Running a brand new OS with everything that other people want wont happen. What would you class as an existing machine, would that be a 400mhz machine, a 1.1ghz machine? Microsoft have got to keep their OS’s running for a certain machine, many machines that were built in 2005 would run 7 comfortably, and would run Vista comforably.

I’m still on XP, I want to change to Vista, but I like things running as fast as it can do, for me to have a vista machine that would run fine would cost me £1800- a Laptop and Desktop.

Many people I know haven’t changed to vista because its support only lasts till 2010? So why buy an OS at extra cost, when they can change to 7 in two years time and still be protected.

For windows 7, improved security would be appreciated. Touch screens would be excellent, it needs to be lite on hardware requirements, but it needs to have alot of fun features, something that can be changed by the user.

Hardware at the moment isn’t worth a 64 bit os. It should be an option but not compulsary. Maybe windows 9 should be a 64 bit os maybe windows 8, but windows 7 would be too soon.

I think it should be 64 bit only, we need to move things forward and a max of 4GB ram is not enough, you can buy graphics cards with 2GB now, so 2 cards would take you up to the max and you would still need system memory for the computer to work.

64 bit hardware has been out for a long time now, the only think holding it back is lack off drivers, because most companys stick with writing 32 bit ones. This would all change if the OS was 64 bit only.

A new file system with good support for SSD would all so be great.

win7 will be shipped in both 32bit and 64 bit so you all have the option to opt out of the 32 bit system

I doin’t want too much, just simplicity. I don’t like the monstrous, endless faux-webpages that house all the myriad options. Just a dialog with the obvious in it. Not making changing IP a thirty step process would be a start.

Also – get rid of the folders. They’re unnecessary and it’s not up to Microsoft to tell me how to arrange my file system. Just have a documents folder. Hide the rest. I don’t want to use IE7, so favourites is useless to me and an annoyance.

Just strip the thing back. If I want to have instant search, I’ll have it – my way via google or yahoo, but frankly, I don’t really want it.

Strip out all the built in apps and let us choose what we want. Oh dear. I’ve just asked Microsoft to let me do things my way (cue Sinatra impression).

More seriously, it’s performance is ok enough, but I don’t use media player, the built in explorer is a clumsy, awkward mess – MS, buy XYplorer or Opus. That’s how to manage a file system. No stupid fixed green bars, no blocking wodge at the bottom, no favourites just the files and speed!

Also – it’s a UK version I have bought. Why is everything spelled wrong? Favourites, Centre… durrh!

“Also – it?s a UK version I have bought. Why is everything spelled wrong?”

If Microsoft get their default regional settings corrected, will you get your use of English corrected?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

KISS (keep it simple stupid) more basic and less system hogging. I’m sure some people want it all built in and hogging their system. But I’d prefer something that concentrated on security and compatibility only, the rest should be choice add-ons. Vista just makes me feel cheated out of system resources to do little more than XP.

A Linux kernel, KDE desktop, secure data storage, speed:-)

I had Vista for a while, but had so many problems with it that i went back to XP. I will say Vista does looks better, but i want stability and my apps to work. I also think Windows 7 should be 64bit only, if you want a 32bit OS stick with XP.

I can’t believe no one has asked for a much lower price – anything over a £100 is too much IMHO (many freeware pundits will argue for no-cost) – if they can’t develop it and sell it for a £100 to recoup the invrstment then don’t develop it – cut it back to bare bones, cut the cloth accodingly. I’m not budging from XP for the time being.

There’s only a few things I’d like to see in Windows 7:

1) Consistency – Why does Vista have some Control Panels in the new style, and some which are just individual tabs from Control Panels dating back to ‘95?! One or the other, guys! I prefer the new style, ‘cuz it doesn’t require opening in a new window, and it’s resizeable.

2) Leave My Documents alone! – Installing a few different games and Adobe Creative Suite means my personal Documents folder gets littered with system files for the different apps. I don’t want that. I want to keep my DOCUMENTS in there… Anything that applications try to save in there should be silently redirected to another file in my User directory. Yes, I know it would be a nightmare to implement, but it needs to be done.

3) A separate taskbar for each monitor, ala UltraMon.

Also whoever suggested that Windows 7 should be properly localised is a winner in my opinion. Quite unacceptable that a company the size of Microsoft can’t speak English! AFAIK, Welsh is a language option in Office ‘07, but MS shouldn’t be bothering with that until they’ve finished learning English!

~Loz

I want an OS that does what I tell it to do, instead of trying to be clever, and has networking that connects easily, every time, without needing hours crawling through scattered dialogue boxes trying to find out why it can’t see the machine in the next room. Most of all, I don’t want to see any of those infuriating messages that tell me i ‘might not have permisssion’ to do something: I own the hardware, I have licenced software, I own the whole thing, body and soul, I can toss it in the bin if I want, why can’t ****** Microsoft recognise that?

I bought Vista Ultimate with my new PC in April 07 (Quad core Pentium, 4Gb RAM, Quadro graphics card, about 1Tb of disks). I fought it for 10 months. At one point I had a document with two pages of unresolved problems, some of which never got fixed. It found it so restrictive, obstructive, and frustrating that I finally gave up, reformatted the drive and installed XP Pro SP2. It may not have the flashy Aero interface, but otherwise it does everything I want without getting in my way half as much.

I have been using computers since 1963. I can trace my PC usage back to CP/M and as a retired senior software engineer I think i can say that Vista was one of the worst operating systems I ever had.

I want an OS that is lean and mean, not bloat ware. It should work out of the box and not require a lot of tweaking to make it feel user friendly. Maybe it could have some of the nanny features of Vista, but turned off as default for the self-install end user. The major PC makers could always turn it all on in their machines for the mass market.

Existing XP software should install and run without problems, I don’t care if they do break some self imposed MS rules, I’ve paid good money for them and I expect the new OS to be backwards compatible. For example Quark Express 7.0 costs over £1000, but wouldn’t install under Vista, the Vista upgrade (7.03) would install, but did not perform well. Older hardware (scanner, printer, etc.) which had to be scrapped just because no Vista accepted driver was available, or ever would be.

I want windows 7 to be modular and mostly virtualised. I want the core OS to run on anything from pentium onwards so that the computer can handle having vista in a VM. Let them have their 6 options from basic to ultimate. Let ultimate include office for free! In fact, let office be it’s own OS. Go back to the drawing board and build something so incredible that apple copy it, not the other way round. Oh, and scrap internet explorer, it’s not worth the effort.

I think it will be crazy to have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions when pretty much all PCs and laptops that have been sold in the last few YEARS are 64-bit! Those who are still running older systems can keep using their current XP/2000/Linux OS.

I certainly don’t want 20 different versions to choose from or have my upgrade options limited by what I’m upgrading from – unless there’s a good hardware related reason.

Basically I’d like an operating system, not a collection of ho-hum applications masquerading as an operating system. I’d like it to be quick, relatively small, but above all I want it to be stable – bed-rock stable. I’m quite happy for MS to include the various other apps in the default install, but I’d like to be able to easily remove them or choose not to install them in the first place.

I don’t think you should be forced to only use certified software/drivers as many small companies who produce excellent software/hardware probably wouldn’t be able to either afford or wait for their product to go through the MS certification process. By all means flag up warnings, maybe require multiple confirmations but ultimately I want to make the decision.

Oh yes, I don’t want the OS settings scattered across hundreds of different dialog boxes only accessable from different locations. (What the hell were they thinking when they were writing Vista?).

I also hope that MS fires the morons that thought that not only making the Vista File and Settings Transfer wizard incompatible with the XP F & S Transfer Wizard, but that it would also be a good idea to make the different versions of the XP F & S transfer wizard incompatible with each other! I REALLY don’t want that kind of stupidity anywhere near the new Windows!

There are lots of other things I’d like to see in the new Windows, but mostly I just want to see a fast, stable, operating system that doesn’t force me to install lots of unwanted/unnecessary software, and I’d like to have the final say on what I install and when. And before you all start shouting “Linux” at me, I am playing with various different flavours of Linux, and whilst it’s come a hell of a long way in terms of usablility, I’m sure you’d agree that it’s still got a way to go before it’s a realistic alternative for the general public and especially for businesses. IMHO of course!

How about just 1 version of Windows 7. All the stuff that comes with the Pro version of Win XP could be there, just not installed as standard. Those who need IIS or whatever can install it as and when they need it and te average user could remain blissfully unaware of it’s existence.

Robust, lean, low on bloatware by default (inc but not limited to Media players, Web Browsers, etc. etc.)

64-bit but with full backward compatibility through virtualisation to an XP/Vista compatible 32-bit environment with full access to such useful things as Graphics cards; how else will I be able to play my old games.

And talking of games, the ability to install a game on a PC with multiple accounts, and for users who don’t hold admin rights to be able to play them!

Only two different versions Windows 7 and Windows 7 Pro. 64 bit only (For Julian Cox: 64 bit OS is backward compatibility with 32 bit, but a lot off 32 bit programs have 16 bit code in them and this will not work)

A lot better uninstaller. I hate all the stuf that gets left all over the place and in the registry, which I have to then remove my self.

Make it more stable, with a better file system. (I use to have an Amiga with PFS3 file system and that never crashed! Evern if you pulled the power when the hard drive was writing)

I think the OS should have a web browser and media player built in, but the other stuff can go. You should be able to choose what it installs. Smaller and faster are the way to go. If you could boot up with just a basic OS when you want to play games that would be good.

Some one said about the price being lower, it already is a lot lower if you buy it in the USA. Rip off UK. But i do think it should cost no more than £150 for the Pro version.

Cut out all of the fancy pretty screen cluttering resource hogging time wasting bloatware.
I do NOT want aero. I don’t want any gadgets on my screen.
i DO want a fast, secure, straight forward, UK English operating system that is compatible with what I use every day at work.
I don’t want a Mac – if I did i would buy one.
Vista came pre-installed on my laptop and I have pared it down so it is almost as fast as XP on my desktop. I’m not at all tempted to upgrade my desktop to Vista, quite the contrary – if I could get XP on my laptop i would have done so by now.

1. Stable – The OS must be able to protect itself from instability. Many of our unix servers have been up for many months if not a year or two without fault.

2. Fast – Only load when required (OLWR). Extra daemons and services shouldn’t be loaded at startup, waiting years for something to do.

3. Faster boot up – Don’t load everything on boot up – its taking far too long. Shutdown ain’t great either. The Mac OS X is very fast at both.

4. Secure – Make it bullet proof – well as best you can.

5. 64 bit – Anything else will divert resources – esp. regarding drivers. We need more memory not less.

6. Drivers – Signed drivers should be mandatory. Again, this will push resources into getting things done right. Many, hardware vendors leave the drivers as after thoughts – this must change.

7. Documents and settings – dump this and setup as /user/username/documents etc

8. A task bar that can span muliple monitors.

9. Modular OS – In the unix world each utility does only one thing but very well.

10. Bloatware – Keep this, but during install allow users to choose. Allow easy uninstall latter also. I don’t realy want to go back to the old days of not being able to click on a ubiquitous file and not to be able to atleast preveiw it.

11. Watch out Windows – Linux (I tried Ubuntu), seemed to do everything I wanted – and very well too. The only reason I haven’t abandoned Windows entirely is for games.

12. Standards compliance – Don’t go off into your own world like IE. Keep the standards – MS is no longer bigger than the game itself.

Thats enough to be getting on with. Good luck!

It’s not so much a Windows feature as an overhaul of Live Search that I’m looking for. At present you can only search in all engines for text. It’s about time we could search on pictures. For eample, if you find a thumbnail in an e-mail you might want the original pic5ture. Or you might want the link to lead to text. for example, recentl I had an e-mail with a thumbnail representing a movie project but there was no URL along with it. Taking the picture into a package that would enlarge and sharpen it Istill could not read the text in the image which might have led me to the web site. If I could have searched for a match to this picture I could have found my way to the place.

My wife is a trained information scientiset and llibrarian. She tells me that in her undergraduate days one of her lecturers illustrated the sort of problems tht public library staff get with the Henry VIII question. IAparently the most common inquiry in public libraries is a teacher asking for books on history. What they are really looking for is a picture of Henry but they don’t like to ask the direct question; they think that if they hit on the right book on Tudor history they can soon find one. So it would make sense on a search engine that if you searched or a picture of Henry VIII you ought to come up with a link to a picture rather than one to text.

So how about it? Microsoft could ce3ertainly steal a march on Gogle, Yahoo and the others bu including picture search facilities as I have outlined above.

This is my I want dont want list. This is not a rant, but I’ll clearly mark some ‘wants’ and “don’t” s in the list.

1. I DONT want DRM or any DRM-related technologies. I want the PC to do what I tell it to do, not what MS tells it to do.

2. I DONT want compatibility problems with software in previous versions

3. I DONT want compatibility problems with hardware (Creative Sound Cards with Vista anyone? They had to develop Alchemy because of it)

4. I DONT want any tricks. I DONT want OpenGL hardware acceleration to be poorly implemented as in other versions of Windows, in order to favor Direct3D.

5. I DONT want a bloated OS that takes an eternity to load, even in a high-end gaming rig.

6. I DONT want the OS to practically FORCE the user to into buying a mid-range gaming machine JUST to install and run the OS’s basic features.

7. I DONT want 20,000 different versions of the same OS. That approach is not consumer friendly as it tends to confuse some people that may not be as versed in software-related areas. Release 1 (ONE) version of the software. A full-featured one.

8. I WANT a better disk defragmentation tool, and I want it to defrag my disk even if the OS *THINKS* that it should not be defragmented. Who the hell told Vista that to have, and even enforce, its own opinion anyways? Software with an attitude…now thats a joke…

9. I WANT MORE control of the OS given to the USER and NOT to the OS. It IS the USER’s PC after all.

10. I WANT a Stable, Robust, and Secure OS. I DONT want to loose my liberties in the process.

11. I WANT my Fair Use Rights to be upheld. Users DO have a LEGAL right to backup their software WITHOUT DRM-related intrusions and obstacles.

12. I DONT want a Bloated Kernel.

13. . . .

hello…

usefull…