Due to the stupidity of Long (that's me), all comments on the Windows 7 Taskforce after March has been lost.
As a result of this unfortunate event, a transition to a new backend (the one powering heresanidea.net) is being considered.

This website is part of the community Taskforce initiative

Most recent submissions by user "broccauley"

Registered since: May 10, 2009

14 +14/-0 votes

Pointless warning when deleting .exe files in Windows Explorer using the "Organize" menu

Submitted by broccauley on March 2, 2010 to Bug

- Select an unsigned *.exe file to delete in Windows Explorer.
- Click on the Organize menu and choose delete
- A pointless window titled "Open File - Security Warning" will appear telling you that "The publisher could not (more...)

- Remove this pointless warning. It doesn't appear if you press the delete key on your keyboard, nor if you right-click to delete.

Low

Low

Not fixed

(16 comments)

39 +42/-3 votes

Save As... Dialog should not initially highlight the file extension when displaying a suggested file name

Submitted by broccauley on November 11, 2009 to Usability

I like the new feature in Win7 where in Windows Explorer/desktop (with file extensions visible) you can rename a file and it initially won't automatically select the file extension part of the file name. If you still want to rename the extension, (more...)

Extend this functionality into the Save As... dialog when so that the extension is not initially highlighted - then you can just type to rename the file without having to worry about changing the extension. (you can of course, still rename the extension (more...)

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

6 +8/-2 votes

an extra sort option to sort suggestions by positive votes only

Submitted by broccauley on November 10, 2009 to Website suggestions

a suggestion can have +50 votes and -51 votes but yet remain buried. not all votes are equal as some users may misunderstand the issue, complexity or potential of an idea.

add an extra sort option as in the title. the current sort method should, however, still remain the default.

Low

Low

Not fixed

32 +37/-5 votes

Enhance the "show desktop" button into an elegant mouse-driven window switcher

Submitted by broccauley on November 6, 2009 to Aesthetics, Usability

The "Show desktop" button occupies a prime piece of real-estate on your screen. The lower-right corner of your screen is one of the most easy to reach points on the screen with a mouse. Couldn't this button be made to do something more (more...)

See first mock-up image. Still keep the show desktop functionality (by a long single-click to show the desktop), but allow a hover/short single-click on this icon to show live previews of all open windows and allow aero peek. The desktop itself would (more...)

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

(3 comments)

17 +19/-2 votes

Allow user to dynamically rescale the aero peek live previews

Submitted by broccauley on November 5, 2009 to Aesthetics, Usability

sometimes the live previews are not useful as they are too small to distinguish between windows.

allow the live previews to be dynamically be resized by the user by , for example, rolling their mouse wheel when hovering over them. They could then be made as large as you want and would not have to be arranged linearly when large - this would give (more...)

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

35 +41/-6 votes

Better use of "Fitt's Law" in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer Back buttons.

Submitted by broccauley on September 29, 2009 to Usability

You can read about Fitt's Law here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/08/22/711808.aspx
(more...)

Make the back button also active at the extreme left edge of a Windows Explorer/Internet Explorer window!

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

18 +18/-0 votes

Allow Windows Explorer Favourites to be Expanded with Triangle in Left-hand Pane

Submitted by broccauley on September 6, 2009 to Usability

In the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer you can expand the folders under Libraries/Computer etc. to see sub-folders. You cannot do this with folders in the Favourites.

Allow Favourties to also be expanded to show sub-folders in the left-hand Windows Explorer pane.

Low

Low

Not fixed

56 +57/-1 votes

Often Windows Explorer doesn't refresh the file listing after file operations

Submitted by broccauley on August 19, 2009 to Bug, Usability

Windows Explorer often does not refresh the file listing after a file delete/rename/edit/move etc. operation.

In 7100 it happened most recently to me when deleting audio files from an external USB drive and viewing in details view in one (more...)

Refresh properly after file operations like Windows XP and every other Windows version could do!!

High

High

Not fixed

(13 comments)

14 +17/-3 votes

Allow user to optionally make "HomeGroup" less prominent

Submitted by broccauley on August 15, 2009 to Aesthetics, Annoyance, Icons, Usability

In Windows Explorer there is a persistent 'HomeGroup' icon taking up valuable space in the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer. I do not use this feature, nor do I intend to use it (see no difference between this and a standard network, plus (more...)

Allow the HomeGroup icon to be optionally hidden or removed by the user.
If removed, then allow it to be removed completely by the user in control panel (like Internet Explorer).

It should perhaps also be categorised under 'Network' (more...)

Low

Low

Not fixed

29 +32/-3 votes

Taskbar program name tooltips should be instantaneous

Submitted by broccauley on August 9, 2009 to Aesthetics, Usability

The 7 taskbar removes program text labels by default, showing only icons. For non-running programs you can get the name of the program by hovering over, but there is a pause. For new users, or for an unfamiliar program to experienced users with an obscure (more...)

On the MacOS X dock the tooltip appears instantly, allowing the user to easily decipher what program a particular icon represents.

Make the tooltips appear instantaneously by default. (I know you can perform a registry hack to change this, (more...)

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

49 +50/-1 votes

Undo and Redo options in Windows Explorer should tell you what you are undoing and redoing

Submitted by broccauley on August 5, 2009 to Usability

Often I want to undo an action in Windows Explorer, but have no idea what the last actions performed in Windows Explorer were.

Inform the user what the undo/redo action will be (like in Microsoft Office). e.g. hovering over 'Undo' will give a tooltip telling you 'Undo Move File', 'Undo Rename File', etc. There should also be a drop-down triangle (more...)

Medium

High

Not fixed

18 +18/-0 votes

Admin to Group suggestions into different/more UI categories

Submitted by broccauley on July 17, 2009 to Website suggestions

There are an overwhelming number of suggestions. Microsoft is also a big company and individual teams within Microsoft most probably only work on a specific part of the UI.

The categories listed when you submit a suggestion are not sufficient (more...)

An admin (Long etc.) should be able to tag suggestions into an appropriate category. For example many suggestions here could be grouped into the category 'taskbar' and others into the category 'window management', etc.

These (more...)

Low

Low

Not fixed

31 +35/-4 votes

Update/Enhance the Windows 3.1 era menu in the top-left of every Window / update the "Ribbon" GUI

Submitted by broccauley on July 10, 2009 to Aesthetics, Legacy, Usability

Clicking on the icon in the top-left of every window produces a seldom used menu, whose sole purpose is to be familiar to Windows 3.1 users. It made sense to do this in 1995, but in 2009 it's time to move on...

In the "Ribbon (more...)

I really think that Windows 8 should update the window-icon menu in the top-left of every window to be more functional than at present - i.e. it should take place of the blue menu button (the "application menu anchor") from the "Ribbon" (more...)

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

(2 comments)

-16 +7/-23 votes

Bring back the XP dynamic Notification Area behaviour as an *option*

Submitted by broccauley on July 5, 2009 to Annoyance, Usability

I preferred the way the Notification area in XP/Vista would dynamically resize based on a combination of the use of the icons and your settings. I also preferred the arrow pointing left/right rather than the one that points upwards.

Have an option to bring back the XP behaviour. Perhaps a checkbox called "Dynamic Notification Area sizing"

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

18 +23/-5 votes

Allow the user to set the Notification Area default behaviour

Submitted by broccauley on July 4, 2009 to Annoyance, Usability

The notification area by default will set the behaviour for any new unknown program to "Only show notifications".

This is annoying for me as I would like to be able to set all new unknown programs to "Show icons and notifications", (more...)

Allow the user to set the default behaviour for the notification area!!

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

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