Windows 7 Top Features - Win7

Hey Now,
Windows 7 is now in RTM & I’ve been enjoying using the RC’s & beta’s for a few months. There are many new features in Windows 7 so let’s take a look at a few of the best that we’ll use.

1. Performance
2. Screen Captures
3. Taskbar / Jumplists
4. Rotating Desktop Pix
5. Snap Windows in Half
6. Wireless Networks


1. Performance – I wish I has some technical proof but all that I’ve read & heard is that the performace is better. Where I feel the OS is greatly imporved is the startup, shutdown, restart, hibernate speeds. I’m always hibernating my notebook & I really like how fast it boots up now compared to vista after while it’s hibernated like a bear.

2. Screen Cap (Problem Steps Recorder & snipping tool )
Problem Steps Recorder – This to me is very slick & useful. Great for help desks for details on issues & creating training documentation. It’s a screen capture application built into Windows 7 where a user click start, then performs any task on the PC, then clicks stop, selects a folder to store the file into. The file will include an easily readable MHTML file which can be viewed in a browser. The file will include so much information such as keystrokes, screenshots, slideshow & other information such as date & system info.
The Snipping tool easily screen captures a region.

3. Task Bar Change – This I feel is the biggest change people will use daily & notice. The new taskbar is kinda like a quickstart / taskbar combo. A user is able to pin icon to the taskbar similar to as we could pin shortcuts to our quicklaunch.
Jump lists – To go along with the task bar changes there are Jump Lists. When you right click on an icon in the taskbar the user gets a jump list where you can select to navigate to. If there are multiple word documents or browsers such as FireFox, you can select & preview the task you wish to switch to.

4. Rotating Desktop Backround Pix – This is a feature an average user will really like & say really? A user can select a folder of pix & then the desktop backround will rotate every 3 minutes (or you can choose the frequency) . This is nice since you won’t get board of the same desktop backround.

5. Snap Windows in Half – This feature is good too since you can quickly resize a window vertically & it will dock it to take up ½ of the screen. This way a user can have two windows on the same screen visable where the screen is split vertically one window on the left & the other on the right. Nice to move files or Office app on the left & browser on right. Kinda the benefit of multiple monitors only on one.

6. Wireless networks Improvements – It’s easier to view & connect the wireless networks. In the system tray there is an icon (five bars in a row increasingly larger) where with one click you can view the network you connected to & view the available networks.

7. Power Options – There are more power options which is nice when youa re on a notebook or even for you desktop to hibernate after 30 minutes of non useage then starts up really quickly

8. Drivers – Much improved since all the drivers for vista work

9. Touch Screen – Windows 7 has the ability to use touch screen. This sounds good, I”ve never used it & think this will not be used often by the average user or even power user.

A few areas where I feel Win7 could be improved is
1. Usable Memory - My experience Win7 doesn't detect all of the RAM installed on the PC easily. Win7 64bit I've heard works better @ detecting the memory & there are some reg hacks. Some examples, I've installed Win7 on 2 pcs one with 4 GB RAM & the other with 8 GB RAM. When looking @ the usable memory detected the first displays 2.25GB RAM & the other displays 3 GB ram.

2. The name Windows 7 to me wasn't very good for SEO & it's kinda confusing for the average person. They get it confused with IE7 & when searching for topics if the OS was called anything not windows seven such as Windows Orange or Windows asdf then when searching for content a user searching would be distracted with other content that searching for a Windows 7 brings. Anyhow I feel the name could have been improved for these 2 reasons.

3. When using taskbar buttons not combines the user should be able to taskbar shuffle the buttons. This would be a nice feature.

So Windows 7 is a current OS so let us enjoy some of the top nice features.

Bye for Now,
Catto

Window 7 Tiki Hut Event

Hey Now Everybody,

There was a Microsoft TechNet event The Tiki Hut Road Show on Windows 7 which I attendend on May 28th 2009. It was a great session where Blain Barton & Shervin 'da bomb' Shakibi presented all about Windows 7. Windows 7 is the next Microsoft Operating System
Before there was 95, 98, XP, now there's Vista soon there will be Windows 7. I've been running a virtual machine with windows 7 on it to test. Today I received the dvd & plan to install it where this version on my physical will time bomb June 1st 2010. When installing any OS on the physicall drive my preference is to fresh install & delete all my previous data.
One of the features that caught my eye was the ease of VPN (direct access). Another was a screen capture application called record problem recorder. It reminded me of a snag-it type application where you can record what steps are taken then it produces a zip file which when opened will display all the steps taken while recording including screen shots & text fo the steps. This would be ideal for help desk or documenting a training.

This was a Technet event & the MSDN event is later in June. My preference is to hear more about the development side vs. the IT Pro side therefore I enjoy the content on MSDN events a little more. At the same time this was an excellent event. IE8 is the default browser which is what I think most people will notice along with the task bar features.
As always there were some great people there including some sponsers such as Sherstaff. I saw a few of my friends there & had a great time. That's all there is there is no more.

Bye for now,

Catto