What would you like to see in Window 9?

LittleJay, post: 10402, member: 114 said:

I should clarify my position a bit. I liked Windows XP a lot. IMO it was a light weight OS that was easy to use. I would be quite content to have a more secure version of it available that would work on newer hardware, without all the bloat that comes with both 7 and 8, which I neither want or need. I would like to see more choices available, rather than a "one shoe fits all" OS. Do I realistically think this will happen? No, but one can dare to dream, can't they?

If you are looking for a light weight and secure system, use Mint Mate. It is a superb system and is for free. And as an XP user you won't be alienated. Try it in virtual first. Instructions for full setup are here.

https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=475A0A48CA6D4035&resid=475A0A48CA6D4035!1882&app=WordPdf&wdo=1

You are welcome. It is an OS really worth having. And in VMware Player you can run it side by side with Windows 7. I use it for working on the web which is a lot safer than Windows - e.g. for on-line banking. Setting it up nicely as shown in my tutorials is a piece of cake.

I thought of two more I'd like to see natively supported in Windows 9's file explorer, which probably never will be.

- I'd like for folders to show the size of all the contents inside them (files and whatever folders inside them may contain). I have no idea why Windows doesn't do this, and I am forced to manually right click > properties all the time; or use a third party software like DriveSpacio.

- I'd also like the Win8 status bar to be customizable. For example, I like video files to show their length so that that piece of helpful information is available at a glance. As it stands I have to use another file explorer hack called OldNewExplorer to make it happen by re-enabling Win7's details pane on the bottom. You can still see the Win8 status bar underneath that, listing the number of items in the folder, how many are selected, and the file size of the seleted file. I don't need the entire Win7 details pane, such as the thumbnail image or file type, or taking-up that much verticle screen real estate, so it would be preferable to have the Win8 status bar customizable for sure.

I like video files to show their length so that that piece of helpful information is available at a glance

You don't have to use a hack. Just look into Properties > Details tab.

Well yeah, but I don't want to be doing it manually all the time, haha.

One current option is to make your own groups. It is a bit tedious, but it works.

You know what I'd like to see in Windows 9?

A modernized Desktop. Not the classic Desktop with pretty metro styled visuals, but a WHOLE revamp of the UI from the ground up. Something that takes what was great about the old and morphs it into something new and different and better.

I dunno... something like Rainmeter skins for Desktop/Explorer would be horrible in my opinion, if that's the sort of modern desktop you mean. I think MS are doing a good job of adding things to the Desktop/Win8 to bring modernization, but they can't really do much or people revolt against them. I feel something like Rainmeter skins would look slick to you and I, but the general public might become disorientated and loose track of information on screen... It's not as though Vista/7 sidebar/desktop gadgets worked all the time, or became hugely popular.