More On Windows 7

There are many more features to Windows 7 I want to talk about, so I’m listing 5 more today! 

6. OOHHH Snap!  Now in my post the other day I forgot to mention one of my FAVORITE new features of Windows 7.  That is Snap.  I take a window and drag it over to the right side and it takes up half of the screen, then I take another window and drag it over to the left side, and it takes up the other half of the screen.  This makes copying things from one place to another sooooooo incredibly easy.  I use this most often when copying recipes from a website into www.kitchenmonki.com to help with my meal planning. 

7. Another feature that I really like is the Sticky Notes and Widgets.  In my IT career, I’ve come across several computers.  Every time I see sticky notes all over the outside of the monitor, I cringe a little.  I REALLY cringe when their password is written on one of them!  Here is what I used to do in XP and Vista though… I live my life on the computer, and can type much faster than I can actually write, so typically any time I would need to jot down a note or a phone number, or anything quick, I would open up a notepad and type away.  It was always a pain to save these files, because I usually didn’t need to keep the note forever, just until I was done with it.  With the sticky notes feature I can just jot them down in a sticky note and it’s out of the way, but just obvious enough for me to use it when I need it.  The other widgets that I use are a weather widget (so all of my California friends can be super jealous of my 41 degree weather in April) a widget for my Outlook Task List, a calendar, and 2 google calendar widgets (one for my “routine” and one for my acutal appointments).  There are TONS of different widgets you can put on your computer though, just depends on what interests you!

8. Desktop themes have also made a huge improvement.  The awesome new feature that I have fallen in love with is the background switcher.  I can choose a preselected theme, or create my own.  I placed several photos that are my favorites and told Windows to change my desktop background between those pictures every 30 minutes!  I have a new background every 30 minutes and I LOVE it! 

9.  Since my daughter is a computer genius (just like Mom!), the parental controls are pretty essential.  You can control what times of the day they can use the computer, one thing it’s lacking though is how LONG they can use the computer.  You can pick which programs they can use and which ones are blocked, and even block certain ratings on games.  It is pretty good, but it could definitely use some improvements.  Still nice to be able to do all of that right out of the box though. 

10. There have also been improvements made to the Windows Media Center.  If all of the computers in your house have Windows 7, you can pick to play a song on your upstairs computer from your laptop downstairs (and freak out your husband working away on the upstairs computer… tee hee!).  It’s got Internet TV, and several functions that are fun to play around with, like photo slide shows and even use it as a DVR if your computer has a TV Tuner.

Tomorrow I’m going to talk about some of the behind the scenes improvements to Windows 7… So stay tuned!

*Disclosure – Microsoft did NOT pay me or compensate me in any way for this post.  Microsoft probably doesn’t even know I exist.  If you are WITH Microsoft and would like to pay me or compensate me in any way for this post… please feel free. 🙂

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using the links.

Comments

comments