Posted on 06/28/2010 7:13:38 PM PDT by dayglored
Microsoft's successor to Windows 7 is taking shape - and that shape looks suspiciously like an iPad supplementing a diet of media with online services.
A set of Microsoft slides, apparently leaked online here and expanded here, have mapped out the company's design and feature goals for Windows 8.
Among those goals: Windows 8 works on a slate form factor in addition to the regular laptop and "all-in-one" PC,...
Among the other goals for Windows 8 are a "reset button" for use if - or more likely when - your PC begins to mysteriously slow down and performance begins to drag like a dog. Windows 8 will let you reset and retain your data...
In trying to differentiate Windows 8 from Apple, Microsoft said it plans to stress features for partners such as Windows 8's customization and the different form factors.
There are some interesting aspects to Windows 8, if the slides are genuine. Facial recognition being the biggest. This would suggest some overlap with software used in Project Natal - just don't let your cat or anything else with a face near the screen when you're trying to log on...
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
There's a lot of OS-X look-and-feel in Win7. Most of it is subtle, but to someone like me who uses each one for many hours every day, the similarities are definitely there.
Nothing I'd consider remotely worth a lawsuit, mind you. Just the usual "Hey that's a good idea, let's adapt that to our situation" stuff.
I don't know that I could point to any particular individual things at 1:20 AM, I'm tired and am dropping off the thread for the night soon. But they're there.
If you get into specifics, boys, please argue like gentlemen. thanks :)
I've read mixed reviews of the Essentials. Some recommend it, but most seem to feel it is the barest minimum, intended only to sweep up the home-computer laggards who would not otherwise run any A/V, even the free third party ones.
It's surely better than nothing.
I ran OneCare for two years. It was too damn big, but it sure did a job. It was also abusive of the CPU at times.
Tell ya what, I'll give Essentials a try and let y'all know how I like it. Nothing to lose.
Usually, there are only two things that will slow down an OSX installation, Day. The first is too many icons on the desktop. If you let your desktop get too full, it can slow down the system slightly. It's not too noticeable... but you can get a slight speed bump by removing the excess. Besides it's messy.
The second is damaged permissions. Every time I've seen a slowed down OSX Mac, a permission repair has brought the Mac back to like new speed.
Give those fixes a try when you run into a slowed Mac.
Of course, the ultimate fix is to upgrade your Mac to a newer OSX version... everytime you upgraded, the Mac ran faster than it did under the older version.
Good hints, Sword, thanks! I keep my desktop very clear, but mainly because otherwise I get confused and -I- run slower! :)
Yeah, I've noticed that each release runs better than the prior. Of course, I occasionally back everything up and reload just because I like to have a clean system. I store all my data on an external RAID1, and Mac applications are so trivial to reinstall that it's a breeze to reload the system from scratch. Only thing missing are the preferences, and I can usually copy the relevant plists from the old system backup.
Thanks all, for an interesting and pleasantly civil thread so far. I appreciate it.
Do a permissions repair... and clean up excess icons on your desktop. You'll see a speed up.
You will see some performance hit if you are running too many applications at once with too little RAM. How much RAM have you got installed now?
Too bad she's an atheist.
She'd make a good follow-on to Ann Coulter otherwise.
Cheers!
Yes, Puget, I agree, they were uncalled for. However, honestly, they were nowhere near the level of vitriolic ad hominem we see on the Mac threads, now were they? ;^)>
I use a number of operating systems at work and use Win 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 at home. I love them both, but for different things.
I do computer security for a living. So what is the most secure OS in the world? I'd say HP-UX. Of course you can't do any fun stuff with it.
Win 7, Mac OS X, and your favorite flavor of Linux are all good systems. Security is more dependent on the user than the OS. Anyone who runs as root (or Administrator in Windows) is asking for problems.
I'm actually running it naked as experiment—as I did when I ran my Mac naked including no firewall for three years from 1984 to 1987—to see what will happen. It's sitting running in the background under VMWare Fusion on my iMac with it's own IP address. I have a backup file of the Virtual HD install... so that if it gets invaded by malware, there's no loss, and I can replace the install in two minutes. That's been running that way for over a month now... and so far, nothing.
Re: AVG... I used to have my clients' on AVG... but after they jumped the shark on their upgrade to AVG8 and added IE Tool Bars, Spyware and Adware to their repertoire, it got just too abusive of system resources. I'm moving my clients' over to Avast as the subscriptions expire.
Re: Copying from OSX. Windows7's copy of the OSX Dock (their replacement of the task bar) leaves a lot to be desired. Hovering over the icons to find out what they are is a delay that is productivity sapping. AeroPeek is a poor substitute for Quicklook on the Mac. I'm wondering how long it will be before Microsoft drops the transparency as Apple dropped it in OSX.2... too confusing. Right now several of my client offices have moved to Windows7 and the workers are complaining about the difficulty in even finding the URL entry window in Internet Explorer... they often enter the address they want in the BING window instead... because the URL tool and drag bar are soooooo transparent, they are hard to see.
My etch-a-sketch is 100% secure as well, therefore 100% superior to Apple. Oh, and Al Gore doesn’t own a good chunk of the company, so, thats a bonus.
“unlike the hours and hours I spent trying to nail down viruses on my PC.”
Stay away from prOn sites and you won’t have those issues.
I thought it was a bug-infested nightmare that required AV software? At least that's been a common theme in many threads here...
Windows7's copy of the OSX Dock
Well, the Windows Taskbar has been around since 1995, well before OSX. The Win7 functionality is what you had in WinXP, with the addition of the Aero Peek; all other functionality is essentially what existed for a decade or so (Windows XP).
Additionally, my understanding is that the OSX Dock is predominantly for quick launching applications (like on the original NeXT Step OS), where the Windows Taskbar is predominantly to show you what is running. Yes, the OSX Dock has a little blue glow for any given application that is running, but only for the application, not individual documents.
On the other hand, the Win7 Taskbar serves a different purpose: quickly locate what is running. It is well-defined; the center section is running applications only, the stuff on the right is status, and the left side is your menu and any pinned applications you choose to add (none, if you like). It simplifies the grouping (left to right): what you can run, what is running, what is the status of running processes/the system.
I'd say they are radically different in operation, not even close to each other. How that's a copy, I'm not sure...
AeroPeek is a poor substitute for Quicklook on the Mac
I personally like Aero Peek, it pops up in about 1 second on my machine, and then is instant as I move from group to group. But if you don't like it, it's simply right click on the Taskbar, select Properties then uncheck "Use Aero Peek", but I like it. When I have 4 or 5 open files I can use Aero Peek to hover over the group on the Taskbar and then easily select the document I want. VERY handy for popping between PDFs or open drawings.
And that is a big difference from Quicklook; I thought Quicklook was only for files, not running applications. So you can take a quick preview of files before you open them. Note that Windows XP - back in 2003 - introduced the file preview which does the same thing as Quicklook (and which was introduced in 2007).
I use the preview a lot, it previews even my Alibre 3D CAD file drawings and JPGs (something Quicklook doesn't do), making it easy to quickly scan through dozens of files and find exactly what I want.
workers are complaining about the difficulty in even finding the URL entry window in Internet Explorer
I agree about IE8; it's why I run Firefox. Of course, even Firefox and Safari start with the focus not on the URL field but the first field in your web page, so that you have to manually shift focus to the URL field. So errors with entering addresses in the page are more a result of the operation of browsers, I think, than strictly UI.
But you can install and run any browser you like; you're not stuck with IE8 if you don't like it. Why don't you have your clients use a different browser?
Hovering over the icons to find out what they are is a delay that is productivity sapping.
Right-click on the taskbar. Select properties. Change the drop-down "Taskbar buttons" to be "Combine when taskbar is full". Click Apply.
Now you have icons with big, descriptive names next to them, and unless you're running more than 7-10 tasks (depending upon resolution), each is individually displayed, not grouped (which the OSX Dock cannot do).
Now your clients don't have to lose their productivity; you can set up their machines better. I won't even bill you for that one...;)
Al Gore does not own a good chunk of Apple... he has the minimal amount of stock to be a director... plus the stock he has earned in stock bonuses.
Someone needs to educate you about Windows7, then. ;^)>
Well, the Windows Taskbar has been around since 1995, well before OSX. The Win7 functionality is what you had in WinXP, with the addition of the Aero Peek; all other functionality is essentially what existed for a decade or so (Windows XP).
I am well familiar with the Windows Taskbar and when it appeared... don't try to educate me on what I train people about daily. However Windows has tried to add the functionality of the OSX Dock to that task bar and done a poor job of it. Your understanding of the Mac dock is a poor understanding... you don't use it. Part of the failing of the Windows Taskbar is trying to be all things... including holding every open doc. We CAN put docs there if we so choose on the OSX Dock but I can think of no reason to do so. I find, and many previous WindowsXP users find, that it stacks too many processes.
Your understanding of Quicklook is apparently limited as well, Puget... which your claim that Quicklook doesn't allow looking at JPGs tells me. Quicklook allows you to not only look at files, but to display them full size as well... for example it will play any movie (in a window or full screen), play any music or sound file, open and allow you to scan through all pages of any document or PDF file, look at any graphic file, to easily find what you are looking for, all without opening the associated application that created that file, so long as there is a Quicklook plugin for that file format (and there are for most).
For seeking out a particular graphic, it allows me to flip through all the graphics in a folder to find the specific one for which I am looking even though I don't know it's name. I can page through a PDF to find a specific line, if necessary without opening it... all from the Finder, or from an open file requestor.
I agree about IE8; it's why I run Firefox. Of course, even Firefox and Safari start with the focus not on the URL field but the first field in your web page, so that you have to manually shift focus to the URL field. So errors with entering addresses in the page are more a result of the operation of browsers, I think, than strictly UI.
That is not my call. With Windows, when I can, I do recommend Firefox. But several of my clients tell me that they have to run IE... and I have tried to get them to use FireFox. However, they insist that they want Internet Explorer because their online suppliers tell them they must. So, who am I to argue. Even when the focus is on the URL address bar, it is STILL almost invisible. That is a UI design choice made by someone at Microsoft.
To make matters worse, the Dell computers they purchased came with FIVE pre-installed toolbars, all of which have input windows that make finding the almost invisible URL tool bar that much more difficult. The first thing I did was disable four of the five... I left the BING tool bar. (there wasn't too much window space left to actually VIEW the internet after Dell got through with adding things to Internet Explorer!)
Apple made the same stupid transparency decision back in Mac OSX.1... and changed away from it to everyone's relief in OSX.2. There are glaring problems with AERO's transparency that I think will be vastly toned down as people get bored with the "Gee, Whiz, that's neat!" look to their desk tops... just as the Mac users did very quickly with OSX.1. Functionaly changes appearance when appearance gets in the way of function... and it should.
This thread is a good example of the problem I have with mac users on FR. dayglored asked that it be kept civil and the windows folks have been professional and kept on topic.
Numerous cheap and off topic comments from the mac crowd. The mac crowd whines that a non-macbot shouldn’t even be allowed to post on mac threads and then sullies a thread like this up with insults.
Thanks for trying dayglored.
If you do that sort of think a lot, check out Powershell and the PSCX extensions for it from SourceForge. Getting a directory list to the clipboard is as easy as:
dir c:\ -recurse | out-clipboard
To send it to the default printer, use out-printer, or use out-file if you want to save it to a file.
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