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| WINDOWS 9 CONCEPT WALLPAPER BY AIR SOFTWARE |
1. A True Start Button Menu
While Microsoft made great fanfare with Windows 8.1 re-introducing the long-lost Start button, it was sort of a practical joke, since pressing it just took you to the modern-interface Start screen. Personally, I don't have a big problem with this, since I just think of the Start screen as a full-screen start menu, I do understand the "someone moved my cheese" reaction. At its Build conference this past spring, the company briefly showed screenshots of a real Start menu that would appear in a future OS version. The new menu, however, isn't a complete throwback to Windows 7, since it features touchable tiles, in keeping with the newer OS's goal of touch-friendliness. John Burek, of our sister website Computer Shopper, sees the fix as "at minimum, the flexibility for user to choose between Modern interface tile start menu, and a 'classic Start menu' mode."
2. Better Xbox integration
Our networking analyst (and Xbox gamer) Samara Lynn would like to see Windows 9 include more integration with the company's gaming and home-entertainment console. The ability to manage your bills and updates to the console without having to go to the console or to a website would be especially welcome. And why can't you simply display your PC's screen to your big TV screen via an Xbox, similar to Apple TV's AirPlay? Yes Windows 8.1 supports Miracast for just this purpose, but you need a TV or dongle that supports that standard, since the Xbox doesn't.
3. Home and Work Modes
Lynn would also like to see an extension of the operating system's Workplace Join feature, which would automatically switch a PC from work to home mode when the home Wi-Fi network was detected. Microsoft talked about this kind of capability years ago. Lynn sees the solution automatically switching your Wi-Fi settings, which apps get pinned to the taskbar, and an appropriate Start screen tile-set based on your location.
4. Better Malware Protection
Microsoft understandably doesn't want to anger the entire antimalware industry, but if it's going to offer a free security software option, why shouldn't it be a top-notch one? To its credit, Windows 8.1's Defender is an improvement over the Windows Security Essentials it replaced. And the newer operating system version has a much better security story than Windows 7, with network behavior monitoring, secure boot, and enhanced multi-factor authentication. According to a Microsoft TechNet page, "Windows Defender now includes network behavior monitoring to help detect and stop the execution of known, and even unknown, malware, and Internet Explorer now includes the ability to have binary extensions (e.g.: ActiveX) scanned by the anti-malware solution before code is executed." But still, as our top security expert, Neil Rubenking, states, the built-in protection is "a baseline, something to make sure everyone has at least some protection." And indeed Microsoft has indicated that they want to foster a variety of security options for users. That's all well and good, but I still wish they'd include a top-tier antimalware implementation.
5. A Consistent Internet Explorer Experience
One of the things likely to confuse many Windows 8.1 users is its use of two separate incarnations of Internet Explorer—the standard desktop edition and the modern "Metro" version. The modern full-screen version (which can now, like any Windows 8.1 app, use a partial-screen window) doesn't offer history and bookmarks. Maybe the solution is for the OS not to full-screen IE on desktops. As with the rest of Windows 8.1, however, it may just be a matter of users getting used to the fact that there are two modes to the operating system. Another similar example of this duality is the two settings features: Settings (in the modern interface) and Control Panel. Fortunately, the former has gotten more capable and now includes a link to the full Control Panel.
6. Tighter OneDrive integration
On a Windows Phone, you can tap on a picture in the Photos app, and send it right directly to OneDrive. For some reason, Windows 8.1's Share charm offers no such capability. Even third-party apps like those for social networks or online storage can add a Share choice to the menu, why not Microsoft's own online storage and syncing service?
7. Better Integration With Mobile Phones
There's no reason you shouldn't be able to move a Skype call, video call, or text session (including SMS) between your mobile phone (whether that's a Windows Phone, an iPhone, or an Android) and your Windows 9 PC, as Apple will let you do with Mac OS X Yosemite (coming out this fall). In fact, since Skype runs on all the platforms and has some SMS functionality already, it could have an advantage over Apple's setup, which only works with Apple products.
8. Universal PC Game Streaming
John Burek of our sister website Computer Shopper would like to see universal PC game streaming across Windows 9 systems, from a powerful Windows 9 gaming system to a lesser Windows 9 device such as a Windows 9 tablet. This should happen more seamlessly than just remote-desktopping, instead leveraging the power of the gaming system.
9. Seamless Display Scaling
Again, Computer Shopper's John Burek would like Windows 9 to make icon and program-menu scaling in Windows 9 seamless for high resolution screens. With cheap 4K monitors emerging, higher-than-full HD screens in some laptops, and full-HD resolutions now showing up in small Windows tablet screens, micro-icons and near-unusable menus is a big problem on Windows 8 and earlier. (Try using Photoshop on a 3K or 4K laptop screen….argh!) It just has to work—and well—by default.
10. RAW Camera Support
For years, Mac OS X has included support for raw camera files. While Windows offers a downloadable CODEC you can install for this, why not include it out of the box? I couldn't even view a DNG image file on a Microsoft Surface Pro running Windows 8.1, but on an iMac running a five-year-old version of OS X, Snow Leopard, the photo showed up perfectly.
source, PCMAG
