May 28
Windows 7: Seven Things I Like About You!
Mark Becker
For a more in-depth bio and list of my areas of expertise, take a look at http://www.cdh.com.
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Articles by Mark Becker
Windows 7 just crossed another milestone – it was released to MSDN as a Release Candidate. I have been running it since a fellow consultant shared Beta Build 7000 with me in December. Thanks Jason Sharp! Windows 7 has been a great operating system for me – much better than Vista! So I just had to write up a blog about the 7 things I like most about it. These are listed in order of their value to me.
1) Performance:This was the most annoying thing about Vista. On a well outfitted laptop like mine with an Intel Centrino Dual Core, 4 GB of RAM and a dedicated video card it still performed like my wife’s four year old Dell running Windows XP on 512 MB! Windows 7 has fixed that in many perceivable ways: startup is about a third of the time (a minute and 41 seconds from power on to Outlook open!), copying files to USB drives and network shares is much faster and program loads and multitasking are noticeably improved.
2) Aero Peek:This new feature is a real convenience and time saver for me. As its name suggests, Aero Peek allows you to “peek” at other windows (full screen) while not actually switching to that window. After you have had your look, you can let go of the mouse and the foreground application is back. This has saved me a lot of time, particularly when I need to glance at some information on another tab.
3) Windows Explorer Preview and Federated Search: Another favorite of mine is the new preview pane in Windows Explorer combined with search. From now on, I will never use Windows Explorer without the preview pane on. It is similar to having the reading pane on in Outlook. When select a document in the left pane, a full preview of the document appears in the right pane. You can expand the document window, select text and copy and paste it into another document without opening it. This really saves time when you are looking for something, but aren’t sure of the document. When combined with federated search this feature is really powerful. You can now search your SharePoint portal from your desktop with full document preview. Once you create a Search Connector Description file, (osdx) you simply click on it and it becomes one of your search connectors in Explorer. I have provided an example below:
Change the red sections to match your portal and search path.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/” xmlns:ms-ose=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”>
<ShortName>Your Portal Search Nickname</ShortName>
<Description>Search the Your SharePoint Portal site.</Description>
<Url type=”application/rss+xml” template=”https://your portal URL /search/_layouts/srchrss.aspx?k={searchTerms}&start={startIndex}&s=All%20Sites“/>
<Url type=”text/html” template=”https://your portal URL/Search/Results.aspx?k={searchTerms}&s=All%20Sites“/>
<!– Win7 M3 syntax –>
<ms-ose:locationProperties>
<ms-ose:property name=”TreatLinkAsEnclosure”>-1</ms-ose:property>
</ms-ose:locationProperties>
<!– Win7 Beta syntax –>
<ms-ose:ResultsProcessing format=”application/rss+xml”>
<ms-ose:LinkIsFilePath>-1</ms-ose:LinkIsFilePath>
</ms-ose:ResultsProcessing>
</OpenSearchDescription>
4) New Improved Taskbar:All running applications are “pinned” onto one group icon on the task bar – rather than taking up lots of real estate. That includes the quick launch icons. So for example, if you have a Quick Launch icon for Internet Explorer and you launch IE, the running IE app collapses down to that icon when you move to another application. When you launch other IE instances or other Tabs inside IE, they also collapse down to that icon. Then you can mouse over the icon and Aero Peek will expose all the running applications with thumb nail views so you can quickly switch to something else.
5) Managing Printers and Networking: Who knows why they took these away in Vista but it was a great annoyance. And because they went away and came back, they are down in the list. One really nice thing in Printer Management, though, is being able to pick multiple default printers based on the network you’re on. I use this all the time between home and work, and it keeps me from printing to the wrong location.
6) Resource Monitor: It was good in Vista – a great improvement over Windows XP, and it is even better now in Windows 7. Accessed through the Task Manager / Performance Tab and then by clicking the Resource Monitor button, the new addition I have used on occasion to troubleshoot application problems is Networking monitoring. You can view the processes with Network Activity and determine what traffic a process is consuming, as well as the TCPIP connections and listening ports. When you are troubleshooting bandwidth issues with live audio and video communications this panel can help identify the bottlenecks.
7) The Name: Windows 7 – I like it! I’m hoping they don’t call it Windows 2010. I know there is precedent to name it after the year, but it doesn’t have quite the same ring. And why not have a lucky number 7? I think after Windows Vista, Microsoft needs a little luck in the next OS!