Longhorn: The Next Windows

Here’s a close-up of all of the running processes (just so you know, FSHOT7 is the screenshot software used for this article — it has nothing to do with background Longhorn processes).



The start menu is the same as the one in XP, though there are many new personal folders. One of these that struck my interest was the “Windows Game Library.”




I decided to research a bit more about this. Apparently, Micro$oft is now aiming for the “task-oriented” design approach, and part of that approach is about consolidation, or putting all of one type of tasks in a single folder. In the game folder, you can click on a game and do many things: change/remove it, view the controllers for that game, and configure sound and display properties. Eventually, according to Micro$oft, you will even be able to patch and update games as well as maintain such trivial things as parental/safety control and security. This sounds like a pretty good idea. Pictured below is the dialogue for the controllers, which is the same as in XP.




Another new folder is the “My Hardware” or “Hardware and Devices” folder (for some reason, they seem to interchange these two names), which seems to provide a pretty and useless centralized control of hardware.


Opt In Image
Free Weekly PCMech Newsletter
Almost 500 Issues So Far, Received By Thousands Every Week.

The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Leave a Reply

PCMech Insider Cover Images - Subscribe To Get Your Copies!
Learn More
Tech Information you can use, sent to your inbox each and every week. Check out PCMech's digital e-zine...