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The 30 Best Features of Windows
Barence writes "PC Pro has picked out its 30 best features of Windows 8. Its countdown includes features such as the revamped Task Manager, the option to run ISOs and VHDs natively, and Windows To Go, which allows you to take a portable installation of Windows 8 with you." They've also listed ten features they'd like to see added to Windows 8, "including the return of the Start button on the desktop, virtual desktops and one-click sharing of optical drives."
A few months ago, I accepted what at first appeared to be a very simple job: remove a virus from someone's computer. Given the fact that I owned a PC repair shop (and I still do) and had over 15 years of experience, I was confident that I could complete the job in a timely manner without any complications along the way. Little did I know, however, that accepting this job would spiral my life into a nightmarish den of anguish and uncertainty.
First, I tried booting up the PC. When Windows finally loaded, it became apparent that this was no ordinary virus; it was a merciless monstrosity of a virus that would stop at nothing to ruin your entire life. However, despite this, I bravely pressed on and attempted to combat the virus. "I absolutely will not let a mere virus scare me off!" I thought.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts at removing the virus and after exhausting every single option to combat viruses that I had, I finally realized that the situation was absolutely devoid of hope. This was a virus more fearsome than any other, and it was simply impossible for someone with my abilities (skilled as I was) to fight against it alone. Even reinstalling the operating system completely didn't help. I quickly sank into a pit of depression and despair.
Being that I was extremely stressed due to my numerous failures, I began verbally abusing my wife and kids a few days after I received the job. This situation soon worsened when I began resorting to physical abuse in order to relieve some of my anger. Eventually, after not being able to withstand my daughter's constant moans and whines any longer, I locked her in the basement in order to retain an ounce of my sanity.
That's when I had a stroke of genius: "If I can't fight this nightmare alone, then why don't I call in the World's Greatest Minds?" I immediately contacted the World's Greatest Minds and pleaded that they examine the computer. To my delight, they accepted the proposal, collected the computer, and began their experiments.
After weeks of trial and error, numerous experiments, and many failures, the World's Greatest Minds had at last reached a conclusion. They contacted me by phone and told me that this, being no ordinary virus, called for extreme measures. They quite vehemently recommended the use of MyCleanPC to combat the virus and destroy its very existence once and for all. "MyCleanPC will completely eradicate the virus without a single problem," they enthusiastically told me.
As soon as I got the computer back from the World's Greatest Minds, I installed MyCleanPC, ran a free scan, and then sat back and watched in awe as it totally eliminated the very same virus that I had spent weeks trying to get rid of in mere seconds! MyCleanPC had accomplished a feat that nothing else in existence could have accomplished! I was positively astonished by MyCleanPC's miraculous performance.
What was my daughter's response, you ask? "MyCleanPC is outstanding! My dad's client's computer is running faster than ever! MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could! I recommend that you use MyCleanPC right this minuteness to fix all of your problems!"
MyCleanPC totally cleaned up my client's system, and increased his speed! As a computer repair professional, I highly recommend that you use MyCleanPC to fix all of your problems. That's not all: The World's Greatest Minds also recommends MyCleanPC for all of your computer repair needs. By using MyCleanPC, you're ensuring that your gigabits will be running faster than ever, that all viruses will vanish off of your computer in seconds, and tha
About six months ago, I was overexerting myself trying to get rid of a terrible virus on a client's PC (I own a PC repair shop and have been fixing computers for over 10 years). Given my level of expertise, I thought I'd be able to get rid of it fairly quickly and without hassle, but as was made evident by my colossal failure, I was horribly, horribly wrong.
I couldn't remove the virus no matter what method I used. I tried all the latest anti-virus software and all the usual tricks, but it was all in vain. Failure after failure, my life was slowly being sucked away as I spent more and more of my time trying to get rid of this otherworldly virus.
Frustrated and stressed by my own failure, I began distancing myself from my wife and children. After a few days, I began verbally abusing them, and it eventually escalated into physical abuse. I was slowly losing what remaining sanity I had left. If this had continued for much longer, it is highly probable that I would have committed suicide. A mere shell of what I once was, I barricaded myself in my bedroom and cried myself to sleep for days on end.
That's when it happened: I found MyCleanPC! I installed MyCleanPC right on the client's PC, ran a scan, and it immediately got rid of all the viruses without a single problem. MyCleanPC accomplished in record time what I was unable to accomplish after a full week. Wow! Such a thing!
MyCleanPC is outstanding! My client's computer is running faster than ever! I highly recommend you install MyCleanPC right this minuteness, run a scan, and then boost your PC speed in record time! MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could!
My client's response? "MyCleanPC totally cleaned up my system, and increased my speed!" All the PC repair professionals are using MyCleanPC to solve all of their problems. This should be reason enough for you to switch to MyCleanPC! It'll speed up your computer, rid it of all viruses, and you'll be able to work productively again! Wow!
Even if you're not having any obvious computer problems, you could still be in danger. That's why I very highly recommend that you still use MyCleanPC. After all, it will boost your PC & internet speed to levels you never would think are possible!
MyCleanPC: For a Cleaner, Safer PC.
Is that Windows 8 has 30 features
#1 Feature: You *don't* have to run it!!!!! Stick with Win 7, or Linux, Mac OS X!
Remember, Windows 7 is really Vista ver. 2.0.
Windows 8 will be another Windows ME, or Vista...
Don't pay to be a Beta tester for Microsoft operating systems!
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Computing redefined for people who REALLY like glossy magazines and coffee table books.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It sounds like they want to copy KDE.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I'm not clicking through 8 pages, each of which seems to load a popup, just to read a list of 30 items. And judging from the first couple of pages I could stand to look at, the article is hyping up some very un-newsworthy information indeed! There's nothing worse than a site with tid bits of "information" surrounded by an orgy of advertising. Get lost!
Yet another "click here dozens of times so we can get more advertising revenue" article. This could have been done in 3-4 pages, not 10+.
They also clearly haven't used Windows 7 as it has the ability to mount VHDs as well. (Windows 8 improves upon that by adding ISO mounting support) The way they wrote that "feature" is as if the VHD mounting is absent in previous versions.
LOAD ".SIG"
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
Out of all the 30 listed features, none of them seem to be really new, only new to windows.
Mounting ISO with double click, tiling window manager, and all the rest have been seen on other OSs for several years now, namely, desktop linux, webos and android/iOS.
Can be replaced.
And that, my friends and enemies, is the very best reason. Only knowing God could be best that, and you can't, not yet.
10. Quit whoring for pageviews with needlessly split up articles
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
if windows continues to be what it is: a second rate UI on top of a third rate DOS, on top of a fourth rate scheduler.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
To me, where BitLocker or another disk encryption tool means the difference between a hardware write-off and insurance claim versus having to report to every manager up a chain, as well as the press, I consider the basic Windows 8 security upgrades to BitLocker important.
It would be nice if they would allow non-TPM encryption without a USB flash drive, because not many machines have TPM/TCG compatible motherboards these days.
However, I can deploy images that are already BitLocker encrypted, or just tell the machine to encrypt used space in Windows 8. With the new hardware encrypted HDDs, I can have BitLocker deal with those as well.
Yes, this is boring, but anything that ensures that an attacker isn't going to get data should a laptop be stolen is important for day to day IT.
I agree with number 1 (Bring back the start button) if only for consistencies sake. Windows has had a start button for years and years, and most graphical operating systems have some a main system button in one form or another. Why fix it if it ain't broken? (An argument that could probably be applied liberally to 8's new GUI...)
Number 2: Blu-ray support would be nice, but I actually like how they have removed most of the optical media licensing crap to the media/media pro packs (or whatever they are called). By the time 8 is out, I would bet a majority of consumer-grade computing devices won't have an optical drive. Blu-ray should be supported in the media pack, but I have no qualms if it isn't in the default stack of cards.
As for number 3 (One Click Optical Drive Sharing), I think this might be the most valid criticisms on the list, mainly for the same reasons stated above: optical drives are going away. I currently have one optical drive in the house and have it shared via samba and few other ways, but this is a read-only approach.
Number 4 (Drag to open) doesn't seem like a very harsh criticism, it feels more like list padding. I don't use drag and drop for just about anything after having found the keyboard is much faster though, so I should recuse myself from commenting on this one.
As far as Virtual Desktops go (Number 5), it is technically unfeasible, for reasons I don't quite remember. Something to do with the way Windows handles windows which has escaped me for the moment. Nevertheless, there are third party applications of varying quality that already implement this, to a varying degree.
Bring back visualbasic? (Number 6) No. Just no. That thing was a mess. Friends don't let friends script VB, drunk or otherwise.
Number 7: Fonts preview app: I have the win8 consumer preview running in vmware right now, and the font folder looks pretty much untouched from win7. It still lets you preview installed fonts. More list-padding?
I've got an easy fix for 8 (Dual-pane explorer). Use two explorer windows, one on the right one on the left. Or feel free to use something like Total Commander or its variants. They still make those, right?
As for 9, I'm sure Microsoft is going to give a little polish to the out-of-box-experience. Just cause the alpha doesn't have it, doesn't mean it won't be there.
10 is valid. I don't like where the shutdown button lives on win8. Move it up one level, just so that it is a little easier to find. I don't like to hunt and peck for a basic system function.
"I'm not clicking through 8 pages" -- You should read their Windows 1 feature then.
That abomination that is Metro is enough to kill the deal for me. I will use Win 7 until it's end-of-support. Meanwhile, I'm dual-booting Xubuntu so that when 7 comes to an end, I'll already be comfortable with a different OS.
has been replaced by Seamus, the yelping Irish Setter lashed to the top of Mitt Romney's station wagon for those long directory searches.
Half of those "new" features are already in Windows 7, like AppLocker. I have USB3 support now. Sure, it's not "native", but it works, so who cares?
A lot more interesting are the new features under the hood of Windows 8 server. Take a look at this article for example: Optimizing for Latency-Sensitive Applications: scenario overview.
Sure, it's not visible or shiny, but wow those are some big changes!
It's too bad that one of the features of Windows 8 isn't "Not a piece of crap".
Some sort of integrated 'Games' service 'for Windows' that I could connect to 'Live'. Just so I could play such popular games as 'Shadowrun' with my many friends (but no more than 100).
But I'll understand if that technology is currently unworkable.
The best feature is that I can wait for the first service pack to see if it works ok. I have no NEED for Windows 8.
Why would you be looking for new features in an article about the best features? You are aware they're not the same, right? And often, new features don't work very well right? So, from a logic standpoint, I'd expect many of the best features of most OSes to be anything but new.
#3 is not new. It has been done before... on Linux for decades and under Windows using special tools... some even Microsoft tools.
#4 is not a feature. It's just that they didn't "Vista" the next version.
#5 Really?! Being able to do what switches and soft-switches have been doing for a very long time now "supported by the OS" is a feature? Way to copy Microsoft.
#6 More cloud? People are still interested in this?
#7 Windows Store? Worked for Apple... should work for Microsoft too right? I doubt it. People don't want that. Apple gives them no choice, the go back to Windows. Microsoft gives them no choice, they go to...?
#10 Really? Typing on touchscreens are already kind of a pain and kind of difficult... often made worse by "predictions" and "corrections" made by the entry system. Now they will tell you which fingers to use when typing?
#12 Again, NOT doing something or doing less of something is a feature?
#14 Improved compared to what?
#15 Once again, taking from your "developers developers developers!" The path to "success" is laid out before them... just copy what your developers do into your products and put them out of business.
#18 Now they are copying "pirates" too! Nice.
#23 Groups? Is that anything like folders in the old menu structures? Is it new or is it how the old menus were moved into the new look?
#29 Native support for a technology that has been out for a while. Feature? It is as far as Microsoft is concerned.
#30 Been at it with Linux for what? Seems like forever. It's new for them, old for everyone else.
I'm too lazy to comment on all of them. Some are more "newish" but none are must-haves or earth shattering.
For the thousands of people who realize that maybe a Linux distro isn't that difficult after all, and decide to wipe this version of Windows, that doesn't seem meant for their desktop, off their hard drive.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
...features that have been in every other operating system for years.
I can't believe people get excited for this. Now we have to deal with all the fanboys who every time they see these things in other operating systems are going to yell about people ripping off Microsoft.
I tried to come up with the 30 best features of Windows 1. I don't think it had 30 features, even counting startup and shutdown.
this time?
Why cant you mouse over the volume status in the system tray and roll your scroll wheel to change your volume? Linux has had it for over a decade.
Really Microsoft, people would not mind it you implement this feature.
vi +
Missing feature from the article: how well Windows 8 can be overwritten with Linux.
Missing feature from Windows 8: avoiding the Windows tax.
Now for my karma points, here's a link for the article on one page: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/374587/30-best-features-of-windows-8/print
It is so annoying everytime if I just want to look at a file or to open it in different editor, or delete I file I need first to search the app that opened it. In Linux you just open the file with whatever you want, move it, delete it, etc. no problems.
#2, virtual desktops.
If I work on a project and then want to look something up, or someone comes with an USB stick and I need to copy it, and open the files, I just switch the desktop. It's like you have one table full of stuff, then you go to a different table to eat your pizza, and then you go back to your work table. You don't put away your work stuff so you can eat the pizza, you just go to the kitchen table.
#3 Fast file system checks.
The fsck on Linux takes only 20 seconds for 100GB (ext4) why does Windows need minutes for a check?
#4 A good command prompt
I really hate the 1990 DOS command prompt. Can we please have a modern command prompt in the year 2012? A modern cmd prompt is: any true type font, any size also full size, completition of commands with tab key, searchable history of cmds, different background, different text color, etc. For an example of a modern cmd prompt, see Konsole (KDE).
#5 Ease change of the desktop environments
I mean a complete change, not just like a theme. I really like to replace the whole Windows desktop with KDE.
#6 Good SSH integration.
In Linux I can type in anywhere: ssh-add and it adds my ssh key for every program. Why can't it be that easy in Windows?
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Yawn...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Clearly Microsoft hears complaints from users that computers are too complicated. Their solution, unfortunately, is to keep hiding things. Like that helps.
I think it started with "personalized menus": the menu items you haven't used in a while get hidden... which rather defeats the purpose of menus, because you're less likely to remember seeing those less-used features to know they exist, and when you go looking for them, they're concealed. Filename extensions apparently confused some people, so now they're hidden... making it easier to trick people with trojans disguised as Word documents, befuddling them when they see two files (of different types) with the same name, and rendering files "unopenable" if they get saved somehow with the wrong (hidden) extension. They've been doing it with IE in a big way: taking buttons off the standard toolbar, removing button labels, and recently hiding the whole damn pull-down menu bar! The MS Office "ribbon" left me scratching my head trying to find the "print" button (or menu option) the first time I encountered it. The Start button has lost the word "start"... not exactly hidden, but no longer as easy for newbies to find when told to click on it. In Win7 (maybe it was Vista), the "log off" and other I'm done-using-the-computer options are now hidden under a non-descript arrow button. And now in Win8 (which I've looked at in preview only long enough to get frustrated trying to re-orient myself) they've hidden the Start button altogether, and made Shutdown even harder to find.
Instead of actually simplifying the system, what they're doing is the equivalent of sweeping the complexity under a rug. It's still there. And often you still need it. But it's harder to get at. They're shoving more and more features into the system... then hiding them away. Along with a bunch of the old ones. Eventually it will get simple enough for my aged mother to use it... but by then I will find it totally unusable.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Here's the list not spread over 9 pages. I'm surprised there are 30 new things worth commenting on.
#1. Interactive tiles
#2. Task Manager
#3. Run ISOs and VHDs natively
#4. No new hardware requirements
#5. Airplane mode
#6. SkyDrive integration
#7. Windows Store
#8. Interactive lock screen
#9. Split-screen apps
#10. Split touch keyboard
#11. App contracts
#12. Fewer surprise restarts
#13. Cross-device synchronisation
#14. Improved 3G support
#15. Built-in antivirus
#16. Picture passwords
#17. Instant search
#18. Windows To Go
#19. Secure Boot
#20. Revamped Explorer
#21. Restore PC
#22. Thumbnail previews
#23. Metro groups
#24. Kinect for Windows
#25. AppLocker
#26. Reset PC
#27. File copy revamp
#28. Faster boot times
#29. Native USB 3 support
#30. Panoramic background images
and none of it makes up for metro.
fix for 1
http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/
I don't bring my desktop on airplanes and that's the whole point.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I have to admit, i LIKE this feature. Everybody with me: Windows TO GO GO GO.
I kept comparing them to win 2k and win xp and just said "I don't need any of that".
It really sucks when a corporation wants to "Shape" an OS instead of just making it a jack of all trades so that people who have been quite happy without an app store, don't need a "metro" interface and just want a gaming machine or a programming machine are ignored.
It's even worse because they have the ability to stop supporting the Operating systems that are useful. I don't need a shiny new interface. Just let me keep playing my games and earning a living.Don't hop up on that idiotic "oohhhhh my phone will winzors the world" cause there's a bunch of folks like me, and even more that are retiring and have diminished eyesight and won't be able to use the smart phone platform.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I can't believe they forgot the best feature -- the ability to be removed from one's computer. ;-)
I was using some of those things you are asking for on a Win2k desktop in 2001, with a little help from a machine on the network. Now you can do it all with the help of a virtual machine on the physical host:
Virtual desktops, desktop environments, Good SSH integration - I was doing that with X Windows on the Win2k desktop. Any X program that supports the extensions available can run across the network and a Window Manager is just another program to X. I was running KDE and Enlightenment on the remote host and using it to manage the local screen, so not just stuck with the twm and fvwm available to cygwin. Now cygwin supports a pile of other stuff and there are of course a pile of other X windows implementations for MS Windows.
Decent shell and terminal? Cygwin can be used to handle things locally. There are many others, from Norton Commander style things on.
File locking sucks and still happens despite it being years sicne the introduction of the volume shadow copy hack (which finally made MS Exchange more than just a toy without reliable backups). There has to be some sort of third party file browser that exploits volume shadow copy and lets you do things with opened files.
The best feature of Windows is that it's FREE!
You are welcome on my lawn.
ten features they'd like to see added to Windows 8, including the return of the Start button on the desktop
It's called the Stockholm syndrome, an "apparently paradoxical psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them"
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I really hope Windows 8 includes MyCleanPC by default!
If not, & I skimmed the article only briefly? They should have. Services you don't use in Windows 8 automatically shutdown.
It saves a lot of RAM, CPU cycles, & other forms of I/O associated with those self-terminating services that are unused, plus, process mgt. thrash in the scheduler & memmgt subsystems is less as well (bonus).
(As well as the possibility of an unsecured service with a security flaw in it!)
However, services in Windows 8 are in 'isolation' better now too than before (username/groupname priveleges etc./et al running them).
* I've done all of the above manually for decades to Windows NT-based OS, & it just works (for added speed, security, & even stability...)
APK
P.S.=> I don't think I'll ever like metro over the start button interface I've been using since 1994 in the Win9x betas. That much was noted, & I think the option should be introduced to switch back for say, a PC &/or Server but leave Metro for phones...
... apk
i dunno what Microsoft is thinking with windows 8. didn't google try the same crappy look its a wbpage desine with chrome os and look how well that went. most just wanna see it dead in favor of a official x86 android. . i agree with everyone hear windows 8 will be another vista disaster where nobody will want it and actively seek downgrades to 7 or run linux. then of course by 9 they will bring back stuff they should have never removed and it will be a hit.
Use them! Although they do prompt to print or not. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
It sounds like they want to copy KDE.
Let me know when the copy the almost virus and malware free feature offered by KDE/Linux - it's not quite the same as the free virus and malware feature they seem to have in the current versions of Windows.
Initialize the the disk platter with GRUB, load Ubuntu, and have m$ in VMWare.
Otherwise? It's Mothers Day, appreciate the one that loves you; even when you search for a Start Button.
Obviously, you are not familiar with sarcasm. You must be new here?
Or the sarcasm wasn't very funny or poignant.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Is it a good idea to make Task Manager consume even more CPU cycles? Especially if you're using it to find an application that is using 99% of the CPU9s) in the first place?
Free as in ...um?
At first I thought Microsoft was drinking soo much of their own metro tablet coolaid it had melted their collective brains and caused them to go insane.
Then I quickly realized a deeper truth. In their rush to emulate Apple MS no longer cares about me or my needs. A list of 30 useless features and a big fuck you over start menu makes my point for me. It is not about "new" or changes.. It is about flushing their existing market in an attempt to make more money in a different one currently saturated by Apple.
Oh and.. you gotta love being able to run two applications at once on the same display... Like rediscovering dos era deskview all over again...WOW.
So long MS.
bitch, please...
http://www.pcpro.co.uk//features/374587/30-best-features-of-windows-8/print
I won't click through those 8 pages just to read everything..
Hah! Captcha: favors
" - their done."
It's "- they're done" as in "- they are done"! Their is a possessive pronoun.
...across two consecutive versions!
Holy shit has slashdot fallen. Never in my wildest nightmares did I think /. would have an article on the best features of an upcoming windows release. What a fucking joke...
Mounting ISO images has available for years through Windows add-ons, and even longer as a standard part of more advanced systems like OS X and Linux.
VirtuaWin is neither buggy nor slow. I've used it for years on XP boxes, and even though I prefer some Linux virtual desktop implementation, this one is at least as good than most of those.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
There are only three features I'd like to see there:
1. Proper CLI. Enough is enough, just fucking give up and port zsh and ship the OS with a suite of unix-like CLI tools. While they're at it, kill the drive letters and switch to using slashes in paths.
2. Full blown native PDF support, like in Linux and Mac OS X.
3. SSH
I'm quite surprised that no-one's commented on using Windows Live login to access your PC. Everyone's too busy complaining about the metro interface (which I agree sucks). But considering the privacy minded folks here, having windows force you to use the Windows Live login for everything is akin to Google linking all their databases together.
1.
hiberfile.sys it's fine - good idea to use the increased multicore power to save the state but does it cut the power?
Do you have the option to do a traditional shutdown whereby when you restart, you want to see a clutter free fresh restart rather than an encumbered load of x open apps and open folders everywhere.
2.
Applocker - it's fine but will Microsoft try to nanny the customer with preconfigured policies of apps that can be locked. I don't want Microsoft telling me what to do, for example, having a template pre-bundled that locks out Frirefox would tick me off. Can M$ be trusted with this?
3.
"To unlock a Windows 8 PC, simply swipe upwards on a tablet device, or press the spacebar on a laptop or desktop."
That could potentially be extremely annoying.
4.
Secure boot. Anti-root kitting - I'm all for that but, Windows doesn't have the right to monopolize the hardware. If they do, I'll only have one OS on my next machine and guess which one that will be? UBUNTU
I read as far as where the article says "Our own Jon Honeyball has argued that it “isn’t reasonable for the majority of PC users to have to put up with unsecured booting, simply because an alternative OS vendor can’t be bothered to go down the same route”."
Then I stopped reading in disgust. Some people just don't get it.
.. there's nothing I can see here that has me excited. I know that this is all great stuff if you've been stuck with just windows but if you've gone out and tested other platforms this listing is mediocre.
http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/cc817881
The other sysinternals are also worth checking out http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/bb842062
That is all it is, pure and simple.
Move along here. Nothing important to see.
1. Proper CLI. Enough is enough, just fucking give up and port zsh and ship the OS with a suite of unix-like CLI tools.
Ahem, zsh doesn't hold a candle to PowerShell. PowerShell being truly object oriented ties in much better with Windows than any unix-like shell ever could. Already it is much more powerful than even the feature-rich zsh. Instead of special case galore, PowerShell has more generic features and very high consistency.
Examples of generic features: Commands do not have switches or options to control their output, like e.g. ls or ps. Instead PowerShell includes a few "formatting", output and conversion cmdlets such as Format-List, Format-Table, ConvertTo-Csv, Out-GridView. You know, back to the "commands should do one thing good and one thing only". Why would commands to navigate the file system need to have output options?
Another example of how PowerShell simplifies through generic features: Through providers external hierarchies can be mapped to a PowerShell "drive" where you can then use the very same cmdlets to navigate and manipulate it (cd, ls, rm). This is not the Unix "map everything to a file" idea; the items in the hierarchy are still very much their own types which may expose their own properties and methods and often have their own access control. Yes, you can now "cd" into the registry or the cert store and manipulate the objects using familar and consistent commands.
And Windows 8 will come with PowerShell 3 which sports workflows. This allows robust, suspendable and resumable scripts which can even script across machine restarts. This is not the Unix "suspend process" - this is actually suspending to disk and resumed days later or may be even resumed on a *different* machine, still picking up the state, variables and progress from when it was suspended.
While they're at it, kill the drive letters and switch to using slashes in paths.
Uhm. Between Libraries and PowerShell that's pretty much done. After libraries drive letters don't really matter any more. And PowerShell allows both backwards and forward slashes.
2. Full blown native PDF support, like in Linux and Mac OS X.
Yeah, well.
3. SSH
OpenSSH exists for Windows. You can use PowerShell across SSH, but PowerShells built-in remoting features (based on WinRM) are much more powerful, for instance multiple remote sessions (not just piping to/from a remote shell but actually marshalling stuff such as return codes, exceptions, progress and events back to the controlling console so that it can be meaningfully scripted), fan-out remoting (executing same script block on multiple remote hosts simultaneously and consolidating the results back to the controlling console), implicit remoting (importing commands of a remote session to create "local" commands which will implicitly execute on the remote host) etc.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
I've obviously not been using Windows for a while... When did the start button disappear?
Follow me
Does it run Linux?
1. Powershell is included by default on all recent Windows systems. If that's not your cup of tea, there's plenty of alternatives. My preferred is bash, and it's "native" (POSIX syscalls, not win32, which among other things means it uses UNIX-style paths).
2. It's an in-the-base-install Metro-style app on the latest preview build. This article is shit, but you could have done the trivial research to discover this for yourself. By the way, "Linux" has no PDF support at all, although many distros include a PDF viewer.
3. Remote Desktop works well enough for most Windows users (and is a lot faster than X forwarding over the same network connection). Powershell supports secure remote operation, effectively covering SSH's use case between Windows machines. If you want SSH specifically, enable the POSIX subsystem and install openssh like I did (it's in the SuaCommunity repository, server and client).
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
If Linux gets something Windows or MacOS have had for years, like, day, the ability to play sound from more than one program at a time without special setup or hardware mixing, that is a major improvement, something to be lauded, etc. However if Windows gets a feature something else has had, it gets looked down on, as though the first OS to get the feature should be the only one, ever.
A paradox that people often fact in modern times is that more choice can lead to less happiness. People are presented with a bunch of choices they don't understand, so they are unhappy with whatever choice they make because they fear it is the wrong one. Or they get paralyzed by all the choices and simple don't make one at all. It is a real problem that has been studied. There is a book and a talk on it called The Paradox of Choice.
This is a problem many Linux distros have is they want to install a shit ton of stuff in the name of "user choice". They'll put 10 media players on a system with the idea of "you can use the one you want" but all it ends up doing for non-technical users is confusing them.
As such it can make sense to hide choices from average users. Give them a default presentation that is what they get. More advanced users can then go and mess with things, if they wish.
This is probably a very unpopular opinion but I actually like Windows 7, enjoy working with it also during my spare time and on top of that have become pretty fluent with Office 2010 as well (switched when openoffice went down the drain).
But Windows 8? Gimme a break. As much as I enjoy Metro on my Windows phone I just couldn't manage to even remotely enjoy it on my desktop. Metro only gives desktop users a terrible headache IMO.
And this article clearly shows that these guys don't understand much about it either. Take the point about the task manager; they claim it makes things easier. Well; it doesn't. The power of the current task manager (win7) is that you start with a minimal set of info which you can expand on if required (the tab after 'services'; check the button "resource control" or something close enough). All Win8 has added is bloat. More meters, more gui; that's not what we need.
When something goes awry you need stuff such as 'top' (or win7 task manager): process list, user, load, memory usage. Seldom do you need more unless you're debugging.
"Run iso's". Yeah right! Every poweruser already has stuff to access iso's. MS is merely trying to catch up. Its a nice feature; but I bet people would prefer being able to play DVD's out of the box.
And the rest... Its all old stuff. SkyDrive integration? Win7 has it (and I'm not even talking about the SkyDrive program). 3G support? Yeah, that'll benefit my desktop really well.
I'm surprised they didn't mention "full screen applications". Because that's a pro right? Remote desktop? It's full screen (Metro) now; who needs to be able to type over data... Serial numbers for example due to remote installations. Nah; real admin's can memorize a Microsoft serial!
Tip: mstsc.exe; the old remote desktop is still there.
But I think the best tip is to simply stay on Win7 until this monstrosity passes and we're in for Windows 9.
1) Powershell has been upgraded to a first class citizen and is very powerful. So powerful that Windows Server is now command-line first, GUI second. This is just another example of criticisms of MS being out of date.
2) If MS baked in PDF support I'd fully expect that the /. crowd (along with PDF companies) would cry to the government about MS's evil bundling strategy which will destroy competitors and increase Windows "bloat". This is just another example of MS being criticised no matter what they do.
Is that I'm not using it!
Yay me.
20++ ADVANTAGES OF HOSTS FILES OVER DNS SERVERS &/or ADBLOCK ALONE for added "layered"/"defense-in-depth" security + SPEED:
1.) HOSTS files are useable for all these purposes because they are present on all Operating Systems that have a BSD based IP stack (even ANDROID) and do adblocking for ANY webbrowser, email program, etc. (any webbound program).
2.) Adblock blocks ads (not anymore apparently, lol:
Adblock Plus To Offer 'Acceptable Ads' Option
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/12/2213233/adblock-plus-to-offer-acceptable-ads-option )
in only browsers & their subprogram families (ala email), but not all, or, all independent email clients, like Outlook!)
Disclaimer: Opera now has an AdBlock addon (now that Opera has addons above widgets), but I am not certain the same people make it as they do for FF or Chrome etc..
3.) Adblock doesn't protect email programs external to FF, Hosts files do. THIS IS GOOD VS. SPAM MAIL or MAILS THAT BEAR MALICIOUS SCRIPT, or, THAT POINT TO MALICIOUS SCRIPT VIA URLS etc.
4.) Adblock won't get you to your favorite sites if a DNS server goes down or is DNS-poisoned, hosts will (this leads to points 5-7 next below).
5.) Adblock doesn't allow you to hardcode in your favorite websites into it so you don't make DNS server calls and so you can avoid tracking by DNS request logs, hosts do (DNS servers are also being abused by the Chinese lately and by the Kaminsky flaw -> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/082908-kaminsky-flaw-prompts-dns-server.html for years now). Hosts protect against those problems via hardcodes of your fav sites (you should verify against the TLD that does nothing but cache IPAddress-to-domainname/hostname resolutions (in-addr.arpa) via NSLOOKUP, PINGS, &/or WHOIS though, regularly, so you have the correct IP & it's current)).
* NOW - Some folks MAY think that putting an IP address alone into your browser's address bar will be enough, so why bother with HOSTS, right? WRONG - Putting IP address in your browser won't always work IS WHY. Some IP adresses host several domains & need the site name to give you the right page you're after is why. So for some sites only the HOSTS file option will work!
6.) Hosts files don't eat up CPU cycles like AdBlock does while it parses a webpages' content, nor as much as a DNS server does while it runs. HOSTS file are merely a FILTER for the kernel mode/PnP TCP/IP subsystem, which runs FAR FASTER & MORE EFFICIENTLY than any ring 3/rpl3/usermode app can.
7.) HOSTS files will allow you to get to sites you like, via hardcoding your favs into a HOSTS file, FAR faster than DNS servers can by FAR (by saving the roundtrip inquiry time to a DNS server & back to you).
8.) AdBlock doesn't let you block out known bad sites or servers that are known to be maliciously scripted, hosts can and many reputable lists for this exist:
GOOD INFORMATION ON MALWARE BEHAVIOR LISTING BOTNET C&C SERVERS + MORE (AS WELL AS REMOVAL LISTS FOR HOSTS):
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
http://hostsfile.org/hosts.html
http://hostsfile.mine.nu/downloads/
http://hosts-file.net/?s=Download
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php?filter=online
https://spyeyetracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php
http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/
http://www.malware.com.br/lists.shtml
http://www.stopbadware.org
Spybot "Search & Destroy" IMMUNIZE feature (fortifies HOSTS files with KNOWN bad servers blocked)
And yes: Even SLASHDOT &/or The Register help!
(Via articles on security (when the source articles they use are "detailed" that is, & list the servers/sites involved in attempting to bushwhack others online that is... not ALL do!)).
2 examples thereof in the past I have used, & noted it there, are/were:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1898692&cid=34473398
h
First thing that came to mind - 30 Best Features? There are that many ?
He enjoys Anal and Oral pleasures.
Enjoys anal and oral pleasures with men. He's an alternate registered user account for sockpuppet trolling out of you and we all know it.barbara.hudson@unjava.com from http://slashdot.org/~Barbara%2C+not+Barbie = barbara.hudson@barbara-hudson.com from http://slashdot.org/~tomhudson Explain those multiple accounts of yours above please troll.
So...:
- search
- fewer reboots
- built in antivirus
and: task manager
made the Top-30...
It had a better interface than Metro.
mount it on a menubar in the center at the top of the screen. Then make it unclickable. (Points to you if you understand my reference.)
The Verisign pop-up won't close, seriously who designs that crap.
I've been waiting for someone to publish a "why?" article. I wish the submitter had used the single page version and saved me a click. As to TFA,
1. Interactive tiles
Fine on a phone, but I don't want it in a PC OS.
2. Task Manager
Windows has had this for literally YEARS. IIRC Win 95 had it. BTW, is there anything like that in KDE? I'm hoping someone says "yes" and points me to it.
4. No new hardware requirements
LOL! "That means â" in theory, at least â" that any PC capable of running Windows Vista should be able to handle Windows 8." I'm running the latest kubuntu (just upgraded yesterday) on a machine I built out of ten year old parts, and it runs well. No way would Win 8 run on that thing. TFA looks like loke a Microsoft ad.
5. Airplane mode
Man, MS is really grasping at straws here. FN+F8 (F8 has a wifi icon) toggles wifi on my netbook, along with an indicator light. Bluetooth is shut off when you unplug the dongle. In short, this feature is completely useless.
6. SkyDrive integration
The Stones said it and I agree -- hey, you, get off of the cloud. I'll keep my own data on my own deviced, thank you very much.
7. Windows Store
Um, is that like Apper except you have to pay for the software?
8. Interactive lock screen
Rubbish. Nothing of substance, just "Ooh! Shiny!"
9. Split-screen apps
What's new here? New for phones, maybe, but not computers.
10. Split touch keyboard
Useless for PCs and laptops
11. App contracts
"Microsoft has published a set of APIs common to all Metro apps that allow them to freely exchange data. Itâ(TM)s possible, for example, to give a Twitter client access to the Photos app, massively simplifying the process of photo sharing."
It sounds unsafe to me. It also sounds like one of the kinds of thing I got away from Windows for. And people wonder why Windows is the only OS with malware problems.
12. Fewer surprise restarts
My Linux box has no surprise restarts whatever. In fact, the only time I restart it is when I'm upgrading the kernel, maybe once a year or longer. Meanwhile, the notebook still has Win 7 and I wind up having to reboot every week or two, thanks to MS's hatred of users.
13. Cross-device synchronisation
"The Windows 8 installation screen practically forces users to set up a Windows Live account." And they call that a feature???
14. Improved 3G support
Useless on a PC or notebook
15. Built-in antivirus
Not new, there's Windows Defender already. You're grasping at straws, Microsoft!
16. Picture passwords
Kind of cool I guess, but useless on a PC.
18. Windows To Go
"Another one in the eye for those who claim that Windows 8 has little to offer businesses is Windows To Go. This allows companies to provide employees with a locked-down installation of Windows 8 on a USB thumb drive." Uh, I've been doing that with Linux for a decade.
19. Secure Boot
Most emphatically DO NOT WANT!!!
20. Revamped Explorer
"The Windows Explorer is now graced with the ribbon interface"
Do Not Want!!
21. Restore PC
How anout instad they write an uninstaller that actually works? TFA says you have to reinstall all your apps after a restore, PITA. I don't have to put up with this nonsense in Linux.
22. Thumbnail previews
Probably useful on a phone, not on a PC.
23. Metro groups
Good on a phone, bad ona PC.
24. Kinect for Windows
I'll reserve judgement on this one, it might be good.
25. AppLocker
Again, nothing new, and TFA even says so.
26. Reset PC
Look, if you're going to wipe and reinstall your OS, just FDISK and install. I don't see what problem this "solution" solves, unless installing Windows is still the PITA it was with XP.
27. File copy revamp
*Yawn*
28. Faster boot times
This is one place Windows beats Linux (Most distros anyway). Fortunately, a L
Free Martian Whores!
because IMO that makes for an entirely different story (and therefor a different expectation when following the link).
What I find the most interesting out of all of this, is the majority of people either nodding their heads on the entirely new UI, or drawing conclusions (right or wrong), of the UI.
Why do I find this interesting? Because one of the largest things that was always dinged about Apple, Linux, and pretty much any non-windows UI was that their UI was 'different' than Windows. That the applications behaved 'different' than Windows. That just the entire experience was 'different' than Windows.
So I guess 'different' is fine, when it's Windows doing it? Huh.
It just enforces a belief that I've always had. The general public really has no idea what they want... at least until Business tell them what it is that they want. Then they happily throw money at it, beat their chests and grunt and scratch.
Course there's exceptions, but it is a commentary on the 'general public' and majority of the sheeple in it.
Couldn't read article because of CSS popovers, and no I don't have the patience to wait for them, and no the little x didn't work. So they can just fuck themselves.
i hope they update it so instead of saying "svchost.exe" in processes it will say "svchost.exe (service.name[s])", so i can instantly know what service is using which instance of svchost.exe instead of having to click Go to Service(s) from a drop-down menu.
So, the kernel session is hibernated. Okay, here's a problem: Solid state hard drive.
Unless they've made some big changes, HIBERFIL.SYS sits in the root of the OS partition (and is far as I know unmovable) and takes up as much space as you have RAM. On a solid state hard drive with a lot of RAM that can easily be a fifth of the drive just for that one file.
So, have they made that file way leaner, or movable, or are they just hoping that people won't go with 16 gigs of cheap RAM and an 80 gig SSD?
Hrmn, when reading this I quickly realized the list that would be much more useful. "The 30 Wost Undocumented Features of Windows 8". I guess as more people start to use Win8, that list will fill up quickly.
You made my morning (thank you!). I have hated that ever since starting to use Win7 (otherwise prefer it over XP).
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
...but PCMag could say you had 30,000 great features and if every last one of them was ugly, unremarkable and tied to your stupid, memory-leaking kernel I'd still have to pass for the luxury of my boring, little green cli.
~Just as a thing fails if it lacks a kernel, so too it fails if it lacks a skin. ~ Rumi, Discourses
I can't remember the last time I *used* an optical drive.
After several decades, MS with all its billions of dollars still can't make an OS that can copy files competently. But we're supposed to get excited about the fact that it's slightly better at guessing how long a copy will take....assuming it succeeds.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Over AdBlock & DNS Servers ALONE 4 Security, Speed, Reliability, and even Anonymity to an extent:
1.) HOSTS files are useable for all these purposes because they are present on all Operating Systems that have a BSD based IP stack (even ANDROID) and do adblocking for ANY webbrowser, email program, etc. (any webbound program).
2.) Adblock blocks ads (not anymore apparently, lol:
Adblock Plus To Offer 'Acceptable Ads' Option
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/12/2213233/adblock-plus-to-offer-acceptable-ads-option )
in only browsers & their subprogram families (ala email), but not all, or, all independent email clients, like Outlook!)
Disclaimer: Opera now has an AdBlock addon (now that Opera has addons above widgets), but I am not certain the same people make it as they do for FF or Chrome etc..
3.) Adblock doesn't protect email programs external to FF, Hosts files do. THIS IS GOOD VS. SPAM MAIL or MAILS THAT BEAR MALICIOUS SCRIPT, or, THAT POINT TO MALICIOUS SCRIPT VIA URLS etc.
4.) Adblock won't get you to your favorite sites if a DNS server goes down or is DNS-poisoned, hosts will (this leads to points 5-7 next below).
5.) Adblock doesn't allow you to hardcode in your favorite websites into it so you don't make DNS server calls and so you can avoid tracking by DNS request logs, hosts do (DNS servers are also being abused by the Chinese lately and by the Kaminsky flaw -> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/082908-kaminsky-flaw-prompts-dns-server.html for years now). Hosts protect against those problems via hardcodes of your fav sites (you should verify against the TLD that does nothing but cache IPAddress-to-domainname/hostname resolutions (in-addr.arpa) via NSLOOKUP, PINGS, &/or WHOIS though, regularly, so you have the correct IP & it's current)).
* NOW - Some folks MAY think that putting an IP address alone into your browser's address bar will be enough, so why bother with HOSTS, right? WRONG - Putting IP address in your browser won't always work IS WHY. Some IP adresses host several domains & need the site name to give you the right page you're after is why. So for some sites only the HOSTS file option will work!
6.) Hosts files don't eat up CPU cycles like AdBlock does while it parses a webpages' content, nor as much as a DNS server does while it runs. HOSTS file are merely a FILTER for the kernel mode/PnP TCP/IP subsystem, which runs FAR FASTER & MORE EFFICIENTLY than any ring 3/rpl3/usermode app can.
7.) HOSTS files will allow you to get to sites you like, via hardcoding your favs into a HOSTS file, FAR faster than DNS servers can by FAR (by saving the roundtrip inquiry time to a DNS server & back to you).
8.) AdBlock doesn't let you block out known bad sites or servers that are known to be maliciously scripted, hosts can and many reputable lists for this exist:
GOOD INFORMATION ON MALWARE BEHAVIOR LISTING BOTNET C&C SERVERS + MORE (AS WELL AS REMOVAL LISTS FOR HOSTS):
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/
http://hostsfile.org/hosts.html
http://hostsfile.mine.nu/downloads/
http://hosts-file.net/?s=Download
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php?filter=online
https://spyeyetracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php
http://ddanchev.blogspot
Actually, the dog. I kept waving a dog bone in front of the monitor trying to get him to chase it, but all he did was ask "It seems that you are an idiot, would you like help with that." I loved the doggy.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
You can use it to download Ubuntu.
You can buy an iMac online with it
You can buy an ICS phone with it.
You can safely stop using it now, you've got enough stuff to replace it.
You're right about everything except for the tab completion and command history. These features are provided (if at all) by the shell, not Konsole.