NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, October 2009
Exploring Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1
Part IV: What I've Discovered About Windows 7 (A)

Written by Lee Reynolds,
Contributing Editor, Boca Raton Computer Society, Florida Boca Bits, June 2009

http://www.bcrs.org
leetutor (at) earthlink.net (click to email author)

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).

Lee continues an overview of what the new operating system might look like, as well as what it is likely to have for features.

The Start Menu And Its Properties
As you can see from the screenshots below, the Windows 7 Start Menu is very similar to the Vista Start Menu. Figure 1 – Vista Start Menu Figure 2 - Win7 Start Menu

One difference is that doing a search in the search dialog box at the bottom will turn the entire Start Menu into a display of the search results. Figure 3 – Win7 Start Menu Search

In Vista, the search results only occupied the left half of the Start Menu. Figure 4 – Vista Start Menu Search

DIFFERENCES
If you right click the Start "orb" and select Properties from the Context Menu, then you can see a bit better some of the differences between Windows 7 and Vista. For example:

* There is no Classic Start Menu option.
* There is no option for using Large Icons.
* There are no links for Internet or E-mail.
* The check box for Printers in Vista has changed to one for Devices and Printers in Windows 7.
* There is a check box for Recorded TV.
Figure 5 – Vista Start Menu Properties Figure 6 – Win7 Start Menu Properties

POWER BUTTON ACTION
And one of the nicest options added to Start Menu Properties is the ability to switch the Start Menu Power button usage among these different options: Switch User, Log off, Lock, Restart, Sleep, Hibernate, and Shut Down. Figure 7 – Win7 Power Button Action

Taskbar Properties
* Right clicking the Taskbar, and selecting Properties, takes you to the Taskbar Properties window, as in previous versions of Windows.

* This is similar to Vista's with a few exceptions:
* There is no option for Keep on top of other windows.
* There is no option for Group Similar Taskbar buttons (they are always grouped.)
* There is no option for Show Quick Launch, since the Taskbar has been modified so that pseudo Quick Launch icons can be pinned to the Taskbar.
* There is no option for turning on or off windows pre-views.
* The Notification tab has been replaced by a separate window in Control Panel, and will be covered later.
* On the Toolbars tab, Quick Launch, Windows Media Player, and Documents are missing options.
* A new feature is the ability to select the location on your screen of your Taskbar from the Taskbar Proper-ties page. (Always before, in previous versions of Windows, you had to drag the Taskbar to one of the four edges of the screen.)
Figure 8 – Vista Taskbar Properties Figure 9 – Win7 Taskbar Properties

Control Panel
The overall look of Control Panel in Windows 7 hasn't changed that much from Vista if you look at the two screenshots below:

But there are a number of under-the-hood differences. First, there is no "Classic View" link in the left pane of Control, as there was in Windows XP and Vista. Instead, you click on the link for "All Items": Figure 10 shows the Classic view of Control Panel in Vista: Figure 11 shows Control Panel (All Items) under Windows 7:

In my Control Panel Classic view in Vista on my desk-top pc, there are 58 different applets. In my Virtual Pc version of Windows 7, there are 57 under All Items. Figure 10 – Vista Control Panel Classic

Now as you compare all the items in Vista and Windows 7, you will see that there are a number of missing applets, a number of new applets, and a number of modified applets. Figure 11 - Win7 Control Panel All Items

MISSING AND REPLACED APPLETS
Some of the missing applets in Windows 7 are: Add Hardware, People Near Me, and Windows Sidebar Properties.

The Welcome Center applet of Vista has been replaced in Windows 7 by one called Getting Started.

Since there are still Gadgets in Windows 7, but no Sidebar to mount them on, the Windows Sidebar Proper-ties applet of Vista has been replaced by Desktop Gadgets.

The Printers applet of Vista has been replaced by one called Devices and Printers. Besides printers, this new applet can also handle devices that are connected externally to the computer, including devices connected wirelessly or over the network, through USB cables, Bluetooth, Wireless USB, Wi-Fi or other wireless connections.

System Restore in Vista was one of the tasks in the left pane of the window for the System applet. Under Windows 7, it has its own applet called Recovery.

Windows Security Center is another applet in Vista that has been redistributed differently in Windows 7. Security Center enabled you to handle the Firewall, Automatic Updating, use of an Anti-virus program and the handling of malware by Windows Defender. It also allowed you to turn on User Account Control if it was disabled.

Vista also had an applet called Problem Reports and Solutions which allowed you to research and report problems in your computer. In Windows 7, most of this is handled in the new applet called Action Center.

Vista’s feature called User Account Control aggravated a lot of people because it was so continually intrusive on their attempts to do anything with their computers. Many people turned off UAC in Vista, even though this made them much more vulnerable to the introduction of malware on their pcs. Windows 7 has a new version of User Account Control which is much more versatile and less intrusive. You use a slider bar to adjust between 4 different settings. The top setting corresponds to Vista’s only setting of UAC “on.” The bottom setting corresponds to Vista’s setting of UAC “off.” In between are two intermediary settings:

1) notify me when programs try to make changes to my computer, but don’t notify me when I make changes to Windows settings

2) notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop.)

Option 1 above is the default option when Windows 7 is installed.

NEW APPLETS
There are a number of other new applets in Windows 7 with no counterpart in Vista, including:

* ClearType Text Tuner, which helps make the text on the screen easier to read
* Credential Manager, which helps manage user names and passwords and other credentials used to log on to websites, other computers, etc.
* Default Location, which can be used to store your zip code, country/region, and latitude and longitude for use when there is no location sensor such as a GPS receiver attached to the computer Display, which allows a choice between Smaller, Medium, and Larger sizes for text and other items to make the screen easier to read
* HomeGroup, which is the new way of sharing data and other resources in a home network environment
* Notification Area Icons, which allows control of which icons and notification messages appear in the Notification Area of the Taskbar
* RemoteApp and Desktop Connections, which allows you to connect to desktops and programs at your work-place; this takes the place of the Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance capabilities of Windows Vista and XP
* System Icons, which allows control of the following icons and notifications in the Notification Area of the Taskbar: Clock, Volume, Network, Power, and Action Center
* Troubleshooting, which allows access to various troubleshooting wizards on computer problems under the following general categories: Programs, Hardware and Sound, Network and Internet, Appearance and Personalization, System and Security.

Most of the other applets that Vista and Windows 7 have in common have either not changed at all, or have relatively minor differences.

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