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  1. Banned
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    Nov 2005
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    i ran across this article that shows a later build of Win 7, specifically build 7700:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-7700-rtm-sp1,9585.html

    and taken with earlier leaked road maps that show win 8 will be rtm'd in july of 2011, i think it's obvious that microsoft has no intention of abandoning the basic NT based code that is the foundation of vista and win 7.

    so i started thinking, if we can't have a truly modular OS, a fresh rewrite, then what could microsoft do to win 8 so that it would stand out and actually make a compelling case for upgrading from win 7. here's what i came up with:

    1) i would like to see a folder named "PROTECTED", a folder where any file put into it was automatically encrypted with 1024 bit encryption. the folder would only be accessible from within the admin account and even then only after entering a password different from the admin password. in other words, during set up when you are prompted to enter an admin password, you would be prompted to enter a different password for the "PROTECTED" folder, any attempts to change directory into that folder would require that from within the admin account you enter the "protected" password, and the same would hold true for any attempts to read or write from/to any file within said folder as well as any attempt to add a file to that folder (this last one is to prevent a virus from taking advantage of this feature to lock up all your files and hold them for ransom).

    this folder would be perfect for businesses, servers, your lap top, any environment where you may store sensitive information, such as tax returns, business records, etc. that you don't want falling into the wrong hands.

    2) change the way windows handles ram so that all available ram is used up before the page file(s) are hit. in the old win 9x days it was possible to modify the registry (setconservativefileswapusage=1) so that windows used up all the available ram before hitting the swap, this resulted in a nice performance boost under most conditions. Mac Oses, since at least the OS 9 days, have been known as "ram" OS, meaning if you wanted to speed up your computer you just added more ram (i remember seeing G4's with upwards of 4 gigs ram), linux, unix and solaris all use up all the available ram before hitting up the swap partition, why does windows insist on paging out to the virtual memory, no matter how much ram you have available. in all fairness, XP 64 was a step forward as it would load more data into the ram for faster access, but still it wouldn't use all of it. vista took it one step further by considering free ram as "wasted" ram, but even with vista more aggressive loading of data into ram, it still will only load up about 2/3 of all the available ram and then start hitting up the page file(s).

    3) i want to see significantly more speed optimizations. since DX6 direct x has been SSE optimized (this was proven when a site tested a P2 with a TNT 2 against a P3 with software based TnL and the P3 won thanks to the SSE optimizations in DX6), yet people have still successfully installed win 7 on a P1!!! so the only obvious conclusion is that since DX has SSE optimizations and SSE didn't make an appearance until the P3 and win 7 will run on a P1, then either not all features of win 7 were available on the P1 or win 7 includes multiple code paths.

    now anyone with a linux background, that has ever custom compiled a linux kernel, will tell you that the speed difference between using the plain vanilla kernel and a kernel stripped of all the support for hardware you don't have as well as choosing SIMD optimizations (i always compiled my kernels choosing the amd option for amd cpu's and the SSE option for intel cpu's) is like night and day.

    also if anyone has ever used flask mpeg that used to run those speed tests and choose the right optimizations for your cpu will tell you that the difference between a vanilla install and an optimized one was substantial. i would like to see something similar with windows, during setup it checks to see what cpu you're running, if it detects SSE2 as the highest SIMD, then it uses that wherever possible, if it detects SS3, then SSE3 is the code path, if it detects SSE4, than that's the way it will go.

    alternatively, since the above approach would invariable result in amd cpu's having a disadvantage, they could just take leverage their DX Compute technology and if they detected an supporting graphics adapter they could enable could specify that win 8 uses that code path whenever possible. microsoft has already announced that IE9 will be gpu accelerated and AERO already is gpu accelerated, maybe they could take it all the way and gpu accelerate the audio sub system, the tcp/ip stack, the kernel, the shell, hell, even use DX Compute to gpu accelerate DX.

    i would be more than happy to see these 3 changes for win 8, what would you guys like to see win 8 offer?
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  2. I wouldn't hold my breath about Windows 8 being released in 2011, the screen shows Windows 7 and is probably a service pack.
    I'm still running XP on all my rigs so I couldn't care less.
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  3. For #1, just stick the files on a memory stick and remove it. Then no-one can get at the files and they are safe if the computer explodes.
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  4. Originally Posted by JohnnyMalaria View Post
    if the computer explodes.
    I hate when that happens!
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