Microsoft's Must-Have List for Windows 9

Microsoft's Must-Have List for Windows 9
pcmag.com

1. Fix the file system. The company promised it would develop a database-style file system that would allow for easy and super-fast searches for keywords within the structure of the file. This means it should quickly retrieve every .doc file containing the words "Android OS." The biggest problem with such a file system would be the indexing costs. It is likely that a gigabyte of storage fully indexed as a real database would take 2GB or more in overhead. So what? Terabytes are cheaper than ever. You can always make this sort of file system an option if necessary for the cheapskate who thinks paying more than $300 for a PC is spending too much money.

2. Fix the Networking. How did the Microsoft networking subsystems deteriorate with Windows 7 and above? I have a legacy NAS from Cisco that no OS since Vista can access on my network. There are a few supposed patches that kind of work. Why do I need to patch anything? What's the reason these legacy devices cannot be used anymore? They don't work because nobody wants to write the code to make sure they still work.

3. Bring back the distraction games. What happened to some of the classic games that came with the OS? I'm talking specifically about Spider Solitaire. Where is it? Whatever happened to Pinball, for that matter?

4. Scale everything. This full-screen idiocy must go. I have complained bitterly about the stupidity of full-screen programs from their early pre-Windows 8 conceptualization. Full-screen programs harken back to DOS. Having a bunch of these running and switching from one to the other is nothing more than DOS task switching from 1985. Check the calendar, people. Why isn't everyone in the tech community squawking about this incessantly? Besides praising this lunacy, now some users are giddy about the new "half full screen" mode. It makes you wonder where everyone with a brain went.

5. And finally, put back the real Start menu. Microsoft can simply go buy the Classic Shell code and use that if it wants a good implementation. The reason for the Start menu was for convenience, nothing more. Taking it away was like that "Ribbon" interface—it's a way to impede an efficient use of the product. Why do this? Why encumber the user? Everything just takes longer than it should.

Windows 9 will be the end of the road for Microsoft if it keeps digging the same hole to nowhere. Everything the company does now seems to be part of some unspoken weird or secret theory stemming from smartphone UIs. It is all so inappropriate for the desktop computer. Microsoft is simply ruining the industry with this tactic, as we see with PC sales. My suggestions above, if implemented properly, would stem the decline.

Also absent from this list is an updated console. Windows 8 still uses the old DOS shell. You can't even resize the window past 80 characters. It's embarrassing.

>To me an app is a small bit of code for an iPhone to do something cute. Are we going to call the massive SAP suite an "app?"

Lately I've been hearing many people complain about "serious" desktop applications being called "apps". Do you think this is a valid complaint? (Myself, I'm not sure; I won't disclose my reasoning right now so as not to skew the conversation from the start.)