Ideas for Windows 8

Use proper units

Rename “KB” to “KiB”

Rename “MB” to “MiB”

Rename “GB” to “GiB”

Rename “TB” to “TiB”

etc.

http://members.optus.net/alexey/prefBin.xhtml

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

 

Enhanced Windows Setup

Reuse Users folder

If Windows 8 finds a “Users” folder in the partition you are going to install Windows, it will attempt to reuse data inside this folder. For example, if the Users folder has a Mihajlo folder, then it will move all the folders other than the folders listed below, to a folder called Mihajlo.Old.

 

image

 

Later on in the Windows Setup, when you create an account called Mihajlo, new %appdata% etc. folders will be created but all the data folders will be preserved and ready to be used from last install.

 

This means in other words:

  • Old D:\Users\Mihajlo\AppData is moved to Old D:\Users\Mihajlo.Old\AppData
  • D:\Users\Mihajlo\AppData will be created new.

 

The following folders will stay:

  • D:\Users\Mihajlo\Documents
  • D:\Users\Mihajlo\Music
  • D:\Users\Mihajlo\Pictures
  • etc.

 

Even better, if Windows 8 can give us an option to reuse the entire Users folder. Pretty much like how other Linux distributions do if we mount an existing \home during the Linux setup as \home.

 

Customize Users folder location in Windows Setup

Everytime I install Windows, I use Autounattend.xml to customize the Users folder location. So I have:

  • C:\Windows
  • D:\Users

Almost all the Linux distributions support this in the GUI setup. \home can be mounted to a different partition.

Why not let us format another partition and let us specify to have Users folder created there?

Comments

Tharaka Devinda said…
One simple answer. to keep Windows from becoming stupid Linux and user un-friendly!
10:51
Joel said…
Linux isn't necessarily unfriendly, at least if you're not a complete moron and know how to use google.

I like the idea of reusing the old user folder during the upgrade process, especially if there hasn't been any changes to the including files between the two versions

I also would love the idea of having the ability to make a separate partition for the users folder. That way if some stupid virus destroys the files, you can still keep your personal files in tact. (Although if you do get a virus, you can always use a linux live CD to get your stuff backed up haha).

Anyways, nice post. Keep it up.

http://unknownrebellion.blogspot.com
07:58
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