Windows 8.2... What Do You Want!?

[jnjroach]

We the power user are a clanging cymbal and are not a big enough market for sustainability. The unwashed masses can be trained through rote and in the end they will see, "....WOW Apps load very fast in the Modern UI and desktop applications are so slow to load, I'm using Modern UI Apps from now on....."

 

[SEANT]

We the power user are a clanging cymbal and are not a big enough market for sustainability. . . .

Perhaps not large enough on its own, but I don’t think a Windows on Arm (WOA) sustainable market can afford to miss any of the PC faithful. As a matter of fact, ‘enticements to investigate’ may be just the thing to get the stubborn enterprise customers on board.

What I’d like to see from Windows 8.2:

‘My Sandbox Macros.’ This may actually be for Office Gemini, and only applicable to WOA 8.2.

The notion is that an owner is implicitly trusted on their own computer. Anything authored by that owner abides by Microsoft’s blueprint for a sandboxed devise. So, the Office VBA IDE (available via separate download) would require the user to re-enter the owner passphrase before proceeding. Source code can then be entered, via typing or a text based copy and paste, and debugged. Once completed, the code is compiled to a devise specific binary. In other words, can only be used on that one machine. Inter-machine connectivity/automation can only occur between devises registered to the same owner.

Perhaps WOA 9.0 can allow third party apps to expose a public COM based API, creating a MS Office integrated, highly mobile, line of business computing.

Remember, ‘the most productive tablet ever built.’

 

[kristalsoldier]

Perhaps not large enough on its own, but I don’t think a Windows on Arm (WOA) sustainable market can afford to miss any of the PC faithful. As a matter of fact, ‘enticements to investigate’ may be just the thing to get the stubborn enterprise customers on board.

What I’d like to see from Windows 8.2:

‘My Sandbox Macros.’ This may actually be for Office Gemini, and only applicable to WOA 8.2.

The notion is that an owner is implicitly trusted on their own computer. Anything authored by that owner abides by Microsoft’s blueprint for a sandboxed devise. So, the Office VBA IDE (available via separate download) would require the user to re-enter the owner passphrase before proceeding. Source code can then be entered, via typing or a text based copy and paste, and debugged. Once completed, the code is compiled to a devise specific binary. In other words, can only be used on that one machine. Inter-machine connectivity/automation can only occur between devises registered to the same owner.

Perhaps WOA 9.0 can allow third party apps to expose a public COM based API, creating a MS Office integrated, highly mobile, line of business computing.

Remember, ‘the most productive tablet ever built.’

I don't think Panos meant 'productivity' in that sense. He was probably referring to the mass of prolific, but essentially ignorant/ unschooled, users of tablets - like me - how this vast majority use tablets, indeed computers. But that's just my theory.

 

[SEANT]

I don't think Panos meant 'productivity' in that sense. . . . .

No doubt. I’m expanding on the conventional notion of productivity.

As I’m sure you have noticed, my suggestions tend to have an enterprise focus. That is partly due to my belief that over 50% of the untapped Tablet market has daily contact with legacy Windows in their work lives (developing countries notwithstanding). Many of those workers believe, or have been told, that a ‘neutered’ Windows is nonsense.

I also believe that even just a day or two exposure to the OS will change that opinion.

It would serve Microsoft well to offer as many opportunities for exposure as possible. In the meantime, they get to re-write the definition of tablet and productivity.

 

[kristalsoldier]

No doubt. I’m expanding on the conventional notion of productivity.

As I’m sure you have noticed, my suggestions tend to have an enterprise focus. That is partly due to my belief that over 50% of the untapped Tablet market has daily contact with legacy Windows in their work lives (developing countries notwithstanding). Many of those workers believe, or have been told, that a ‘neutered’ Windows is nonsense.

I also believe that even just a day or two exposure to the OS will change that opinion.

It would serve Microsoft well to offer as many opportunities for exposure as possible. In the meantime, they get to re-write the definition of tablet and productivity.

Not contesting your assertion at all. If anything, I endorse it. Just pointing out that the perception of utility/ productivity stemming from MS is probably based on the faceless majority. In this connection, MJF's recent article on the different SKUs of Windows going into the future is interesting and perhaps pertinent.

See here:Microsoft's Windows future: One core, many SKUs | ZDNet

 

[SEANT]

I’ve read that article, and find the concept quite appealing.

A customer should get exactly as much as they need for what they intend to do, and no more.

A NT core, with modules for phone, internet connectivity, and entertainment for a consumer based phablet.
NT core, with internet connectivity, GPS positioning, and application expandability modules for a business tablet.

I suppose additional modules could be downloaded post sale, provided the hardware supported it.

A more complex system, to be sure, but perhaps the best of all worlds.

 

[jnjroach]

With Windows RT, I don't think we'll see the unlocking of VBA and COMs even in Sandboxed Environments. Windows RT in an Enterprise Scenario can already access the entire catalog of Win32 Applications using Enterprise Tools such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Remote App and App-V 5.0 (Application Virtualization).

Windows RT or whatever becomes of Windows on ARM will need to continue to be bullet proof, even from its own users.

BTW - With the success of the Surface RT at $199 over the weekend, we may have it some level of critical mass

 

[SEANT]

With Windows RT, I don't think we'll see the unlocking of VBA and COMs even in Sandboxed Environments. Windows RT in an Enterprise Scenario can already access the entire catalog of Win32 Applications using Enterprise Tools such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Remote App and App-V 5.0 (Application Virtualization).

All good options. All requiring solid connectivity.

Windows RT or whatever becomes of Windows on ARM will need to continue to be bullet proof, even from its own users.

I don’t know if that is a necessity. They definitely need to be benign to other computers/networks. Beyond that, it is a matter of Microsoft’s preference.

BTW - With the success of the Surface RT at $199 over the weekend, we may have it some level of critical mass

I feel pretty good about that as well. I would be very interested in hard numbers. For the Windows RT machines, as well as the Atom ‘Pro’ machines.

 

[DragonGamer]

Hmm, what I hope to see in Windows 8.2 or Windows 9 ist horizontal tiling of apps.. I think for text processing that makes more sense than vertical splitting...
Tripple splitting would be even more awesome - even if maybe too small for a device like the SP then.

 

[SEANT]

Hmm, what I hope to see in Windows 8.2 or Windows 9 ist horizontal tiling of apps.. I think for text processing that makes more sense than vertical splitting...
Tripple splitting would be even more awesome - even if maybe too small for a device like the SP then.

I didn’t give that suggestion much thought when I originally read it – until I realized I use that methodology quite a bit with the Split Window feature of Visual Studio. The ability to see a full line of text in it’s original formatting does come in handy.

In the vein of text related improvements for Windows 8.2; how about including a ‘Select’ mode during a Right-Click (Delayed Press) touch. See attached.

 

[dougpaw57]

I'd like support for CardDAV and CalDAV. Actually I don't want to wait for 8.2, I want it now!

 

[Nuspieds]

1) Please hurry up and add Start Screen functionality that will allow me to organize tiles into folders or something so that I don't have all my tiles on one screen. I hate swiping and swiping and swiping as I add more tiles and groups because the screen just grows horizontally.

2) Especially as long as the above irritant exists, then how about remembering where I was on the Start Screen each time I go back there? Per above, when I have scrolled all the way to the right, for example, and launch one of my apps, when I go back to the Start Screen, if I want to launch another app from that same group, I have to scroll all the way to the right again. It would be nice if it would just take me back to exactly where I was when I left it.