The Moditory

With Windows Vista (AKA Longhorn) finally starting to appear as more than vaporware, we thought we would take a look at some of the features, changes, and functionality we would like to see in this new version of the Windows operating system. This is not an exhaustive list by far, however I’d bet that it would keep the programmers at Microsoft rather busy for a rather extended period of time.

1. The first thing I would like to see addressed is the Windows installer. For the past several versions of Windows, Microsoft has been using the same old DOS installer that some of you may still recognize from its earlier NT days. As far as modern technology is concerned, this installer is ancient. Just like with NT, we are still required to use Floppy disks when providing these drivers-unless you’ve made a slipstreamed disk. Having ditched the floppy drive in my main machine sometime around 2002, I have always been forced to hunt around not only for a working drive, but also for a working floppy disk. While the installer still does its job (for the most part), I would like to see a new install interface in Vista that isn’t so archaic and dependent on old hardware. Were I in Microsoft’s shoes, I would consider implementing an installer based on the Windows PE interface they have had around for a while (similar to a bootable Knoppix CD, only it’s Windows and not Linux). This could also offer a very nice interactive recovery environment built in just in case something goes wrong with a preexisting Vista install (instead of the two options offered on the XP Install CD-ROM: old school recovery console or delete the OS and start over).
   
   Along those same lines, I would love to see Microsoft offer a version of this operating system contained on DVD (in addition to the multiple CD solution they seem to be favoring, ala Media Center). A quick Google search reveals that the beta clocks in at approximately 2.4gb, that is a pretty fair number of CDs already, and apparently it doesn’t even contain a lot of the fancy stuff that is planned for the final release (including the advanced visual styles)!



2. The second thing I’d like to see addressed is the aging file system. I know that NTFS has been upgraded several times since it was first introduced; I believe that the current version sits at NTFS 3.1 (sometimes referred to as NTFS 5.1 due to the version of the NT kernel it was shipped with). However, it is not enough to meet the growing personal collections of digital media. Back when Microsoft was beginning to whisper about Longhorn, they hinted at something they called WinFS (Windows File System). WinFS, they claimed, would completely revolutionize the way you manage your files. It was to combine metadata, databases, and the file system, resulting in a very flexible way to view, sort, and search through your collection of multimedia content. As somebody who has a lot (ok, a ton) of digital multimedia (digital photos, mp3s, etc.), I could find something like this very useful. They even were promising to port it back for use with Windows XP as some sort of an upgrade. Unfortunately recent news has WinFS being released sometime in 2007, which (at the moment) is a little late for inclusion with Windows Vista.





WinFS?

3. Thirdly, I’d like to see a decent (and standards compliant) web browser included with Windows Vista. I have seen (and played with) an early beta of Internet Explorer 7 (sometime in July, 2005), and to be honest the only major difference I saw between it and the copy of IE6 I have here is the fact that IE7 has tabs. It also happens to look strangely like Firefox in some ways; I wonder why? To be fair, the version I tested was still far from release quality. However, I saw such little improvement that I had to wonder: how much work has actually been put into it? It still fails to handle CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets version 2) statements correctly, and completely failed almost all of the standards tests much like I would expect IE6 to. I find this rather surprising, especially considering the fact that CSS2 has been a W3C recommended standard since 1998!



4. A fourth thing I would like to see in Windows Vista is better support for multi-monitor setups. While only a small minority of users have multiple displays on their computers, the numbers are significant and increasing each year. As of right now, Microsoft hasn’t done much to cater to this segment of the market. They have had to rely on drivers from the graphics cards manufacturers and third party software developers to force Windows into providing functionality such as screen clones, monitor spanning, and various other GUI (Graphical User Interface) behavioral modifications. In my opinion, Windows Vista should have this kind of functionality from the start. With the advent of DirectX 10 (AKA Windows Graphics Foundation) and the vector-based nature of the Aero GUI (Graphical User Interface), Microsoft has an opportunity to improve the way graphics are handled. At this time, gaming on one monitor and running a separate task (or maybe even a desktop environment) on other screens is nearly impossible, apparently due to the way DirectX is coded. If the game doesn’t use those extra monitors, 9 times out of 10 they are simply disabled. With the advent of the latest graphics technology, even the most resource consuming games are left with graphics power to spare. With this power and new operating system, why not redesign DirectX to provide proper multi-monitor support in gaming and other applications?



5. The fifth thing that would be nice to have included in Windows Vista is Media Center functionality, without having to buy a separate Operating System or additional software. My favorite feature of Windows Media Center Edition 2005 is its ease of use. With almost no effort, your computer can be transformed into a complete entertainment center controlled by an intuitive remote or keyboard and mouse. While this is certainly the killer app for the home theater crowd (myself included), I feel that the pure simplicity and functionality would be a great benefit for other users. As of the time of writing, there have been no announcements concerning future versions of Windows Media Center or such functionality being included with Windows Vista.





Windows Media Center 2005

6. Sixth on my list is a truly revolutionary user interface. Since Longhorn was announced, Microsoft has been promising that a lot of hardware-accelerated eye candy will be included in their brainchild, and it will all be packaged in the Aero GUI. Having learned their lesson about showing off features before release, Microsoft has been rather tight-lipped about what capability Aero is going to have (other than it’s aptitude for consuming copious amounts of system resources) and what it looks like. Among other things I wish to see, complete customization without having to use excessive amounts of third party software tops the list of things I want in this new interface. I’d also like to see an original looking GUI, not something that looks like it could have been ripped off the latest version of Apple’s OSX or the like. It would be nice to have the option to turn off the extra eye candy as well.


The Aero GUI

While in no order whatsoever, these are a few more items I would like to see in Windows Vista:

• Improved memory and registry management
• A decent backup utility (separate from System Restore and better than NT Backup)
• Proper Firewire (1394) drivers (the ones currently used in Windows XP kill transfer rates)
• An integrated Unix API (AKA Monad)
• Stability, stability, stability!

With the feature set promised, and if Microsoft plays their cards right, Windows Vista could shape up to be a very amazing operating system and a worthwhile upgrade. At the time of writing, Microsoft was expected to begin shipping Windows Vista to manufacturing on August 9th, 2006, which should make it publicly available by November 15th, 2006.