Comments on: Windows watch starts to point to 7

Speculation is mounting over what will be in the next version of Windows and when the update will take place.

[argraff]

I want...

...a IE browser that meets the standards guidelines. I want an OS that doesn't take ten minutes to boot into. I want an OS that I don't feel like saying "Ugh, you use that?" about. I have my doubts that MS can do any of those things however.

[Leria]

Ten minutes to boot?!

I hate to say this, but if you are having problems with Vista or XP even taking 10 minutes to boot up........ you have spyware or viruses on your system, or need to run a Disk Defragmenter like PerfectDisk8.

My Vista installation on my notebook takes about 45 seconds to start up and get to a log-in prompt, then about 3 minutes more to start everything...... and that extra start-up time I don't count as part of the boot itself.

[paulsecic]

You need Mac OSX

because my Imac boots up in 20 secs.

[gp2792]

IE8 is supposed to be compliant

Word is that IE8 passed the Acid2 test, something that Opera and Safari have done for years, but not firefox, yet. acid2 is just a test, not a standards board, but it is a good indication about the compliance of a browser's rendering capabilities.

[The_Decider]

How about

An OS that doesn't rely on an application to work?

That is the single most dumb decision MS ever made. And that is saying something!

[bob1xxxx]

Simple a OS that works and is worth the upgrade

Yep that it, I'm still run'n XP and based on the vista horror storys from friends, Im not upgrading vista till SP2 comes out making as funtional as XP

[gerrrg]

mixing up numbers and products.

This just means most of us are going to skip Vista altogether, then.

[inachu]

My wish list for Windows 7

I know redmond can do the following:
Make the code smaller than Windows XP.
Have opt in subscription cards like Warcraft.
Use the cards when needed.
Built in network diagnosis.
Use TCP-IP from XP SP1 and not SP2.
Yes stop messing with fundamental communication protocols!

XP games should be playable under Windows 7
Windows 7 should only support the newer advanced BIOS. I am tired of booting taking several minutes.
Uninstalling programs will not leave ghostly remains of removed program.
Windows 7 should incorporate latest version diskeeper (windows XP only had native version 3.)
Self defense(file protection should be enhanced)
Again no uninstaller program should be allowed in any temp folder or system or system32 folder! Keep that under local settings.

Make Windows 7 even more friendlier for skinning/theme modification. Free theme updates from windows update!

[fgsdfgdsfgdsfg]

i agree. somewhat

i agree that MS should:
Make the code smaller than Windows XP.
Have opt in subscription cards like Warcraft.
Use the cards when needed.
Built in network diagnosis.

However i don;t agree with:
Use TCP-IP from XP SP1 and not SP2.
the difference is the hard coded limit on "half open" TCP/IP connections.
that really hurts bit torrent downloads, which despite it's bad reputation for piracy, it has legit uses. Warcraft for example uses bit torrent to download game patches from other peers.

they should up the limit on half open connections, but not completely remove it.
i think changing it to 25 from 5 on xp home and 10 on pro would be a good idea. it is a bad idea to not limit this as XP sp1 did.

[The_Decider]

What about

Creating an OS that is secure out of the box and doesn't require you to ask permission to use it?

In short, a secure OS that stays out of your way.

[Jonathan]

Screw Windows 7...Focus on Vista!

MS doesn't need to emulate Apple in the product release cycle category. There is more then enough tweaking to do on Vista as it stands. Enough that 2010 should be the goal for Windows 7 not 2009.
That being said. . . .

-If MS wants to do anything they should outright ditch this activation bullcrap. I had such a time getting Vista transferred from my MacBook Pro to my new Tablet PC that it wasn't even funny. I ended up calling them up and spending 5 minutes explaining what I wanted to do. I shouldn't need to do this damn it!

- I really wish MS would either ditch the registry or compartmentalize it to the extent that I can drag an app to a backup drive and in the event of needed to do a system restore I can drag it back. The anti-Mac fans can ***** out OS X all they want, this is the single greatest feature about OS X. Backing up the apps directory and the library folder and then restoring them gets you back to a working system in minutes instead of hours on Windows. Sure you can drop bank on Norton Ghost or other similar apps but that costs money. At the end of the day this really starts to add up after a while.

- I wish MS would get USB support implemented in a fashion that doesn?t blow like a cat 5 hurricane. The lag between having a system, typically a laptop, come back from sleep and having devices that are USB implemented detected by the OS can be anywhere from annoying to outright unbearable. If anything this should be MS?s biggest focus on Windows 7.

-Oh and keep Windows from being allowed to pop above or below the task bar. My tablet PC has its taskbar on the top of the screen instead of the bottom. Windows routinely pop under the bar so I can?t grab them, move them or close them. Annoying is an understatement.

[The_Decider]

Where is the motivation to focus on Vista?

MS knows that the lemmings who rushed out and bought Vista are going to rush out and buy the next disaster.

They also know that it has next to no traction in business.

Then there is the little problem of OSX growing like never before at the expense of and because of Microsoft.

They stick with Vista and they lose. Maybe the next one won't be such a massive train wreck.

[KinetiK_SK8R]

Just fix XP

I would rather see MS fix any issues with XP. Make it leaner, faster, more reliable, more secure. Of course, that doesn't make them tons of money, but neither is Vista in this case. I am a major techie/geek/nerd and I love technology, but I for one am getting tired of them changing the playing field every three years. And I don't like their efforts to force Vista down the throats of businesses and consumers. I believe it would earn them some good PR to just admit that they screwed up with Vista. And I wish they would allow versions of Visual Studio to stick around long enough for me to get some experience with before changing things again. I don't mind change when it is needed or is a good thing, but change for the sake of change(and making money) is never good.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

MSFT Need No Steenking PR !

MSFT would take and sell your kidneys if it could make more money. It has the same PR sense as a reptile. No one at MSFT cares or appreciates that Vista is a reviled embarrassment. No one. The crapware ships. The money arrives. Someone calls with a complaint, they shouldn't expect anyone to pick up a phone. The game was over when MSFT locked up the boot loader. MSFT real game plan is to charge per cycle like electricity, monitoring usage through a modified MSFT Update system. All your files will be encrypted all the time (for security) and when the rates go up on usage fees, you have the choice of paying the ransom or losing access to your files forever. Have a nice day.

>I believe it would earn them some good PR to just >admit that they screwed up with Vista.

[abba221]

Windows 7

My WinXP PC died. Expediency forced me to buy a Vista system - that, and the fact that I got a fully configured HP laptop for $650 whose useful life should be three years.

I see little in Vista that recommends it. It am a 60-something professional who spend most of his day doing Internet search, e-mailing and using oductivity software, so all the Vista goodies are irrelevant to me. To me it is a resource hog that M$FT needed more than its customers did.

I want an OS that starts up instantly, does not require a firewall, anti-virus software, blah, blah blah and four gazillion bytes of apps I'll never use (I'll humor M$FT - put the bloat on a user disk, like many Office add ons, so the user can install it/them when they are needed. Better yet, make it accessible online.), and that shuts down in less time than an elephant's pregnancy.

My next purchase will be a Mac so I can escape Redmond's bloat.

[timber2005]

Your corn flakes must have been stirred

An elephants pregnancy (or term) is 22 months. Vista, starts up FASTER than XP in most cases with the same software installed (don't credit me on that, but I experience it on all three of my computers, and they ain't new) and THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT DOESN"T REQUIRE A FIREWALL OR ANTIVIRUS. EVEN BACKBONE ROUTERS HAVE AV'S now.

Sounds like what you need is a mac.
http://www.applegeeks.com/comics/viewcomic.php?issue=98

[preacherx]

Fantastic Move ....,

Micro$ofts fumble with Vista could prove quite big for Apple if they can make the play. Vista's upgrade will be to Mac for many; myself included. Enough's enough. For the fool(s) that comment Vista loads faster then XP; the FACTS speak differently.

[abba221]

PerfectDisk 8

Ah, just I want. The opportunity to spend more money to make my PC run properly.

Macs don't need to be defragged.

Why can't M$FT design a self-defragger or do something that obviates the need for another piece of bloatware? Or do they need to conserve cash so badly that they have to save their 20 year old DOS core?

[suyts]

They would,

but then all the "monopoly" cry-babies would start screaming again.

[preacherx]

EcoSystem

Windows isn't about computing, it's about creating revenue and jobs for Microsoft and tens of thousands of individuals and companies on a global scale. OK that's all fine and dandy, but if you want it to 'just work'; yes, get a Mac.

[JBSimmons]

M$FT auto-defragger exists on XP SP2

If you are running XP SP2, there IS an automatic disk defragger. I encountered it one day, not intentionally. I was editing and doing an autosave and up came the C:\ command prompt screen with the MS logo and some other company name beginning with the letter E and told me that I had something like 19 items with 38% fragment level. I minimized it and it automagically in the background defragged the disk, without stopping me from working, and closed when finished.

I had to do nothing to invoke it. True, it had to run in the MS-DOS core, and the auto-trigger surprised me. I had never encountered it before. If shows that MS still relies on it's 20 year old DOS interface, but doesn't everything in Windows? All you need to do is "dir c:\ /s /ah /as > e:\cdisk".
Use Notepad to scroll through e:\cdisk and you will see all the long DOS filenames with sometimes multiple extensions(except the LAST onem which you will NOT see graphically) that are identical to the filenames on whatever graphical interface you're using.

It shows that yes, there IS an auto-defrag in XP SP2. How they set the autodefrag thresholds for different size system drives, I don't know.

I've had this Compaq 2878CL laptop for 8 years, been through hell and back, 4 MSFT OS's and XP SP2 IE7 SP2 takes up only 14Gb on a 40Gb HD.

A COMPLETE backup compacts 14Gb of XP SP2 IE7 SP2 down to 3.2Gb on e:\ so I was surprised to find that NTFS is not THAT efficient, but heck of a lot better than FAT32, which happens to be the 250Gb WD USB 2.0 drive where I put all my personal stuff. (That gets backed up too, to a 2nd 250 Gb USB 2.0 drive). Tried reformatting WD USB 2.0 drives to NTFS and it won't let you. I guess that's part of the USB removable "hard drive" standards. Given enough time, we all learn something new that MSFT doesn't tell us.

[jtfan2004]

Wish List ...

Well... a smaller footprint would be nice (never happen).

An upgrade where the machine I bought the day before 7's release isn't obsolete would be nice.

Stick to one version, two at most. Instead of Home, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, how about Working, Working Pro.

Pick a naming format for heaven's sake. Is it going to be Windows 7 or are we going the way of the George Strait concert tour and have the Budweiser Presents Microsoft Windows Powered by IBM, Sponsored by General Motors, and Distributed by NBC Universal?

Pay more attention to what the consumer's want instead of what your programmers think would be 'neat' and 'spiffy'. I haven't used the Aeroglass interface yet.

Stop trying to re-invent the wheel with every 'upgrade'. Work new features in over time, instead of all at once. No wonder it takes so long between releases.

And now, for what everyone on here would wish for... me to shut up...LOL

[Penguinisto]

A wee wishlist:

Well, if it were up to me...

* an architecture that doesn't buckle under the weight of its feature-set. Bite the bullet and modify BSD UNIX to your needs if you can't do it on your own. It worked very well for Apple, after all.

* a user security model that looks less like a slathering of duct tape, and more like a real security model. Go study the *nix security model and concepts like AppArmor if you need an example or two.

* a browser that doesn't look, taste, and smell like some cheap imitation of Firefox.

* an OS that actually uses open standards like OpenGL and Java, without the half-baked, overloaded and proprietary alternatives such as DirectX and .NET.

* No DRM, please.

* make at least a half-arsed attempt to get rid of the cruft if you're not going to build it from scratch.

* deeper access and less opacity for the local admin guy and the programmers. If I want Ring0, I should get Ring0, or at least a real explanation as to why not.

* an OS config rig that doesn't rely on a crap single-file (and corruptible) "Registry" setup.

* a fully-documented API

* A chance to add or remove any deep-level system function or feature I want (see also Linux and "make config").

* document macro handling that isn't so broken that one can wreck the machine with it.

* Fully (not half-arsed) user-customizable UI modification for the desktop. For examples, see GNOME, KDE, and to make something for us high-end efficiency types, "Fluxbox"...

* the built-in ability to use open and industry-wide popular standards like NFS, SSH/SCP, stunnel, and etc.

* The ability to format a large new disk in something that isn't NTFS. While we're at it, an actual journaling filesystem would be nice - something like ext3 or Reiser.

* IPSEC ruleset configuration that doesn't suck (for once).

That should be sufficient for now. Do all that and it might be attractive.

/P

[trapper1964]

JUNK

Comercial versions don't need all the "entertainment" garbage that's included in VISTA's comercial version. Too much entertainment JUNK!

Also, Office 2007 was built for people with little (if any) memory. Rather than having various menus, there are visual options which are time comsuming wastes.

MicroSoft is attempting to entertain children vs. produce a decent "commercial use" product.

[scottthesculptor]

Just sell the rights to NT 5.0

Yep.
The last good OS out of Redmond.
Sell it to a company that isn't bent on being the police force for all computers.
NT 5.0 was the last professional Microsoft OS and technically the best built OS.
(though NT 4.0 was more stable and secure the addition of NTFS 5, "active directory" (aka Microsoft crippled LDAP), and fast workstation graphics was worth the trade-off)
NT 5.1 aka XP added a firewall, (because they'd rather do that than fix the holes) DRM (because all computer users are criminals), nonsensical blocks to NT 5.0 installs, a media player that takes over the whole OS, themes, three steps to do the same tasks that took one in 5.0, and a whole lotta crap that breaks without adding *anything* to the core of the OS.

Go back to making an OS that just runs programs.
Remember?
It'll be a lot harder to break.
Let other software companies pollute it with themes, playlists, bad browsers, customization to cripple it for the mentally retarded (aka increased security), etc.

XP sucks,
Vista is so bad that Apple tripled its market share.
Bodes well for "7" now doesn't it?

LINUX is the future unless Microsoft goes back to having a professional OS and a completely different OS for the mentally impaired masses.

[Andy kaufman]

Open source Alternative to NT 5.0 and NT 5.1

is ReactOS:
http://www.reactos.org/

When it is finished, it will be a Windows XP type OS that runs most XP compatible software. Keep a watch on it, in a few years it might reach beta testing stage.

[john3347]

mentally impaired masses????

I take offense to this description of the masses. I do, however often make reference to the phenomenon that you refer to as "mentally impaired". I think the designations of technically advantaged elite and the technically challenged masses is a better, and more accurate, description. When the technically advantaged group who, by nature, have to be the ones developing the software (and hardware) that us technically challenged masses use, realize that we are not mentally retarded, but just don't wish to make a career of how our computers work. Microsoft doesn't old their position in the software world because they produce the best software - FAR from it. They are where they are because they produce the least user-unfriendly software. (Admittedly, being perhaps the sharpest marketing group in the world doesn't hurt either.) Linux, and Mac, to a lesser extent has a much steeper learning curve than competing M$ products. When the open Source community get a grip on this concept, M$ will quickly become just another software company. Open Source community WAKE UP!!

[storrey]

ALBUM COVER ART - and ID3 tags!!!

Fix the damn media center so that it automatically associates ID3 tag cover art with Media Center. Make it work with ID3 tags in general.....

[dreamer77dd]

Just make it right

If they took there time and did not rush, they would not need a service pack to fix there problems. Make it fast and less code and flashy non sense stuff so other programes don't feel so slow. Windows is a power hog it should be less as it is not a programe that can do anything we buy programes for that. Windows should up scale to what performance your machine has. so if you have 8 gigs of ram it will use it if it is available. I do not need outlook or other programes that seam to come with windows that seam impossible to delete, i wish to have choice what ges on my computer.

[NRecob]

PLS DO FORMULATE ANOTHER PILE OF CRAPPE!

MILLIONS MORE WILL SWITCH TO MACS ;)

[whizkid454]

And the more that switch...

The more viruses you'll have to worry about.

;)

[rennylui]

No more new Windows.. thanks.

IMHO XP is still the best Windows-based OS so far. I don't think that there are any new features that our current generation needs. All we want is really stability, speed, and lower prices. Vista is just going to be like Win Millenium, forgotten and rejected by many.

[jdawgnoonan]

Real Competition

That way we will all win. Windows needs to lose market share to
force Microsoft to innovate. Vista was a mediocre release at best.
They need to optimize what they have if they plan to upgrade Vista.
There is absolutely no reason that it is such a resource hog.

[ethana2]

Are you willing

to be part of the market share that they lose?

..Have you tried Ubuntu Gutsy? I have. I did a dual boot system with Ubuntu and XP. Let me tell you, XP is collecting some serious dust. ..and you know everything Vista did wrong? We did it right.

From freedom came elegance. www.ubuntu.com

[StargateFan]

New Revolutionary Software Technology

How about that, can we get the PC platform which I believe has flat lined, moving again. Bring on the advanced technology.

COMPLETELY REWRITE WINDOWS!

I am a Microsoft fan and I still dream of this, when Windows will be completely scraped as it is now and a new OS will be written from the ground up. This means new architecture, new kernel, and new technology baked right inside, not sitting on top of an aging architecture.

[ewelch]

Lessons of OS X

The author has a very good point. Apple has done well to release
updates to OS X on average about every 18 months (with a
longer wait for Leopard and then an even longer delay because
of the iPhone.

Microsoft would do well to show the new features at least six
months ahead and build up some excitement from users so that
when they release Windows 7 it's as big a success as Leopard
was when it was released. 20 percent of the installed base of OS
X is already Leopard. What percentage is Vista?

[jpsalvesen]

Uh-oh!

What lack of clue!

Microsoft is perfectly free to do what Apple is doing:

Use open-source software, and contribute any patches made back to the project as required by the license. OSX ships with Apache, as in example.

Microsoft is just not .. uhm .. result-oriented and humble to do the same as Apple does.