What Makes Windows 7 Different ?
Many users were severely disappointed with the features of Windows Vista. Microsoft made a lot of promises on it being its best operating system yet, but it fell short – way short. Users required computer upgrades and it was plagued with driver and software issues that took months to sort out. As for the new features, well, most people really did not notice any. All they saw was a flashy new interface. Windows 7 promises again to be the next best thing and this one actually might be.
Performance – This is one of the big ones. Although Windows 7 looks a lot like Vista (and with good reason because it was built of off the architecture of Vista), there have been many improvements. In general it just runs better. Install Vista and Windows 7 on the same machine and anyone could see that it is smoother. The requirements to run the operating system are lower to start. They also added in a feature for services. Generally when a Windows operating system started, so did a horde of services for all of your components to run and some you did not even need. Windows 7 boasts a feature where a service will only actually run when it is needed as opposed to always running.
Toolbar & Jump Lists – Windows 7 comes with a revamped toolbar. It still contains the same Vista style Start button, but next to the Start button are what XP users would know as quick launch buttons. You start with a few applications pinned to the taskbar and you can pin an application you use often to it also. Another feature of these icons is this is where the programs are minimized to. So if you have Internet Explorer or Firefox running, they are minimized to where they are pinned and you can hover over the icons for a live preview.
The jump Lists are something a little different. You can right click any of the icons that you have pinned to the taskbar and it will give you a list of recent items, almost like the now extinct recent documents feature. For example, if you right click the Windows Media Player 12 icon it will come up with a list of recently or often played songs, Internet Explorer will give you frequently visited website.
Windows 7 Desktop – Even the desktop has been changed up with some new features. With Aero Shake if you have multiple windows open, you can just grab the one you are working one shake it back and forth and all other windows will be minimized. There is a small rectangle on the far right side of the taskbar this is for Aero Peek. If you hover over this box, all of your open windows will become completely transparent with just a bounding box so you can see your desktop. If you click the box, all windows will be minimized revealing the desktop, pressing it again will restore all windows just the way they were. Snap is a handy little feature that allows you to snap windows to different positions of the screen. In the days of old, if you wanted to compare to documents you had to resize them and set them side by side. Now with Snap you drag a window to the top right corner of the screen and it will show you a bounding box, and when released it will fill the screen. Take the pointer a little lower and just bring it to the right side and you will see a box that is the right half of the screen release and your window is automatically resized to fit the portion. So with a snap on the left and one on the right you can be comparing documents.
Windows 7 still carries all of the flash that Vista promised. You can change the entire color theme for the taskbar and windows, as well as the transparency. It ships with a few defaults to get a feel for it. The new feature is the wallpapers with a new wallpaper slideshow feature. Browse to a folder with pictures and Windows will load thumbnails of all of the images with check boxes. Check the images you want to use and set how frequently you want them to change and your desktop wallpaper will change on its own.
Gadgets – The sidebar from Vista is dead, but you can still get gadgets. Just right click the desktop and you can select the gadgets that you want and drag them to any part of the screen. Users that do not use the gadgets do not have to worry because the sidebar is just not there.
64-bit – 64-bit computing is here and Windows 7 is trying to push it. All versions of Windows with the exception of Home Basic will ship with both a 32-bit and 64-bit version of the operating system. With more and more new computers shipping with 64-bit operating systems already loaded, 64-bit is the future. Computer coming with more than 4 gigs of memory will require a 64-bit OS to be able to use all of it.
Windows Media Center – Windows Media Center is less obtrusive running in a windowed mode rather than the classic version that took up the entire screen. It allows for easier media sharing and is faster loading than media centers of the past.
These are just some of the more common features that the average user will encounter. There are a lot more new features for Windows 7. Better device management, Homegroups, improved search, and Windows Media Player 12. It also keeps many features from Vista with tweaks such as the Games Explorer and Aero. For anyone that hated Vistam, Windows 7 may just be something for you fixing most of the problems from its predecessor.
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