I admit it! I’ve used Microsoft DOS and Windows for 12 years and was quite happy with it back at that time! I think, I personally and the worls ows Microsoft a lot by making personal computing available to the masses. I’m even a shareholder! I was happy with Windows, but in 2005 I became fascinated by Linux.

So much to configure and you can cater absolutely everything to your own needs. This was exciting! But…. anybody using Linux on the Desktop by 2005 will tell you that from time to time things were tricky and you could AND HAD to spend DAYs configuring. That’s what brought me to the fruit flavored computer manufacturer in 2007. I got the power of a Unix operating system with an unmatched easy of use. I continued to use Ubuntu Linux at work all the time and switched my private rig to it in the beginning of 2013.

So in mid 2013 I switched the department at work and got a „new“ Windows 7 PC. And the fun began…..

The following text will just reflect my opinions and emotions using Windows 7. One of these features might have been implemented in Windows 8 or 8.1. If so, please let me know! If you don’t agree with me feel free to leave or comment and / or flame me ;)

Having used all three major operating systems for years now, I think I can state the following:

For god’s (and my) sake! You’ve been great in „taking over“ ideas. „Adopting“ new user interfaces. „Catching up“ with browser technology. So, Microsoft PLEASE you’ve got to rip off these three features to make the world a better (and more productive) place!

 

First: multiple Desktops

Unix or Linux desktop environgments offer multiple desktops since the nineties. OS X on the Mac introduced them with Leopard in 2007. If you have used multiple desktops: one for work, one for mail, one for grapics, one for a text document, one for development, one for file management etc. you cannot live without them! Maximizing and minimizing applications to get them all on one screen is sooooo early 2000s. We’ve got big screens and we like to be generous with screen space. Since the mid eighties we have understood the concept of a graphical desktop and now, 25 years later, I think the world ist ready to move on! Like all other OS makers have understood already!

Microsoft: PLEASE add multiple Desktops!

 

Second: No scrolling on cursor hovering

This one is really annoying. You might not notice it at first but try it out yourself: You have two windows open and they overlap, say browser full screen in the background and a word document you are working on sitting on top. The word document has focus because you are writing some text and do the research for information in the browser. If you scroll using your mouse-wheel, you scroll inside the Word document. OK, Word has focus and is the active window. Now point with the mouse cursor over the application lying underneath the Word document and do not click. In the example above your mouse cursor would be hovering over the browser window now. If you scroll now using your mouse-wheel the scrolling will still take place in word instead of the browser. Mac OS X and Linux desktop environments will send the scroll events to the application underneath the cursor instead of the focused one. You can scoll in the browser and in the text document simply by hovering with the mouse over the window you want to scroll in without having to click and give focus to the application you want to scroll in.

This might sound as a small issue but I assure you once you got used to this feature you cannot live without it!

So Microsoft: PLEASE add scrolling windows without focus!

 

Third: no „always on top“ option for windows to stay afloat

I tend to „pin“ windows to specific areas of the screen, e.g. a sticky note application or simple text file with a todo list for the day which should always be visible in the corner of the screen. On Linux with GNOME, KDE, Unity and many more desktops you can just tell an application to „stay on top“ no matter what. It can’t be overlapped with anything else.

I might not use this function on a day to day basis but the absence of it is really annoying if you encounter a situation where it would be useful. And because you KNOW THERE IS A SOLUTION already out there, opensource… you can only wonder.

Microsoft: PLEASE add window-stays-on-top functionality!

 

Let me know the features you are missing in Windows which are available in other operating systems! Lets collect our whishes for Microsoft to see and maybe they even will be „inspired“ by some ideas ;)

 

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