Thread: Looking forward to Windows 8, what Microsoft misse

Part 1

Already talk about Windows 7 has moved forward to Windows 8, as Microsoft last month began hiring for posts within that division. With this in mind I thought that, from a usability standpoint, Iâ??d take a good in-depth look at Windows 7 and see what changes could have been implemented already and what we can perhaps look forward to in the future.

I want to start with Windows Explorer because this is essentially the same beast that we saw in Windows 98. Okay, so Microsoft overhauled the main interface with Vista by introducing the breadcrumb bar, but if you open an explorer window today in a basic installation of Windows 7, youâ??ll be very used to what youâ??ve seen for over ten years.

Why is this a bad thing? If we take a trip back to the good old-fashioned 20th century then weâ??ll see a time before the mass adoption of MP3 players, portable video players and digital cameras. The files we stored on our PCs were sparse and usually consisted only of office type documents and PDFs.

Now of course things are very different and we all have a plethora of diverse files on our PCs. For some reason however, and even though you can change the settings, the default explorer view is of mixed file types all sorted alphabetically. The option to change this to, for instance, my personal choice of grouped by file type, isnâ??t the easiest feature to find.

There are other omissions in the Windows 7 version of explorer too including the fact that weâ??re still seeing drive letters by default and compressed drives highlighted in blue when we really donâ??t need to any more.

Donâ??t get me wrong at this stage. I love Windows 7 and want it to be the best product it can be. Itâ??s just a shame though that while Microsoft overhaul great chunks of the user interface theyâ??re missing certain small usability issues that go along-side these. Iâ??ll write more about this in coming chapters.

These are mostly about appearance, and workflow:

1) WAY more customizable shell. The default windows shell is really stiff and limited...

1.1) It's a MUST to make every part/toolbar (Start button, quick launch, task list, clock etc.) of the bottom panel a different object, which you could move anywhere you want, delete, duplicate, etc by drag'n'drop when the bottom bar is unlocked.If the user wants to remove the start button, why not let him? If the user wants to have two start buttons on both sides of his bottom panel, why not let him? Freedom!

1.2) It's a MUST to make the start menu completely customizable by simply clicking on it with the right button and pressing "Customize" or something... For example, i would hold only these things there: "My Computer", "Games Folder", "Programs folder", "Control panel" and shut down. Currently the start menu is a completely big mess full of stuff people don't need. And that mess is not what people want to see.
And one more thing i was missing: A hell lot of other tweaks for windows. For example, I couldn't turn off pinning in the taskbar options, ... WHY? Every part of the OS should be tweakable. Even the right click menu on any item!


1.3) The abilitty to add more panels, even floating ones if the user wants to.

1.4) Way more flexible appearance changer. Right now we only have the Aero glass, and the classic. That's very limited. People should be able to use their own graphics for windows and the panels without no external apps, or hacking into system folders. Like, windows would have it's own Skin editor inside "Personalise", where you could load your own images, move them arround and whatnot, and then apply...

1.5) A better Multimonitor support. Stretched Backgrounds, maximise on all monitors, panels working on other monitors, etc... If an external app can do it, why is it so hard to code in to windows?

1.6) Gadgets should be abe to get locked.

2) Administrators should have full control over the apps that are installed on the pc. I think, it should be possible to easily uninstall the Internet Explorer, The Windows Shell, windows manager, file browser, paint, bacically anything. I know that these are highly integrated into windows, but why? People should have a freedom of choice on what to use. These could be reinstalled using the windows 8 DVD. A lot to be rewritten here. This step is probably the most important, because if other steps won't be made, people would be able to uninstall the unflexible Windows shell (or somethin else) and safely install an alternative one. Or have several shells/File browsers/etc, and select one from a list in the control panel. Microsoft should stop forcing users on using their software or they will definately go for linux.

3) Internet explorer should get major improvements.
Forcing new windows to open in new tabs instead.
Letting you have only the address bar and the tabs on the GUI...
Making the download progress show on the gui, instead of a new window...
etc. Chrome is a good example of a clean browser.

4) Windows media player should have .flac and .ogg support. These are opensource, which makes it easy to add. And there is no crime if you do. Then why isn't it there?

5) Add/Remove programs:
5.1)Add/Remove programs should have the ability to add items into folders/groups, to make it clean. Group uninstall maybe?
5.2) Windows should have an integrated registry error checker/cleaner, which makes sure that there are no useless registry entries in the registry. I've heard that windows keeps gathering registry, and sometimes doesn't remove registry added by installed programs... And that slows down your pc...

6) Easy moving of the "Program files" folder and the "Users" folder.
Some people like to keep these on other partitions then windows are installed.
And microsoft is really giving them a hard time... Going to the Windows CD repair console and making junctions is the only option these users have...

7) Remove the library feature from the file browser. Why do we need that if we have our home folder?...

Other than this, Windows is the most friendly and compatible OS ever. And those two things are the most importand in a OS. Keep it up. So yeah, I like Windows. But some of these points make me really annoyed and frustrated as a user. Basically if these points are fixed, less people would leave windows for linux or Mac.

IF ANYONE AGREES SAY "FREEMIND +1"

Trust me on what I am about to say; if you have ever used Finder (file manager) on a Mac you would bow down to Explorer (file manager on Win 7).

But yes there are some changes that need made, but at the present time I find using Explorer a pleasant experience. It would be nice to see some better batching scenarios, specially in the areas of file naming in MP3s, and Photos. Also the ability to move between fields when working with MP3 files (renaming: artist, genera, album titles, etc.) sometime similar to what MP3 Tag Edit does.

We can only hope.