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Comment by Jedd | Hacker News Reader

It's an interesting experiment to ask the average Microsoft Windows user to identify - let's say 5 things - in their current workflows, that they couldn't do in Microsoft Windows XP (or 7, etc - pick the subject's age-appropriate release).

Similarly for versions of Microsoft Office products.

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Virtual Desktops

Hyper-v

Default notepad that understands linux style line endings

Default ISO mounting support without having to download sketchy tools

Default ZIP support without having to download winrar

Thanks for the thoughtful list.

At the risk of sounding churlish, the last three can be done on earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, for varying degrees of downloading 'sketchy tools'.

Notepad.exe upgrade occurred last year I think? But one feels like Microsoft could have done that at any time in the past 3 decades. I suspect anyone who was hurt by this was likely to long since shifted to Notepad++.

Virtual Desktops are indeed a compelling feature, which I've relied on with KDE since last century -- though I still haven't tried them on a Windows box.

Hyper-V -- I've used this a few times on Windows 10, though I believe it's not available on the most common version of the OS, right? I'm using Pro and Education versions - which do have the feature.

Luckily I said compared to Windows XP, because Hyper-V's been available since Windows 8 / Server 2008.

My guess is that most users of Windows won't even know what items 2-4 even mean much less find them a boon to their every day workflows. They're nice but they don't seem like the sort of things that couldn't just be added to XP/7.

While you are right that older Notepads were annoying because they could not handle other line endings except CR LF, Wordpad could always handle them.

So the solution on Windows XP or other old Windows versions was to change all text file associations from Notepad to Wordpad and everything was fine.

It's interesting that the responses you got were all dev related improvements (better line endings, WSL, hyper-v etc.) but I thought I'd try to take a stab at this from a non-power user's perspective:

- Better bluetooth integration (N/A in XP? Unreliable in Win7?)

- Snipping tool (Don't remember if in XP, definitely part of win7)

- Improved automatic driver detection (Drivers were pretty rough in XP, okay in win7 but still needed manufacturer installs for many things)

- Built in camera app? (Voice recorder was always there for audio testing)

- Built in free mail app (outlook always cost money)

- Better out-of-the box browser (windows edge vs. IE)

- Free, good quality firewall (windows defender, came later in Win7 as an update not in XP)

I found it to actually be a difficult exercise which either says something about my memory of the old OS's or it reveals a distinct lack of dramatic changes.

> outlook always cost money

outlook express was free on xp

I forgot about the snipping tool. It's great.

A couple more

- Clipboard history - this is kind of a hidden feature and has to be turned on but is very helpful.

- One drive integration - this works pretty well if you do use one drive.

PowerShell

Network interface bridging

Per-application volume control

Hyper-V

Drivers that run mostly in user space so crashes and updates don't require a reboot

Powershell was available for XP SP2, though not installed by default - https://serverfault.com/questions/615275/in-which-version-of...

It's more interesting to do the same thing with MacOS X vs Windows because Windows has unfortunately been held back because an overly vocal minority is against progress.

MacOS is still the most advanced desktop environment for computing but I'm no longer convinced it will even be an option 10 years from now so I just want Microsoft to focus on replicating the best parts and throwing out the Windows cruft.

Saying this as someone who returned to Windows after a 10+ year hiatus because I needed powerful GPUs for my work.

Literally nothing, IME... XP would be great to have back. (then again, I mostly run Ubuntu for work, so not exactly an "average" Windows user...)

- WSL

- Game Bar (built in screen recording)

- Built in SSH

- Virtual Desktops

- Action Center (OS level notifications)

WSL

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