| Mr. Fixit's PC Upgrade and Repair |
| Windows 7's Features and Improvements |
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Windows Aero's user interface and visual styles, introduced in Windows Vista, has a new control panel interface, accessible through the
"Personalize" context menu item on the desktop, has been introduced which provides the ability to customize and switch between themes,
as well as download more themes from Microsoft's web site. Desktop Slideshow was added that rotates the Desktop's background with a
smooth fading transition. This feature supports pre-downloaded sets of wallpapers and also supports photo RSS feed. The sidebar (Vista)
has been removed, while gadgets can still be placed on the desktop. Gadgets snap to certain positions on the desktop and from each
other; dragging with the Shift key held down prevents gadgets from automatically snapping into position. Windows 7 adds a Windows
Media Center gadget to the default collection while removing the Contacts and Notes gadgets.
Windows Explorer supports file libraries that aggregate content from various locations, including shared folders on networked systems if
the shared folder has been indexed by the host system, and present them in a unified view. The libraries hide the actual location the file is
stored in. Searching in a library automatically federates the query to the remote systems, in addition to searching on the local system, so
that files on the remote systems are also searched. Unlike search folders, Libraries are backed by a physical location which allows files to
be saved in the Libraries. Such files are transparently saved in the backing physical folder. The default save location for a library may be
configured by the user, as can the default view layout for each library. Libraries are generally stored in the Libraries special folder, which
allows them to be displayed on the navigation pane.
The Explorer's search box and the address bar can be resized. Folders such as those on the desktop or user profile folders can be hidden
in the navigation pane to reduce clutter. A new Content view is added, which shows thumbnails and metadata together. A new button to
toggle the Preview Pane has been added to the toolbar. The button to create a new folder has been moved from the Organize menu and
onto the toolbar. List view provides more space between items than in Windows Vista. Finally, storage space consumption bars that were
only present for hard disks in Windows Vista are now shown for removable storage devices. Progress bars and overlay icons may now
appear on an application's button on the taskbar to better alert the user of the status of the application or the work in progress. File types
for which property handlers or iFilters are installed are re-indexed by default. Previously, adding submenus to context menus or
customizing the context menu's behavior for a certain folder was only possible by installing a form of plug-in known as shell extensions.
Now, computer-savvy users can do so by editing Windows Registry and/or desktop.ini files.
Start Menu retains the two-column layout of its predecessors, with several functional changes: The "Documents", "Pictures" and "Music"
buttons now link to the Libraries of the same name. A "Devices and Printers" option has been added that displays a new device manager.
The "shut down" icon in Windows Vista has been replaced with a text link indicating what action will be taken when the icon is clicked.
The default action to take is now configurable through the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Taskbar Jump Lists are presented
in the Start Menu via a guillemet; when the user moves the mouse over the guillemet, or presses the right-arrow key, the right-hand side
of the Start menu is widened and replaced with the application's Jump List.
Links to the "Videos", "Downloads", and "Recorded TV" folders can now be added to the Start menu. The Start Search field, introduced in
Windows Vista, has been extended to support searching for keywords of Control Panel items. For example, clicking the Start button then
typing "wireless" will show Control Panel options related to configuring and connecting to wireless network, adding Bluetooth devices, and
troubleshooting. Group Policy settings for Windows Explorer provide the ability for administrators of an Active Directory domain, or an
expert user to add up to five Internet web sites and five additional "search connectors" to the Search Results view in the Start menu. The
links, which appear at the bottom of the pane, allow the search to be executed again on the selected web site or search connector.
Microsoft suggests that network administrators could use this feature to enable searching of corporate Intranets or an internal SharePoint
server.
Windows Taskbar hasn't seen an overhaul revision since its introduction in Windows 95. The new taskbar combines the previous Quick
Launch functionality with open application window icons. The taskbar is 10 pixels to accommodate touch screen input and a new larger
default icon size (a smaller taskbar size is available), as well as maintain proportion to newer high resolution monitor modes. Running
applications are denoted by a border frame around the icon. Within this border, a color effect that follows the mouse also indicates the
opened status of the application. The glass taskbar is more translucent than in Windows Vista. Taskbar buttons show icons by default,
not application titles, unless they are set to 'not combine', or 'combine when taskbar is full.' In this case, only icons are shown when the
application is not running. Programs running or pinned on the taskbar can be rearranged. Items in the notification area can also be
rearranged.
Quick Launch toolbar has been removed from the default configuration, but may be easily added. The taskbar is more application-oriented
than window-oriented, and therefore doesn't show window titles (these are shown when an application icon is clicked or hovered over,
provided there are multiple windows for the application). Applications can now be pinned to the taskbar allowing the user instant access to
the applications they commonly use.
Thumbnail previews which were introduced in Windows Vista have been expanded to not only preview the windows opened by the
application in a small-sized thumbnail view, but to also interact with them.
Jump lists are menu options available by right-clicking a taskbar icon or holding the left mouse button and sliding towards the center of the
desktop on an icon. Up to 10 menu items may appear on a list, partially customizable by the user.
The notification area has been redesigned; the standard Volume, Network, Power and Action Center status icons are present, but no
other application icons are shown unless the user has chosen them to be shown. A new "Notification Area Icons" control panel has been
added which replaces the "Customize Notification Icons" dialog box in the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window. In addition to
being able to configure whether the application icons are shown, the ability to hide each application's notification balloons has been
added. The user can then view the notifications at a later time.
A triangle to the left of the visible notification icons displays the hidden notification icons. Unlike Windows Vista and Windows XP, the
hidden icons are displayed in a window above the taskbar, instead of on the taskbar. Icons can be dragged between this window and the
notification area.
There is now the Aero Peek button, which, when clicked or hovered over with the mouse, displays the desktop and gadgets by turning all
windows transparent. This replaces the Show Desktop shortcut in the Quick Launch bar. Aero Peek exhibits the same features used by
the thumbnail previews, except it applies them to the desktop. If the mouse hovers over it, all windows are transparent, If the button is
clicked, all applications are minimized, and when clicked again, they are restored.
Solid state drives (SSD) differ from mechanical HDDs in some key areas (no moving parts, write amplification, limited number of erase
cycles allowed for reliable operation), it is beneficial to disable certain optimizations and add others. Windows 7 incorporates many
engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes, which benefit SSDs in particular since each write operation wears the
flash memory. It also makes use of the TRIM command. If supported by the SSD, this optimizes when erase cycles are performed,
reducing the need to erase blocks before each write and increasing write performance. Several tools and techniques that were
implemented in the past to reduce the impact of the rotational latency of traditional HDDs, most notably disk defragmentation, Superfetch,
ReadyBoost, and application launch prefetching, involve reorganizing (rewriting) the data on the platters. Since SSDs have no moving
platters, this reorganization has no advantages, and may instead shorten the life of the solid state memory. Therefore these tools are
disabled on SSDs by default except for some early generation SSDs that might still benefit. Partitions made with Windows 7’s partition-
creating tools are created with the SSD’s alignment needs in mind, avoiding unwanted systematic write amplification.
System disks are now partitioned into two partitions: one of limited size for booting, BitLocker, and running the Windows Recovery
Environment and the second with the operating system and user files.
Safely Remove Hardware menu includes the ability to eject just one camera card at the same time (from a single hub) and retain the
ports for future use without reboot; and the labels of removable media are now also listed, rather than just the drive letter in previous
versions. Windows Explorer now by default only shows memory card reader ports in My Computer if they contain a card.
Windows Media Center has retained much of the design and feel of the previous version, but with some notable enhancements. Media
Center includes a new mini guide, a new scrub bar, the option to color code the guide by show type, and internet content that is more
tightly integrated with regular TV via the guide. All Windows 7 versions now support up to four tuners of each type (QAM, ATSC,
CableCARD, NTSC, etc.).Playback of H.264 video both locally and through a Media Center Extender (including the Xbox 360) is now
supported.
When browsing the media library, items that don't have album art are shown in a range of foreground and background color combinations
instead of using white text on a blue background. When the left or right remote control buttons are held down to browse the library quickly,
a two-letter prefix of the current album name is prominently shown as a visual aid. The Picture Library includes new slideshow
capabilities, and individual pictures can be rated. While browsing a media library, a new column appears at the top named "Shared." This
allows users to access shared media libraries on other Media Center PCs from directly within Media Center.
For television support, the Windows Media Center "TV Pack" is incorporated into Windows Media Center. This includes support for
CableCARD and North American (ATSC) clear QAM tuners, as well as creating lists of favorite stations. A Windows Media Center gadget
is included as well.
Audio/Video support include AVI, WAV, AAC/ADTS, MP4, M4A, M4V, MP4V, MOV,3GP, M2TS, MTS, M2T, AVCHD, H.264, AAC-LC, HE-
AAC v1, HE-AAC v2, DivX, Xvid, Nero Digital, MJPEG, MPEG-2, DV, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus.
Windows Action Center, formally Windows Security Center, combines Security and computer maintenance.
User Account Control now provides four different levels of notifications.
Windows Biometric Framework consists of a set of components that standardizes the use of fingerprint biometric devices. A new
Control Panel called Biometric Device Control Panel is included which provides an interface for deleting stored biometrics information,
troubleshooting, and enabling or disabling the types of logins that are allowed using biometrics. Biometrics configuration can also be
configured using Group Policy settings.
HomeGroup is a new ad hoc home networking system. It uses a password to join computers into the group, and allows users' libraries,
along with individual files and folders, to be shared between multiple computers. Only computers running Windows 7 or higher can access
or join a HomeGroup. HomeGroup as a concept is very similar to a feature slated for Windows Vista, known as Castle, which would have
made it possible to have an identification service for all members on the network, without a centralized server.
Windows Firewall now apply a separate firewall profile to each network the computer is connected.
"Personalize" context menu item on the desktop, has been introduced which provides the ability to customize and switch between themes,
as well as download more themes from Microsoft's web site. Desktop Slideshow was added that rotates the Desktop's background with a
smooth fading transition. This feature supports pre-downloaded sets of wallpapers and also supports photo RSS feed. The sidebar (Vista)
has been removed, while gadgets can still be placed on the desktop. Gadgets snap to certain positions on the desktop and from each
other; dragging with the Shift key held down prevents gadgets from automatically snapping into position. Windows 7 adds a Windows
Media Center gadget to the default collection while removing the Contacts and Notes gadgets.
Windows Explorer supports file libraries that aggregate content from various locations, including shared folders on networked systems if
the shared folder has been indexed by the host system, and present them in a unified view. The libraries hide the actual location the file is
stored in. Searching in a library automatically federates the query to the remote systems, in addition to searching on the local system, so
that files on the remote systems are also searched. Unlike search folders, Libraries are backed by a physical location which allows files to
be saved in the Libraries. Such files are transparently saved in the backing physical folder. The default save location for a library may be
configured by the user, as can the default view layout for each library. Libraries are generally stored in the Libraries special folder, which
allows them to be displayed on the navigation pane.
The Explorer's search box and the address bar can be resized. Folders such as those on the desktop or user profile folders can be hidden
in the navigation pane to reduce clutter. A new Content view is added, which shows thumbnails and metadata together. A new button to
toggle the Preview Pane has been added to the toolbar. The button to create a new folder has been moved from the Organize menu and
onto the toolbar. List view provides more space between items than in Windows Vista. Finally, storage space consumption bars that were
only present for hard disks in Windows Vista are now shown for removable storage devices. Progress bars and overlay icons may now
appear on an application's button on the taskbar to better alert the user of the status of the application or the work in progress. File types
for which property handlers or iFilters are installed are re-indexed by default. Previously, adding submenus to context menus or
customizing the context menu's behavior for a certain folder was only possible by installing a form of plug-in known as shell extensions.
Now, computer-savvy users can do so by editing Windows Registry and/or desktop.ini files.
Start Menu retains the two-column layout of its predecessors, with several functional changes: The "Documents", "Pictures" and "Music"
buttons now link to the Libraries of the same name. A "Devices and Printers" option has been added that displays a new device manager.
The "shut down" icon in Windows Vista has been replaced with a text link indicating what action will be taken when the icon is clicked.
The default action to take is now configurable through the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Taskbar Jump Lists are presented
in the Start Menu via a guillemet; when the user moves the mouse over the guillemet, or presses the right-arrow key, the right-hand side
of the Start menu is widened and replaced with the application's Jump List.
Links to the "Videos", "Downloads", and "Recorded TV" folders can now be added to the Start menu. The Start Search field, introduced in
Windows Vista, has been extended to support searching for keywords of Control Panel items. For example, clicking the Start button then
typing "wireless" will show Control Panel options related to configuring and connecting to wireless network, adding Bluetooth devices, and
troubleshooting. Group Policy settings for Windows Explorer provide the ability for administrators of an Active Directory domain, or an
expert user to add up to five Internet web sites and five additional "search connectors" to the Search Results view in the Start menu. The
links, which appear at the bottom of the pane, allow the search to be executed again on the selected web site or search connector.
Microsoft suggests that network administrators could use this feature to enable searching of corporate Intranets or an internal SharePoint
server.
Windows Taskbar hasn't seen an overhaul revision since its introduction in Windows 95. The new taskbar combines the previous Quick
Launch functionality with open application window icons. The taskbar is 10 pixels to accommodate touch screen input and a new larger
default icon size (a smaller taskbar size is available), as well as maintain proportion to newer high resolution monitor modes. Running
applications are denoted by a border frame around the icon. Within this border, a color effect that follows the mouse also indicates the
opened status of the application. The glass taskbar is more translucent than in Windows Vista. Taskbar buttons show icons by default,
not application titles, unless they are set to 'not combine', or 'combine when taskbar is full.' In this case, only icons are shown when the
application is not running. Programs running or pinned on the taskbar can be rearranged. Items in the notification area can also be
rearranged.
Quick Launch toolbar has been removed from the default configuration, but may be easily added. The taskbar is more application-oriented
than window-oriented, and therefore doesn't show window titles (these are shown when an application icon is clicked or hovered over,
provided there are multiple windows for the application). Applications can now be pinned to the taskbar allowing the user instant access to
the applications they commonly use.
Thumbnail previews which were introduced in Windows Vista have been expanded to not only preview the windows opened by the
application in a small-sized thumbnail view, but to also interact with them.
Jump lists are menu options available by right-clicking a taskbar icon or holding the left mouse button and sliding towards the center of the
desktop on an icon. Up to 10 menu items may appear on a list, partially customizable by the user.
The notification area has been redesigned; the standard Volume, Network, Power and Action Center status icons are present, but no
other application icons are shown unless the user has chosen them to be shown. A new "Notification Area Icons" control panel has been
added which replaces the "Customize Notification Icons" dialog box in the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window. In addition to
being able to configure whether the application icons are shown, the ability to hide each application's notification balloons has been
added. The user can then view the notifications at a later time.
A triangle to the left of the visible notification icons displays the hidden notification icons. Unlike Windows Vista and Windows XP, the
hidden icons are displayed in a window above the taskbar, instead of on the taskbar. Icons can be dragged between this window and the
notification area.
There is now the Aero Peek button, which, when clicked or hovered over with the mouse, displays the desktop and gadgets by turning all
windows transparent. This replaces the Show Desktop shortcut in the Quick Launch bar. Aero Peek exhibits the same features used by
the thumbnail previews, except it applies them to the desktop. If the mouse hovers over it, all windows are transparent, If the button is
clicked, all applications are minimized, and when clicked again, they are restored.
Solid state drives (SSD) differ from mechanical HDDs in some key areas (no moving parts, write amplification, limited number of erase
cycles allowed for reliable operation), it is beneficial to disable certain optimizations and add others. Windows 7 incorporates many
engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes, which benefit SSDs in particular since each write operation wears the
flash memory. It also makes use of the TRIM command. If supported by the SSD, this optimizes when erase cycles are performed,
reducing the need to erase blocks before each write and increasing write performance. Several tools and techniques that were
implemented in the past to reduce the impact of the rotational latency of traditional HDDs, most notably disk defragmentation, Superfetch,
ReadyBoost, and application launch prefetching, involve reorganizing (rewriting) the data on the platters. Since SSDs have no moving
platters, this reorganization has no advantages, and may instead shorten the life of the solid state memory. Therefore these tools are
disabled on SSDs by default except for some early generation SSDs that might still benefit. Partitions made with Windows 7’s partition-
creating tools are created with the SSD’s alignment needs in mind, avoiding unwanted systematic write amplification.
System disks are now partitioned into two partitions: one of limited size for booting, BitLocker, and running the Windows Recovery
Environment and the second with the operating system and user files.
Safely Remove Hardware menu includes the ability to eject just one camera card at the same time (from a single hub) and retain the
ports for future use without reboot; and the labels of removable media are now also listed, rather than just the drive letter in previous
versions. Windows Explorer now by default only shows memory card reader ports in My Computer if they contain a card.
Windows Media Center has retained much of the design and feel of the previous version, but with some notable enhancements. Media
Center includes a new mini guide, a new scrub bar, the option to color code the guide by show type, and internet content that is more
tightly integrated with regular TV via the guide. All Windows 7 versions now support up to four tuners of each type (QAM, ATSC,
CableCARD, NTSC, etc.).Playback of H.264 video both locally and through a Media Center Extender (including the Xbox 360) is now
supported.
When browsing the media library, items that don't have album art are shown in a range of foreground and background color combinations
instead of using white text on a blue background. When the left or right remote control buttons are held down to browse the library quickly,
a two-letter prefix of the current album name is prominently shown as a visual aid. The Picture Library includes new slideshow
capabilities, and individual pictures can be rated. While browsing a media library, a new column appears at the top named "Shared." This
allows users to access shared media libraries on other Media Center PCs from directly within Media Center.
For television support, the Windows Media Center "TV Pack" is incorporated into Windows Media Center. This includes support for
CableCARD and North American (ATSC) clear QAM tuners, as well as creating lists of favorite stations. A Windows Media Center gadget
is included as well.
Audio/Video support include AVI, WAV, AAC/ADTS, MP4, M4A, M4V, MP4V, MOV,3GP, M2TS, MTS, M2T, AVCHD, H.264, AAC-LC, HE-
AAC v1, HE-AAC v2, DivX, Xvid, Nero Digital, MJPEG, MPEG-2, DV, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus.
Windows Action Center, formally Windows Security Center, combines Security and computer maintenance.
User Account Control now provides four different levels of notifications.
Windows Biometric Framework consists of a set of components that standardizes the use of fingerprint biometric devices. A new
Control Panel called Biometric Device Control Panel is included which provides an interface for deleting stored biometrics information,
troubleshooting, and enabling or disabling the types of logins that are allowed using biometrics. Biometrics configuration can also be
configured using Group Policy settings.
HomeGroup is a new ad hoc home networking system. It uses a password to join computers into the group, and allows users' libraries,
along with individual files and folders, to be shared between multiple computers. Only computers running Windows 7 or higher can access
or join a HomeGroup. HomeGroup as a concept is very similar to a feature slated for Windows Vista, known as Castle, which would have
made it possible to have an identification service for all members on the network, without a centralized server.
Windows Firewall now apply a separate firewall profile to each network the computer is connected.
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