MicroTechXP

I am a Windows XP user and I have tried Windows Vista on my computer and I can’t say I did not like it, but I can’t say I loved it. My experience was not that great because of horrible drivers  from nVidia (you make great cards but not drivers) and because my PC is older than 3 years. Yes I know, Vista was meant for a new computer and not for an old one with a Pentium 4 in it. Well I tried it and it ran smoothly until I wanted to play games or run multi-media applications.

After my experience with Vista I decided to revert back to Windows XP and wait until I get the new Intel Nehalem architecture latter this year and go back to Vista (hopefully Vista drivers from nVidia are much better). The experience showed me something though, it showed me what Vista needed and what it needed to improve upon. So I have made a list 7 things that I think that Windows 7 should have that will make Windows 7 a better operating system.

1. Virtual Desktop.

The reason for demanding/wanting it is simple, In OS X 10.5 there is a feature called ’spaces’, which is basically a Virtual Desktop feature. It would be nice and great to have different desktops in which I can run different applications at the same time, but on different “spaces”. You can assign your favorite Internet browser to one Virtual Desktop, Messenger to another, and so on.

2. Folder Options.

Windows 7 should not be like Windows XP or Vista where it organizes the folder to the way it pleases. If I am viewing a folder in which it has movie or picture files it should not automatically as thumbnails, they should be put into a list and if I want them to be thumbnails I will make them into thumbnails.

3. Less Boot Times.

Microsoft should take a page from Apple and see how they are making boot times so little. Little Boot times mean the ability to get to do what you want to do on the computer faster, equaling to more productivity time (however you choose to spend it…).

4. Get Rid Of The Registry and Get An Overhaul Of The UI System.

They can do what Apple did and get rid of their current kernel and and use some variant of Unix as the base. This would speed things up hugely, improve security and stability, and get more out of hardware out there right now. Of course there will be compatibility issues with legacy hardware, but if we can get more from a re-vamp in the core of the OS, then developers can do their job by writing new and good drivers *cough* nVidia *cough* for the new kernel we would not have a lot of issues.

The User Interface in Windows Vista was not consistent and we need something consistent in the next version of Windows. A total overhaul of the User Interface system is needed, something that is consistent, and is simple but elegant. The UI in Windows Vista was good, but they need to remove all the busy things that are just in the way and distractive. By keeping it simple, users will stay productive and on task and they will be more likely to appreciate the way things are run.

5. Tweak the UAC.

Although I did not use the UAC a lot when I was using Windows Vista I did find it to be useful when people don’t know what they are doing and are clicking on random things. Advanced users on the other hand would just find it annoying and would just turn it off, demeaning the point of the UAC. So Microsoft should tweak the UAC to be more for both kinds of users. Have an option for users that know what they are doing to dial down the annoyances of the UAC to a minimum that bad things would not happen behind the scenes.

6. Get a Performance Boost.

With processors and memory getting more smarter and productive for our uses, should they not be actually used to their full ability. Windows Vista and XP can not fully take in and use what the new multi-core processors can do and provide us with. So why not make Windows 7 to offer performance boosts and for Windows 7 to fully initialize the full capabilities of multi-core processors and DDR3 memory.

7. Windows Update, Updates All Applications.

Windows Update should be more of a system-wide update center than just for Windows/Microsoft Updates. There’s no need for every company to have to invent its own automatic updater for every application. There should be an ability for developers to register their applications with the updater for Windows, and when it goes to check for updates, it query all of the registered applications update servers, and offer the updates for 3rd party software in a big list for the user to chose from.

These are the 7 features that I want to have for Windows 7, but there are more features that Windows 7 needs to be awesome. In this article I used nVidia as an example of bad drivers, I just would like to point out that they were not the only ones with horrible drivers, so don’t feel safe. I will soon have another article that will be focusing more on a list of features that I want, so expect that soon!

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I had writing what I want in Windows 7. Please post your opinion and what you think should be in Windows 7 below in the comments!