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18 Features Windows Should Have (but Doesn't)
PCWorld Magazine ^ | Monday, April 28, 2008 10:00 PM PDT | Robert Strohmeyer, PC World

Posted on 05/01/2008 5:11:26 PM PDT by Swordmaker

Some of the coolest OS features are nowhere to be found in Windows XP or Vista. Here are 18 brilliant features that Microsoft should beg for, borrow, or steal—plus tips on how you can add many of them to your PC now.

Love it or hate it, Microsoft Windows is the world's most dominant operating system. But when you look at some of the hot features found in competitors such as Linux and Mac OS X, both XP and Vista can seem a little incomplete.

From intuitive interface features like Apple's application dock and Cover Flow to basic media capabilities such as ISO burning, Windows often falls short on built-in goodies. And some features that other operating systems offer by default—such as 64-bit processing and business-networking tools—equire a premium-version license in Windows.

(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: msn
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To: Swordmaker
No offense, but perhaps this is why Macs have significantly penetrated the PC market - from 6% to over 17% in one year. This list simply points out what many people, frustrated but a computer OS that, other than some "bling", has remained essentially unchanged since windows 3.3.

The principle issue with addressing these items is that the underlying "guts" of Windows does not lend itself to making the sort of fundamental changes needed in order to add these features. Perhaps the days of Windows being the "only" OS used by business are coming to an end...

21 posted on 05/01/2008 6:35:15 PM PDT by GunnyB (Once a Marine, Always a Marine)
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To: Swordmaker
Taking screen shots in Windows has never been as easy as it should be. Sure, it starts out simple enough: You press the Print Screen key, and the current view instantly copies to the Clipboard.

To capture just the active window/dialog box instead of the entire screen, press Alt-PrintScreen.

Where it goes from there, however, is another matter entirely. It's up to you to open up Paint or another image editor, paste the captured screen into the app window, and then save it. What a pain.

If you're taking many screenshots at one time, do this:

1. Open a blank Word/OpenOffice doc.

2. After doing Alt-PrintScreen to capture a window, CTRL-V in the doc to paste the screenshot.

3. After capturing all the screenshots, save the doc.

4. Save it again as an HTML file.

Each screenshot in the HTML file is named and saved automatically as a separate JPG. (Word also saves each image as a PNG).

This method is much faster than plopping each screenshot into an image editor as you capture it, and then naming/saving separately.

Later, you can use an image editor if you need to.

22 posted on 05/01/2008 6:44:02 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie
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To: LibFreeOrDie

Here’s a better option. Command-3 on a Mac and the screenshot is saved to your desktop in PNG format.

Window’s idea of screenshots is so horrible, I’d rather use Remote Desktop, VirtualPC or VMWare on a Mac and then take my screenshots that way.


23 posted on 05/01/2008 6:52:14 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Notary Sojac

Thanks, I’ll check it out.


24 posted on 05/01/2008 6:59:23 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: JSteff
I'm with you. I'm a Linux guy now - my home desktop and laptop have been "Microsoft-free" for several years. There are only 4 things listed here that I use regularly on Linux. The other 14, who cares. The nice thing is, with the online software repositories, all the others (or something similar or better) are at your fingertips anyway.

Even though I'm a Linux fan, I will give Apple and OS-X this. They are dirt simple to use. I got my (barely) computer literate mother-in-law set up with a Mac Book laptop and haven't heard from her since. (4+ months now) I used to be her PC support line, and hear from her a couple of times a month. When I got her set up, I managed to install a wireless access point on her network, connect the Mac to it (secure mode too!), download and install X11 libs and OpenOffice, and connect to her PC based printer. All that in less than an hour, never having touched a Mac before. Note, at least 15 min of that was spent convincing Win/XP on her old desktop to share its printer.

25 posted on 05/01/2008 7:12:45 PM PDT by CodeMasterPhilzar
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To: Swordmaker

In lieu of all those features, I would settle for the abolishment of the Start Menu.


26 posted on 05/01/2008 7:14:47 PM PDT by Terpfen (Romney's loss in Florida is STILL a catastrophe. Hello, McCandidate!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
You're right. Windows is a serious resource hog.

Meanwhile, I run Kubuntu 8.04 on a 2000 - 2001 vintage IBM ThinkPad. 800 MHz Pentium-III, 192 MB of memory, and 20 GB of disk. Yes, it is a little slow, but it is usable. It was originally a Win98 machine. It has been host to several Linux distros. I don't think XP would even install on it. Vista, not even funny. Latest version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu? 30 min and it's up and running...

27 posted on 05/01/2008 7:17:31 PM PDT by CodeMasterPhilzar
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To: Swordmaker

ping to me for later


28 posted on 05/01/2008 7:36:18 PM PDT by PjhCPA (catchy taglines are boring)
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To: politicket
Windows biggest strength is also it's weakness. Businesses stick with Windows because of legacy support and familiarity. Windows has a lot of inertia built up, and the business network HAS to keep running. When all the personnel in the IT department are Windows savvy, not so much so on other systems, the IT recommendation will almost always be to stick with the applications and stuff that they know. I think Vista has significantly disrupted that comfort zone.

The college where I work forced us to Office 2007, despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the end users, but still has no plans to move to Vista from XP. The IT guys would outlaw Macs on campus if they could, but the photography and graphics arts people have held firm.

From everything I've picked up, the Windows OS is starting to collapse under it's own weight. I know my year old PC at the office is slower than my six year old iMac G4. I also notice little bugs in Windows that I don't find in Mac apps. For example, in Word 2007, I have five documents that I print out for incoming students. All I do is open, print and close them. Two of the documents ask if I want to save them every time, even though I've made no changes. It's a little annoyance, no big deal, but it takes my attention from the student, and I have to go back to the pc and make a pointless mouse click because some stray bit of code in the Word document has produced a flaw. I've done "Save As", copied all the text to a new document and saved it, and it still pops up the little screen asking me if I want to save the changes. The three other Word documents don't do it. It's just one of those annoying little "do another mouse click for no particular reason" things that infests Windows.

I agree with you about Linux as a desktop. Some flavors may be okay, but over all, most Linux desktops require much more personal tweaking. Can't speak to the server side. All I'm running is a four computer wireless, which is pretty seamless.

As to development tools, most of the business applications I've seen seriously suck eggs from a user standpoint. In our system "Datatel" for tracking grades, I have seven classes for which I have to enter grades. Instead of being able to navigate to the "class" menu once, then select a class and enter the grades, I have to go to the Main Menu, select grading, enter the semester, select the class and enter grades. When I enter the grades it kicks me back to the main menu, where I select "grading", enter the term again, etc. For seven classes, it's probably fifty or sixty "make a selection and click the mouse for no particular reason" moments. Your point about the development tools for Microsoft is part of my biggest point about both MS and IT departments. They really don't give a flip about the end user. Poorly designed counter-intuitive applications rule because the IT department wants convenient development tools, and can force a lousy product on the end user.

29 posted on 05/01/2008 7:38:33 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: CodeMasterPhilzar
“I will give Apple and OS-X this. They are dirt simple to use. “

Gee I would never have known that from teching support calls from Mac users. All had great trouble with basic operations.

30 posted on 05/01/2008 7:57:36 PM PDT by JSteff
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To: Pearls Before Swine
...add built in support for .pdfs... I don't think that needs to be part of the operating system, as it can easily be supplied by aplications, many of which are free. You can easily add freeware viewers, and if I remember correctly, OpenOffice is thinking of adding the ability to create pdfs as well.

If it's part of the OS, as it is in OS X, then any application can create a PDF file. Leaving it to the application is a hit-or-miss proposition.

31 posted on 05/01/2008 8:14:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: LibFreeOrDie
To capture just the active window/dialog box instead of the entire screen, press Alt-PrintScreen.

On a Mac you can capture the screen, capture an active or inactive window (even one that is mostly obscured by other windows), and capture multiple windows or a small section of a window or the desktop. You do not have to save them, they are all saved automatically. All of these captures become individual graphic files on the Desktop.

If you're taking many screenshots at one time, do this:

As mentioned above, you don't have to do any of that on a Mac. Just take as many captures as you want. and they are saved to the desktop. You can file them later, convert them to other formats, whatever.

32 posted on 05/01/2008 8:30:24 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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To: Swordmaker; Golden Eagle; Bush2000; Lazamataz

That list is rubbish.

What Windows users need is:
1. seamless backwards compatibility (especially corporate users who run software written inside their own company specifically for their jobs)

2. no Registry. The Windows Registry paradigm can only *stop* a program from running...a very bad way to do business (OK, the registry file should exist to maintain backwards compatibility, but that’s it).

3. the OS *is* a firewall. Probes of ports and external signals should be logged, but only allowed when a user tells the OS via a dedicated background screen (pop-up message box “OK” clicking should banned)

4. You don’t click “Start” to shut down your OS. That’s just stupid; it makes Redmond look like a bunch of stoned college kids

5. Right clicks on *anything* should allow you to see and **change** all properties (not just listed properties...all properties down to the deepest code level) and those changes should be persistent even through reboots

6. the task bar should have a Google search window (hey, Microsoft didn’t want you to have a Microsoft search window, so Google must be a better suggestion to them)

7. Pop-Ups and message boxes (e.g. click “OK” to continue) should be banned or at least changed to have a timer that self-clicks “OK” after a pre-set amount of time so that no user is compelled to baby-sit a PC during a reboot or installation

8. the user should be able to kill every process and service, even if doing so corrupts the hard drive and turns off the power to widows and orphans

9. software installations and upgrades should be banned from forcing the user to reboot in order to use the new service

10. the user should have the option to request a “max performance” review in which the OS shows how much performance can be gained, and how many “unused/non-mandatory” services/dlls can/must be turned off (or set to a priority so low that they consume less than 1/1000th of CPU time), such that a single program is given full PC power with as little OS overhead as possible...via 1-click


33 posted on 05/01/2008 8:40:41 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: LibFreeOrDie
If you're taking many screenshots at one time, do this:

Windows, always doing it the painful way. On the Mac:

Command-Shift-3: Screen shot is saved to a PNG on your desktop

Command-Shift-4: You get a crosshairs showing screen coordinates. Drag what you want captured and it becomes a PNG on your desktop.

Spacebar after previous: Toggles between crosshairs and a camera cursor with which any window you click on (even if it's not in the foreground) becomes a PNG on your desktop.

Adding Control to those puts it in the clipboard instead.

34 posted on 05/01/2008 8:42:00 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat; Swordmaker; Spktyr

I KNOW that!

I was explaining an easier method for any PC users who might be reading this thread, which the author of the article wasn’t aware of. I’m not defending PCs against Macs.


35 posted on 05/01/2008 8:49:04 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie
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To: JSteff

I had some problems going from Windows and Linux to Mac. All the operating systems are different and you have to approach each with a different mindset.

Learning an operating system is like learning a new language. In many cases, it is like being dropped into a foreign country and being expected to deal with the tasks of daily life. It’s simple once you learn the language and culture, but if you don’t make an effort to learn the language, the simplest things are puzzling.


36 posted on 05/01/2008 9:03:57 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: Southack
That list is rubbish.

Actually I saw some great utilities on there, especially the "Time Machine" feature from Apple. Windows users have to use 3rd party tools like Symantec Ghost/LSR or Acronis True Image to get good snapshots like that. Apple is beating Microsoft at it's own game - intergrating as many features as possible into the core O/S package, which is what most users want. This also helps overcome Apple's lesser compatibility with commercial off the shelf software, they just build it all and package it with their systems.

37 posted on 05/01/2008 9:17:19 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

Are you kidding? Backup and Restore in Vista performs the exact function you provide, and best of all it’s in VHD format so you can mount it.


38 posted on 05/01/2008 9:23:48 PM PDT by Doohickey (I'd rather be free than have the government keep me "safe".)
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To: JSteff
Gee I would never have known that from teching support calls from Mac users.

Unless they are Windoze converts, I doubt that. Of course there is an older generation that are brand new users, they require a little hand holding.

Mac Users groups abound, where any one can get free help.

Windoze experts charge a fee.

39 posted on 05/01/2008 9:32:56 PM PDT by itsahoot (Global Government is coming because, I guess we want it.)
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To: LibFreeOrDie; Swordmaker
Gee I would never have known that from teching support calls from Mac users.

Actually Preview does this a lot easier, just use the "grab" feature. Grab as many window, or selections as you want then drag and drop from the side window.

"Preview" is a Mac OS X freebie.

40 posted on 05/01/2008 9:36:29 PM PDT by itsahoot (Global Government is coming because, I guess we want it.)
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