What would you like to see in Window 9?

I didn't read all 30 pages so if this has already been mentioned my apologies.

I'd like to see the Windows To Go utility updated to accept more devices and not just "certified" thumb drives. I have a nice USB 3.0 64 GB Kingston Hyper X drive that it will not let me use. My old clucky 5400 RPM spinner laptop drive in a USB 2 enclosure is fine for use though?

I'd also like to see updates to the way you can pin Apps and Programs to the taskbar. I run multiple monitors and would like to pin stuff to just the one taskbar on any one monitor. Instead of having to have the same icons on all monitors/taskbars. An option to turn off the taskbar autohide on Metro Apps would be nice too. I would rather have it visible all the time.

cipher said:

What I hope, as well as many enthusiasts hope, is that Windows 9 will include both a desktop GUI and a touch GUI instead of a blending of both. I hope no qualms over updating the Aero UI significantly, so long as it doesn't look and act like Metro/8 UI or any touch-centric UI. Microsoft would be wise to offer a toggle between the two in Windows 9.

As for a "newer and better experience", I agree, I think we'd all like to see that. But I hope you know that all Windows operating systems since NT (NT 4.0, 2k, XP, Vista, and 8) is still based upon the NT kernel. So the only real "experience" difference for the user is the UI. There are usually some additional API calls for the Microsoft DLLs to do a little more with the UI. For example the "Layed Windows" feature (aka 'transparency') introduced in Windows 2k and the "Windows Ribbon Framework" introduced and native to Windows 7, but available for download with Windows Vista.

Programs will still run according to the x86 and x64 instruction set architectures, so no major change will take place there. Each application is still limited to whatever the developer wants to specify regardless of what Windows uses. And we'll still have UAC poking its head into things. But otherwise you won't see any major experience change until may be 2020 when the Windows 7 extended support is supposed to end, or 2018 when mainstream support for Windows 8 ends. That's because app developers still need to support previous version of Windows to attract the widest customer base possible, at least within reason.

In the end, if you strip Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and most likely 9 down to its base you still have the classic theme and API that pretty much functions and processes information the same way. The experience itself is just eye candy; it's icing on the cake to enthusiasts and IT professionals. Whether that icing is sweet or bitter is what most people consider the "experience".

The basic NT core maybe the same, but after running both W7 and W8 for a few years now, it has been my experience that W8 runs faster and more stable on my PC than W7. So that is my main reason for hoping that W9 will be an improved W8.1 experience.

cipher said:

Third-party & Microsoft certified drivers, and better DirectX integration. That's the majority of the difference.

The others differences are nominal, which include a newer revision of the kernel.

Another reason I like W8 better than W7 is the difference in size on the drive with basically the same software installed. My W7 installation takes up 23 Gbs of space whereas W8 takes up 17 Gbs of space. I use Macrium Reflect to create regular system images and it takes a minute longer for W7 as opposed to W8. Now I realize this probably doesn't mean much to most people, but I'm one of those crazy ones who likes "speed and efficiency"!

I don't worry about space. All I care about is interface and compatibility. Speed and performance depends on the users' machine specs.


And 7 is still my favorite so far.

badrobot said:

And 7 is still my favorite so far.

I know there are many who would agree with you about W7 being their favorite, but for some reason I just never liked it that much. XP was my favorite, but when I updated my computer, it came with W7 64bit installed.

Did you use the pre-fab install or do your own install of Windows 7?

Nope. When I bought my first SSD I did a clean install of W7. The initial install took up almost 30 Gbs of space, until I turned off the Hyberfile and reset the page file to a max of 2 Gbs. I bought the W8 Pro upgrade when MS offered it for $40 and after doing a clean install the size on my SSD dropped to 16.8 Gbs with all the same software installed. I'm not sure where you are getting your data about W8 Ent taking 8.4 GBs and W7 Ult taking 8.2 Gbs, but I haven't seen that small of a footprint, after an initial install, since Windows XP.