Windows 7 - Is it right for you?

The next iteration of Windows, Windows 7, promises a lot. New features like preview panes, neat graphical plug and play capabilities, touch screens reminiscent of the iPhone, faster transitions and loading times, ease of use and networking all sound wonderful. Let's take a deeper look.

Updated Taskbar and Full-Screen Previews

The taskbar is the bar at the bottom of your computer screen containing your Quick Launch icons, start menu, active programs, clock and the system tray. Windows 7 intends to improve program accessibility and overall taskbar functionality by incorporating a full-screen preview feature which allows you a glimpse of every window open in a certain program just by hovering over the icon for that program. For example, if you have 2 windows currently open for Internet Explorer, you could hover over the IE icon and view the websites you have open. Also, you can quickly add (or "pin") an icon to the taskbar and rearrange existing icons by dragging and dropping. The final taskbar change is the icon size. Microsoft has increased the size of both the icons and the taskbar.

Usefulness Rating:

Somewhat. If you are in the habit of opening large numbers of program windows this might be beneficial to you. If, for example, you have occasion to have several browser windows open and need to move between them quickly and consistently, this might work for you. For everyone else it may prove to be too taxing on your computer system, cumbersome and therefore of little to no use. As far as the ability to pin icons on your Quick Launch bar or move items around, Windows XP already introduced this functionality. That leaves one final change of the icon size. Microsoft has now integrated larger icons and a larger taskbar. This could prove useful for many types of users.


Jump Lists

Jump lists are a new Windows feature debuting in Windows 7. The lists are produced by right-clicking on an application icon located on your taskbar. The list contains shortcuts and recently used files relevant to the program you've right-clicked on. For example, if you right-click on Microsoft Word you will see a jump list containing your recently used documents.

Usefulness Rating:

High. This function increases productivity by allowing you to quickly access content relevant to the application you chose. In the picture to the right, the user has pulled up the jump list for Windows Media Player. The feature allows the user to quickly access their last playlist, recently played media and the CD or DVD they've inserted into their CD/DVD drive. Who couldn't benefit from being able to pull up a document, spreadsheet, picture or media file with two clicks? The integration is simple enough for novice users to navigate quickly and find this useful as well.

Desktop Enhancements

New desktop enhancements claim to make window management easier than ever. Microsoft hopes to accomplish this by the integration of "Snaps". Snaps is a feature built-in to 7 to automatically resize your windows to take up half of the screen, allowing you to compare two windows more easily. Traditionally, Windows users have had to manually resize two windows in order to see two on the screen at the same time. Snaps moves beyond this to handle everything for you.
In addition to the Snaps feature, Microsoft has built-in a new transparent window mode. Need to grab something from your desktop? Just move your mouse to the lower right-hand corner of your screen and all of your open windows become transparent, allowing you to see the remaining outline of the window and see through to your desktop.
Microsoft also decided to "shake" things up a bit with Windows 7. If you want to close all but one window, simply shake your mouse on the top of the window you want to stay open and all others minimize. Want to restore them? Simply shake your mouse again and they windows restore.

Usefulness Rating:

Seriously? Shaking, snapping and transparency? These features seem to be far more gimmick than function. These features all more built-in frustrations for users. The ability to quickly access your desktop has been around through the last several iterations of Windows in the form of the keyboard shortcut - Window Key + M. Minimizing everything, then clicking on the window you'd like to keep up is less convoluted than shaking a window. These features seem hardly worth the programming time they took to create.

Windows Search

Originally introduced in Windows Vista, Windows Search has seen some improvement with Windows 7. Windows Search allows users to quickly search for documents and files by clicking on the "Start" menu and typing a search string in the search box. Windows Search then searches through all of the files and folders on your computer to find the document, media file or folder you searched for.

Usefulness Rating:

Useful. This feature was introduced in Windows Vista to a lot of criticism. Microsoft has promised improvements in search speed and functionality. The real question is not whether Windows Search is useful, but rather, is it useful enough to tempt Windows users who, disappointed with the functionality introduced in Vista, developed a loyalty to Google Desktop, which provides the same features with better indexing and faster results? We'll wait and see on this one.

Device Management

Microsoft has added "Device Stage" to ease the installation of and interaction with new devices. Device Stage provides a single window glance at all peripheral devices such as printers, cameras, fax machines, cell phones, mice, monitors, keyboards and scanners. Device Stage also provides a picture and description of each device as well as a menu of interactions available for that device. The manufacturers of the devices can create custom pages and interaction screens allowing for additional capabilities outside of those provided by Microsoft.

Usefulness Rating:

High. This is likely to be one of the most useful features of Windows 7. Windows users have been screaming for something like this for years! The device manager that was previously integrated into Windows elicited more unnecessary technical support calls than any other Windows feature.Most users will find this to be an improvement over the standard found in today's Windows environment.

Windows HomeGroup

We have all had problems getting our upstairs laptop to print to the downstairs printer or transferring a file between computers. Basic home networking has long been anything but basic. 7 promises to overcome this problem by prompting users to determine which devices and folders to share when a computer with a new computer running Windows 7 sees another computer running 7. The HomeGroup becomes a sort of trusted domain in which access can be easily granted or denied to each computer joined to the same HomeGroup.

Usefulness Rating:

Reserved. Microsoft has always had a difficult time with home networking. Promises of better networking come with each new release of Windows and admittedly, it gets slightly better with each version, but never quite makes it to Microsoft's promised land. An improvement is, without a doubt, necessary. Will it happen with Windows 7? Only time will tell. Here's hoping for this to be all that Microsoft promises and not yet another version of an overly-complicated, under-performing, Windows WorkGroup.

VAN (View Available Network)

VAN is a feature that is not new to Windows, but has a brand new name. Previously known as the "Connect to a Network" screen, VAN gives users the ability to connect to a WiFi, broadband or VPN connection through one screen.

Usefulness Rating:

Essential. Though not new, this feature is essential as it allows you to connect or disconnect from an internet connection.

Other Features

In addition all of the features listed above, Microsoft also promises the following additional enhancements:

* Improved Performance - start-up, shut-down, restart, resume from stand-by; all are supposedly much faster.
* Time-Saving Features - additions of the start menu, taskbar menu, minimize on shake, Snaps, VAN and Device Stage combine to make common tasks easier and faster.
* Power Management Improvements - Features such as Dim on idle and requiring less power to play DVD and CD's have been added to extend battery life on laptop computers.
* Reduced interruptions - The most common source of frustration for Vista users was the constant interruption in tasks due to pop-up windows and messages from Microsoft for non-urgent matters. Microsoft has elminated the pop-up windows and replaced them with an "action" icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. This allows you to view errors or system messages when you choose to, instead of in the midst of an important task.

Is it right for you? Chances are if you are the average user, Windows 7 will be an improvement and incorporate a lot of the already existing functionality, alongside some new and useful functionality and cool graphical interface enhancements. If you're coming from Vista, you don't have much to lose. As for me - I'm going to wait until the product is final and large scale testing has been done before I even consider migrating.