Longhorn Wiki

Summary: Longhorn - the next version of Windows

Sub-pages:

* LonghornBlogs
* LonghornCommunications
* LonghornDeveloperCenter
* LonghornDiscussions
* WindowsVistaFeaturesMatrix
* Mobile PC Features in Vista

Longhorn Architecture

See the MSDN Longhorn Developer FAQ
* Aero and Shell UI
* Avalon and XAML - see also GettingStartedWithXAML and XAMLManifesto
* IdentityManagement
* Indigo
* WinFS - cut from the initial release
* WinFX - the programming model for the Windows "Longhorn" operating system

Graphics

I'll tell you one thing I don't want. I don't want a single GUI element left over from the pre XP era. Such as the nasty .icos, nasty leftover gifs and bmps, the redundant files that are there for insanely obscure compatibility reasons; we don't need it in 2007. I want a Next Gen OS, in both its inside and its outside.

Complete Custom Installs

It would be a killer feature if Longhorn allowed for a complete customizable installation. You can choose to install only your selected components. Ex. Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger, Games, Paint, anything at all can be removed. Of course for the less knowledgeable consumer, there can be a simple install (installs everything) and the advanced (choose). Consumers would love to see this.

Unified Notification System

Nowadays, there are many ways to notify somebody that something has happened - a tray bubble, a flashing taskbar button, a MSN-style popup (what are those called, officially?(I believe it is called "toast" style, as they pop up like a slice of toast would - DB)), a popup window, a messagebox... Longhorn should have some service running (or part of the shell) that programs can call to throw out a standard notification. See Growl for what I mean, implemented on MacOSX. Give a few different notification styles, but make them all easy to call and uniform, so everyone gets the same notification experience. Bonus points for implementing Growl's preferences panel, which lets you turn off notification you don't want, for example, the bubble that comes up whenever you lose/connect to a wireless network. - dalangalma

File Transfer

People will always have to transfer files, and users of Vista deserve a better file transfer experience. Copy and Paste for files is a wonderful, elegant solution - but there are a few implementation problems. First, errors or conflicts in the process aren't flagged before the process begins, but whenever they occur. This is a serious problem when dealing with large amounts of data (think backups, migrations). Second, when an error is encountered, there generally isn't any way to skip that file and continue the process; it ends right there. Third, finding the source of the error is a nightmare due to the limited feedback. Many power users have abandoned copy and paste for all but the simplest transfers, and use XCOPY instead. XCOPT /L happily simulates the process, flagging duplicate files, locked files, and file system limitations. If Vista can fix this daily headache that plagues power users around the world, its immediate popularity is assured. Read More

Separate Configuration for Desktop

This isn't a big one, but the "Desktop" tab should be removed from the "Display Properties" control panel and given its own control panel, with one tab for the background image, and tabs for each of the items in "Customize Desktop". This would make configuring the Desktop properties more intuitive, since they really have nothing to do with Display Properties. - dalangalma

Compatibility with Windows XP

Retain full compatibility (driver and software) with Windows XP. Compatibility is the main reason why people don't upgrade Windows. And add support for running 16-bit applications on 64-bit Longhorn.

Cuts

How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn16/b3879009mz001.htm from ""BusinessWeek"" Online. Give it your best ElmerFudd: "Be afwa-a-a-aid. Be vehwy, vehwy afwa-a-a-aid!" -- Anonymous

I can already hear the Mac guys criticizing Longhorn for not being as all-encompassing as orignally planned. :( If it will make any difference, at least one customer is upset that things are being cut. -- Shining Arcanine

Desktop Wallpaper

I was just looking at the paradise desktop wallpaper in Windows XP. The JPG artifacts ruin the quality of the image. If you are using rasterized graphics rather than vector graphics for the desktop wallpaper in Longhorn please use lossless images in Longhorn for desktop wallpaper. --Shining Arcanine

Or use higher quality (level 95) JPG for wallpapers. --mkol

Digital Photography

http://news.com.com/1606-2-5234982.html

When I was younger, I thought that computers made tasks easy. However, I soon came to the realization that computers do not make tasks easy. Tasks are cumbersome due to the traditional methods from last millennium that were implemented in computers. If Longhorn had the technology from Microsoft Research, which was in the "future of digital photography" presentation, the task of Digital Photo Management would be easy. Not to mention Longhorn would be 2nd to none in Digital Photo Management.

This reminds me of something I saw on the history channel. A few decades back, the US government took an old plane design and gave it stealth characteristics. They soon came to the realization that if they wanted a true stealth design, they had to start from scratch. This is the same with Microsoft and Photo Management. If Microsoft truly wants to make Photo Management easy, they cannot use a digitalized version of last millennium’s filing cabinet. Microsoft must design something new, which is what Microsoft Research has done. After seeing the "future of digital photography" presentation, I am confident that this technology would be to Digital Photo Management what the B2B was to stealth planes; a great innovation that is unparalleled in accomplishing the task that it was designed to do. --Shining Arcanine

Image and Fax Viewer - more formats

Please add MNG (MNG = animated PNG), SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and JP2 (JPEG2000) support to Image and Fax Viewer.

Integrated components

Allow Windows Messenger to be uninstalled (not hidden). Make a hybrid version of WM that can use features from 4.7 (MSN addins) and 5.0 (Office servers).

Integrate MSN Desktop Search, MS Anti Spyware and .NET framework with Longhorn. Install it by default but allow uninstall in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Windows Components.

Remove Indexing Service. It's not needed when using MSN Desktop Search.

Allow for a type of plug-in or module system for the OS that lets the user add and remove features that he does not want. For example, the CD Burning capabilities of Windows XP could be made into a CD Burning module. This would let the user remove it if he wanted to use Nero Burning ROM instead or could allow 3rd party companies and people, such as Ahead or an open source community, to make a more feature-filled CD Burning module that would replace the one that comes with Windows.

Internet Security

Not sure if this would be the place to post it but...

My idea of internet security would be to sort of have a component in windows that registers connections. Every application that gets installed has to register its connections with this component (what port will it connect out on, what port will it need open for incoming connections and what type of request will the incoming/outgoing connection be like (headers, etc.)). Then when a connection is made to the computer, the connection will pass through this component, the component will then analyse the connection and see if it matches anything in its registry/database, then it'll nicely map out the connection to the appropriate program. If it doesn't find a match, then it'll toss the connection.

Okay, so maybe this sounds a lot like a typical software firewall, but..it isn't. :) Perhaps I'll extend the concept a bit further:

Since we're now moving into an age of meta data and xml, I think that connections made should be self descriptive and should contain information about what the connection will do embedded in their headers (securely embedded that is).

Example functions:
* File Sharing
* Server Connection
* Networking
* Microsoft Special Updating Service Connection :)
* etc..

Then, when the connection is interpreted, the system will use the given function of the connection and limit the connection to only a few tasks. Say, a server connection will only be allowed to connect to the associated server application and will not be allowed to do anything outside the scope. It will not be allowed to do anything more like file sharing unless the server application allows for such a thing. In this case, it would be up to the software developers to better secure their software and if they allow some sort of file sharing mechanism in their software architecture, another connection must be made for that file transfer.

Let's say a trojan gets downloaded onto your computer. If the trojan doesn't implement any of these guidelines, then it's connection will be limited greatly, possibly even restrained to no connections at all. If it does implemenent an xml header in the connection, say if it was some powerful "total system" connection header, than the system would have to require some prerequisits such as user sending connection, origin (physical location) of connection, etc. If the sender doesn't authenticate properly as a next step, then connection will be denied and the trojan will then be identified as an unauthorized application. If somehow the computer is still hacked despite these security measures, we now have a lovely blackbox containing everything about the hacker. :)

Of course, this may require more programming design guidelines and possibly a more standardized approach in regards to servers responding to these connections. Though, I have high hopes that this will work.

Just a thought. - mVPstar

Logon Screen

One thing that has not changed much is the user logon screen. For users, the Welcome Screen is excellent. However, for security reasons, it is not best for those in the business environment.

What I propose is to create a welcome screen that allows you to choose the look you want, but only whows the 3 boxes like the classic version. Particularly the User name, Password, and Domain. What you get is the looks of the newer Windows XP with the function of the Classic interface.

Again you can go back to the classic version with either a registry tweak or a control pannel setting. --Jazzynupe

What about print features in the file explorer, so I could print the folders and files there, SpiderLab

Non-administrator accounts by default

Longhorn has an option in Compatibility tab that allows running 9x programs from Limited User accounts.
Create limited accounts by default during OOBE wizard and ONE administrator account.

NTFS cluster size selectable on installation

Prompt for NTFS cluster size during installation. Display the message that 4KB is recommended but allow user to choose smaller or larger cluster.

Rescue CD

We should be able to make our own rescue-cd that is able to retrieve files from a possibly damaged harddrive as well as repair any Windows system file to the latest version (via internet) and perform various other maintenance tasks. This rescue-cd should contain a graphical environment and/or command-line mode. The rescue image that is generated can be placed on a cd, on a memory stick or activated from LAN).

I have 3 types of Rescue-cd's in mind:
* Rescue-cd for a specific computer (with custom drivers for specific hardware already in; Home use).
* General rescue-cd which should work on all Windows compatible computers (Pro/Corporate use)
* Advanced rescue-cd for running Windows without touching the physical harddrive. This cd should be build like with
WindowsXP Embedded (with a little less packages). It should also be possible to place 3th party applications on it (Office, games, drivers). It should NOT be possible to install Windows from this cd only repair or for a demonstration (Pro use). -- ZippyV

~~Just an FYI, Microsoft has a product called Windows Production Environment (WinPE) which is the basis for a lot of this. You can search around for it, but there's not much info really floating around. The next version of it will be similar to Bart's PE. With Barts, you can include different modules, such as ghost, anti-virus, file recovery, etc.. and is really helpfull. It creates a new instance of WindowsXP that runs via your memory, off your CDROM....It's very helpful. One of my fav CD's. ~~ Doc

Resolutions and app compatibility

Currently changing DPI breaks many 3rd party applications. Add an option in Compatibility tab to use smaller DPI temporarily (you already have options to lower resolution or colors, but not DPI).

Add an option to use custom screen resolution and color depth temporarily - some apps require 640x480, other 800x600. Currently it allows only 640x480 with 256 colors.

Add buttons in Internet Explorer to emulate common resolutions (similar to UseHR key but to all DPI screens): 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 and 1280x1024.

For example if you have 1600x1200 96dpi monitor try visiting http://www.barbie.com/. The page will be very small. There should be button (or menu option) in IE that emulates 800x600 resolution (zooms the page).

Can you bring back QuickRes (mostly for Software and web developers that need to see a window in more than one resolution)?

Scheduled Web Tasks

In XP adding scheduled web task removes User's Documents from My Computer. More infodocuments%22mycomputer%22xp&hl=pl&lr=&selm=ut8MOecMCHA.1152%40tkmsftngp08&rnum=4

TCP/IP Networking Optimizations

Dynamic receive windows based on connection speed - bandwidth in bytes multiplied by 150.
Timestamps enabled by default.
When window scaling is enabled use the lowest scale possible (to maintain compatibility with older systems/routers) for example 2x64240 instead of 4x32120.
Automatically set MTU depending on bandwidth so that jitter is lower than 150ms and use MTUs higher than 1500 for capable (non-Ethernet) connections.
Enable Deficit Round Robin QoS for all connections. Currently it's enabled only for low bandwidth connections. It should be enabled for all connections because you can trigger slow-start by opening many (500 or more) connections.

Buffers (automatically lower sizes/counts when too low memory)
* Large send buffer size: 32KB.
* Medium send buffer size: 8KB.
* Small send buffer size: 2KB.
* Buffer count: 100 large, 200 medium, 300 small.

Enable PMTUD blackhole detection (PMTUBHDetect) by default. Many sites with misconfigured firewalls are blocking ICMP. It causes hung connections on PPPoE, VPN or other low-MTU connections.
Use RFC1122 instead of BSD urgent pointer.

USB scanners/camera support

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324756&Product=winxp - fix the bug

Web Publishing Wizard

Please include Web Publishing Wizard (it was bundled with Internet Explorer 5 then discontinued) in Longhorn. It's much easier for newbies than using FTP.

Windows Update Mode

I want another mode like Safe Mode that is exclusively for Windows Update. It should allow you to configure network settings in a wizard and allow you to connect to Windows Update or a WUS server. There should be very very strict firewall rules so that nothing other than that traffic goes out or comes in.

WordPad

Please add these features to WordPad:

Draw/insert tables.
Insert images to documents.
Save files as HTML (you can use MSHTML.DLL to create HTML pages). You discontinued FrontPage Express so please now give us free editor for simple HTML pages - it can be WordPad.

Re #3: I think we want you to use the Web Express edition of Visual Studio 2005 for simple HTML editing. We definitely do not want you to use WordPad!

NotePad

Fix Notepad so that text can be moved around with the mouse.

WMV Hardware Acceleration

I recall reading an ATI employee state that ATI had this ready to go in their drivers but they need you guys to update Windows first. I'd like to see this feature added as that would unload work from the CPU which then could be used for other things. --Shining Arcanine

A patch for Windows Media Player 10 was recently released that allows for DxVA acceleration of WMV HD content. You can get it at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888656 . Be sure to install the DRM patch that can be found under the More Information heading before installing the DxVA patch. The patch does not seem to work with the nVidia GeForce 6800GT and 6800Ultra AGP versions, even though the patch does not mention anything about using the broken PureVideo decoder these cards have (I have a 6800GT and I can't play 1080p content without frame drops on an Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm).

		   --The J

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