Key Takeaways
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Windows has been around for many years and has developed a mature feature set along the way.
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Some features of Windows should actually apply to competing operating systems as well.
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If the future of computing is mobile, mobile operating systems will need to adopt more desktop features.
If there’s one thing that’s absolutely constant in my life, it’s Windows. My earliest memories of interacting with a computer date back to the early 2000s, when my family’s desktop PC ran the much-maligned Windows ME. Millennium Edition itself was prone to crashes as far as the operating system was concerned, but the basic utilities were already in place.
We’re all familiar with the basics: a desktop full of program icons, a taskbar that displays currently running software at the bottom of the screen, and the now ubiquitous Start menu. Since then I have tried and become familiar with competing operating systems. Although I consider myself platform agnostic today, I can’t quite shake off the familiarity and feature set I’ve come to know and rely on over the years. Here are five features that come standard with Windows: This is a must-have feature for me.
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One Windows Snap Features
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This is first on the list for good reason. One of the best features of the Windows OS is window management, which I think is quite apt. Since the launch of the legendary Windows 7 in 2009, arranging windows side by side has become very easy. Simply drag the window’s title bar to the left or right of the screen and it will automatically snap into place.
One of the best features of the Windows OS is window management, which I think is quite apt.
Windows 10, released in 2015, took this concept further. You can now split Windows into quadrants and the system will intelligently suggest other running windows to run side by side.
Competing platforms all have their own ways of launching app windows, but none can be as powerful as Windows Snap. For macOS users, at least reliable third-party solutions exist that emulate the Windows environment, such as the popular Magnet and BetterSnapTool apps.
11 essential Windows apps to install first on every new PC
Windows PC apps like GIMP, VLC, and Ditto Clipboard have made my life much easier. I know they will do the same to you.
2 clipboard interface
Effective time saving for numerous computing tasks
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The ability to view your clipboard history, pin useful clips, and delete their entire contents at will are core Windows features that I find useful every day of my life. This is a huge time saver if you’re working with a spreadsheet and need to reference multiple lines of text, or if you want to send a screenshot without saving the file to your device during the process.
A proper, dedicated, and honest clipboard manager is ominously absent from Apple’s software lineup. As with window snaps, there are third-party solutions that bring this functionality to macOS, including Maccy and CopyClip. Apple’s Universal Clipboard feature is a great feature for quickly copying and pasting from one iDevice to another, but we’d appreciate a little more flexibility when using the Clipboard more intensively.
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Different ways to take screenshots in Windows and when to use them.
three volume mixer interface
Sometimes you just want to silence one malicious app.
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Third-party tools like EarTrumpet have been popular in Windows for years, but the OS ships with a basic volume mixer out of the box. You can manually adjust the volume for each app, and easily mute apps whose audio you don’t want to hear.
This feature is largely missing from both Android and iPadOS, which have poor audio control settings.
You could argue that this is a power user feature that regular users won’t use, but I disagree. The value you get is tremendous, but you’re only using it to keep music low on Spotify without having to turn down the volume of your entire system in the process.
This feature is largely missing from both Android and iPadOS, which have poor audio control settings. If you’re running macOS, there’s a tool called BackgroundMusic that will at least bring this functionality to your platform.
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4 AltTab with thumbnail preview
Simple but essential inclusions for keyboard lovers
Windows provides a quick solution for cycling between open windows on any PC using the ALT + TAB keyboard shortcut. The interface provides at-a-glance thumbnail previews of all running apps, which is useful when switching between apps during a project.
MacOS and iPadOS offer similar functionality in the CMD + TAB format, but it lacks previews and doesn’t show multiple instances of a single app. MacOS users may find the third-party tool AltTab useful for porting features from Windows, but it would be better if it was built into the system natively.
5 Properly fleshed out mouse controls
There’s a ton of flexibility here, even without a third-party app.
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This is a big problem. Windows works better with most computer mice than its competitors. Customizing mouse functions is easy and straightforward, and importantly, the entire interface is optimized for cursor input in a way that feels fluid and natural to me.
Android has basic pointer options for various ages, but they aren’t all that robust. iPadOS also has modern cursor support, and while the funky new-age cursor looks pretty cool, it has few customization options.
Even macOS, a direct descendant of one of the pioneering OSs that supported mouse input, doesn’t work well with most mice. Unlocking basic features for manipulating through the interface requires downloading utilities like MacMouseFix and Mos, which isn’t ideal.
March towards mobile-first computing
Of course, it’s true that some of these features can be replicated on other platforms through third-party software. However, the simplicity of being built into the native Windows environment cannot be overstated.
I’d love to see some of these features make their way to mobile soon. Otherwise, it is impossible to imagine a future in which tablets replace traditional PCs in the consumer market.
MacOS is quite customizable by default. There is a rich ecosystem of third-party software to help bridge the gap when transitioning from Windows. The real problem lies in the realm of mobile platforms. Both Android and iPadOS are much less flexible than legacy desktop systems, so they would benefit most from building a Windows-like feature set.
I’d love to see some of these features make their way to mobile soon. Otherwise, it is impossible to imagine a future in which tablets replace traditional PCs in the consumer market. Apple’s long-rumored iPad Pro refresh with OLED and new Magic Keyboard is expected to launch soon, and the hardware package is very attractive. But without the flexibility of proper window snapping, app-specific volume controls, etc., you probably won’t be able to switch anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is rumored to be launching a pretty cool Surface product at Build 2024.