Continuing our catch-up with Windows 7, it is generally acknowledged that Windows 7 is faster than predecessor Vista in all aspects.
This goes across the board; applications, menus, compatibility, usability and the underlying architecture which has been reworked to open out the previous bottlenecks…
Power Management
- The operating system uses less power in general use
- applies automatic screen dimming
- has a better indicator for low battery
- power plans have more options and easier to access
Peek
- Aero Peek is like X-ray vision to have a peek at your desktop or open window, without you having to alt-tab
Aero Snap
- A quick & new way to resize open windows.
Aero Shake
- Rationalise a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window with a shake of the mouse. Couldn’t be faster.
Taskbar & jumplists
- New taskbar design is simpler and more responsive than Vista
- Pin-to-taskbar allows a much greater degree of customisation
- Recent items for each program appear with a right click (jumplists).
Gadgets
- The dreaded (shaky, treacle-slow, buggy, crashy, etc.) Vista Sidebar is gone
- Gadgets can be placed anywhere
Programs: Calculator, Wordpad & Paint
- New calculator with new features (programmer & statistics modes)
- Ribbon interface and new features for Paint & Wordpad
Games
- Old favourites, Internet checkers, spades & backgammon return from XP. This may be one aspect to slow you down.
DirectX 11
- The ‘new’ version of DirectX (not so new now, but it’s working) provides much improved graphics in games
Device manager
- Device stage list popular tasks for plugged in devices
- All devices are listed in the devices & printers folder
AJS
Allan J Smithie 