My wish list for the next Microsoft Operating System:

(1) Built in application virtualization so that applications "think" they are running on the correct version of Windows and do not die.
(2) A "sudo" method of allowing "some" users to run applications with administrative rights without having to know "THE" administrator password.
(3) It would be nice if the OS was not so resource hungry
(4) When patches fail, it would be nice if we could figure out what was the problem (like a bad registry entry)
(5) I think too much time was spent on DRM and not enough time was spent on stability (Why do you assume that your users are all pirates?)
(6) It would be nice if your Windows Update site was open to other "trusted" vendors so that when an update for Java, Flash, etc. became available we had a one stop shopping place, "windows update", to get all our patches instead of having to check with every vendor.

Would be really useful and cool if you could boot windows 7 quickly into a mimimum set of components just for Music, movies, pictures, phone calls, email, TV and Internet - like booting into Windows Mobile but better. Maybe even allowing for two on buttons on your PC - one for Full Windows and one for Mobile. Also need the ability to boot into both using a remote from power Off (not sleep).

What would be even cooler is if you could load the rest of windows parts seamlessly from within the minimum without having to restart from the minimum version.

I am a tremendous fan of Vista. It's like a prototype of the next generation sports car. It runs great. It just needs more polish. Here's my list.

"Ask me what to do" should again be a configurable option for pressing power button again. Lots of us need this back.

If a USB cable, such as a USB mouse, is removed during "Sleep," the computer should not wake up. XP does not wake up from Suspend when USB cables are removed. Vista should not wake up during Sleep.

In Event Viewer, have an easily-accessible option to "reset to default settings" so you can easily clear out of a misconfigured view.

Plugging a USB keyboard in while in lock mode should result in the USB keyboard being detected and installed while in lock mode. This lets you use the keyboard to type your password and get out of lock mode.

When running as an administrative user in Vista, with UAC on, a USB hard drive can't be safely removed without rebooting or shutting down. There are three open files on the drive, including $TxfLog.blf. The only explanation I can figure out for this problem, widely complained about on the Internet, is that it appears to be some kind of Windows bug.

Modernize the Fonts control panel. The "Install New Font" dialog should look like something from this century.

Custom mouse pointers should be used, not ignored. I use 3D white mouse pointers with a custom Link Select pointer. The Link Select pointer setting from the control panel is not honored in either IE or Firefox.

Fingerprint authorization should work in the lock/login screen when coming out of sleep mode.

Users should be able to uninstall Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Meeting Space, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Contacts.

What my customers and friends did !

Beside the speed deception from some users I know of - it seems obvious - that the UAC got in their way and on their nerves.
From Pc users they that had to turn into some IT which is what they would like to avoid most of the time, right ?

I beleive the combinations of both "changes" made it too much for "my" users and they mostly just opted for wipping out "enoying" Vista from their PC who was not running so bad ..."after all".
Most of them, happily jumped back to XP in just a matters of days.

With all Windows updates i dealt since W3.1 I had never seen such a clear rejection of a new version. (?!)

There was nothing new enuff for those windows user to justify the headache of dealing with the Vista flavor - nowadays, things REALLY have to be better to justify the price or the time invested from them to adapt to the new fashionable stuff.
Ever heard some proudly saying: I downgraded my PC to XP ?

I personaly kept Vista becoz as a developer one as to go with the stream - i love the new equipement autodetecting and many more things - but hate the same things as my users.

What I m looking for in W7 ?
...to be simpliest for me - simpliest for them and simpliest becoz computing like everything should always aim to be !

In my years of dealing with end users I noticed that they will never ever take the time sufficient to get to know the system in deep (as long as they can avoid it ) they just want to play with the new toys and thats it !

I have seen that it s just too much (and unecessary) for people who just ask me to keep doing the EXACT same things years after years:
- Writting reports,
- Viewing/listening Multimedia
...and chatting with frirends !

I d say the same about whatever Browser on the market, just becoz it's a new browser version doesn t mean it has to come out with ever more details!
How is the Version #999 of my Browser supposed to look like ?
with a 999 inteface buttons/options/menus ????

In a way I admire the Apple simplified interface as well as some Linux versions for their ability of presenting some Essential tools, coma !

Now I know - it s always easier to talk about it when you re not the one doing the O.S. dev. :)
Now, How wil yourl W7 look like ?

I'm a Vista hater. At work I use an incapable "Vista Capable" machine, but my home rig is an XP machine that performs flawlessly. At this point I'm more likely to adopt Linux than risk another Vista-based failure, but the following changes might change my mind.

a) Let us remove Windows Media Player; every part of it. It's not necessary, it's unstable, it uses resources by running in the background, it's a security risk (anything that goes online without my permission is a security risk), and right now It Can Never Be Disabled.

b) Customizable Interface. Aero is my private hell: it slows performance, does nothing for usability, the transparency effect makes it difficult for me to differentiate between open windows, etc. I have adult attention deficit disorder and need my UI completely free of bright colours and animations, or I can't concentrate on work.

c) Indexing and Fetch: Allow true disable. Indexing cuts my computer speed by roughly 70% but I use "search" maybe once every three months; not exactly a great performance ratio. Even with Indexing "disabled" it still randomly activates. And fetch, no matter what the developers claim, doesn't work. Windows never unloads "fetched" programs from memory and I'm left with a pittance of resources.

d) Sleep/Restart. 90% of restarts/reboots lock me out of the system for an hour, as Vista assumes a "sleep" mode and refuses to wake up, no matter how loudly I scream. And yes, I'm using SP1.

e) User interaction should mean something. When we "cancel" an update, that should mean "cancel" instead of "don't install but nag the user to death about it." If I shut down a program, noting "Program is not responding, would you like to shut it down" is pretty asinine.

f) Resource Usage. Why is it that XP runs on 64 mB but Vista needs 512? Vista isn't eight times more secure or eight times faster, so there's something not right about this equation. More advanced programming should allow more performance with less resources, not the other way around.