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1029usr078198
Forum Admin
USA
333 Posts |
 Posted - October 22 2009 : 22:37:15
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Listen now. or Download the archive.
Windows 7 Is Here!
Yesterday saw the launch of the much-anticipated Windows 7. I went to an event last Thursday in Dallas where Microsoft showed some of the features that make the new Operating System so great. Some of these features are only available when you pair Windows 7 with Windows Server 2008 R2.
Microsoft loves its own products generally. I've only known of two products that representatives of the company ever really disparaged at industry events: Microsoft Bob back before Windows 98 came out, and Windows Millennium, referred to by them as "Windows not-for-ME". Well, we can add Vista to the list now. Even though Windows 7 is built on Windows Vista, Microsoft has now begun to speak ill of it as they did at this event. Glad they caught up with the rest of us.
The first features they demonstrated were Shake, Peek, and Snap. Shake is a feature where if you have a bunch of different windows open on your desktop at once, and you want to clear the clutter, you grab the title bar of the window you want to work with, and then move your mouse from side to side a few times like you're shaking the window. All other windows will minimize. Do it again and they'll all come back. Peek is a feature that uses Aero - that glass look that Vista has - and it's activated by a button on the bottom of the screen down by the clock. When you click that button, the windows on the desktop will all go transparent, so you can take a peek at the desktop if you need to. Many folks don't know that you can drag things from one window into another window, like dragging files from your camera to your "My Pictures" folder. One of the reasons for this is that many people are not comfortable moving windows around and resizing them. Snap is a feature where if you drag a window to the left or right edge of the screen, it automatically resizes itself to take up just that half of the screen. You can also use the Windows logo key and the right and left arrow keys to do the same thing. We have links in the show notes to descriptions of these features on Microsoft's website which even include how-to videos.
Other features that weren't demonstrated were discussed as scenarios. Two of these were in regard to printers. If you've ever plugged in a USB printer to your computer, you know that Windows detects that event and sets up the printer. If for some reason later, you have to unplug that printer from its USB port, and then forget which one it was hooked to when you plug the printer back in, Windows thinks that's a new printer, instead of the old one. When that happens, you can't print because your default printer is copy 1, while your current printer is now copy 2. With Windows 7, your computer will no longer be fooled by this sequence of events and it'll just change the port accordingly so that it just works. That seemed to be one of their mantras for that day, "It just works". Another scenario related to printers has probably happened to most laptop users out there. At work you have one printer, and at home, you may have another. If you're at home, using your laptop for home stuff, and then print, you might find yourself printing to the work printer; but since that printer isn't available at home, nothing happens. Most folks, not realizing where the computer is trying to print, will try again in that case, myself included. You get upset, but no harm done . . . much. You then walk into work the next day, fire up your computer, and then you hear the printer kick in, dutifully printing each copy of all that stuff you told it to when you were at home. Windows 7 has a feature called Location Aware Printing that knows when you are at work, and knows when you are at home. If you have Vista, you may know that when you connect to a network, it asks whether this is a Home, Work, or Public network. Location Aware Printing uses that knowledge and resets your default printer as you move from home to work, and back. That way when you print, your job goes to the right printer the first time.
Another new feature revolves around the Search feature built into Windows Vista, enhanced for Windows 7. For a long time, we've had My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos, etc., but some programs, like iTunes for example, organized things their own way, making it hard sometimes to know just where your stuff was. Well Windows 7's libraries feature is a great improvement, because it doesn’t matter where things get stored on your computer, or even on other computers in a homegroup which is another new feature. You just open the library, and there's your stuff. It will still be stored all over the place, but you can get at it from one central location. But they've even one-upped themselves here, because you can create your own libraries to catalog the stuff you're interested in keeping up with.
Links
Microsoft Bob on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
Microsoft Bob:
http://toastytech.com/guis/bob.html
Windows ME on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Me
Windows 7 Snap:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/snap
Windows 7 Peek:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/aero-peek
Windows 7 Shake:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/aero-shake
Location Aware Printing:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/location-aware-printing
Windows 7 Libraries:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/libraries
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10/23/2009-Windows 7 Spectacular, Pt. 1
