Windows 8 Wish List

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]amigafan[/nom]More and more I stumble upon such consumer-oriented articles here on Tom's which I don't welcome since I always regarded Tom's to be oriented towards enthusiasts and people who know their stuff. I don't like this trend and I hope Tom's won't become just another Engadget or something like Gizmodo.With that said, why does the author promote "user stupidification" agenda? For example;1) why would Windows have to store documents from Google Docs in my local My Documents folder? If I create something on the cloud that's where it should be until I download it (where I want to), not scattered around *automatically* god knows where. It's like replacing folder/directory paradigm in the OS with "search bar". People should be organized, not expecting for their files to magically appear where they randomly need it.2) if code signing gets enforced, there couldn't be any free programs (from individuals at least) and hobby programmers would be screwed: what if I create some super useful program and I can't distribute it on the net to those who need it (and who trust me)? We would be confined to running capitalistically created software only (similar to Apple AppStore). For me, it's just another nail in the coffin of the liberty. They do it all to help the "layman" people out of the trouble with the computers, but what about rest of us? It's not fair to limit us enthusiasts by designing the systems for "layman" which becomes trend nowadays.[/citation]

Which "Tom's" are you referring to? Tom's Hardware will always be a place for enthusiasts. Tom's Guide (this site) is generally aimed at consumers. I'd love to get in to the specifics of the Tom's Guide audience with you, if you are interested, but if you aren't--you can always stick with Tom's Hardware.

Thanks,
Rachel Rosmarin
Editor, Tom's Guide

 

[Guest]

Great article.

Very few have given it this much thought in this much detail.

http/www.windows8update.com/2011/03/20/toms-guide-windows-8-wishlist/

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you could wait for Windows 8 and hope Ballmer delivers some of these without simultaneously finding a *new* way to shit in your mouth. Or you could just get a Mac and have half of them already...

 

[josejones]

Maybe somebody else already brought this up ( I hope so) but I wish Micro Soft would stop adding so many processes at start up/idle. STOP DOING THAT M$! They should only include the very minimum processes necessary at start up/idle.

One thing I liked about XP was that I could delete unwanted background processes, which I could get down to 14. Windows 7 seems like it has 90 processes running whether you need them or not and you can't get rid of them to conserve system resources. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Fix it & never do that again M$.

The only processes I want running are the ones I'm using - get it M$? They should come on when I need them & go away when they're no longer being used.

 

[Guest]

Wow, I thought I was on Toms Hardware too, Never seen Toms Guide before... I was sucked in by some DIY/Upgrade article. Your holding users by having original content, nice work on that.



I'm running Windows 7 on a Toshiba Laptop... Original software was Windows Vista and I upgraded to Ultimate, everything was fine for a few weeks then the classic Micro$oft problems started and not limited too the following:

*Drivers - Updates/Find new ones, what a huge waste of time on the user side to update. M$ should help the end user find correct Vendor/Model and point to the d/load page.

*Registry - Gotta be a better interface, nightmare tracking.

*Unistall Apps - If I want bloatware/crapware out then M$ should do a better way to clean the OS out and keep the system fast.

*Recovery - Restore could have better options, If restore push everything back 24 hours I lose bookmarks/history/logs.


Here are somethings that I have found useful:

MyNotesKeeper v 1.99 - Copy/Paste/Screen capture grafix and text - Awesome for ripping anything on the screen.

I run screen capture (Capture Wiz 4 and Stealth Keylogger in txt mode) - when doing changes to the OS or change settings in programs like IRC, Newsgroup, FTP, Updates to my Domain, everything... I use it with a keylogger because I multitask and multiforget.

I started to use Sandbox - I like the idea of testing before install. Said that VMware/Virtualbox and the others are nice but this past month I fall back on a excellent resource Hirens Boot CD, Ultimate Boot CD, Falcon, Hawk, Bart, Winbuilder, UB4W, Trinity, FIBER0PTIC M0NSTER Upgrade & Update Multi-Boot system is my current favorite. Booting into LINUX from CD/DVD or USB then running Windows XP or Win 7 via Image or ISO helps me keep everything tight and virus free.
Right now I booted thru HIREN 13.6 (DVD) into Linux-RIP (Recovery Is Possible). Load time is 10 seconds +/-... then I use QEMU to load Windows XP.

I like OPERA browser because its so easy to add/remove toolbars/options. Foxfire has the best tools for webmasters/programmers. Chrome is my ultra clean browser that I use for speed. Safari I use less and less each month.

FlashFTP - The option to transfer data from SERVER to SERVER vs SERVER to LOCAL to SERVER is just a huge time saver and an absolute savings on bandwidth.

uTorrent - I cant say enuf about this torrent program, Clean, Fast, Easy

Email - Ummm Emails dead, In the past - Eudora was my favorite.

MIRC - running 24/7 I log everything, (PRE information).

7z - For zip/rar/compression

eXPlore 9.70 - File manger overlay, I like Icons for folders, Color the Trees and Dirs that I use most. The view/preview files in multi mode (image/video/text/other) is useful. I d/load a ton of stuff daily and the rename/copy/search is nice.

TERACOPY - Made file transfers 6 or 8 times faster across my local setups, Flawless and a nice interface to verify when over 255 chars/misc errors.

OPERA for RSS FEEDS - Really nice job on making them readable with a way to auto pull links/urls. I read RSS feeds that have links to files located on Servers and P2P(Torrent).

Multimedia - GOM Player and VLC Player - Free and Fast. Codec are another thing that could be listed in the Driver/Registry nightmare to update section.
I have from 7 to 12 computers running on my home network, all can access each other and share files. I use it for a DVR ie:watching movies/tv. I started to download programs vs. watching live tv because of the "TIVO EFFECT". What a waste of time watching commercials, a 1 hour realtime show can be watched in 40 minutes +/- Skipping Ad and Intro's. Now we just need more quality programs like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Pulp Fiction.

MyNotesKeeper - This really is the base of all my data, I save everything in here. Password protected I dont worry about my business or personal information getting out. I color code everything and I try to add labels however sometimes I goto google, load 100 results, select 40 to 60 sites and load them all in background tabs then do my looking for 'content/whatever' adding bookmarks and screen shots.

I have 142 pages open now in 3 different browsers - yes, I know... bad... thus, I multitask and multiforget as noted above.

Running Linux and then Windows in a shell has cut down on my BSOD's I would like to see Win 8 just handle programs better, If an application will crash why must everything running crash with it... I like each in QEMU so one will not effect the other on the OS level.

Intergrate the Cell phone/Smart phone/Business or Work PC/Social Networks/FILE SHARE(Warez)/Calendar of Events/ToDo lists/Contact info(phone-email-address-notes)/Saved personal/Submitted Public information/Multimedia or Content in an easy to locate and use format. Tweak it all with some apps that will save time or money. IE: Fetch information that want automatic: (RSS Feeds/IRC/Web) Newest Movie releases, Local weather, Cheapest gas price in my local area, News, Sports Scores whatever all with detailed priorty settings so the user gets what they want pre sorted and filtered saving time and resources. All auto updated across all of your hardware at multiple locations in real time.

Save time: I started out on the Commodore 64 with a 300 baud modem when it would take a week to download a movie... Today we fill 2TB drives... 10 years everything will be optical storage(fiberoptic/light) and in the cloud?

We lease Windows 7 if I understand things correct or Lease a KEY and Micro$oft owns the OS. I agree with other posts - $179.00 for an Upgrade is expensive. I also think that all versions of Windows should be Ultimate, Micro$oft offering starter versions with no network support to novice users is just wrong on so many levels.

Just my 2 cents on what I use the PC for and the programs listed are the best free tools that I have run across. I hope my list above helps you, donate to the programmers if you like the work and support them via fourms and giving feedback. Enjoy. 42

 

[Guest]

I like open source LINUX more and more each year... with a text editor named "beaver" you can tell that quality matters.

 

[fshaharyar]

In Windows 7 there is a feature to encrypt a drive BitLocker. Once I did that but one of my friend was able to format the drive when he was not able to open it. So in Windows 8 after encrypting it won't be erased or formatted.

Another feature should be Tuning up of the system when the system slows down. it should automatically find the problem and tune itself up.

 

[billyfb]

I think to some degree all wishes are valid and will always subsist, because in the end it all comes to speed and power. If something isn't instant then it's still slow, and if can't control something, because there isn't an option or something is happening and I don't now what exactly and even worst have no way so control it, then I lose power. All this things cost us all users time, lots of it and time is money.
I know most of it is the fault of the application software developers (being one, I know) and not Microsoft specific, but despite their recent very good work with the more recent Windows (but ever since Windows 2000), .Net Framework, IE9, DirectX, etc... all going great, but as always there's still lots to be done.
On that and despite the more recent evolutions and software and hardware would like to expose something, that as a developer and user I still long for when computers were a lot less powerful in hardware a software wise but for a user some times I think I lost something, here's something from old and still width things we now don't have ...
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_1PjOEFPTk
It's that old and still amazing, and in a lot of thinks surpasses what we have now, just the boot time ... I still remember when I had an Amiga 4000 with a 60MHz CPU, 16Mb RAM and I knew what were all the files in the 80Mb HDD, and always new what the computer was doing.
As a user I was much more easily able to max the older system and felt I had much more access/status over the resources and still maintain the control of the system, the power leap in hardware and software didn't maintain the same rate as usability, simplicity and easiness, in that we clearly lost from the old.

 

[Guest]

There should be only one view for system settings. ONE.

None of the recommendations in this article strike me as important. Rather they are the sorts of things a lazy user would want and are reactive rather than revolutionary, eg they would make more sense in a patch. No way I'd pay for them.

 

[wiyosaya]

Signed code does not prevent a hacker from buying or forging a cert, writing a completely malicious program, signing it, then fishing for you to install it. IMHO, signed code is just a feel good measure that means nothing and makes money for certificate providers. Who certifies the certificate issuers? If the issuers were certified by some govt authority, it might make a cert more meaningful, however, as it stands, signed code guarantees nothing, IMHO.

 

[wiyosaya]

Hey, Number 4. Great. Just what we need:

"Windows has detected that the software that you paid big $$$ for is crap. You should uninstall that crap as soon as possible because you should trust M$ to know what you need to run on your computer. Not only that, you should let M$ run your computer for you. We will only charge you more $$$ to provide you with advice you don't need and run your computer for you."

Get real. 4 could be drastically abused. Have you not read the article on Tom's where spyware was deliberately put in IE, and you are actually thinking that we should trust M$ to tell us what software to run on our PC?? Come on!!!

If you want a faster computer, buy faster hardware. Extreme performance hardware is quite cheap these days, but if I ever get recommendations from M$ that the software I run it too slow, I will switch to wine - especially if I cannot disable it.

 

[wiyosaya]

Wow. I should have waited to comment until reading this article. I really can't believe I read something like this on Tom's.

Don't like flash updates? Disable them, it is not difficult.

Tired of reboots on update? Stop using your computer until the update is done. Really, you won't have the DTs!!!

Want your computer to boot instantly? Buy an SSD.

I feel like I just read an article written by a spoiled brat.

 

[virtualban]

@wiyosaya
IMO Flash updates are a pain. Because flash is so spread all over the web and I still want the latest flash, but I still hate the popup, and the computer should good at making my life easier by managing these little things away from my attention by the orders I give it.

I really would rather stop the update than stop using the computer, till I am ready for it. And the computer should really stop nagging me about the needed reboot. If it can stay on enough to popup me, it can stay on till I am done reading the last tab opened, including putting the computer to sleep or hibernate. I remember Kaspersky being a nice on on this, reminding me once of the need to restart after the update in a non-intrusive popup at the corner that would just fade away if not clicked, and if I did not want to reboot at that time, just adding a "R" to the icon and staying quiet doing it's best to protect my computer till I had the proper time to reboot.

So, it is wrong for a computer to start fast and bring up the rest of the services later gradually in the background? Some people would like the new OS to be worth the extra money, and what's worth for one is not worth for all. Some go for a SSD. Some present ideas of what could be improved to please them and what is perceived to be the public.

I got another idea to add to the wishlist. Let's get rid of the whole window based UI completely, let's revert to the fast executing command line. No more wasted resources on silly things.
^^ this is just to point out sarcastically the differences in wish between users of computer.

 

[Bolbi]

I think that only allowing Windows to run signed code would be too restrictive. Developers, while annoyed, could handle it, but it would be a headache to end users who aren't knowledgeable. Many people I help with computers don't update their programs and don't want to (due to a new interface or other changes). I always encourage them to update, but I do understand their concerns.
I think a better solution would be to run all unsigned programs in a sandbox, preventing them from doing any damage. That way, both malicious and not-malicious-but-out-of-date software can't harm the PC while still letting end users run whatever they want.

 

[Guest]

To the above comments: I like Windows 7. I am an average computer user who finds W7 very suited to my modest needs (i.e. news feeds, MS Word, etc.). I like to cruise expert sites like this one just to see what kind of brouhahas come up and how passionate some people get over an OS.

 

[darussiaman16]

This article is absolute blasphemy. I didn't even finish it. I am hating the fact that the author wrote this article, and I would like to show how strongly I hate some of these "ideas" and how much I hope that these suggestions DON'T get adopted. One responder said it best: this article basically supports a "user stupidification" agenda. #8 is blowing my mind. Open/save dialogs are "clunky"?? Organizing things by "what they are rather where they physically live" is "better" "for the rest of us"?? No! Get the eff outta here. I'm sure that would be a cool way of doing things *sometimes* and only if it's an alternative approach. But if that was forced upon us as the standard, I would completely bail and go straight to Linux.

#2 is also blowing my mind. I use so many little-known, third party programs, that probably most of my software is "unsigned". It would strangle and kill the free software model out there and the ingenuity and creativity that comes with it. It's also blowing my mind how ridiculously anti-freedom and tyrannical that model is. Seriously? Your own operating system is going to boss you around and forbid you to do what you want??

This author is ....... words fail me. Some curse words come to mind, but I better keep that to myself.

 

[darussiaman16]

Oops, I meant to say #9, not #8 in my above comment.

 

[Guest]

This library stuff is just another confusing addition to MS OS. I want to put folders (Directories) where I want them and have them contain the thiings I place there. And have tmem stay there until I choose to relocate them. Windows Explorer has been severely degraded.

Passing thoughts.

Woodhouse

 

[Guest]

quitely i like the interface of zune player, maybe some UI that have smoth fading and simple design like that, i would like to see it different, so leave the "nature" window, be fashioned

 

[Guest]

Thats cool but check out this article on The top 10 features that Windows 8 should offer businesses

http/www.windows8update.com/2011/03/28/the-top-10-features-that-windows-8-should-offer-businesses/