28 more ways to improve Windows 7

newsguy 0 Tallied Votes 229 Views Share

As is to be expected as we fast approach the official launch of Windows 7, more changes from the Beta version to Release Code functionality have been confirmed by Microsoft. Although the Windows 7 team were at pains to point out that the latest update list is by no means exhaustive, it does still run to some 28 extra items.

Are you sitting comfortably?

  1. Improved taskbar thumbnail overflow (the list will now view architecturally the same as the thumbnail view, but without the thumbnails, and there will be close buttons plus the menus will open on hover rather than needing to be clicked.)
  2. Control Panel Jump List surfaces recently used items (right clicking the Control Panel icon on the taskbar will now reveal more recently used items.)
  3. PowerShell Jump List (providing a method to load modules, launch the ISE and open documentation.)
  4. Remote Desktop Jump List (added Remote Desktop shortcuts to taskbar with setting appearing in recent items list and an ability to pin connections in the Jump List.)
  5. Applying taskbar settings across sessions (even if the OS is not shutdown properly, courtesy of a within 30 second write during a session.)
  6. Multi-touch zoom (now in Windows Explorer, use to switch view modes.)
  7. Invert Selection (now ported to rearchitected view code in Windows Explorer due to demand.)
  8. Improved folder hierarchy movement overflow algorithm (to ensure that going up the hierarchy will always be a single click option via a click target in the address bar.)
  9. Finding music by artist (artist view in the Music Library now groups multiple tracks from an album by the common album artist property when available.)
  10. New folder always available (the Explorer “New folder” button will now always appear, regardless of selection.)
  11. Right-clicking (Windows Explorer right-clicking item behaviour changed, so that context menu is shown when right clicking any large white space, including the space between a files name and its properties.)
  12. Content view for search results (adjusted behavior when right-clicking items in the view to address concerns customers that it was too hard to find space.)
  13. Intelligent re-indexing after application installation (Windows Search service now keeps the index up-to-date whenever support for new file types are introduced to the system.)
  14. Trimming sound schemes (by trimming the shutdown and logoff WAV files, 400 ms is saved so boosting performance.)
  15. Baseline Device Stage (several manufacturers are implementing custom experiences, but a large number have also opted to support their older devices in the “baseline” Device Stage experience which delivers the same core performance but without the branding or vendor-specific tasks.)
  16. Devices and Printers (now enhanced to provide a double-click accessible Device Stage UX for those products which are compatible.)
  17. Unified experience for removing devices (remove action will now completely uninstall the device across all device classes. Hurrah!)
  18. Hardware properties (a right-click on the device to access properties instead of going in via Device Manager.)
  19. Improved eject experience (ejecting an optical drive now ejects the media instead of the drive and ejecting a USB flash drive ejects the entire device instead of an individual volume.)
  20. USB device reliability on resume (USB devices no longer stop working after a suspend/resume cycle.)
  21. FireWire camera support (now working.)
  22. Add Legacy Hardware functionality (now restored.)
  23. Add Printer Wizard (now more responsive.)
  24. Partition size (now reduced - Windows 7 System partition reduced from 200MB to 100MB.)
  25. Reserved System Partition naming (now 'System Reserved')
  26. Dual Boot partition drive letter assignment (now functional.)
  27. Pagefile (now reduced to 100% of the available main memory rather than memory + 300MB.
  28. Driver support (now improved.)
windowsrefund 0 Newbie Poster

Who cares? We have GNU/Linux which doesn't impose on your rights to use, study, modify, and redistribute the software. Freedom is more important than all of the silly nonsense mentioned in this article.

windowsrefund 0 Newbie Poster

This article is ridiculous. Why anyone spends their time hyping a piece of software that is written for the sole purpose of controlling its users is beyond me. Perhaps this writer never heard of GNU/Linux and Free Software?

happygeek 2,411 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

Talking of ridiculous, perhaps you have never heard of a news story?

flyonee 0 Newbie Poster

windowsrefund, ever heard of paranoid schizophrenia? ha i get where u are coming from and so do a lot of computer enthusiast but stop fighting it cause ur never gonna win nor gnu linux

khakilang -3 Posting Pro in Training

Reading the the articles is already a waste of time not to mention spending time tweaking the Windows.

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