I'll make an exception on replying to this topic, since I dislike questions, but I just love to give my opinion about the newer windows!
I'd definitely remove a lot of the background tasking and automated tasks from loading. All these prefetch, analytical and background tasking to make applications load faster is just a waste of a time!
Many pc's actually do better without! And many pc's are used differently every time they get used!
No reason to put that in a script; a lot of that prefetching data proves to actually work against the user instead of for the user.
I'd also remove all visual appearance at once!
No video previews, no transparent windows, no Vista looks,... Heck, I don't even have a background and use screensaver blank to save system resources.
Just plain old Win 2000 looks!
You'd be amazed how much resources it takes for a machine to run previews you could see for just one click less clicking.
I'd be happy to bring ideas to create a multi threaded, Win 98-like windows with modern driver support that way!
Simply all written programs Windows has created lately just simply suck!
I'd also get rid of Windows defrag.
Windows defrag is actually not defragging, but spreading all files around!
Why is a system faster on installation? because all files within a folder stick together in one cluster on the HD. As soon as Windows defrag starts messing with those files they're all over the disk! Yes, the fragments neatly arranged next to other files, but away from the directory structure.
Windows Media player just is a big resource hog, just like Internet explorer!
I could not believe my eyes, always using Firefox, that internet explorer 7 actually uses more than 600MB of my ram when in use,while firefox goes with 380MB.
So Windows media player with all that internet and library stuff going on, just give me the plain Media Player Classic, with a good codec pack to support the various file types.
All the "my documents" standardized folders!
I hate there to be folders that I'll never use!
If you download files they often have their own directory, or a clever person creates a directory easily accessible for him. I am absolutely not fond of "my video's", "My pictures", "my downloaded files", I mean, some operating systems won't even allow me to delete those folders!
I don't need them on my HD, they only clog my view!
I'd go to back to a plain "Users", "Program files", "temp", and "Windows" folders in the root. Get rid of all the hundred tmp, scandisk, and boot files.
Recycle bin;more a pain in the butt than actually usefull; all external HD's and flash cards need no recycle bin, but my c:\ drive needs it. But somehow Windows just never gets that?
Windows system restore: Never actually used it; it's not even enabled on my pc. It takes too much space. for 4GB I can take a snapshot of my whole pc with Norton Ghost! Norton Ghost also compresses the data, and that is what I need. No system resource hog restore function that only works half ass.
No automated playback of diskdrives. It's driving me nuts to teach my pc how to act with every other SD card I pop in! (not to mention the recycle bin,and system restore folder it adds unto my card!)
I'd definitely add a more professional disk management tool; one which supports more disk formats (eg: NTFS,FAT, ExFAT, and some linux formats). A tool which also is capable of recognizing and creating separate partitions on a disk,more advanced than Vista's or XP's.
I agree with above: Networking is just a disaster in Vista! It's bad in XP, but a disaster in Vista. It's not logical, straight forward!
On wireless connection in system tray, a rightclick should show me (a window of) the available wireless networks, not another window directing me to wireless center that could give me the propreties of the wireless then via that to the available connections... It just plain SUCKS!
They say it's better but it isn't!
Besides, Vista is many times slower connecting to a wireless network than XP is! Why?
I'd also get rid of all "NT UNINSTALL"folders in windows. Too much data gets added everytime a program gets installed.
Simply trust that a user can re-install software from a CD-ROM, or download from the internet. There's no need to keep an extra copy somewhere hidden in the windows folder!
I agree with joerman42, replace the internal Windows winzip with 7zip!
Best freeware out there, replaces and bests nearly all compression programs, including winrar (despite it worse user interface)!
I personally also dislike the Windows Vista start menu!
Windows XP and Win98 is more intuitive!
In XP/98/NT/2000 you always had the same structure, and could browse through the menu's to find a program. Now you can't browse folders anymore. Going forward and back in folders on the startbar just sucks big time!
The search function in the start bar is good though. About the only thing I would want to remain.
Indexing, DISABLE! I mean not a single time in my life did I need it!
My disk contents change so often that it actually works against me.
Indexing service indexes files I'd never need to search!
If there might be 2 folders that need indexing, it's the start bar, and program files. And maybe in time my favorites!
That's all for me. It's much better to search a file on a non indexed disk if you only search once a year or so.
Display properties! SUCK in vista!
In Win 95 there was the tabbed view we got to know, and it seemed a very effective way to view in one window your resolution settings, and color settings, desktop background and themes etc. Now with Vista I find they took a step back. If it where upto me, BACK WITH TABBED DISPLAY PROPERTIES!!!
Windows Vista is NOT intuitive! Certain places you get to know with about every windows, like right clicking my computer and selecting properties to get the list of hardware and software drivers disappeared;I'm sure to the discontent of many who learned to use computers from the days of Win95!
And last but not least, a better web experience security, by disabling automated tasks. Webpages should standard display text,main layout and images. Get rid of flash or silverlight, and back to the most effective net experience we ever had!
Yes, internet with it's ads is going downhill. The user experience shouldn't suffer from it. There's a reason GOOGLE gets more searches than all other searchengines together!
Because it's ads are discreet! No jumping text messages, no hairloss or wheight loss ads, no downloading of half a movie just to see the theatric trailer of barbie and the pimple girls, no banners and popups that keep on bothering, and especially lately, no yellow bars acting like iexplore's security warnings!
Get rid of the need to install all this visual crap add-ons people don't want, and perhaps only when watching a youtube video we see something more than the regular layout/text/pictures.
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