Operating Systems: Windows 7

Posted: 3/23/2009 Last Updated: 3/23/2009

It is hard to believe that Microsoft is gearing up towards the release of Windows 7, but the new generation of Microsoft OS’s is slated for release in the second half of 2009. If you look at the history of Microsoft desktop operating systems the next generation should be a winner. Going back to Windows 3.1, it seems like every other desktop operating system has proven itself. For example, 3.1 was a winner, Windows 95 was flawed. Windows 98 was a winner…Windows ME was a failure and so on.

While Vista has steadily improved and the software authors are starting to catch up with the newest OS, problems have begun to diminish. Where I have seen problems is when we have tried to integrate Vista into cross platform environments, but we have had some success. For the everyday home user, Vista has proven not to be much of a problem at all.

Windows 7 is faster, more reliable, and makes it easier to do what you want. For those of us that seem to notice things are getting fuzzier and harder to read, there is much better control or the appearance of the desktop, taskbar and window size and position. You'll have more intuitive ways to open, close, resize, and arrange them. You can drag open windows to screen borders, so you'll no longer have to click on tiny objects in the corner of a window to make it do what you want.

Maximize a window by dragging its border to the top of the screen, and return the window to its original size by dragging it away from the top of the screen. Drag the bottom border of a window to expand it vertically.

It's easy to copy files or compare the contents of two windows by dragging the windows to opposite sides of the screen. As your cursor touches the edge, the window will resize to fill that half of the screen.

To see all your desktop gadgets, just drag your mouse to the lower right corner of your desktop. That'll make all the open Windows transparent—making your desktop and the gadgets on it, immediately visible. Want to minimize all your windows? One click and it's done.

For power users, nobody likes to wait. So they've focused on the basics that can impact the speed of your PC. Windows 7 starts up, shuts down, resumes from standby, and responds faster. You'll have fewer interruptions and can recover more quickly from problems when they do occur because Windows 7 will help you fix them when you want.

Another feature that I’m particularly looking forward to is the “Action Center”. We’ve all been watching the pop-in the lower left hand corner of the desktop, alerting us pending Windows updates and firewall status for years. Rather than popping up with a message in the lower right of your screen, if Windows 7 needs your attention, you'll see an Action Center icon and can find out more by clicking it. If you don't have time to look at the alert immediately, Action Center will keep the information waiting for you to address later. This will be especially helpful when identifying bogus alerts created by spyware programs on systems.

As always, we don’t recommend jumping into an OS upon release. Let the adventurous ones work out the bugs for us. For more information on the newest release from Microsoft, please click here.

Comments

Post your comments
No comments posted.

Return to Operating Systems