{"id":375,"date":"2009-05-22T08:19:47","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T13:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/?p=375"},"modified":"2009-05-22T08:19:47","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T13:19:47","slug":"windows-7-ui-enhancements-for-power-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2009\/05\/windows-7-ui-enhancements-for-power-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 7 UI Enhancements for Power Users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While there are benefits to being a highly technical \u201cpower user\u201d, it can also come as a drawback in certain situations.&#160; No, I\u2019m not talking about being the de facto \u201cTech Support Provider\u201d for friends and family\u2026&#160; It seems that many O\/S\u2019s are designed for the \u201clowest common denominator\u201d user, and we techies are left with having to install hacks, reconfigure default settings, and to search for third-party utilities that fill in the gaps.&#160; Products such as Mac OS X (with it\u2019s one default mouse button and many missing keyboard conveniences) might work well for basic tasks, it leaves a lot to be desired.&#160; I was disappointed that Windows Vista\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d desktop didn\u2019t provide much in the way of productivity-enhancing features.&#160; <\/p>\n<p>Well, Windows 7 is about to hit the stage, and it looks like a winner from a usability standpoint.&#160; A simple web search will return dozens of articles that look at many of the UI changes and improvements and blogs like <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/e7\/\">Engineering Windows 7<\/a> go into some of the decision decisions in significant depth.&#160; Rather than repeat the content of those articles, I\u2019ll briefly highlight the features I\u2019ve enjoyed most during my past few months with Windows 7:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The new taskbar<\/strong>: There are also some features that might not be readily evident.&#160; For example:<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>You can see icons for all of your most-used programs, whether they\u2019re running or not.&#160; They\u2019re always right where you expect them, which really saves time when you have a bunch of different programs open at the same time.<\/li>\n<li>Applications can support jump lists, recent documents, and other special features that are available by hovering over an application icon or right-clicking on it.&#160; Apps such as IE already support this quite well.<\/li>\n<li>You can easily dock the Taskbar to the left, right, top, or bottom of the window.&#160; In fact, this even works properly with multiple monitors.&#160; So far, I have stuck with the standard bottom-of-screen layout, but I have tried docking it to the left, and it works well.<\/li>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/windows7taskbar.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Windows7Taskbar\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Windows7Taskbar\" src=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/windows7taskbar-thumb.png\" width=\"451\" height=\"24\" \/><\/a> <\/ul>\n<li><strong>Improved multi-monitor support<\/strong>:&#160; Windows 7 makes it much easier to work with multiple monitors but allowing you to quickly drag windows (even when they\u2019re maximized) to other monitors.&#160; In fact, my eVGA USB-to-DVI adapter is working great on Windows 7 (though I did need to download and and install the beta drivers manually).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keyboard Shortcuts for Window Management<\/strong>: Using intuitive keyboard shortcuts is far more effective and efficient than using the mouse to arrange windows.&#160; For example, think of all the work it typically takes to view two windows side-by-side (I never bothered to try it manually and relied on third-party utilities like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.binaryfortress.com\/displayfusion\/\">DisplayFusion<\/a> to help).&#160; Using the Windows Key in conjunction with the arrow keys allow you to maximize, minimize, and move windows to any part of any monitor.&#160; This alone saves a lot of time and really takes advantage of my three-monitor setup.&#160; Finally, you can use Windows Key \u2013 # to open the appropriate program or folder on your computer based on its located on the taskbar.&#160; <\/li>\n<li><strong>Overall Stability<\/strong>:&#160; As I\u2019ve mentioned in previous posts, I had been quite disappointed with Windows Vista\u2019s performance and reliability (even after applying both service packs).&#160; On the whole, Windows 7 responds much more quickly and the desktop, UI, and applications are completely reliable.&#160; In fact, I typically reboot my computer (which runs a <em>ton<\/em> of development stuff) once a week or so.<\/li>\n<li><strong>New wallpapers and desktop themes<\/strong>: Sometimes, it\u2019s the little(r) things that count the most.&#160; Windows 7 ships with a great collection of default themes and backgrounds.&#160; And, you can also download many more from the <a href=\"http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-US\/Windows7\/Personalize\">Windows 7 Personalize Your PC<\/a> site.&#160; The download process is seamless and I hope Microsoft will continue to add content frequently (as opposed to the rather missed opportunity with Windows Vista Ultimate Extras).&#160; Furthermore, the UI improvements for switching between desktop settings has been streamlined, making it simple to make changes without third-party utilities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sidebar Gadgets<\/strong>: They can now be placed anywhere on the desktop and seem to use fewer system resources (just a subjective observation \u2013 I haven\u2019t done any testing).&#160; Unfortunately, there\u2019s still a relative dearth of useful gadgets, but hopefully that will finally change.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expanded right-click menu<\/strong>:&#160; Hold SHIFT and right-click on a file or folder to see some useful new options, such as \u201cOpen Command Window Here\u201d.&#160; You could enable this feature in XP\/Vista, but it required a Registry change and would always appear in an already long list of options.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ClearType and Color Tuner<\/strong>: Matching colors on multiple monitors has always been a pain.&#160; While drivers from Nvidia and ATI allow you to change RGB values, these settings never seemed to \u201cstick\u201d for me.&#160; Windows 7 includes built-in functionality for handling this, and it seems to work.&#160; Better yet, it efficiently supports a multi-monitor setup.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/colortuner.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"ColorTuner\" border=\"0\" alt=\"ColorTuner\" src=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/colortuner-thumb.png\" width=\"451\" height=\"369\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Overall, I think Microsoft has done a great&#160; job of balancing usability for less-technical users with the features that those of the geekier persuasions can appreciate.&#160; I have (against some practical warnings and advice) switched to using the Windows 7 Release Candidate as my primary O\/S.&#160; I\u2019ve run into very few problems so far.&#160; So\u2026 which useful features have I missed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While there are benefits to being a highly technical \u201cpower user\u201d, it can also come as a drawback in certain situations.&#160; No, I\u2019m not talking about being the de facto \u201cTech Support Provider\u201d for friends and family\u2026&#160; It seems that many O\/S\u2019s are designed for the \u201clowest common denominator\u201d user, and we techies are left [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,24,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun-stuff","category-it-tips","category-windows-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}