like in Windows XP.

I'd also like the Windows XP start menu back, and Windows XP folder, control panel, and control panel apps layouts back.

Screw it, just make Windows XP 2 - you'll sell more OS' anyway
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yeah that is annoying as fuck

don't know why people are bitching about the registry. yeah it sucks but is required to maintain backwards compatibility
 
MrWizard6600 said:
Don’t have to ask if your a Linux geek, but I've got one question: having just started really getting into a shell scripting language (and having ls'd PowerShell once or twice), what makes PowerShell absurd?
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Besides only carrying an incomplete set of POSIX tools (Why not go the whole 9 yards? Lots of people rely on grep, for example.), being a little semantically & perhaps syntactically contrived, and offering object-oriented shell scripting (really wtf), Powershell's not that bad. Certainly better than batch scripting!

MrWizard6600 said:
Aside from the file system stuff, do you think we'll ever see a bash proper on windows?
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We might already have it with Windows Services for UNIX. I don't know; personally I just use my trusty MSYS/Cygwin.

Derangel said:
Indeed, but he does bring up a point. I've seen people do that. Disable everything in the OS and then bitch. When asked why they don't enable the new things you never get sane answers. Always whatever bullshit they have chosen to believe.
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Hm, but what like?
 
I can't really give a technical opinion of Windows 7. Neither the customers I support nor the company I work for has started to upgrade to it yet, so I really haven't had to work on it. However I use it at home and I love it. Why do we need Windows 8? There is really nothing wrong with Win7 as far as I can see.
 
Somebody please correct me, but I remember reading something, somewhere that Windows will not work on a PC without a PCI bus due to a lot of legacy coding. If that is the case, I think they should drop support for all legacy interfaces. I wouldn't mind if they evven dropped BIOS support and limited it to UEFI. They would of course need to continue Windows 7 support indefinitely, but maybe we could see more progress.

In terms of features, I would like to see this (some already mentioned):
1. Actual multi-monitor support
2. Native blu-ray play back with full Dolby and DTS decoders.
3. Merge Windows Media Player and Zune software into one multi-function application.
4. Deep-color suppot.
5. WinFS
6. Actual support for color space of 16 - 235 while passing BtB and "WtW" information to an HDTV. This may be the fault of Nvidia and ATI, but if so then Microsoft needs to step in.
7. In the task manager, add something that lists CPU temperatures. Another tap showing GPU utilization and temperatures would be sweet as well.
8. Only 64-bit version sold. Completely remove 32-bit IE, WMP, etc. Still offer WoW for running 32-bit apps. Also, keep everything in one Program Files folder instead of splitting into the x86 folder. They could still do separate folders if they wish, but hide it from me with symbolic links.

Things i do not want:
1. Facebook, Twitter, etc
2. Cloud / distributed computing or storage of any type
3. Significantly redisigned interface. While a new GUI from Windows 2000 to XP to Vista to 7 isn't a big deal for me, re-learning is very hard for many people 40 and over. Leave the interface alone because I am tired of getting phone calls from family members that can't find a certain feature.
 
jamesrb said:
Somebody please correct me, but I remember reading something, somewhere that Windows will not work on a PC without a PCI bus due to a lot of legacy coding. If that is the case, I think they should drop support for all legacy interfaces. I wouldn't mind if they evven dropped BIOS support and limited it to UEFI. They would of course need to continue Windows 7 support indefinitely, but maybe we could see more progress.

In terms of features, I would like to see this (some already mentioned):
1. Actual multi-monitor support
2. Native blu-ray play back with full Dolby and DTS decoders.
3. Merge Windows Media Player and Zune software into one multi-function application.
4. Deep-color suppot.
5. WinFS
6. Actual support for color space of 16 - 235 while passing BtB and "WtW" information to an HDTV. This may be the fault of Nvidia and ATI, but if so then Microsoft needs to step in.
7. In the task manager, add something that lists CPU temperatures. Another tap showing GPU utilization and temperatures would be sweet as well.
8. Only 64-bit version sold. Completely remove 32-bit IE, WMP, etc. Still offer WoW for running 32-bit apps. Also, keep everything in one Program Files folder instead of splitting into the x86 folder. They could still do separate folders if they wish, but hide it from me with symbolic links.

Things i do not want:
1. Facebook, Twitter, etc
2. Cloud / distributed computing or storage of any type
3. Significantly redisigned interface. While a new GUI from Windows 2000 to XP to Vista to 7 isn't a big deal for me, re-learning is very hard for many people 40 and over. Leave the interface alone because I am tired of getting phone calls from family members that can't find a certain feature.
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That's a damn good list.

One thing about the UI though is a better organized settings and control panel, especially for default programs. It's hard to say how exactly I'd like it accomplished since every OS has fiddled with this and no one's gotten it just right.

Also I'd like to reiterate better power efficiency. When you put Win7 on a MBP and it lasts a little more than half the time it would on OSX... something's wrong.
 
phide said:
How are property lists "random"?
Why would you search 3 TB of hard disks? Microsoft could make it mandatory that installed executables write configuration data into their own folder (and enforce a standard data scheme). You'd then be searching indexed files in a very limited number of locations. Again, you make the mistake of assuming that everything would be "random" — it wouldn't have to be. It's not like the only alternative to the registry is absolute chaos.
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Why not just put all of those files in a single place, called a registry. Then just improve it. There are programs now with no registry entries, but they run no differently from what I can tell. There is hardly a performace benifit/deficit from using a registry, and it keeps everything in one place. It would probably make things like windows restore more complex. There must be reasons why it hasn't been replaced even with ample oppotunity.
 
Neurofreeze said:
to reiterate better power efficiency. When you put Win7 on a MBP and it lasts a little more than half the time it would on OSX... something's wrong.
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And that something is called "Apple writes awful drivers". Seriously, they managed to write a USB driver so awful that it would bluescreen systems when you installed iTunes. In fact, just running iTunes (or Quicktime) on Windows should be enough to convince you that Apple either has never hired a competent Windows programmer or is willfully incompetent at it. For your daily conspiracy theory, they have lot to gain from writing awful drivers since it makes Windows look bad to people like you.
 
Krieger91 said:
An even better way of integrating gaming. A mode that turns off everything but the essentials needed for gaming.
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I havent felt the need to stop background processes while gaming since building my new rig. A quad core, 6GB or more of ram allows for god only knows how much multitasking. I virus scan, run 50 firefox tabs, 8 of which with SC2 replays loading on youtube, and play Games all without even a hitch. I understand what your post is describing, but I think we have moved beyond that already with todays hardware.
 
loki7 said:
I disable a ton of unnecessary services each reformat on my OEM Windows 7, and I'm perfectly happy. Who are these mysterious people with enough know how to optimize their Windows 7 by disabling services, yet then complain about it? Anyone complaining about Windows 7 probably bought a pre-built Dell with tons of pre-installed crapware slowing down the OS. I don't know any PC builders disappointed with Windows 7.
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ChairmanMiau said:
Pretty severe case of fanboyism you've got there.
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It was meant to be funny. But seriously, I've seen a few people like that. It actually happened more with Vista than 7: the first thing people did after installing was disable Superfetch (because it "hogged RAM"), disable indexing (because it "thrashed the disk"), and disable UAC (because it was "annoying"). Then they'd ask, what makes this OS any faster, more convenient, or more secure than XP?
 
Also, before asking MS to spend time "streamlining" Windows, watch your PC's resources over the next few weeks. Does your disk usage ever go above 25%? Does your RAM ever get more than half full? Are you ever using more than 70% of every core at once?

Modern PCs have a ridiculous amount of unused resources, to the point that installing everything (on the off-chance it might get used someday) is ultimately more convenient than only installing what you need, when you need it. The time you spend disabling those services with every reformat is probably greater than the time not running them will save you over the entire life of the PC.
 
Arainach said:
Apps running as non-admin don't have privledges to write in "their own folder".
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And this restriction could be modified in Windows 8. Remember that we are not talking about Windows 7 but Windows 8.

DeathPrincess said:
Why not just put all of those files in a single place, called a registry. Then just improve it.
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Improvements would be acceptable. Microsoft, however, has not made them.
 
I still have a few issues with large file transfers although that may be specific to my hardware. More generally I liked how in Vista I could output to two different audio devices simultaneously. Made it easy for the gf to watch tv on the second screen (an HDTV) while I gamed on the primary screen with mah headphones.
 
phide said:
Improvements would be acceptable. Microsoft, however, has not made them.
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But a large part of the problems that some people have from the system is certain programs misuse of it (i'm staring at you EA). What they should do is have stricter guidlines about how the registry can be used and a more formalized approach to enable rubbish collection of non complying/alien data or something. Youd need a legacy switch for older programs to enable compatibility, but newer programs would be forced to use a formal ordered structure with more direct links to the program (to enable rubbish collection automatically at certain points if the ink is severed) with stricter write previlege levels or something (to avoid tampering/misuse you could have standard applications control themselves at level 3, behind the scenes software at 2 and OS junk at 1 or something. I know bad applications could just use the legacy mode, but you could set a "allow legacy mode" user confirmation or something. Mainly to help set a start point from which to phase out the non unified method, I don't know, i've never had a registry problem apart from where EA are involved somehow). Gah I dont know. I'm going to eat this muffin and be happy.
 
phide said:
- Get rid of the registry
- Implement application bundles
- Multi-desktop
- Built-in virtualization client
- Get rid of the fucking registry
- Implement a "legacy" Start menu option
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I have been wishing that Microsoft get rid off the Registry for many years. It seems to me that the registry is the source of many problem. Missing, corrupted, and orphan keys are very common with misbehaving apps.
 
There have been improvements to the robustness and stability of the registry. Bad idea or not, it can't go away as it's simply to widely used. I think more is being made of registry problems than there really is, I simply don't see registry problems that much these days.
 
I want it to cost $29.99 like OS X and a Family Pack with 5 licenses for $49.00, like Apple does it.
 
2 consumer versions: home and professional, thats IT!!!!!
only 64-bit
pervasive sandboxing/virtualization for all apps (according to the headlines this is going to happen!! :))
multiple desktops
 
BladeVenom said:
I want it to cost $29.99 like OS X and a Family Pack with 5 licenses for $49.00, like Apple does it.
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MS doesn't make 200% profit off every PC sold like Apple does with theirs. They can afford to offer the OS for next to nothing.
 
winfs
metroui like interface for the os
other than that, keep working on that instant on thing you guys were talking about
50 gig per user skydrive account
 
Dekoth-E- said:
The main thing I want to see Win8 do is quit supporting 32 bit only. I am sorry but 64 bit has been out long enough it is time to cut the umbilical. Nearly all CPU's being produced are 64 bit and any that aren't need to be EOLed. We are never going to move forward if we keep hanging on to legacy crap. Simply put, make Windows 8 specifically for the next generation of computers. Windows 7 is more then enough to carry most current and older hardware well beyond their EOL. A line needs to be drawn.
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Agreed!
 
To all the people asking for WinFS: You do realize that you've already gotten it, right? Vista's Indexing service and file-system metadata support contained the majority of what was ever supposed to be in "WinFS". Win7's Libraries feature added the rest. WinFS was never supposed to be a new file system.
 
i'd also like to be able to mount drives into directories prior to installing windows like linux lets you do. that way i can have a small ssd as the boot drive and have my program files, and user directories in a separate hard drive...that would be awesome
 
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