It's 20 years on, and Windows still doesn't have...

[asymetrix]

its been years and Amiga does not have Visual Studio equivelent.

i love to drag and drop and have webbrowser facilities or calander controls.
Windows GUI is great it even has accessability options and voice/speak all apps, even automate every app via script as default. not every Amiga app can be controlled via script.
i can set internet connections in commandline !
even set/unset partitions, hidden or not via commandline.
i can even slipstream all windows patches into one Install CD/DVD, with my own apps !

There are alot of hidden capability under the hood believe me.
Amiga does not even have equivelent of windows gadgets or WB as html browser.
windows has capability running more than one desktop at same time !
Virtual desktops, the install image format is even VM ready.
every setup.exe has full script and automated control/unzip/install/creation capability.

[asymetrix]

Just for example, my father has hearing and vision problems. When he visits and wants to watch a movie, I turn on subtitles and set the subtitle font size to something ridiculously large for him. If I forget to change the settings back to normal, my wife won't watch movies because subtitles ruin the show for her. She's not savvy enough with tech to change the settings herself*, so she just does something else instead.

You should not have to change settings each time, that why Windows has user logins to keep different settings for each user separately.

Create a login for each user and set them with the settings you want, switch user login when a different person uses the system.

good luck

[asymetrix]

What I like in Amiga and what is still missing in Windows is the ability to program F-keys
(and other keys too) freely using Exchange and Fkey. E.g.: In my setup pressing F5 writes
my username and pressing F6 the password for amiga.org.

F1: Run program
      C:Avail flush >CON:0/0/208/88/Flush/WAIT/CLOSE

F2: Run ARexx script
      Work:REXX/CloseAllDrawers.rexx Work:REXX/CloseActiveWin.rexx

...

F12: Cycle screens forward

...MK

Of course you can and more !

http://www.autohotkey.com/

You can assign full scripts with full control.

If you need more power, use autoit which records all keypresses and mouse movements that can be played back - something that cannot be done on Amiga.

With Autoit one can run apps, select options etc anything and have it repeat those actions.

http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/

Its really good when I control my character in an online game to eat some special cakes for energy via an NPC repeatedly via a push of a button  ;-)

If one does not want to use other programs, simple modify the registry for a more permanent assignment.

For remembering passwords I use RoboForm which automatically signs me in when i'm on websites - no user response.
I have over 50+ sites listed.

http://www.roboform.com

Some people really should educate themselves on what Windows can really do !

Like it or not, be thankful for Windows, without it there would be no FireFox and thus no Timberwolf.= and not to mention countless other apps being ported or even apps ffrom other platforms that have been inspired by Windows.

Im not saying Windows is great, far from it - no Operating System is great, they never will be, and thats the whole point - apps and User Interfaces and expectations change, evolve and improve into better ways of doing things.
This constant evolving and enhancing will always be there to the end of time, the only limit applications have is the creative freedom of developers who work tirelessly with the tools they have and the limits of the day.
Tirelessly pushing barriers into the unknown and limited only by their knowledge and inspiration.

[asymetrix]

Windows 7, just right click a shortcut icon -> properties and reassign a new keyboard shortcut.

If you use a keyboard shortcut thats already in use in Windows by default, reassign those keys in the Windows registry - its all in there.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463447.aspx

Happy now ?

Any more specific Windows/technical questions really should be directed at people who really know windows under the hood, sites like :

http://windows7forums.com/

This is where the experts are, I'm a mere multiOS user  :-)