Windows 7 - Second Look
Saturday, January 24, 2009 16:32:07
I've had a few weeks to look at Windows 7, and I just wanted to share a few newer opinions. In my first post, I listed a few postive comments, but had a generally negative overall opinion. Since it's been out for awhile now, I've had a chance to get used to a few things, and read some articles from some experts, clearing up some of the issues I had.
The best article I've read on the subject was found from a Microsoft director named Tim Sneath, who provided The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets. While I don't necessarily agree with all of his comments, I found much of the article very useful.
One of the coolest new features is the Problem Steps Recorder. This is a very easy-to-use application that allows a user to record the steps they took to perform an action, then save it to a file. That file can be given out as training material, given to technical support, or any of a number of uses. An example of the output, after only a few clicks, can be found here (It generates a MHT file, which can be viewed in IE easily - attached is a PDF printout of that MHT file).
Internet Explorer 8 has several new and exciting features, designed to compete with Firefox and other browsers, to maintain dominance in the browser market. There are add-ons like toolbars and extensions, accelerators, and InPrivate browsing. And IE8 provides a more Firefox-like search function, opening up a toolbar for searching instead of a popup window. Up to now, Firefox has managed to stay one step ahead of IE, and there's really no reason to think IE will beat it anytime soon - but IE is definitely improving on itself with each new version.
One of my biggest complaints was the loss of the Quick Launch toolbar. While it's not there by default, there are ways to get it back. But even without it, you can still be as productive as before, just a little differently. I was concerned that once you opened an instance of an app, you couldn't open a second one from the taskbar. I found out that you can open another instance by middle-clicking the icon (or right-clicking and selecting an item in the context menu, but that's one too many clicks for me when I'm in a hurry). Combine this with setting small taskbar icons, and you really don't lose any productivity.
So I'm warming up a little bit to Windows 7. When the final version is released in a year or two, I'd expect it to be very successful, unlike Vista. I don't think it will steal anyone away from the Apple or Linux communities, but I do believe it will finally get people to upgrade from XP.
Tags: microsoft operatingsystem tech
Comments:
