Look and Feel of Windows 7
So last time we spoke about Windows 7 I perhaps got a little too excited about how quickly it installs, can’t fully guarantee I won’t get excited whilst writing this either. What I plan to do now is put some snippets from the Microsoft website about new features in Windows 7 and give some advice on how they work in reality.
New ways to juggle windows
Overwhelmed by open windows? Windows 7 comes with three simple yet powerful new features called Aero Shake, Aero Peek, and Snap to help you instantly clear through desktop clutter.
“…Aero Shake – Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Just click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back. (Who says the old mouse can’t learn a new trick?)…” So this is pretty cool right? Having a nice interface that doesn’t require you to have 30gig of RAM is always welcome.
“…Aero Peek – gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7 desktop. Simply point to the right edge of the taskbar —and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets. Quickly reveal a buried window by pointing to its taskbar thumbnail. Now only that window shows on the desktop…” It’s not actually x-ray vision before you start jumping around. Although this isn’t available on the Starter version of Windows 7 it’s still a nice feature to have, gives the OS a ‘complete’ feeling – like it’s really been worked on this time instead of rushed out with a ridiculous price tag.
“…Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand vertically, take up the entire screen, or appear side-by-side with another window. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows a…well, you get the picture…” Hhmmm after using Windows 7 for a while I didn’t really get on with this, sure it’s a cool feature and as I said before it does give the feeling of a good development team but the double click on the top of the window or simply ‘maximising’ is still king in my eyes.
Spectacular new wallpapers
“…We spend a lot of time staring at our PCs. Aesthetics shouldn’t just be an afterthought. That’s why Windows 7 includes a slew of new desktop backgrounds—wallpapers—that range from sublime to silly. Or try the new desktop slide show, which displays a rotating series of pictures (ours or yours). Your desktop will never be dull again. Windows 7 makes it easy to express your personality with creative new themes and other custom touches…” This, at first, seemed a little bizarre. Did Microsoft actually pay someone to go around the world taking nice pictures to put into their Operating System? And if so how do you apply for something like that!? However actually using this feature I was able to put some of my better holiday snaps on a rotation for my desktop and then in turn a friend of mine inserted a ‘fruity internet picture’ in said rotation – all fine until family came round to see my holiday snaps from Italy – bad times…
Retooled taskbar
“…Since Windows 95, the taskbar has served as the go-to spot for launching programs and switching windows. Times and PC habits have changed. So in Windows 7, the taskbar has been completely redesigned to help you work smarter, cut clutter, and get more done. Improvements to the new Windows 7 taskbar include thumbnail previews of WebPages, documents—even running video…” Ok, I’m gonna get REALLY excited here as this is my one of my favourite features about Windows 7. The new taskbar is fantastic in its simplicity, if you have multiple web pages open simply hover over the icon on the taskbar and it will display all the windows you have open in a smaller, thumbnail format just above the taskbar. You can then move your cursor up onto any of the pages, which will change super fast on the actual desktop, and then you just click on the one you’d like to view and Voilá! The same goes for multiple anything really, if you have Windows Media Player open it will show the movie playing in thumbnail, multiple folders open e.t.c. Making it unbelievably easy to navigate all open items – gone are the days of having 70 instances of things open on the taskbar, having them all clumped up together and being unable to read any of them. Good work Microsoft fellas – not something you hear often.
Improved gadgets
“…Gadgets, the popular mini-programs introduced in Windows Vista, are now more flexible and fun. Based on your feedback, we’ve done away with the Sidebar, so you can stick your gadgets anywhere on the desktop. Favourite gadgets can go anywhere on your Windows 7 desktop…” Now I never really liked the sidebar in Windows Vista I think mainly because it slowed start-up so much, used so much RAM and realistically I don’t need a clock in the top right when the time is displayed on the taskbar. Sure there’s some good add ons for monitoring core temps and RAM usage e.t.c. With more and more people making add ons, or Gadgets as they’re more commonly known, hopefully they’ll be more and more useful ones.
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September 24th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
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