A portion of the top feature request list was recently leaked concerning Windows 7 and I checked it out. Some of it was good while the rest was not-so-good.
If I had a wish list for Windows 7 in 2009 or 2010 (whenever it’s released), this is what I would ask for:
Death to 32-bit
I don’t think there’s any argument that we’ve gone as far as we can go with a 32-bit desktop operating system. The new Windows should be 64-bit out the gate and not have any 32-bit offerings whatsoever, save for a legacy (i.e. "compatibility") mode of running 32-bit apps.
If Windows 7 required a 64-bit processor, manufacturers would be forced to supply boxes with them to run the OS – and I don’t think this would be a bad thing. 32-bit is way past its prime and it’s time to send up the white flag. It was nice knowin’ ya, 32-bit. Buh-bye.
To those that would say "There are 64-bit versions of XP and Vista!", bear in mind there are also 32-bit versions. Windows 7 should have no 32-bit version whatsoever. I say force the 64-bit. It needs to happen.
Three versions and three versions only
Currently Windows is offered in way too many versions. Microsoft needs to cut out the marketing b.s. with the "cool names" such as premium and ultimate and shim it down to three:
1. Home
2. Enterprise/Pro
3. Server
..and that’s it. No fuss, no muss. To make it even easier, "Home" would be green-boxed, "Enterprise" would be blue-boxed and "Server" would be red-boxed. Simple. Easy.
Resizeable Taskbar (Width)
KDE and GNOME have had this for years (such as setting a panel to "80% width of the screen" instead of 100%). Windows needs it too. Not a difficult feature to implement.
Multiple Taskbars
KDE and GNOME once again have had this for years. You can add/remove "panels" at whim. Would be nice to have this in Windows 7.
To those who would ask "Why? What’s the point?" Well, for example you could have different "Start" menus for multiple monitors, each with specific items particular to that monitor. Makes for better productivity instead of having everything mashed into one menu. Another example is having "Start" menus at the top and the bottom, once again each with specific stuff to put things literally within easy reach.
A taskbar clock that also displays the date and day in "one tier" mode
(Note: If this is in Vista already please let me know – I’m running XP)
One thing in Windows XP that absolutely drives me up a wall is that when the taskbar is set "one tier" high, the clock only displays the time and not the date. If you want the date, you have to hover over the clock with your mouse.
You can set the taskbar "two tiers" high and then it will display the time, date and day but I can’t stand having my taskbar that "fat".
It would be unbelievably nice if the taskbar in "one tier" mode displayed like this:
HH:MM A/P dd MM/DD/YY
Translated: Hour:Minute AM/PM Day-of-Week Month/Day/Year
I know this is a very small request, but darn it I really want that there.
It is true there are third-party apps that will allow date/day to be displayed in one-tier mode, but none of them have ever really worked correctly. This feature needs to be native and not hacked up by some other app.
And yes I know GNOME has the ability to do this already. Don’t remind me. 
The ability to see the icon spacing grid
It would be super-cool if while customizing your desktop (such as from "Display" in the Control Panel) there was a little button that said "See Icon Spacing Grid" which would draw a temporary grid on the desktop to physically show you how far apart the icons would be once placed (and where they would snap to).
Custom colorized context menu choices
A simple but effective way to utilize context menus better. For example, when you right-click any folder in Windows, it would be nice if "Search" was in blue, "Properties" was in red and "Open" was in green. The colors would have customize options via the Control Panel.
Separation of Native vs. Third-Party icons in the Control Panel
Native = Things that come with Windows
Third Party = Added icons to the Control Panel by other apps
Example of third-party icons: Nero, Apple Quicktime, Logitech, etc.
Third-party apps that put icons into the Control Panel should be purposely separated by a horizontal line. The first tier is all "only-to-Windows" icons. Under that is any/all icons put there by non-native Windows apps.
Doing this would make things in the CP easier to find and manage.
. . .
I have a ton of more things I could list, but what I’ve written is a good start.
What would you want to see added/changed/removed in Windows 7?
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32-bit – Isn’t Server 2008 64-bit only? Nope.
The three versions should actually be
Stripped (for those people/countries that need it)
Enterprise/Pro
Server
There are 8 (technically 12) SKUs for Server 2008! Ridiculous! Yeah, 3 of them are special cases (Web server, Itanium and High Performance). And they haven’t announced SBS 2008 yet. You know that’s coming sometime soon.
Wow Rich you have really good list of things that must go into windows 7. I am using Xp and Vista, and i’ll add a few wishes to yours:
1. Readyboost is ability incorporated in windows vista of using USB flash drive as additional ram on your machine. I would like that most of all.
2. To see the used and free space on the drives in control panel like in windows vista.
3. Try to minimize (short) the boot time of windows, i hate the boot speediness (slowness) of xp and vista.
4. Perfect the cashing of the system memory.
few more that i can’t remember them now
)
Ncoounter -
1 – Not sure what you’re asking here.
2 – Not really a feature request, just something you want carrying over…
3 – Probably not going to happen. Windows is a GIGANTIC program as far as things go, and its very hard to optimize something that well when it needs to support so much hardware.
4 – Sorry, but this is pretty much impossible. As demonstrated by the change in behaviour from xp to vista, different amounts of memory are cached most efficiently in different ways. if you have almost none, you want it cached as much free as possible. If you have a moderate to large amount, you want to be taking advantage of that wasted space.
If you were to flip the behaviours arround, then small amounts of memory would have sky high CPU usage due to CONSTANT reallocation, and large amounts of memory would be used badly, so applications might open slower than their optimum, because they weren’t precached.
There are a few more that should be added
1. add a Synaptic feature like Ubuntu.
2. make it open source.
3. make it free like Linux.
I might consider windows again if these things were added as well.
Man, this implies that there are only a few cosmetic improvements that need to be added to Windows7 to make it superior to Vista. I could name fifty things about Vista that are pure FAIL.
Not least the built-in, intentional security flaws. Read Bruce Schneier on this subject. It’s not a favoritism issue. I’d far prefer to run something widely compatible if I could (Windows) but I’ve been driven to Linux by Vista’s execrable security, terrible bootloader, constant inexplicable drive access.
Oh, and the intolerable, unforgivable slowness on a quadcore with 4 gigs ram.
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Nice list – I first of all would like to see an OS from MS that was “really” field tested and ready for the consumer instead of just getting it out quickly to chase the buck.
I use XP and Vista.
Also desired….
1. Have a Windows Explorer that can show two panes at a time instead of having to create two separate views.
2. Stop the extremely annoying “permissions”. I shut mine off and still get annoyed trying to handle files.
3. Bring back the screen saver slideshow that enabled us to show our own photos.
4. Instead of another OS, why not just put the changes in a much needed service pack? Oh yeah, you don’t make millions that way.
There are so many things that have bugged me about Vista that I can’t think of just now. I am giving it one last chance before going back to XP on everything. I have no intention of trying Windows 7 for a long, long time. (lack of faith)
Here is what I would add – mostly features they deleted in Vista from XP:
- Bring back the big buttons + labels from Windows XP on top of each window, with back/forward buttons, up button; they were also customizable, I always added cut/copy/paste for easy file moving.
- In music/or video folders, bring back the PLAY ALL or PLAY SELECTED FILE option. How am I supposed to Play All in Vista??
- Real, honest progress bar! Not just bars running again and again, and you have no clue how long the task will take you! STUPID!
- Bring back the so beloved power toys from XP. Tweak UI wa SO USEFUL! And the image resizer tool too.
- Windows photo viewer/gallery be able to play *.gif files, like in XP. I do acknowledge and give credit for enable to play standard video files in the viewer, but GIF files must be opened in Internet Explorer. That’s a big mistake.
Microsoft, do you listen?