Op-Ed: Looking into the seventh Window

The following is part of DigitalJournal.com's series covering Microsoft's Windows 7 launch. You can’t call most of the new features in Windows 7 revolutionary, but they’re well thought out, they work properly and prove that Microsoft has finally talked to some real users. Call them ‘nifty.’ Jump lists: Windows 7 allows you to right-click on icons on your task bar, and you will be presented a list of files you’ve used recently. It will work only with programs that are already open, though, but the feature is handy if you’re working with a lot of files at once. Window behaviour: You can open, close, resize and arrange windows more easily by grabbing a window and pulling it to either side edge of the screen to fill half the screen. Snap two windows to both sides, and it’s easier than ever to compare those windows. You can make all the open Windows transparent just by moving your mouse to the lower right corner of your desktop, so the desktop becomes visible. If you want to get all but one window gone, grab the top of that window, shake it and all the other open windows will minimize to the task bar. Shake the window again, and they’ll all come back. It’s weird, but it can be useful once you used to it. Windows Search has been improved. Enter any text in the “Search programs and files” from the Start button and Windows 7 will look into your documents, pictures and contacts list for it. But it won’t look into e-mail, so you still need a good desktop search engine, such as Copernic. (I gave up on Google Desktop when it declared war on Vista’s desktop gadgets a year or so ago.) Accelerators: Introduced a while ago for Vista, they’ve been improved for Windows 7. Install the feature with Internet Explorer 8, highlight a bit of information, click on the blue accelerator icon, and choose from a variety of services. Highlight a street address, right click, the Live Maps Accelerator will show a map preview right there on the page. There are accelerators for e-mailing, blogging, searching, translating, and sharing information. Web Slices: Similarly, a Web Slice is used to track information on a Web site, such as auction items, sports scores, entertainment columns, and weather reports. When the content you're watching changes, you’ll see it right away in the Web Slice in your Favorites Bar. HomeGroup: Used for home networks, the HomeGroup can share files and printers. A new feature in Windows 7, HomeGroup is set up automatically; you can use it to specify what you want to share from each PC with all the PCs in the HomeGroup. This way it’s easy to share files across the various PCs in your home if all your data were on a single hard drive. View Available Network (VAN): A one-click way to connect to all your networks, including Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or a corporate VPN. Better battery life: Windows 7 has added several power-saving enhancements, such as its adaptive display, which dims the display if you’ve wandered away from your PC a while earlier. It also requires less power to play DVDs and uses processing power more efficiently. Compatibility: If it worked on Vista, the odds are excellent it will work on Windows 7. With Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, you’ll also be able to run many productivity and business programs designed for Windows XP. Some additional software will be necessary and it will be available as a free download from Microsoft. Reduce interruptions: An Action Centre icon on the task bar lets you know if the system has something to complain about, and you can find out more by clicking it. The difference is that you can now do this on your own schedule, and not deal with annoying pop-up announcements. Easier TV, movies, and video: Windows Media Centre in certain editions of Windows 7 make watching TV, movies, and other video content easier. A USB TV Tuner will show you channels on basic cable that you can record. It has been updated to manage a single TV guide containing both standard and digital high definition TV shows. You can fast-forward through video with turbo scroll, which allows you to hold down the right-arrow key to zip through videos and content listings. And now that Windows 7 puts your pictures, videos, recorded TV and music in one place, you can stream them to your home audio-video system and other networked media devices. Play to: You can send music to another device. Open Windows Media Player, right-click on what you'd like to hear, select Play To, and you'll see a list of devices and PCs on which you can play your music, like your network-connected stereo or Xbox 360. You can even use the entertainment on your home PC over the Internet. You can tap into your home PC fro anywhere else and share photos with the whole gang. Native ISO Burning: This is a very geeky thing, but Windows 7 can now burn a DVD disk that will boot your computer or launch a program itself. It’s not every user’s cup of tea, but for people who want a way to store software they bought on-line it can be a godsend. Virtual Wi-Fi: This feature will create a way to share one Wi-Fi adapter as a hotspot to share with your friends or other devices. Windows Touch: Windows 7 also offers support for a touch-screen monitor, which lets you use your fingers to scroll, resize windows, play media, and pan and zoom. More screens: Press the Windows key on the keyboard and then the letter P, and you are offered four ways to view your workspace: on your own monitor, duplicated on another monitor, on two screens in extended mode, or through a projector.