Things about Windows 7 that surprised, delighted, annoyed you

What're you talking about? That's more about hardware than software.. I can say that the sound is definitely louder, as I have it at 25% and it's still pretty audible, compared to XP. Newer drivers, I suppose.

 

Change your desktop background and see. Also Win 7 has display dimmer, which will dim the display after a period/ (user defined) of inactivity.

 

Definitely saves more power. Thats what i love about w7.

 

hardware? the same laptop jus different os.


coolguy: i know abt the dimming of the display but im comparing it when its not dimmed...i might try changing the wallpaper or my eyes.

 

To fan throught them in vista - for me its WindowsKey + Tab...

 

yes but vista is now outdated

 

I'm saying I don't think a different OS is really going to change the brightness. The display itself has limitations.

 

i agree with u...but my eyes tell me otherwise...nvm i will test again.

 

Have the same background, and switch between both OS with the exact same environment brightness (also make sure that ambient light sensor is off).
In the day, with a bright sun or very illuminated room, it of normal that you see the screen much less bright, as your eye adjust to the amount of light around you.

 

Am I the only person that never used quick launch? I always started programs through 'run' or the desktop. Windows 7 felt basically like Vista, but streamlined. I still prefer KDE though... feels more integrated.

 

what light sensor? my laptop doesnt have it. i cant test it now coz ive reformatted to win 7.

 

Sorry, I mean't if you have one, like the Mac Book Pro, or the Dell Latitude E series.

 

You still get the recovery tools just not in a separate partition. If your whole partition is nuked you won't be able to recover it anyway. Plus it screws up with multiboot setups as the bootloader thinks it is booting off that paritition. I had a hell of a time figuring out why Chameleon and Windows bootloader was booting into this recovery tool until I saw the hidden partition.

Anyway it is better not to mess with it unless you have to. I felt it was worth my while but I doubt most will.

 

You know how you can re-arrange the program icons in the taskbar, well, it's too much freedom.. I can never seem to figure out the way I like it best.

 

You're absolutely right on the multi-boot setups..I thought I had added that comment, but I apparantly did not so thanks for the catch.

I still prefer the recovery tools in a separate partition

 

Try this:

• Take any normal window, not maximized.
• Double-click on the top of bottom edge of the window.
• The window will maximize in height only.

This does not happen if you double-click on the side edges of the window. I'm actually kind of impressed that Microsoft added this little feature to the software. It is surprisingly useful.

 

Neat—thanks.

 

Does anybody know how to disable auto-arrange in folders? For example, lets say i have five folders. I want to copy all but the middle one. In vista, I would just move the middle one to the bottom and select the other four. However, windows 7 will not let me move them....

 

Well, it's easy to bring the taskbar back. Just type this in the RUN command:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

And you'll see the lovely old taskbar again.

 

right click desktop, choose VIEW, uncheck AUTO ARRANGE

 

or learn the magic of the control key to select or deselect individual items. much faster than rearanging all stuff, and much less errorprone.

 

I never work on the desktop, this is for folders like in an external hard drive or in the libraries. There is no "auto arrange" thing to uncheck.

 

+rep. I knew there was a way of doing this, thanks.

 

!

That's amazing.

 

it's a nice feature, implemented inconsistent, again.

if i'm in tablet mode, then i'm at 10:16, means more high than wide. at that point, i would like to have the whole thing rotated, a.k.a maximize to leftright, attach to tophalf/bottomhalf. sadly, it doesn't do that. billgates won't like it as he's a frequent tablet user...

 

The New Remote Desktop Connection now supports multi-monitors.

I love it.

And I can pin 10 different RDP files all in one place. I love it.

 

I'm finding Jump Lists more and more useful each day, and I'm already wanting other apps to have them, like iTunes (I might use WMP, I dunno whats better, no I don't have an iPod). Chrome has them right?

Also, after some modifying, my 7 battery life is less than or equal to XP on the same machine! I'm still wondering if having transparent, blurred windows will eat up more battery (I'm using Aero with transparency turned off)

 

What is cool, is if you expend on the folder left side column "Network", and you got other computers, and you can right click on of the network computer that you see and select to connect to it via remote desktop. It will automatically connect to it, all you will have to do is type in the system password.

Also, that you can have some (or all) library items to always show by default on the Library tree. On the same attachment, notice that I actually have 5 libraries (Music, Video, Picture, Document and Projects), and on the Library tree, I set to only show 2 items. These I the 2 libraries I use often. In result, by default, the Library section is expended and you see the 2 items I set. You can change this by going to the properties of each library and decide if yes/no you want to show it on the tree.

 

I just noticed this too. Works great for my WHS. I didn't know if this was always there or new, because I only started using WHS when Installed 7 on my PC's.

 

I love the "Snap-to" feature where the windows are split evenly. I use it all the time. And the task bar is really nice. Helps me keep my desktop clean.

 

i started IE8 and media player 12 64bit verisons manually from Program files.
(32 bit versions are default)
as a Opera Browser user i have to say IE8 64 bit is very fast. IE8 32 bit is slow on any system i tried.
media player is a bit faster i think.

 

Windows Media Player 12 is much faster than Windows Media Player 11 (both 32 and 64-bit).
Windows Media Player 12 64-bit slim player (the one that loads when you double click on a video/audio format), is just as fast as Media Player Classic, based on my test.

Windows Media Player 12 64-bit can be used as main player, with this (the best) codec pack:
http://shark007.net/x64components.html

- You can install both 32 and 64-bit codecs wothout any conflicts.
- It plays about everything including FLV's.
- It doesn't change Windows included codecs which are damn good.
- Provides supports for thumbnail preview.
- No trash.
- 100% free, no spyware, no malware, no virus.

 

I noticed this as well and I like it!

I have also realised that with wmp12's built-in codecs I don't really have a use for players like Gom anymore since wmp12 can play all of my video files straight out of the box with no codec packs (k-lite etc) installed.

 

Yea that is why I like Shark007 codec pack, as it keeps these great codecs, and just give you the ability to play more rare encoded video formats.

 

among others,
like, task/menubar looks good and works well on left side giving more space on a wide 16:9 screen.
dislike, depressing that i still get the message 'you cannot remove the (usb) disk because a program is using it and i am not going to tell you what it is', even though there is seemingly nothing left to close. why is it a secret?

 

To me this looks like a problem with your USB stick and not the OS.

Maybe there is an application (malware or not) that runs every time you insert the USB and that is why you are getting the message.

 

@Szadzik: thats possible, and i will check (not really sure how), but it does not always happen. windows must know what it is that stops it from ejecting or at least have a clue, i just want it to tell me.

 

If you want to check there are two options:

1. open task manager before attaching the USB drive and take a screenshot of all running processes, than take another screenshot of running processes when the USB drive is attached. See if there is anything additional that may be running from the drive.

2. Format the drive (back everything up) so all data is removed and whatever keeps starting from it will be removed too. If the problem is gone it means there is some application running from the drive that prevents it from being ejected properly. You will need to check the backup and see what may be causing the problem.

 

make sure your close the folder of your USB drive before ejecting. Do you do this?

 

@GoodBytes: yes, i always use the task bar icon to 'safely remove hardware'. sometimes it would be word, or a media player that you think has stopped but still runs. 'safely remove hardware' should mean, 'close everything that is open on the disk, then remove'.
sorry, everyone else, this thread seems to have got hijacked

 

Actually, it means "send a command to the USB key to shut-down so that when teh user pulls the device invalid current doesn't alter data on the chip." It also ensures that all processes is complete. I find this works particularly well under WIn7 64-bit. It could be your anti-virus or some back process, or even the USB key.

 

The only thing that really annoys me about Win7 is the lack of a Media Foundation Transform for DTS. That's all I'm missing right now, and it seems that no one online knows where I can find one or if one even exists.

 

I just yank the sucker when the light stops flashing. Oddly enough, I've had more harddrives fail on me (2) than I have Flash drives (0).

Anyone else notice you can no longer have a Media Player toolbar when you minimize the Media Player. I use to use it a lot because you could also have the "Now Playing" tab anchored to the Media player toolbar and have it sticky on top. I could watch music videos and pretend to work.

 

i'm sure i would really miss "Media Foundation Transform for DTS" if i knew what it was
"yank the sucker when the light stops flashing" hmm, yes, i can relate to that. i will give that a go also

 

Yet another tiny little feature, which shows up when you are resizing a window:

Start with a normal (not maximized) window.
Drag the corner or the edge of the window toward the taskbar or the top edge of the screen.
When the window reaches the limit of its travel in either direction, there will be a little "ripple" effect centered on the cursor. The effect will travel along the edges of the window.

 

If you middle click (or left+right at the same time, for me) a program in the Taskbar, a new instance will open.

 

namaiki: now THAT is cool

 

And if you middle click on a thumbnail preview on the task bar it will close the selected one.

 

nice one namaiki, quick way to tidy up but also the red cross is there anyway
@oldgraygeek: thats part of the 'drag window to top of screen, let go and it will maximise', then double click top bar to return size. also drag top bar to left or right edge of screen to fill half of screen. nice way to get 2 explorers side by side

 

That's more useful than the little 'window resizing' things I keep stumbling across... Good job, namaiki.