Windows 7 interface change? A clue from Steven Sinofsky?

Mike Halsey | May 13, 2009 | Comments

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A few days before joining Windows7News I wrote on my own site that I had been informed by a reliable source that the cause of the recent split of the Windows build trees, the release candidate tree and release to manufacturing tree, was the fact that an interface change was coming.

I was told that this wouldn’t involve any changes to functionality, it would merely be a new ’skin’ to change the look and feel.

Now I have no proof one way or the other, just the word of a reliable source.  I was looking back through my previous emails today with Microsoft Senior Vice President for Windows etc. fella Steven Sinofsky when I came across an email I had sent him about the taskbar.

I was heavily critcising it’s look and feel, it’s been one of my major bug bears since the technical beta began.  His reply to me didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, and I could be reading too much into it now.  He simply said…

Give it some time.

Does this mean anything?  Did he know a change was coming back then?  The email was sent back in January so they would certainly have been working on such a thing by then. 

Certainly all the feedback technical testers were getting through the connect site said either “by design” or “won’t fix”, Microsoft’s way of saying they weren’t interested as they’d already locked that functionality down.  If they were planning a new look and feel, these answers would be consistent with this.

This may turn out to be nothing, however I thought such a potentially interesting tid-bit might turn out to be a clue.  So if it pans out, remember you read it first on Windows7News.

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About the Author: The author of the new Windows 7 Power Users Guide, a how-to guide for non-technical Windows users on how to get the best out of Microsoft's new operating system, with step-by-step and quick guides. You can follow Mike on Twitter or on his own website The Long Climb

  • amr
    i have windows 7 with arabic ver(right to lift) and i want to change it to be english and left to right .... how can i do it?
  • Oscar
    Why are you suspecting that my picture is fake AS ME?

    You can easily put the recycle bin in the bar by following these instructions:

    http://wigginscurse.blogspot.com/2007/05/recycl...

    Removing the recycle bin from the desktop is as easy as changing this registry value:

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum]
    "{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"=dword:00000001

    Yes it was offensive and, by the way, the screenshot is my current desktop.

    Regards
  • Oscar
    I'd really enjoy if the recycle bin was IN the taskbar. I've managed to do that but this should be by default. The icon should not be behind any window so the best place for the recycle bin is the taskbar as you can see in my desktop screenshot:

    http://i44.tinypic.com/fnhkj4.png
  • smilingman
    I agree that any major GUI changes does not make any sense to me. Minor changes and some cleaning up of what they have is all that is need.
    I also dislike the new start orb and would like to see some better icons.
    A built in icon theme changer would be nice, like IconPackager.
  • Brad
    I wouldn't mind a few UI changes. Personally, I feel the original beta's start button was more attractive. The RC one looks tacky, unfinished and unimpressive.
  • Vigilante
    The majority of people see "UI change" and instantly think the entire GUI is being overhauled. Admittedly, having aero as the default would mean that for the first time since windows 2000, that the UI is staying the same between versions. But maybe that's not a bad thing, a lot of people have grown used to the transparencies and effects of aero, and considering the underlying benefits of DWM, its a smart move to keep it. Considering the work microsoft has put into the theming abilities of windows 7, I seriously doubt a gui change is coming, excluding very minor things (like the start orb as you suggested).

    Just a thought.
  • tfan
    Yeah. "Give it sometime" usually means to let it grow on you. When I tell someone to "give it sometime," it usually means to not be so quick about something that should be used for sometime before making a decision on.
  • I think when he said Give it some time, he meant to use it for a while and you'll realize the benefits and increased productivity over time.

    PT did state a rumor though, but I thought it turned out to be XP Mode. Hmmmm
  • DanB
    While I'm not disagreeing with the possibility of some UI changes - Paul Thurrot has been heavily promoting a similar liklihood - I don't think you can read that implication into those words.

    For me, "Give it some time" implies "work with it for a while, and you'll get used to it and begin to appreciate it's benefits".
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