Product Planning for Windows...where does your feedback really go?

Artykuł
09/02/2008

Ed. Note: Allow me to introduce Mike Angiulo who leads the Windows PC Ecosystem and Planning team. Mike’s team works closely with all of our hardware and software partners and leads the engineering team's product planning and research efforts for each new version of Windows. --Steven

In Windows we have a wide variety of mechanisms to learn about our customers and marketplace which all play roles in helping us decide what we build. From the individual questions that our engineers will answer at WinHEC and PDC to the millions of records in our telemetry systems we have tools for answering almost every kind of question around what you want us to build in Windows and how well it’s all working. Listening to all of these voices together and building a coherent plan for an entire operating system release is quite a challenge – it can feel like taking a pizza order for a billion of your closest friends!

It should come as no surprise that in order to have a learning organization we need to have an organization that is dedicated to learning. This is led by our Product Planning team, a group of a couple dozen engineers that is both organized and sits with the program managers, developers and testers in the feature teams. They work throughout the product cycle to ensure that our vision is compelling and based on a deep understanding of our customer environment and is balanced with the business realities and competitive pressures that are in constant flux. Over the last two years we’ve had a team of dozens of professional researchers fielding surveys, listening to focus groups, and analyzing telemetry and product usage data leading up to the vision and during the development of Windows 7 – and we’re not done yet. From our independently run marketing research to reading your feedback on this blog we will continue to refine our product and the way we talk about it to customers and partners alike. That doesn’t mean that every wish goes answered! One of the hardest jobs of planning is in turning all of this data into actionable plans for development. There are three tough tradeoffs that we have been making recently.

First there is what I think of as the ‘taste test challenge.’ Over thirty years ago this meme was introduced in a famous war between two colas. Remember New Coke? It was the result of overemphasizing the very initial response to a product versus longer term customer satisfaction. We face this kind of challenge all the time with Windows – how do we balance the need for the product to be approachable with the need for the product to perform throughout its lifecycle? Do you want something that just boots as fast as it can or something that helps you get started? Of course we can take this to either extreme and you can say we have – we went from c:\ to Microsoft Bob in only a matter of a decade. Finding the balance between a product that is fresh and clean out of the box and continues to perform over time is a continual balance. We have ethnographers who gather research that in some cases starts even before the point of purchase and continues for months with periodic visits to learn how initial impressions morph into usage patterns over the entire lifecycle of our products.

Second we’re always looking out for missing the ‘trees for the forest.’ By this I mean finding the appropriate balance between aggregate and individual user data. A classic argument around PCs has always been that a limited subset of actions comprises a large percentage of the use case. The resulting argument is that a limited function device would be a simpler and more satisfying experience for a large percentage of customers! Of course this can be shown to be flawed in both the short term and the long term. Over the long term this ‘common use case’ has changed from typing & printing to consuming and burning CDs and gaming to browsing and will continue to evolve. Even in the short term we have studied the usage of thousands of machines (from users who opt-in of course) and know that while many of the common usage patterns are in fact common, that nearly every single machine we’ve ever studied had one or more unique applications in use that other machines didn’t share! This long tail phenomena is very important because if we designed for the “general case” we’d end up satisfying nobody. This tradeoff between choice and complexity is one that benefits directly from a rigorous approach to studying usage of both the collective and individual and not losing sight of either.

Third is all about timing. Timing is everything. We have an ongoing process for learning in a very dynamic market – one that is directly influenced by what we build. The ultimate goal is to deliver the ultimate in software & hardware experiences to customers – the right products at the right time. We’ve seen what happens if we wait too long to release software support for a new category (we should have done a better job with an earlier Bluetooth pairing standard experience) and what also happens when we ship software that the rest of the ecosystem isn’t ready for yet. This problem has the dimension of working to evangelize technologies that we know are coming, track competing standards, watch user scenarios evolve and try to coordinate our software support at the same time. To call it a moving target isn’t saying enough! It does though explain why we’re constantly taking feedback, even after any given version of Windows is done.

These three explicit tradeoffs always make for lively conversation – just look at the comments on this blog to date! Of course being responsive to these articulated needs is a must in a market as dynamic and challenging as ours. At the same time we have to make the biggest tradeoff of them all – balancing what you’re asking for today with what we think you’ll be asking for tomorrow. That’s the challenge of defining unarticulated needs. All technology industries face this tradeoff whether you call it the need to innovate vs. fix or subscribe to the S curve notion of discontinuities. Why would two successful auto companies, both listening to the same market input, release the first commercial Hummer and first hybrid Prius in the same year? It wasn’t that 1998 was that confusing, it was that the short term market demands and the long term market needs weren’t obviously aligned. Both forces were visible but readily dismissed – the need for increased off road capacity to negotiate the crowded suburban mall parking lots and the impending environmental implosion being predicted on college campuses throughout the world. We face balancing acts like this all the time. How do we deliver backwards compatibility and future capability one release at a time? Will the trend towards 64 bit be driven by application scenarios or by 4GB machines selling at retail?

We have input on key tradeoffs. We have a position on future trends. That’s usually enough to get started on the next version of the product and we stay connected with customers and partners during throughout development to keep our planning consistent with our initial direction but isn’t enough to know we’re ready to ship. Really being done has always required some post engineering feedback phase whether it’s a Community Technical Preview, Technology Adoption Program or a traditional public Beta. The origin of Beta testing and even the current definition of the term aren’t clear. Some products now seem to be in Beta forever! We work to find the best possible timing for sharing the product and gathering final feedback. If we release it too early it’s usually not in any shape to evaluate, especially with respect to performance, security, compatibility and other critical fundamentals. If we release too late we can’t actually take any of the feedback you give us, and I can’t think of a worse recipe for customer satisfaction than to ask for feedback which gets systematically ignored. I was just looking at another software “feedback” site where a bunch of the comments just asked the company to “please read this site!” For Windows 7 we’re going to deliver a Beta that is good enough to experience and leaves us enough time to address areas where we need more refinement. This blog will be an important part of the process because it will provide enough explanation and content and guidance to help you understand the remaining degrees of freedom, some of the core assumptions that went into each area and will structure our dialogue so that we can listen and respond to as much feedback as you’re willing to give. Some of this will result in bugs that get fixed, some will result in bugs in drivers or applications that we help our partners fix. And of course sometimes we’ll just end up with healthy debate – but even in this case we will be talking, we will respond to constructive comments, bugs and ideas and we will both be starting that conversation with more context than ever. So please do keep your comments coming. Please participate in the Customer Experience Improvement program. Give us feedback at WinHEC and PDC and in the newgroups and forums – we’re listening!

Thanks,

- Mike

Comments

Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I think one useful thing Microsoft could initiate is a bug forum, similar to many open source developments. It helps the public to submit problems, and also helps to check if there is a fix done.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
You guys kind of underestimate the influence you have on what the market does. The market has been driven by many of the innovations and strategies that Microsoft has decided to implement. Of course some credit goes to the people giving the feedback but you guys do push new ideas and sometimes they're good ones ;) While you're imagining a 64 bit world, you might also take a look at how you can leverage this backward compatibility issue to invent some new features. Some of which I won't even repeat because if you read the comments, you've seen them over and over. Some from me, and lots from my family on here. Please listen closely to the requests for a unified and standardized UI. Look at the great things that your competition (competition is great!) is doing. Keep supporting your partners in the effort and really look at their ideas. Thanks for the reassurance that you're actually listening =)
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
What about the 'Windows Early Feedback' group on Microsoft Connect? The participants were told that the most voted feature requests would be considered for Windows 7. How is it going?
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
This blog alone proves to me that you (Microsoft) is listening. I applaud your efforts and your openness. What would take feedback to the next level would be a public bug tracker system. Showing people that you are actively working on resolving problems is almost more important than the resolution itself. Also, I find Microsoft's beta products to be more like a trial than a true beta. When I was participating it took me over an hour to find a way to submit a bug. Have a something such as a desktop icon labeled "Submit Bug" in beta versions of Windows 7. You may receive more trivial issues, but in the end you will have a better chance of resolving issues that plague the most people. Finally, I hate to sound like a broken record, but pleasing everyone (the forest) comes down to being modular. For example, when XP came out burning CDs was not common. At the time it should have been an option that advanced users could enable. As time progresses and more people began burning CDs, it could have been enabled through a Windows update. This solution keeps the operating system as small and streamlined as possible while still allowing it to expand to meet the needs of Super Users.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I would also like to add that a public bug submission website dedicated to Windows 7 would be wonderful. Something that is very streamlined and organized for users. Where they can log in with their Windows Live ID and search for a bug and submit it. I realize Microsoft Connect already exists but it is for private registered testers only. I would also like to say that I agree with PRab about making the feature set in Windows as modular as possible. Include a built in utility that lets people install/uninstall all of the modular features of Windows. I realize something like this already exists in Programs and Features but I am thinking on a much larger scale. This would allow users to optimize their system the way they wish. Also include a similar interface in the "advanced custom" setup screen for power users to tweak their windows install during setup.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
i think you put too much emphasis on the novice user and changed things in the ui that the professional or business client used. just one example, i have a lot more, removing the right click options from the network icon in the tray. it's because of all of these ui changes and trying to perform every operation you could think of in the background for novices, every version of vista is "vista home edition". adding encryption as an option does not constitute a business edition.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
It makes me very glad to see what king of process Microsoft is going through to develop the next version of Windows. An eyes inward view is, in my opinion, always helpful when a new product is under development. Is it possible for us to have a list of features that Microsoft has under consideration at this time for Windows 7? I know you guys don't want to drive too much speculation, but it would be nice to have an idea what is currently under consideration. At the very least, you can be sure it will generate an awful lot of discussion about what people do and do not want of the features set provided amongst readers of this blog.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
in Connect? there is some registration somewhere to participate?
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I have seen a few questions for the authors for this blog, but I have not seen a single answer to one. Are you authors sure you are reading these comments? Where does this feedback go?
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
After reading this post I decided to participate in the "Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program". I followed the link provided. Lot of text, but no classic style link "Click here to participate" or "How to get the CEIP stuff going on your PC". Top left there is this install Silverlight link, so maybe the option will show after installing it. And I installed, no error message, only Installation Successful message, restarted the browser (IE7) as install stated, tried installing again, rebooted, tried Firefox etc. but the install Silverlight option keep displaying and no error message and no link or hint on how to get CEIP or Silverlight going. MS must appoint some grannies to test features and pages, as a knowledgeable engineer will not ever realise the web page is fundamentally flawed (The engineer writing this post did not realise that he provided a useless link. And if he did, the CEIP page maintainer will probably arrogantly ignore his complaint)
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
@anttikarhu -- we are reading every single comment (and email I get). I have subscribed to the RSS feeds for comments for each post, categorizing, and passing them along as well (even though many folks on the team also read the blog directly). As I said, we can't answer each question one at a time. What is happening is a dialog--a dialog among the dev team, a dialog among the readers, and a dialog between us all. For example, while we always thought we would post about performance we changed course and did that sooner because so many folks were commenting on perf issues. Similarly, this post on planning is a result of all the emails/comments about "how do you reconcile the conflicting inputs" or "how do you pick features among many choices". Rest assured we are invested in the dialog. @Miek -- you can enable a PC participation via: control panel > problems reports and solutions, on the left pane, "see also" with a link to "Customer Experience Improvement Program" Click that to change settings. In Office 2007 it is in the "Trust Center" (such as File Word Options).
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
@steven_sinofsky: Thank you :) It is critical to let the readers and commenters of the blog to understand the effort you are putting in, and now you convinced at least I-self.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
Wow. I have to say that I am impressed with the level of communication that has opened up with this blog. It gives me confidence that Windows 7 will be a level headed release and that Microsoft is actually interested in hearing everyone's opinion. I just had a completely random thought. What if Microsoft made a public feature suggestion/bug reporting site for Windows 7 that functioned like Digg. One where users could log in and vote up or down feature suggestions. Just random late night food for thought.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
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Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I'm impressed with all this sharing - you guys really seem onto it, I totally agree that a bug reporting site would be amazing, it would simplify the process so, so much more, and it would make it easier to bring important and critical bugs to Microsoft's attention. Thanks for all the effort you guys are putting in - this blog has even inspired me to turn CEIP on!
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
Will microsoft really listen ? I still hope, but I don't believe. IMHO the role of an OS is to provide a good user experience and support the standards (there are a lot of them as pdf, openGL, openCL, the old posix thing...) All of this has been said before, but now you say 'we're listening', so Windows XP is/was a great OS, but it had some problems the successor should fix:

software installation/deinstallation caused registry problems. Taking an Application folder and dragging it to the Trashcan should do.
Highly recommended is full Windows XP compatibility using a virtualization layer. This way you can change big portions of the OS and still keep the backwards compatibility.
clean up the ui design, create a better user experience
Small things, like 'please put an eject button near an usb drive symbol'
Give the users a powerful shell. There is already 'Unix Services for Windows' just integrate it, or a least parts of it
And last, optimize performance so that people do not need new Hardware when they switch to the new OS. The other possibility is going back to windows xp. I really was excited while waiting for Vista. Now I'm using a Mac with a virtualized Windows XP. But I will take a look at Windows 7, when it is just Vista with a different name, this might be my (and many other peoples) last look at Windows...

Anonymous
September 02, 2008
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Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I think the UI engineering has been misled for far too long. You have to face the truth: people don't think in terms of menus, ribbons, trees, taskbar, balloons, etc... Whenever a user sits in front of a computer, it's about having some actions to be done. The best way to achieve these is by decomposing the actions in elementary steps and provide assistance whenever possible in doing this. It's kind of like what's done with user's manuals by the way. The manual describes actions in steps with indications about how to achieve each of them. So the user only has to follow the directives sequentially. My point is that a user interface should be exactly like an interactive user manual. Instead of UI gizmos, an application should focus in wizards. A wizard is the essence of usefulness. It decomposes an action into small achievable steps. So I envision a revolutionnary OS made of wizards or little assistants to get my stuff done. And you have the responsibility as the major actor in the industry to innovate and to supply this fundamentally different way to interact with the computer.
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I think just about everyone outside Microsoft would consider the move for C: to Bob a step backwards. Bob was a reviled product and deservedly so. Having the person responsible for taking our feedback and making trade offs think Bob was a good thing worries me a lot! I found this entire post quite different from the others we've seen as it tried to rationalize Microsoft's choices and basically said "making the choices is tough". We all know that and while we like Vista and many of the choices made, too many bad choices were made in the process. This post does nothing to reassure me that you have a clear set of guiding principles for Windows 7. How about having a fee simple guiding principles:

Windows 7 will be faster than Vista on each and every meaningful performance measure, so long as security and reliability aren't compromised
Windows 7 will work and every effort is made to isolate failure so that subsystems may fail but the system can still run and recover failed subsystems
Microsoft will redouble its efforts with hardware vendors to ensure that drivers work and deliver peak performance
Microsoft will continue to deliver an open and robust set of APIs and menu options that allow users and developers the ability to customize their Windows experience so that Windows is their operating system the way they want it
Security of the system and protecting users' privacy and data are always top priorities
Using Windows 7 should be fun

Anonymous
September 02, 2008
What is the best way to apply as beta tester for Windows 7? Microsoft Connect?

All KB-articles describing how you have to reset COM+ permissions or re-register dll's shouldn't be there. Win7 should make it impossible to mess this stuff up.
Automatic updates should work reliably and automatically. Vista made a big step in the right direction. But sometimes some Vista computers still show me incomprehensible "Failed to update (0x29358734)" errors.
Track unresponsive applications and fix them or tell the developers.
Concentrate on details (fit & finish). That's one of the reasons people like Apple's products.

Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I posted a 4 page bug list (not rant!) on shellrevealed.com when Vista was in beta. Wonder where my feedback really went? It was deleted...
Anonymous
September 02, 2008
Talking about user experience I want to focus on a few things. I don't want to start a XY system is better than Windows or another system is better than XY system. But I getting old, too old for windows xp, here is why On my current system (not windows) I can

plug a second monitor or beamer in my laptop and continue to work, it automatically changes resolution so I'm able to present some power point notes or whatever. THIS IS WAHT CAUSES THE WOW EFFECT when other (windows) users look at me. I don't need to invoke display settings, change resoltuion and monitor settings. When I'm done with the presentation, I unplug the monitor and continue to work- WOW.
When I want to remove an USB stick, I just click the little eject symbo near the drive - done (Remeber I'm too old to do right mouse, remove safely and so on ...).
When I don't like a software, I drag it to the trashcan. I can be sure its gone.
Since I paid for the software, I hear no 'Windows thinks your software isn't genuine'.
I don't have to activate anything (remember I've paid for it).
When I want to reinstall my system, I can. When I want to change hardware of my system, I can (Yes we can, some US citizen said...) I don't have to activate and activate and call by phone to activate. (remember I'm too old and I have no time for activating) So what will user experience look like in Windows 7 ? Is there anything fixed ? USER EXPERIENCE would be a great title for the next blog entry !

Anonymous
September 02, 2008
I agree with the people above and thing that revealing as much information about bug fixing would be a huge plus. There's nothing more frustrating than knowing there's an issue, leaving feedback on one of the company's websites and never having visibility into whether anything is being done or not. This blog is a great idea, as you can lead discussion and address feedback in a centralized way. One of the issues that I can see is people are unaware of where the best place to give feedback is, given that there are so many Microsoft branded websites. As long as you're consistent and lead discussions in the same place, you won't have to scour the web looking for that feedback. I'll admit that I do not know the way Microsoft develops its software, or what sort of guidelines are in place for third party suppliers, however some of the the comments about UI standardization above hit close to home. If there aren't a set of guidelines in terms of UI look and menu layout, there definitely should be. Having watched my parents and grandparents use PCs, as long as programs function the same way, they're good. But many times, one supplier makes software function or look one way, and it's completely different from everything else. I'm sure this sounds like a broken record, but consistency is paramount. One thing I think would be interesting to have addressed in a post would be what you're planning in terms of business focused versions / features. I work for a fairly large company (just over 100,000 full time employees), and I can tell you that switching from XP to a newer OS is not only a technically complicated shift, but also has the potential to negatively impact productivity due to retraining (an example would be the newest version of Office). I'm just curious to know of any feedback you've received from large companies regarding your operating systems as a whole, if you're able to share. As others have said, the openness is very much appreciated, and I, too, would like to know what the best way to get into any future beta would be.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I don't know anything about the "Windows Logo" program for Windows PC OS's, but in the Windows Mobile there are strict guidelines how the UI should look like in order to get the "Designed for Windows Mobile" logo in the products. Could tightening the Windows 7 Logo UI reguirements streamline the UI of commercial applications? I as a buyer see the logo as a mark of some degree of quality, and I think the SW vendors also see the logo as a benefit. But of course you'd have a new thing to balance with - making the guidelines too sloppy creates again "user incompliant" software, making them too strict scares away the SW developers.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
It's great you're actually listening to your customers, but that's only half the issue; acting on feedback is what you really need to start doing. Personally i am sceptical that a multi-billion dollar behemoth of a company is agile enough to react and move to what the market actually wants. it's also pretty easy to see what the market doesn't want from windows 7 - a Vista sp2 i've read stories that you already have over 1000 programmers working on Win7, and from this information i get a horrible feeling that it's already way too far into production to be anything other than another massive and slow lump of bloated code. please don't let this happen! i really hope you guys get it right this time, and give the world the windows it actually wants to buy
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I just signed up to say that it's really great that you guys are actually participating with the technically savvy community and keeping us appraised of the development process of Windows 7. That being said there are a few features/suggestions I thought I would post. Windows 7 definitely needs to be modular. In fact I would go so far as to say it would be a good idea to get rid of the different versions and have a single ultimate version or at least bring it back to two versions like XP had. As Windows continues to add programs and functionality more and more people would want modularity and an easy way to accomplish this would be to have the user be presented with three default install choices (Home, Business, Complete) and a custom install where nearly everything can be customized through check boxes allowing someone to have a machine that just has windows without security center, ie8, wmp, mail, media center, firewall, photo gallery, games, movie maker, defender, backup, defrag, calendar, etc so if they install their own third party applications and don't want the functionality duplication or bloat. Having the three default install options would allow basic users and oems choose an install that will cover all their needs easily while allowing power users to have the freedom to only install what they want be it nothing, everything or somewhere in-between. UI consistency should be worked on in Windows 7 especially in the control panel. A good example is in the appearance section where some settings are still brought up using the old style dialog boxes instead of seamlessly appearing in the window like the new ones do. Other examples are the Windows 3.11 era add font dialog and Windows 2000 era network dialog. Lastly, I think Windows 7 should be 64-bit only. A large number of computers today already have 4GB or more of RAM and a year from now this will be standard making 32-bit computers obsolete. Most people get their Windows licenses with their new computers so releasing a 32-bit Windows 7 would be counter-productive. All computers today have 64-bit processors and my guess is just about any computer capable of running Windows 7 will have one. Microsoft should be innovative here and force change for once instead of lagging behind to suit everyone.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
FOR THOSE WITH LONG BOOT TIME... http://lifehacker.com/396904/make-vista-use-multiple-cores-to-speed-boot-time
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
This does not address feature request. And not all the bugs can be reported through that useless automated program. A lot of bugs does not crash the system. Improper result/behavior, like the Vista Snipping Tool, the erase icon on toolbar is not working, I can't report that, it didn't cause crash.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
AGAIN ABOUT BOOT is a hoax: http://winhlp.com/node/150
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I realize there's lots of potential proprietary information that Microsoft collects about usage and doesn't want to share for competitive reasons, but it sure would be interesting to share it publicly--maybe a top 100 list of things that people do on a couple of the different platforms--kind of like a Google Zeitgeist. If the business case can't be made to give it away for free--depending on its implementation--it might be a nice addition to the a premium MSDN subscription. Something to think about.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
3 little things that irritate me in Vista.

First boot up and the welcome center is shown. But it's not possible to set the welcome center to -> don't show me this no more. The tick becomes visible after the second boot, but it would be nice if I could disable the welcome center immediately.
Clean install of Vista and yet for some reason there are pointless folders under Program Files like "Visual Studio". Which, if I'm not mistaken, is empty anyway or had like 1 file in it...
Why are there two "Windows Sidebar" folders (under both program files directories) in Vista x64? I assume that the Sidebar used in Vista x64 is only the 64-bit version, so there should be only one folder... 1 suggestion for the future: Going from XP to Vista, a lot was changed in the UI. For instance explorer didn't have a menu anymore and the breadcrumb bar was invented. Although Vista has a "Whats new in Vista" link under Welcome Center, it fails to teach the user about these new UI changes, how to use them, and how to get the old behaviour back (eg. press the "alt" key to show the menu in explorer). Currently the only way to learn about these changes if someone tells you about them or you read about them in a book or some Windows review...

Anonymous
September 03, 2008

Updates to Windows Movie Maker: NEEDS to support FLV, DivX, AVCHD, and MOV file formats. Should be a "Publish to YouTube" option (then you could call it "Windows Live Movie Maker"!) When publishing to computer, you should be able to manually select resolution and bit-rate, not just presets.
Update to taskbar: Some people have already suggested being able to manually rearrange taskbar programs by dragging their icon on the taskbar. I would go one step further than this. Not only should you be able to manually rearrange them, but Windows should automatically group them like IE 8 beta 2 groups tabs (i.e. all Windows explorer windows should be grouped together and be the same color).
Start Menu updates: You should be able to put your own custom folders on the right side of the start menu (i.e. instead of "Games" you could put "Videos"). Why don't installed games (not Windows games) show up from Start Search?
Explorer update: Why isn't "Games" available as a drop down selection along with [Your User Name], Public, Computer, Network, Control Panel, and Recycle Bin in the address bar?
Replace "Windows Mail" and "Windows Photo Gallery" with comparative Windows Live products.
Update to Windows Live Photo Gallery: Should be able to fix Raw photos, not just stitch them into panoramas. I'll think of more later, Thanks for listening, Theodore

Anonymous
September 03, 2008
Although I didn't intend to write anything in this post, Fredledingue's comment triggered it. He is absolutely right in his point: don't try to invent stuff we might sometime in the not so distant future perhaps want or need. Better concentrate on the urgent needs and wishes we have at the moment. Take those and you have the tomorrow.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
@WindowsFanboy hey , the Game work in Start search pls modify your indexing option ;)
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I would like to have the ability:

Drop an application into the trash to uninstall it.
3d desktop/explorer to make organizing files and documents easier.
15 second boot to my desktop

Anonymous
September 03, 2008
Gesture technology would be a huge plus as well. The ability to sit at my screen and have Windows 7 look through my camera and allow me to pick up objects and move them between monitors.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
It seems most people are happy with XP, so if you really care, dedicate someone to find out what people liked better in XP and change it back, maybe not as the default behavior, but at least provide an option to get it back. XP did this great, all Win2000 functionality could be brought back by optionsregistry tweaks. Bring back the old Windows Explorer Bring back the classic Win2000 look Bring back dragdrop into console windows
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
Well, nothing better than give feedback about an product in the same time it's developed. More test from comunnity will be a good thing. More betas released to the, much more feedback and more aceptance in the world
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
From Italian forum I attended showed another important fact. Most user uses Objectdock or Rocketdoock. I had created a new thread where explain how to get large icons on our traditional tray (available from windows 98) example http://i33.tinypic.com/t98qvp.jpg over 90% of windows user did not know this simple possibility, and all immediately have configured the new taskbar with large icons. I hope for a new taskbar ,perhaps with some eye candy, but the default windows 7 use large icons pls.and add to bar the software included in the system like DVD maker, Movie Maker , etc. I can assure you that many people do not know the contents of Windows Vista, I do not like to fall in the same error in Windows 7
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
As long as you guys give the OS the possibility to be like Windows XP, then it's all good. XP is close to perfect, you can't improve much upon it, which is why Vista isn't selling well right now. It's more of a downgrade, than an upgrade. It's like Mac Alternative, when it should be the evolution of XP, like Longhorn was. Moving back towards XP, bring back the XP start menu, and bring back animated gif support for the picture viewer. Vista's picture viewer was pretty good, nothing really wrong with it, except for the lack of
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
this is heartening to see MS is finally listening(i hope).. I think the way you are trying to portray the pain and gain of developing windows 7 is actually leading somewhere. People will atleast know what is what. Bring this layer of communication will actually help removing the layer of abstraction between MS and the consumers. This entire thing was missing when Vista came out. People were not really aware what is there and what goes on through a SDLC. Forget about the SDLC, most of them were not even aware of what is there in the new OS. Classic example: "AndiG". With all due respect sir, what you were talking about is clearly Mac OS X. Connecting a secondary display with a different resolution is there in Vista. It works all by itself. I personally connect it to my TV for movies and stuff like that and it works smooth as silk. Moreover that little eject icon that appear at the bottom right corner to eject a removable drive is probably not that big a deal. I am sure MS has enuf technical proficiency to implement something like that. But once implemented it will be made a big deal by some people like you who wants everything to work like Macs. I am sorry but I believe MS has maintained its own identity and will do so in future. I completely trust the people and the brain behind windows. Great job guys and keep it up.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I think a 64 bit world would be great myself. Microsoft just needs to make sure they let people know that they are getting a 64 bit version so people are not spending money on something useless. Then again, they should just keep releasing 32 and 64 bit so people can upgrade. I hope that when Windows 7 comes out the upgrade will be a seamless one. Kind of like upgrading a Mac OS. I think some changes to they System Restore would be nice to. Keep up the work!
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
@anshu_10us. Thanks for reading my comment. I was just trying to show some examples of usability. Maybe the second display works better, now, using Vista. It doesn't with XP and I see it fail at least one time with Vista. But its hard to tell, cause no one uses it. And right, making some things simpler isn't a hard job. So why don't they do it ? They can do it the microsoft way, of course - whatever. People like you may say the WOW effect is the 3d window switching, I believe it lies in all the small things that make a system useable. And am I talking of OS X ? Really ? There are some nice Linux Desktops that are useable too. And I didn't want you to stay away from using Vista ;) If you like it, you're welcome to use it. Why do you need Windows 7 ?
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
I really like posts like this that go into how the job was done. Much like how Google (oh noes! the G-word!) talked about how they tested Chrome (which I'm about to go to the IE blog and the Live Search blog and suggest to them that they go do the same thing; please, please help me convince them too) which was very interesting, and sounds genius, I would like to hear more of how you develop Windows. So how are the teams organized? How are features decided upon? How does the average Windows programmer code during their work day? (And so on, and so forth.) This, I'm sure, doesn't ruin your preparations for WinHEC and PDC (which as I've said, this blog must have been planted in place with preparation for those events a major goal) and more importantly, is very interesting to the readers of this blog. So please; tell us more about how Microsoft is building Windows?
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
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Anonymous
September 03, 2008
Along the lines of calculating boot times... There must be some equation for computing hardware specs to software to determine the boot time impact a specific installation has on the OS. This sort of feature could be given a fancy UI that displays before installing the application. "This application will affect boot time by X amount". Something the user optionally clicks before installing an application or feature.
Anonymous
September 03, 2008
@anshu_10us You said exactly what I'm thinking which is that we are trying to share the context of building Windows 7. This is the dialog we are trying to have. it is like a dinner time discussion among friends--you don't show up to dinner with a list of topics and get feedback, but let the conversation go where it does as we talk about our shared perspectives on many issues. We listen and change course along the way. Thanks, Steven
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
hmm, the more comments i read from people making suggestions of what they want to see in Win7, the more it sounds like Windows XP...
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
Just make public or restricted forum with bugs,questions.development ,bugs and help sections so it would be easier for everyone when things are organized. ( Make the UI look like windows 7 not just a normal looking forum ). Make alpha versions for user testing with form to make account before you can get private copy so people would understand how risky and everything else is before they start using it. If development is slow or unclear and there isn't time for forums and faster release versions then people should wait for betas what would be more stable for daily task users. Sooner is always better than later! Giving program more testing space will quicken the incompatibilities and will help to quicken the bug findings and shouldn't be a drawback at all if there is more time to work on them.
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
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Anonymous
September 04, 2008
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Anonymous
September 04, 2008
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Anonymous
September 04, 2008
You see, what has happened is that the tab bar has become the taskbar.
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
I appreciate Microsoft's attitude in response to the comments on this blog and their willingness in having a genuine two way dialog for improving Windows 7. Since Windows XP was a super successful product release across the whole industry which was very well received by almost everyone (almost because it had its own weaknesses such as security and instability due to registry pile up), why not take into consideration how, where and what exactly did the MS dev ppl did different, or did wrong in Vista, what exactly was lost or removed while redesigning stuff and compare it to Windows XP? Huge parts of the Vista OS and especially UI shouldn't have been changed at all in the first place. I say this knowing about the architectural and under the hood improvements in Vista. Please develop Windows 7 with the focus most on productivity and automation. Please do something to fix what makes Windows unstable after months of use. MS is currently acting as if there is no Registry and absolutely no clutter cleanup issues, Windows Installer isn't a feasible solution since it's overhead is quite large. After RTM too, Microsoft only advertised Vista's end user features. It didn't highlight the ones for IT pros and the ones for developers are little known even today. Some little known Vista's native APIs are going unused in apps being built today.
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
As for UI consistency, the OS bundled apps are pretty consistent in comparison to ISV apps which always have their custom UI. The logo requirement should be made more stringent for apps that don't follow the native UI or don't implement clean buttons, colors and themes. Also, the Windows team should beef up the OS bundled 'accessories' to full-fledged apps.
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
Google releases Chrome browser as a mini OS Software By Christian Zibreg Tuesday, September 02, 2008 14:02 http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39147/140/ eek! I am SO stupid!!!
Anonymous
September 04, 2008
I really like that last one by Justausr, "Using Windows 7 should be fun"
Anonymous
September 05, 2008
I think the biggest thing the Windows 7 bunch can do is kick off stalepie. I realise it may not make the OS any better but my online life will improve no end
Anonymous
September 05, 2008
Back talking WIndows 7.. it would be nice to have the TAB on Notepad ,with the possibility to write Link. Another future that we can add to the already wonderful CAPTURE Windows Vista would write text, with perhaps some future more comic type etc..
Anonymous
September 05, 2008
Just a thought... Maby you could use the group policy editor to create somewhat different looking standard views for the ui. The home versions could use somewhat simplyfied ones, while the business and enterprice versions could be using other configurations aimed at their demands. Those profiles could then be changed by the system administrator if someone wanted a different "default look". In addition to having the system administrator creating individual profiles using gpedit, there could be some defaults like "simple interface", "advaned interface" etc... This miht solve the problem that different users have different computer experience and thus different demands for the ui, some prefer a clean and simple looking one while others want a more feature filled.
Anonymous
September 08, 2008
@ S.Umair - thank you for your question about DST in Pakistan. Sorry we made it hard to know how to get this request to us! We do know about this one in particular and we will have the Pakistan DST change in the December 2008 DST/TZ Release. We schedule 2 DST/TZ releases a year, one in August and an Annual cumulative package in December. These changes go through a verification process with the governments of the regions to ensure accuracy/validity prior to filing a formal request for a DST/TZ change which is why it takes some time to get the change delivered.
Anonymous
September 17, 2008
My only comment is actually listen, not to sound negative but with Vista Microsoft ignored a lot of what was asked and got downright smug with it. After seeing the Beta 2 of IE 8 it still seems like the same old Microsoft, you really need to drop the "We are Microsoft we know better"
Anonymous
September 22, 2008
User Access Control Microsoft programmers way of saying "Hey we're idiots - and don't know how to secure the O/S". Let mum and dad do it for us.
Anonymous
August 15, 2009
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Anonymous
November 23, 2009
Please develop Windows 7 with the focus most on productivity and automation. Please do something to fix what makes Windows unstable after months of use. MS is currently acting as if there is no Registry and absolutely no clutter cleanup issues, Windows Installer isn't a feasible solution since it's overhead is quite large.
Anonymous
April 24, 2010
It makes me very glad to see what king of process Microsoft is going through to develop the next version of Windows. An eyes inward view is, in my opinion, always helpful when a new product is under development. Is it possible for us to have a list of features that Microsoft has under consideration at this time for Windows 7? I know you guys don't want to drive too much speculation, but it would be nice to have an idea what is currently under consideration. At the very least, you can be sure it will generate an awful lot of discussion about what people do and do not want of the features set provided amongst readers of this blog.

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