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What To Expect With Windows 9

snydeq writes: Two weeks before the its official unveiling, this article provides a roundup of what to expect and the open questions around Windows 9, given Build 9834 leaks and confirmations springing up all over the Web. The desktop's Start Menu, Metro apps running in resizable windows on the desktop, virtual desktops, Notification Center, and Storage Sense, are among the presumed features in store for Windows 9. Chief among the open questions are the fates of Internet Explorer, Cortana, and the Metro Start Screen. Changes to Windows 9 will provide an inkling of where Nadella will lead Microsoft in the years ahead. What's your litmus test on Windows 9?

5 of 545 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Virtual Desktops (Workspaces) by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Interesting fact but this isn't new to Windows either. Win2k and maybe even earlier had native multidesktop support. They just didn't ship a default front end for it but they've had a free tool available for years that let you set it up.

  2. Re: Virtual Desktops (Workspaces) by corychristison · · Score: 4, Informative

    Its a sysinternals tool, called "Desktops". Apparently it works on XP, as well. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx

    It is very limited, however. You cannot drag windows between virtual screens.

  3. Re:Touchscreens don't belong on real computers. by penix1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hear ya! I have an HP Envy M7 laptop that has a touchscreen and I never use the touchscreen for that reason. To make it worse, the screen (which is a very good LED HD display) has a high gloss panel that shows the prints extremely well. Why in the world HP chose to put a glossy screen as a touchscreen is beyond me. Touchscreens should have a matte finish to try and hide the print marks as much as possible.

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  4. Re:Just now they're getting virtual desktops? by Osgeld · · Score: 4, Informative

    yea I always found it funny that *nix systems had as many desktops as I wanted, but nothing worth running on them, windows had all the software I wanted to run, but constantly ran out of space (not counting desktops.exe)

  5. Re:Bring back windows XP. by WuphonsReach · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can give you a few...

    SSDs under WinXP gradually degrade in performance, because XP doesn't support SSD TRIM. On Win7, this is not an issue, so you don't have to wipe / reset the SSD / restore the operating system once a year.

    Graphics performance of video drivers - I gained 20-30% performance switching from XP 32bit to Win7 64bit on the same machine, maybe even doubled performance. This was back when I multi-boxed EVE Online - I went from struggling to run 3 windows (at least one would only get 15-20 FPS), to being able to have 5-6 open (all with 40+ FPS).

    The 32bit limit of 3-something GB of RAM is a bit limiting when Firefox is chewing up 500-800MB, Thunderbird is chewing up another few hundred MB, and a handful of other background tasks chewing up 40-50MB each. Moving to Win7 meant I could put in 8GB of RAM on the box, and make use of it.

    Multi-tasking performance is just better in Win7 when compared to XP. Less hiccups / pauses / other strange slowdowns.

    The window preview as you hover over the tasks in the task bar is addictive. Being able to see thumbnails of each application window makes it easier to pick which window to bring forward (another bonus for multi-taskers).

    A bit more resilient then XP to being infected - not perfect, but a definite step forward.

    We run Linux on the servers, but I'm quite happy running either OS X or Win7 on the desktops. Both get the job done well enough and stay out of the way.

    (Running Win7 on a 2007-era Thinkpad T series, 8GB RAM, pair of SSDs, and only a dual-core Intel CPU.)

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