Based on all the user feedback ignited by the Windows 7 beta, Microsoft has made a set of tweaks to the release candidate of Windows 7. The Engineering 7 weblog details 36 of those tweaks, in quite some detail actually. Let's take a look at some interesting ones.
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2005-07-13
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2005-07-11
How is this any different from dragging files and dropping them onto shortcuts to apps? Like you've been able to do since Windows 95 first introduced shortcuts?
Even works with the icons on the QuickLaunch toolbar.
Edited 2009-02-26 22:37 UTC
Member since:2005-06-29
. No it IS possible.
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2007-11-25
I like "Windows Logo + <#> keyboard shortcut" the most. Really would be handy in Leopard, too. OS X still is just a bit too mouse focused. In my opinion every good app and every good system (I still love my Leopard, don't get me wrong here) should be able to be controlled entirely by mouse and/or entirely by keyboard. Just look at Opera with its gestures and fantastic keyboard navigation.
Member since:2006-03-14
Member since:2008-07-15
To be fair, I see a lot of those on Windows too, especially in apps with a lot of custom widgets. I see it in GNOME as well... come to think of it, I think I've seen that issue in every os I've tried in the past few years. As far as OS X goes, make sure you've enabled full keyboard access and set tab to highlight all elements, this is not its default behavior although, imho, it should be.
Most developers just do not take keyboard access into account whatsoever, though I wish it were otherwise. The os itself, unfortunately, can only do so much in this area.
Member since:2006-07-25
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2006-12-05
"7. Newly installed programs
“Customer in control” is so strong a mantra for Windows 7 we don’t even allow programs to pin themselves to the taskbar when they are installed. This is a task expressly reserved for the customer."
Sounds like a good idea, actually. Now, if only they'd extend that to the system tray, instead of just hiding all the programs running down there, zapping system resources, actually prevent them from starting up at boot until the user verifies that it's ok. Otherwise, just take it as, "sorry, you're not allowed to run unless explicitly started by the user."
Member since:2008-07-15
Member since:2006-12-05
Well, that's kind of what I mean. So many programs have themselves (or some worthless part of themselves) set to start up in the taskbar, which tends to be at startup most of the time.
It's bad enough that Windows software "installers" are executables in their own right, requiring full admin privileges which grants them full power on the system, and the only way to make sure they won't do what you don't want is to not run it. Meanwhile, Windows has no internal capability to block these attempts at unwanted and/or unnecessary taskbar and startup processes.
It's be a good way to block malware and viruses from starting at boot as well, and it's not like Microsoft can't whitelist software from security or other "trusted" companies. Not that I trust security companies to begin with, anyway.
Edited 2009-02-27 18:36 UTC
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2005-07-06
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2005-07-09
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2005-10-11
I was so hoping to read.
20. Improved keyboard support for video content
Some of our customers complained about the stupid Ctrl-P behaviour for pausing that we have had since WMP7. They also wondered why the video was seeeking so far ahead, when the keyboard commands for mplayer had far superior controls right from the start.
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
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I love using Media Player Classic, but it's look is getting old for my taste. Whereas the new WMP of Win7 is so nice. Even MPC keyboard commands are superior to MSWMP.
Edited 2009-02-27 06:41 UTC
