Windows 7 removed some features that had been in Vista, such as Mail but added in a whole raft of new ones.  So how useful have these features actually been, and are people using them?

I can only speak about my own use of Windows 7, but I’d be interested in your comments about what new features you like and use the most too.

Aero Snap

By far the most used feature on my PCs is Aero Snap.  This is the facility that allows you to drag and snap windows to the left and right side of the screen so that you can easily and quickly have the two windows sitting side by side.

How do I use this?  I’ve found two common uses for it.  Firstly, despite the new search and organise features in Windows 7 I still end up shuffling files and folders around a lot.  For this, this feature is absolutely invaluable and makes things much easier.  I also use it when writing for Windows 7 News and other websites, especially when I’m referencing a story from another source.  It makes it much simpler to just get on and work.

In short this is a fantastic feature and it’s one I now use so automatically I can’t help but wonder how I ever got by without it before.

HomeGroup

When I first read about HomeGroup, the new home networking and file / printer sharing feature in Windows 7, I was sceptical of how much use it would be to someone such as myself.  To my surprise though I’m now using it regularly.  I have a media centre PC under my TV in the living room and it’s especially useful for pulling recorded TV from that so I can easily edit it down to keep it.  I also find it useful for shuffling files between the PCs in my living room and home office.  Finally I am now using it for printer sharing.

Jumplists

I still don’t like the new Windows 7 taskbar very much though I have got used to it.  It’s too much of a half-way house between old and new ways of working.  What I have come to appreciate though is one of those new ways of working.  I use Jumplists all the time now for accessing files, especially in Word and Excel, that I use on a regular basis.  It’s such a quick and easy way to access my files and it’s very convenient too.

Libraries

I very quickly found Libraries as an excellent way to find and organise my files.  I was lucky in this regard as I’d previously spent a great deal of time sorting and adding meta-data to all my photos and music.  Being able to go into a folder that contains every photograph and stack them by their tags has made finding and viewing photos far faster and considerably more pleasurable.

XP Mode

Despite being a forward-looking and progressive individual I still like to use older software that doesn’t run properly under Windows 7.  XP Mode is an excellent addition that allows me to use this software once again the way it ought to be used.

System Repair

Finally, I’m one of these people who likes to have my PC running at optimum all of the time.  I have little patience for slowdowns and sluggish behaviour.  That’s why whenever I have a clean install of Windows 7 that is correctly configured and has all my programs in it, I’ll create a system image.  Periodically I will restore this image, wiping what’s on my disc to get things running speedily again.  This feature is much improved in Windows 7 because you can run it from the system boot menu and no CD or DVD is required.  It’s really fast too so I can do this over a hot cup of coffee, adding in anything that’s changed before lock it down again and carrying on working.

So those are the new features in Windows 7 I’ve found I use the most.  Some of them I expected to use, such as System Repair and others, such as Homegroup have really surprised me.  What new features in Windows 7 do you use?

The New Windows 7 Features I use the Most was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

When it comes to refreshing your businesses IT side of things, it’s never a straight forward process. I don’t think there has ever been an OS which businesses and corporations alike were able to upgrade to without having a single hiccup, further more I don’t think there ever will be an OS that will just be plain sailing to upgrade to. That’s just the way things go, there’s always some application that wont work, a driver missing here and some network issues there.

EWeek have got a nice list of what IT Admins had problems with the most when upgrading their equipment to Windows 7.

1.

First off, an issue that affects more than just business and corporations, but also the consumer. The lack of a direct upgrade path from Windows XP which still holds the majority of the market, really made some things difficult for the IT Admins. They feel like they’ve been hard done by Microsoft and think they are getting payback on them for not upgrading to Windows Vista.

Many of my associates view the lack of a direct XP to Windows 7 upgrade path as ‘payback’ from Microsoft for customers who rejected Vista,”

Henry Cobb, Engineer and Director of Auburn University’s Research Electronics Support Facility,

2.

Backwards compatibility always seems to be a problem, so Microsoft came up with XP Mode to help make things easier for many businesses whos software was built to run specifically on Windows XP. While XP Mode has helped things tremendously it still has its issues. Some IT administrators and business owners have found Windows XP Mode to be slow to startup and run.

3.

Drivers, they always seem to be an issue, even when your not upgrading your OS. Initially when Windows 7 was launched, several drivers were missing but it appears that manufacturers have caught up and the problem is nowhere near as big as it was with Windows Vista.

4.

The new libraries feature in Windows 7 seems to be well, confusing, at least for some IT Admins anyway. Personally I love them and it really helps me keep organised and I can’t see where the confusing bit is.

What IT Admins Are Complaining About In Windows 7 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

This is exactly what my spouse and family said when I mooted the idea of buying one of the new Netbooks. After some persuasion I managed to convince all of my need for this! 

Back in 2009, I was already considering buying a netbook despite reading lots of adverse criticism of them from various sources on the web. Despite this I kept my nerve and went ahead and bought one. There were many contenders to choose from: 

• Toshiba NB100
• Dell Inspirion Mini 9
• Lenova IdeaPad S10
• HP Mini 1001TU
• Asus Eee PC S101
• MSI Win u100

I chose the MSI Win u100 netbook as it suited my needs. It came with an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 gig of RAM, a 160 Gig hard drive, a webcam, three USB ports and Windows XP preloaded and some bundled software. These little netbooks come in a range of colors.  

MSI Netbooks Colors

None of the netbooks came with a DVD drive to save space, as they were tiny compared with a regular laptop. I overcame this problem by buying a Samsung portable DVD Drive which plugs into two USB ports and runs fine. 

To boost my RAM I added another 1 Gig and now with a bit more grunt I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 Home Premium. I was able to do this easily as previously I had purchased the Family Pack version which I had already installed on two of my computers leaving me with one installation left reserved for my intended netbook. 

The MSI Win has a good-sized keyboard but one of its unusual features is a single button on the touchpad. To perform a left click you press the left-hand side of the button and for a right-click the other side. This works smoothly and is easy to get used too. However, being a mouse of long-standing I add a Microsoft Wireless mouse.  

One Button Touchpad

One problem I found was getting the web-cam to work but after contacting support I found the right key combination – FN + F6. This little camera takes a good clear picture. 

One criticism of netbooks is their short span of battery life. Some netbooks have a longer battery life. I have found I get about two and a half hours out of mine. As I am never far from a power point this is not a problem for me though some users who are more mobile may find this a problem. 

One other matter! I now have all three computers talking to each other through Windows 7 HomeGroup. This new feature of Windows 7 certainly takes the angst out of networking!

What Another Computer! was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Resident editor Mike Halsey has just published on Windows 7 News, the latest post in his series ‘Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows‘.  In part 5, he covers improvements he would like to see to Windows 7′s libraries and search  in Windows 8:

I’ve spoken before about Libraries being an excellent example of this. You can add folders to libraries, even on Homegroup connected PCs, but why can’t you filter those folder by content type, or have a library of all your Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) files? This is a very annoying omission and one that makes the otherwise excellent Libraries feature much less useful than Microsoft would like it to be.

To read the full post, click here.  Below you can find links to the earlier instalments in the series:

• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part I
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part II
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part III
• Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows, Part IV

Looking Forward To Windows 8, What Microsoft Missed In Windows 7, Part 5 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

After all the somewhat – odd adverts Microsoft have released for Windows 7, they have finally come up with some decent ones that actually make sense.

The first, appropriately named Collaboration, focuses on how Microsoft listened to people and what they wanted in the new OS. It lets consumers know that they helped to create Windows 7.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2YX6FsoMIY

Microsoft is telling us that Windows 7 is your idea and it’s all about you, the consumer. Windows 7 is aimed at you personally.

The next video, “Jack’s Snap” show us Aero Snap and again we get the message that “Jack” came up with the idea and Microsoft implemented it.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfQPLxgcGw8

And then we have “Steve” demonstrating the new Windows 7 Homegroup, and again, “Windows 7 was his idea”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ZesvwuE2g

The next videos give us demos of Windows 7 in 7 seconds. They finally show us these new features in Windows 7 in a way that’s possible to understand.

Aero Peek

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAD_Mtk88bg

Sleep Mode

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-nMQiLzts

I actually quite like these new Windows 7 adverts, they actually tell me useful information about Windows 7 and help me see how it may help me in my day to day life.

What do you think of them? Let us know in the comments

Source:

Crunchgear

New Windows 7 Commercials was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Is Windows 7 cool?  I think so.  Windows 7 contains so many new features, some of which seem small when you first read about them, but in use make Windows 7 a great operating system to use.

Techradar have compiled a list of 18 Cool Things Windwos 7 Does That Vista Doesn’t:

1. Shake ‘em away
2. Jumplists
3. A step forward in previewing
4. Snap into place
5. XP Mode
6. An easier and quicker way to adjust multiple displays
7. A personalised Stage for your device
8. (Almost) eliminate the notification area!
9. Problem Steps Recorder
10. New Magnifer tool
11. A new way to preview your music files (I didn’t know about this one!)
12. Homegroup Networking
13. Stream music directly to another computer
14. Action Center
15. Pin anything to Taskbar
16. Improved Touch Navigation
17. Native ISO Burner
18. Native calibration tools

18 Cool Things Windows 7 Does That Vista Doesn’t was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Eagle eyed Stephen over at techwoo spotted the following in the LinkedIn profile of a Microsoft PM, which seems to indicate that Windows 8 will have some new networking features:

Evaluating and collating technical and business requirements for developing new networking features in Windows 8.

Designing features, functional specification and prototype for Windows 8.

I can only hope that Microsoft improve Windows 7′s HomeGroup capabilities, which mean well, but don’t quit deliver for me.

Windows 8 Will Have New Networking Features was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Another huge article was posted today on the Engineering Windows 7 blog detailing media streaming in Windows 7. Media streaming refers to using a computer running Windows 7 as a hub for sharing media to other computer systems and devices over a home network or the Internet.

The article is divided into three parts. The first can be seen as an introduction. It outlines the configuration of media streaming in Windows 7. One interesting aspect here is that it has been integrated into the Homegroup feature which basically means that media streaming is enabled by default for most network configurations. Windows Media Player for instance comes with three options that deal with streaming media:

• Set up your home PC so you can access your media libraries while away from home
• Allow other Windows 7 PCs and devices to push media to your Player and control it
• Quickly authorize all home PCs and devices to access your media collection

HomeGroup introduces the concept of “shared libraries” for music, pictures, and video. As described in a previous blog post, these shared libraries are accessible from within the navigation pane of Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player, and from the “shared” view of each media category within Windows Media Center (see figures below).

The second part is about security, specifically access to shared libraries. Options are provided to select the type of media that the user wants to share as well as to allow access to all devices in a Homegroup or only selected ones.

The third and final part details how to use Windows 7 as a Universal Remote Control for a media collection.

In addition to playing media streamed from other shared media libraries within Windows Media Player, Windows 7 can now send media to be played on other Windows 7 PCs and DLNA-certified digital media renderers. We call this feature “Play To.” With “Play To,” you can browse or search from within Windows Media Player or Windows Explorer to find your desired media, and then choose where you want it to be played. A versatile remote control window is presented for each “Play To” session, providing you with the ability to control the entire experience.

[Show as slideshow]

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Windows 7 Media Streaming was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

One of the first – and few – new features that have been already implemented in the Windows 7 Milestone 1 release is the so called Homegroup.

Speculations have been running wild already, some suspected that it would be implemented in addition to the Workgroup feature which is already implemented in all newer Windows operating systems.

Others however have been looking back to Windows Longhorn and the year 2003 where Microsoft announced a feature for Windows Longhorn which was named Castle.

What it basically means is a simplified way of connecting computers without having to worry to much about the technical aspects. If that is indeed what Windows 7 Homegroup is all about it will be a welcome new feature that could make networking for all users a much easier and better experience.

Windows 7 Homegroup was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.