A Tour of Windows 7

Note: Procedures are in brown and ">" means to left click with your mouse. Right click the mouse to open up a menu in Windows 7.

Areo

Windows 7 retains the Windows Aero user interface and visual style first introduced with its predecessor, Windows Vista, but many areas have seen enhancements.
Themes

Support for themes has been extended in Windows 7.

Let's personalize the desktop using Windows Areo Themes.

Right click on the Desktop>Personalization>Click on My Theme 1

Right click on the Desktop>View>Click "Show desktop icons" and Click "Show desktop gadgets"

Maximize Firefox, Windows Explorer, WordPad

In addition to setting the colors of the window chrome and desktop background, themes in Windows 7 include a sound set, a default screen saver, and desktop slide show settings.

Desktop>Personalize>Aero Themes>Desktop Background>click more than one picture to create a slide show

Aero Peek

In past versions of Windows, the taskbar ended with the notification area on the right side. However, there is now the Aero Peek button, which, when clicked or hovered over with the mouse, displays the desktop and gadgets by turning all windows transparent. This replaces the Show Desktop shortcut in the Quick Launch bar in previous versions of Windows. Aero Peek exhibits the same features used by the thumbnail previews, except it applies them to the desktop. If the mouse hovers over it, all windows are transparent, as shown in the picture. If the button is clicked, all applications are minimized, and when clicked again, they are restored.

Move mouse to bottom-right corner and hover over Peek icon.

Aero Snap; Window maximizing and tiling

Windows can be dragged to the top of the screen to maximize them and dragged away to restore them. Dragging a window to the left or right of the screen makes it take up half the screen allowing the user to tile two windows next to each other. Also resizing the window to the bottom of the screen or top will extend the window full but retain the width of the window. These features can be disabled via the Ease of Access Center if users do not wish the windows to automatically resize.

Drag a reduced window to top of screen until you see the ripple mark.

Drag a reduced window to left or right of screen until you see the ripple mark.

Drag the bottom of a reduced window the taskbar until you see the ripple mark.

Aero Shake: A new mouse gesture

Aero Shake allows users to clear up any clutter on their screen by shaking (dragging back and forth) a window of their choice with the mouse. All other windows will minimize, while the window the user shook stays active on the screen. When the window is shaken again, they are all restored, similar to desktop preview.

Open three windows>shake a window. Two windows disappear.

Shake the window. Two windows will reappear.

Gadgets

Windows Vista introduced Gadgets and a sidebar which provides the ability to anchor Gadgets to the side of the user's desktop. In Windows 7, the sidebar has been removed, while gadgets can still be placed on the desktop.

Start Orb>All Programs>Desktop Gadget Gallery

Windows Explorer

Libraries

By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries, for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. They are configured to include the user's profile folders for these respective file types, as well as the computer's corresponding Public folders.

Open Windows Explorer> second item on the left is Libraries

Right click on Libraries Folder to create a new library>New>Libraries

Libraries enable Arrangement Views and Search Filter Suggestions.

Arrangement Views allow you to pivot your view of the library's contents based on meta-data. (Meta-data can be edited: right click on picture file>Properties>Details>edit meta-data.)

For example, selecting the "By Month" view in the Pictures library will display photos in stacks, where each stack represents a month of photos based on the date they were taken.

Pictures>Folder (top right where it says "Arrange by:")>Month

In the Music library, the "By Artist" view will display stacks of albums from the artists in your collection, and browsing into an artist stack will then display the relevant albums.

Music>Folder (top right where it says "Arrange by:")>Album

New folders and files can be pull in from the local hard drive or from the Internet by using the following steps:

Windows Explorer>Libraries>right click on Documents>Properties>Included a folder...>Select a folder

Start Menu

The "Documents", "Pictures" and "Music" buttons now link to the Libraries of the same name.

Start Orb > select Documents, Pictures, or Music

A "Devices and Printers" option has been added that displays a new device manager.

Start Orb>Devices and Printers>Your Printer listed here

The "shut down" icon in Windows Vista has been replaced with a text link indicating what action will be taken when the icon is clicked. The default action to take is now configurable through the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window.

Right click on Start Orb>Properties>Start Menu

Taskbar Jump Lists are presented in the Start Menu via a guillemet (» or ► “gill-may”); when the user moves his or her mouse over the guillemet, or presses the right-arrow key, the right-hand side of the Start menu is widened and replaced with the application's Jump List. The Jump List for the Desktop can accessed by clicking on the guillemet on the Taskbar.

Click on the Start Orb >hover the mouse over a ► then click on an application or file

The search box, first introduced with Windows Vista, has been extended to support searching Control Panel items. For example, clicking the Start button then typing "wireless" will show Control Panel options related to configuring and connecting to wireless network, adding Bluetooth devices, and troubleshooting.

Start Orb>type “wireless” in search box>click on the small light blue “x” to exit

Taskbar

The Windows Taskbar has seen its most significant revision since its introduction in Windows 95. The taskbar is 10 pixels taller than in Windows Vista to accommodate touch screen input and a new larger default icon size, though a smaller taskbar size is available. Running applications are denoted by a border frame around the icon, while applications can be pinned to the taskbar, so that shortcuts to them appear when they are not running. Within this border, a color effect (dependent on the predominant RGB value of the icon) that follows the mouse also indicates the opened status of the application. The glass taskbar is also more transparent. Taskbar buttons show only icons, not titles, unless they are set to not combine.

Pinning

Applications can now be pinned to the taskbar allowing the user instant access to the applications they commonly use. There are a few ways to pin applications to the taskbar. One can drag and drop the icon onto the taskbar. The other way to do so is by right-clicking the application’s icon and pinning the icon to the taskbar. An application can be pinned to the Taskbar and a file can be pinned to application that is on the Taskbar.

Drag an application or file icon on the Desktop to the Taskbar.

Thumbnail previews

Thumbnail previews which were introduced in Windows Vista have been expanded to not only preview the windows opened by the application in a small-sized thumbnail view, but to also interact with them. The user can close any windows opened by clicking the X on the corresponding thumbnail preview. The name of the window is also shown in the thumbnail previews. Another new feature added is the ability to get a "peek" of the window by hovering over the thumbnail preview. Peeking brings up only the window of the thumbnail preview over which the mouse hovers and turns any other windows on the desktop transparent.

Hover mouse over thumbnail on Taskbar then hover mouse over thumbnail preview>click X to delete open file or application.

The Jump List for the Desktop can accessed by clicking on the guillemet on the Taskbar.

Taskbar>click the » on right side of taskbar>click on an application or file

Notification Area

A triangle to the left of the visible notification icons displays the hidden notification icons to the user. Unlike Windows Vista and Windows XP, the hidden icons are displayed in a window above the taskbar, instead of on the taskbar.
Click on triangle next to the jump list » then select an icon.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Note: for keyboard shortcuts help go to Start Orb>Help and Support>”keyboard shortcuts”
A variety of new keyboard shortcuts have been introduced.

Global keyboard shortcuts:

Win+Space operates as a keyboard shortcut for Aero Peek and displays the Desktop.

Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow are new shortcuts for Maximize and Restore/Minimize.

Win+Shift+Up Arrow vertically maximizes the current window

Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow snap the current window to the left or right half of the current display; successive key presses will move the window to other monitors in a multi-monitor configuration.

Win+ + (use the +/= key) and Win+ − (use the -/_ key) brings up the magnifier to zoom the desktop in and out.

Win+P shows an "external display options" selector that gives the user the choice of showing the desktop on only the computer's screen, only the external display, on both at the same time (mirroring), or on both displays with independent desktops (extending).

Win+Tab shows the open windows in 3D

Alt+Tab shows all open windows as a group.

Taskbar:

Shift + Click, or Middle click starts a new instance of the application, regardless of whether it's already running.

Ctrl + Shift + Click starts a new instance with Administrator privileges; by default, a User Account Control prompt will be displayed.

Shift + Right-click shows the classic Window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc); right-clicking on the application's thumbnail image will also show this menu. If the icon being clicked on is a grouped icon, the classic menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All menu is shown.

Ctrl + Click on a grouped icon cycles between the windows (or tabs) in the group.

Font management

The user interface for font management has been overhauled. As with Windows Vista, the collection of installed fonts is shown in a Windows Explorer type window, but fonts from the same font family appear as "stacks" instead of as individual icons. A user can then double-click on the font stack and see the individual font. A preview of the font is displayed as part of the icon as well. New options for hiding installed fonts are included; a hidden font remains installed, but is not enumerated when an application asks for a list of available fonts. Windows Vista had received considerable criticism for including the same "Add Font" dialog that had existed as far back as Windows NT 3.1; this dialog has been removed.

The Font dialog box has also been updated to show previews of the font selection in the selection lists.

Click on Start Orb>type in “font”>click on Fonts folder>select font and double click on a selected icon>screen displays the font at various sizes.

 

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Windows 7 Talk v10.odt