After nearly eight years, Windows XP had grown as comfortable as my old house. Just as I’d forgotten about the growing number of dings on my house wall, Windows 7 strips away that ugliness to create something that’s light yet strong, useful yet still playful. Windows 7…
Microsoft ruined Vista’s improvements by adding overly aggressive security, thick layers of meandering menus, and a sense of being designed by a huge committee. Windows 7 strips away that ugliness to create something that’s light yet strong, useful yet still playful. Windows 7 grabs me in a lot of ways Windows XP no longer does.
Home group Security
With Windows 7, Microsoft finally realized that people don’t need the same level of security on their home networks as they do on the Internet.
Home groups let everybody type a Single password into their networked PCs. Those PCs then join hands to become a Homegroup, where every PC on the network can share all the music, pictures, and videos stored by everyone else. Of course, anybody can opt out of sharing their media. Windows 7’s really a huge step forward from Microsoft Vista, and it’s versatile enough to last for years to come.
But sometimes I feel that Windows 7 is often too much about Microsoft’s needs, rather than our own needs. For example, Windows 7 no longer comes with an e-mail program, so Windows 7 understandably pushes Microsoft’s new Windows Live Mail program as a replacement.
Huge Libraries
Finding the right pieces of that information becomes the biggest challenge. Windows 7’s libraries tackle the organization part of that problem by letting one library show the contents of several folders.
Taskbar Jumplists
Windows 7 overhauled the taskbar with jumplists, popup menus listing frequently accessed items and common tasks.
- Need to see one of your favorite Websites in a hurry? Right-click the taskbar’s browser icon, click the favored site’s name from the pop-up list’s “Frequent” section and the browser opens to that site.
- Can’t remember the location of that helpful folder you opened yesterday? Right-click the Explorer icon, click the folder’s name from the jumplist, and start digging in.
With jumplists, Windows 7 adds a feeling of immediate gratification that all too often went missing from Vista.
Minimal Hardware requirement
Demands of Vista’s bloat kept it from running on netbooks, the PC industry’s single bright spot these days. Windows 7, by contrast, runs fine on most netbooks, as well as on older PCs. needing another test machine while writing Windows 7 For Dummies, I installed Windows 7 on a Pentium III with 16MB of video memory. Surprisingly enough, Windows 7 not only installed, but its automatic trip to Windows Update brought.
More shortcuts Keys
Once you learn a few shortcut keys, they become addictive, and Windows 7 brings several welcome ones. For example, placing two windows side-by-side on a crowded desktop took a lot of mouse maneuvering in Windows XP. In Windows 7, you click the first window, and press Win+Right Arrow to scoot the window against the right edge. Follow up with a Win+Left Arrow on the second window, and you’ve lined them up side-by-side, ready for quick information swapping.
Windows 7 comes loaded with many other creative keyboard shortcuts, a sign that the team had time to focus on subtle details rather than major overhauls.
Adjustable User Account Controls
Probably the most welcome change is that Windows 7 tones down User Account Control’s overly aggressive policing. But if you still find yourself grinding your teeth more than working, a sliding control lets you adjust Windows 7’s paranoia level to match your own. It’s refreshing to feel in control of your PC rather than the other way around.
These are just some of the new features of Microsoft Windows 7 that I liked. I’m going to surely write more on this, Stay tuned. What’s on your mind? Post your comments below and let us know!
