What do you think Windows should have?

[TumbleGeorge]

I want Windows 12 to have consciousness.

 

[Vayra86]

I want Windows 12 to have consciousness.

Careful it might roll everyone back to XP overnight!

 

[chrcoluk]

Windows Event logging? You mean, filter on input rather than when viewing?


Could you elaborate?

So.

Windows by default logs a lot, I mean a crap ton, its really verbose so for example successful ntp time synchronisation, every time certain internal databases are updated, but these log entries themselves are also verbose providing very detailed information. The logging is so large, some scammers have jumped on it to pray on vulnerable people saying it means their computer needs fixing.

Now this in itself is not necessarily a big deal by itself, its wasteful and creates what I call "log noise", log noise being something that drowns out actual useful stuff. But combined with other issues I (and others) do consider it admin unfriendly. So linux e.g. makes it easy to actually disable logging, its almost trivial, similar with FreeBSD, on Microsoft by design instead its intended to keep the logging running but instead just filter what you want to see. I simply dont agree with that design decision. There is a degree of control with event channels, and auditpol tool but to me its not granular enough, so e.g. I can only prevent the logging of successful ntp updates by disabling the entire security event channel, so I prevent all security logging to kill one type of logging.

Auditpol which has some control over audit (security) logging is a pretty nice idea but feels like its only half implemented, I suspect it hasnt been updated in a long time. So a reasonable solution might be simply to update auditpol so it can control all the logging policies of the security event channel instead of just a subset of them. I think if they did that and toned down the default verbosity alongside it, it would be a good improvement without doing anything radical coding wise. Perhaps also offer a log to ram option as well.

I only discovered nirsofts's full event log viewer about a year ago, and even that freeware tool is a considerable improvement over the event log applet in terms of usability.

 

[AusWolf]

Careful it might roll everyone back to XP overnight!

I wish it did. XP wasn't a bad OS.

 

[Lei]

I wish it did. XP wasn't a bad OS.

A friend of mine was born when XP was released.
I told her I installed Photoshop before you were born.
I asked her which windows was your first OS?
She said 7

I said mine was 3.1



I don't understand why should I click on the ≡ icon before the tabs slide in. Like I'm two clicks aways from "Details" tab. did they do this for more convenience?

 

[caroline!]

A friend of mine was born when XP was released.
I told her I installed Photoshop before you were born.
I asked her which windows was your first OS?
She said 7

I said mine was 3.1



I don't understand why should I click on the ≡ icon before the tabs slide in. Like I'm two clicks aways from "Details" tab. did they do this for more convenience?

View attachment 304033

Hey, I was born AFTER XP was released and my first OS was DOS 2.11. As you can imagine my computer wasn't particularly... modern. I had both the 5¼ and 3½ drives but only the smol one worked, the other was merely in there to avoid having a hole in the front of the case. XT clone.

But I used the f... out of that build, and it was the one that allowed me to learn how stuff works, and what to do when it *doesn't* works. Learned how to type, use word processors, print, you know, the basics, I had some games as well. I didn't had internet until high school.
Compaq amber monitor, IBM keyboard, there was no need for a mouse of course, it resembled more a 1980s terminal than a modern computer, but hey, it was great.

 

[nageme]

Why are filepaths limited to 256 characters?

If you mean per "component", is that really a limitation?

If you mean overall, NTFS is generally limited to 32K, though usage through many Win32 functions limits it to 260. The limitation can generally be lifted starting with W10 1607, at least at the OS level. But as far as I'm concerned, long path names are unwieldy even before 260 chars.

on Microsoft by design instead its intended to keep the logging running but instead just filter what you want to see.

If it doesn't hurt performance, that's not a bad way to do it.

A poor log viewer tool is a separate problem. But I've mostly given up on the idea of relying on Microsoft for tools. Better have them concentrate on the very core of the OS, and rely on third parties for the rest.

For example, RegEdit is quite limited (anything new in W11?), but there are better tools around (like this, and see screenshot).

There are still no satisfactory file managers, which is surprising and sad. But I don't think one should count on Microsoft, because they'll anyway change it with every version of Windows to whatever's the current UI trend of the day. So, third parties to the (potential) rescue.

 

[mechtech]

Less Lawyers....................so they can bring back Lindows

 

[AusWolf]

There are still no satisfactory file managers, which is surprising and sad. But I don't think one should count on Microsoft, because they'll anyway change it with every version of Windows to whatever's the current UI trend of the day. So, third parties to the (potential) rescue.

I'll never understand why they do that. Upgrading something that has worked in the past is cool, but why change it completely? It's just like Facebook. Every time I log in, it's completely different to make sure that instead of finding what I want, I have to re-learn using it again. So annoying!

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

A better windows update system, the current method of windows update is so random with large margins of errors that mess something up

 

[AusWolf]

A better windows update system, the current method of windows update is so random with large margins of errors that mess something up

Speaking of Windows Update, I also want better update and indexing algorithms that don't fire up random processes during a Cinebench run (pretty niche request, but still).

 

[Lei]

Hey, I was born AFTER XP was released and my first OS was DOS 2.11. As you can imagine my computer wasn't particularly... modern. I had both the 5¼ and 3½ drives but only the smol one worked, the other was merely in there to avoid having a hole in the front of the case. XT clone.

But I used the f... out of that build, and it was the one that allowed me to learn how stuff works, and what to do when it *doesn't* works. Learned how to type, use word processors, print, you know, the basics, I had some games as well. I didn't had internet until high school.
Compaq amber monitor, IBM keyboard, there was no need for a mouse of course, it resembled more a 1980s terminal than a modern computer, but hey, it was great.

I thought Tatung is a monitor (mine) until I saw their air-conditioners in Hsinchu (20 minutes walk from TSMC headquarters)

I was looking for fast noodles, lost on the road I saw Realtek headquarters

Saw a food stand, parked my bike in Taipei to buy meatballs. I saw Foxconn headquarters almost reaching the clouds.
I never forget what she said when I got on my bike again to leave. She said ride carefully, take care
She wasn't in a spot to have many customers.

Ok I played FIFA 96, what about you? Gooooooal, the longer you press, the longer it says Goooooal

I used to write my diary in Norton Commander notepad and then save it on floppy.
Save had no icon, it was just SAVE in yellow pixelated font

One day my friend said, you can't play this Tomb Raider, you should buy a 4 megabytes gpu. Come on, it's fun game, buy this gpu.

I had several upgrades for my hard disk before I got 8gb. When I got 20gb, I thought it's the end of the world.
I was sitting by the pool and told a girl, this is 80gb hard disk. She said : no, you're lying.

I played Tomb Raider when her nose was 3 polygons and boobs 4 polygons each. Her ponytail could move which was cutting edge technology for that time.

 

[Dan.G]

I would like it if there wouldn't be driver overwriting through Windows Update: didn't notice this on nVidia cards, but happened when I had the RX 6600 (desktop) and it's also happening with Iris Xe driver on laptop. You can disable driver updates, but I'd rather have it active.

 

[chrcoluk]

If you mean per "component", is that really a limitation?

If you mean overall, NTFS is generally limited to 32K, though usage through many Win32 functions limits it to 260. The limitation can generally be lifted starting with W10 1607, at least at the OS level. But as far as I'm concerned, long path names are unwieldy even before 260 chars.


If it doesn't hurt performance, that's not a bad way to do it.

A poor log viewer tool is a separate problem. But I've mostly given up on the idea of relying on Microsoft for tools. Better have them concentrate on the very core of the OS, and rely on third parties for the rest.

For example, RegEdit is quite limited (anything new in W11?), but there are better tools around (like this, and see screenshot).

There are still no satisfactory file managers, which is surprising and sad. But I don't think one should count on Microsoft, because they'll anyway change it with every version of Windows to whatever's the current UI trend of the day. So, third parties to the (potential) rescue.

If the OS uses circular logs, then the viewer for those logs is a core part of the OS, although I do agree the event viewer applet is one of the more minor problems on my list as there is a better 3rd party tool out there, more logging also will inevitably have some load impact, whether its enough to bother you is a personal opinion, mine is that its inefficient and wasteful, everything should be as lean as possible.

 

[Nhonho]

Windows should also have an integrated app to download drivers, save them in a folder and reinstall them after formatting, like Iobit "Driver Booster" does.

 

[Vayra86]

I'll never understand why they do that. Upgrading something that has worked in the past is cool, but why change it completely? It's just like Facebook. Every time I log in, it's completely different to make sure that instead of finding what I want, I have to re-learn using it again. So annoying!

Information overload is a proven recipe for submission, is why. And its even a happy marriage with Agile way of working AND making your consumer base beta testers. Lovely innit

Thats the moment I press delete account, much like I did with Facebook nearly 10 years ago. Life without any ties to social media is good, I didnt miss anything since.

For the same reason I skip any Windows versions that dont move things in the right direction tbh. I went from 7 to 10 and skip 11 exactly because of that. If by number 12 they havent come to their senses, Ill start tinkering to keep the content I want playable on 10 or Ill move elsewhere entirely. They can stick their corporate clusterfuck wherever they like, but not on my watch.

Plans are to move 11 to cloud entirely. We alll know deep down they will fail at it and then 12 might be the reality check again.

 

[chaoshusky]

Handles with lock ability?

 

[caroline!]

>Iobit driver booster

Now that's one nasty program right there. Windows offers driver downloads already, but it's not exactly good so downloading from the manufacturer's site or using discs is still better. If manufacturers don't want to include discs anymore they could go for something like a read-only USB flash memory with the drivers. Not all computers have a working internet connection after assembly and OS install.

Windows should include..... a better file explorer. It sucks compared to what Linux distros can offer.

 

[AusWolf]

Information overload is a proven recipe for submission, is why. And its even a happy marriage with Agile way of working AND making your consumer base beta testers. Lovely innit

Well, it's a proven recipe for stopping me from caring.

I don't use Facebook much, either. Only Marketplace to sell PC stuff, although the number of scam attempts I've been getting recently is astonishing. I'm starting to question if the site has any value at all besides Messenger.

I'm skipping Wimdows 11 too, just like I skipped 8. I don't see why I should upgrade anything if I'm happy with what I already have, especially when the new thing is worse. If Windows 7 had DirectX 12 support, I'd probably still be using it.

 

[Nhonho]

>Iobit driver booster

Now that's one nasty program right there. Windows offers driver downloads already, but it's not exactly good so downloading from the manufacturer's site or using discs is still better. If manufacturers don't want to include discs anymore they could go for something like a read-only USB flash memory with the drivers. Not all computers have a working internet connection after assembly and OS install.

Windows should include..... a better file explorer. It sucks compared to what Linux distros can offer.

I'm talking about a "Driver Booster" made by Microsoft and not about an exact copy of Driver Booster. Every time I format my PC I have to install some drivers manually. If Windows had a tool similar to Driver Booster, it would make installing drivers here on my PC a lot easier.

 

[chrcoluk]

I'm talking about a "Driver Booster" made by Microsoft and not about an exact copy of Driver Booster. Every time I format my PC I have to install some drivers manually. If Windows had a tool similar to Driver Booster, it would make installing drivers here on my PC a lot easier.

It kind of has it via windows update which will push some new drivers. Depending on your windows settings it may only auto install them if no existing driver is installed, in that situation you can install them via something like wumgr which will detect them as pending or change it to always install newer versions via a policy change.

Of course with network drivers, you have no access to WU, what I did when upgrading my machine is integrate the drivers I want in place on to the image, so it starts out with the drivers I want pre installed (excluding display and xonar sound drivers as they more complex, so this is for network, storage, chipset, IME, bluetooth, virtio) then I am happy with the intel iGPU drivers automated install from WU, and install Nvidia via TPU's nvcleanstall although WU will install its own Nvidia driver first.

One observation I noticed is many of Intel's drivers can only be obtained via WU (or via station drivers), they dont exist on intel's own website, the drivers I integrated I actually fetched directly from WU servers.

 

[Assimilator]

And get rid of the DOS era limitations. Why can computer names only be 15 characters? Why are filepaths limited to 256 characters? Why are the error codes in hexidecimal?

Backwards compatibility.

I would like it if there wouldn't be driver overwriting through Windows Update: didn't notice this on nVidia cards, but happened when I had the RX 6600 (desktop) and it's also happening with Iris Xe driver on laptop. You can disable driver updates, but I'd rather have it active.

This can easily be disabled via Group Policy.

 

[gurusmi]

Why are the error codes in hexidecimal?

Hex-Figures are only obscure to new IT-Guys don't know to handle it. I learned to calculate in Binary, Octet and also Hex already before i started to study at the university. It's the base of the Processor. 0 and 1. Never forget that. 1 Hex figure = 2 Nibble (octet) = 16 Bit (binary).

I got rid of M$ anyway and changed over to my real old Love Linux. The first versions i installed decades ago at an Amiga. Downloaded at NIC.FUNET.FI. The Base FTP Server of linux. At a time DNS didn't exist. As i mentioned befor. I got a hell of BSOD's. Since using Linux i don't see any problems any more.

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Backwards compatibility.

With what hardware? Computers in nuclear bombs which is made in 19../secret/.
15 characters is very old limit. Propably before my birth.

 

[chrcoluk]

With what hardware? Computers in nuclear bombs which is made in 19../secret/.
15 characters is very old limit. Propably before my birth.

For old software. If I remember right its only enabled on C: by default as thats the expected install location of programs.