the home of brian haught, graphic designer, gamer, adobe creative suite lover and all around good guy.
Hello Windows 7: A Quick Review11-15-09
First let me start by saying, I am not a Mac "hater." Am I tired of the battle between Apple and Microsoft? I can answer that with a resounding "YES!" I take each OS for what it is, and I can appreciate the really cool features of a Mac. I am a fan of the file exploring and the folder color labels. Do I think they are overpriced? Yes, I do. I can't justify the price of a Mac, based on the OS alone. I know, what about viruses? It is easy, don't open strange mail and don't look at porn. That may be a revelation to some, but let's face it.
Probably the most obvious change is the dock and task bar. I love the Leopard dock, and I honestly prefer the 7 dock. As you hover over for example the firefox icon pinned to the task bar all related windows open.
You can easily find what you are looking for by scanning the image thumbnails instead of reading. People don't read...they scan.
Another slick feature is the show desktop button. It is now baked into the task bar, and not that ugly icon we dismiss at first only because we don't realize how useful it really is. But once they suck you in, you find yourself missing it when it is gone. With a simple hover of the mouse over a "hidden" button you can check your desktop.
Speaking of desktops, does yours ever get flooded? Have your ever been busting at the seams files to the point where you just can't find a damn thing? What if you could make the smaller or larger? Hold down control and scroll your mouse wheel and TA-DA! You can scale the icons from tiny to ridiculously large. While it may not be useful all the time there will come a time when you will use that little trick.
Aside from looking so much better, I am very happy with the performance. Everything I have plugged in: Samsung mp3 player, Wacom tablet, Canon printer, Sandisk flash drive, HTC Wing, Sansa Clip and several other devices have worked perfectly.
Here are a few more shortcuts that I have grown to love and use quite often.
| Scale Icons | ctrl+mouse wheel |
| 3d Flip | Win+Tab |
| Dock Window to the left half of the screen | Win+Left Arrow |
| Dock Window to the right half of the screen | Win+Right Arrow |
The Control Panel is much improved. It is easy to find what you are looking via the little icons that looks like the device. How cool! There are so many other great features, and I highly recommend at least checking it out. Set aside what you think you know about Windows and think for yourself. Don't let great marketing make the decision for you. Educate yourself and make an informed decision based on what Windows 7 really is.