Windows 7
People depend on their PC’s more than ever. They want everything they do on their computers to be faster and easier. They want the devices they depend on to work with the PC and they want the technology in the home to work well together. A lot of time is spent on the web so the experience has to be fast a safe as well as consistent with the experience had off-line.
Meet Windows 7. We think you’ll like what it can do for you.
So what's under the hood ?
Works the way you want. Windows 7 delivers the fundamental performance, reliability, and security features you expect-and it is designed to be compatible with the same hardware, applications and devices as Windows Vista ®. New features help protect your privacy and data, make it easier to keep your PC running smoothly and enable you to recover from problems more quickly.
Everyday Tasks are Faster and Easier. Windows 7 streamlines and simplifies the tasks you do often. Improved navigation and a streamlines user interface put commonly-used resources within easy reach. Sharing data across all the PCs and devices is easier too, whether you’re at home, in the office, or on-the-go. Windows 7 and Windows LiveTM help you stay connected to the people and things you care about whilst Internet Explorer 8 provides a faster, safer, more productive Web experience.
New Things Possible: Windows 7 gives you more choice in how you interact with your PC, with options that include multi-touch gestures, handwriting and voice. Windows 7 makes it easy to use your home audio-video system and other networked media devices to play music, watch videos and display photos that reside on your PC. An enhanced Windows Media Center Offers one-stop access to your favourites TV shows whether they-re on-the-air or on the internet and Windows 7 offers more options than ever for you to customize and personalize your PC with styles that match your personality.
Just some of the new features
Enhanced Windows Taskbar
The new taskbar in Windows 7 puts you in control and helps you get to the programs and files you need more quickly. Each open Window appears as a graphic thumbnail that expands to a full-screen preview when you hover over it with the mouse. Icons are bigger, too, making it easier to select them with a mouse or with the new touch features in Windows 7. You can place each program exactly where you want it on the taskbar and pin frequently used applications to it for quick access
Jump Lists
Jump Lists-there’s one for each program on the start menu and Windows Taskbar- make it easier to find what you want. They’re automatically populated based on how often and recently you do things, so you’ll spend less time looking for your favourite song or a file you worked on yesterday.
Windows® Aero® Desktop Enhancements
Working with multiple windows has never been easier. Just hover your mouse over the far-right side of the Windows Taskbar and all of your windows become Transparent, so you can easily see your desktop. Using Snap you can drag Windows to either side of the screen (or the top) and each window will automatically resize to fill half of the screen.
Windows Touch
Touch is a core user experience in Windows 7. Windows 7 Touch introduces support for multi-touch technology, enabling you to zoom in on an image by moving two fingers closer together or Zoom out by moving them apart. The start menu, Windows Taskbar and Windows Explorer are all touch-friendly, with larger icons that are easier to select with your fingers.
Homegroup
Homegroup in Windows 7 makes sharing files across the PC’s and devices in your home easy as if all your data were on a single hard drive. Through HomeGroup, PCs running Windows 7 can automatically identify and connect with each other. Once a HomeGroup is established, sharing devices and media throughout your home is easy. For example, the printer in your study is shared automatically with all the PC’s in your home.
Downloads and more information
Download our handy quick guides to Windows 7 Professional and
Windows 7 Enterprise.
Just some of the new features
Improved Media Experience
Windows 7 simplifies this process and reduces complexity. When you set up a HomeGroup, or set up media streaming from within Windows Media Player, your music, pictures, and videos are immediately available on other PCs and devices on your home network.
And your Windows 7 PC can control the media devices around your home. For example, say you’re sitting on your couch, using your laptop to read e-mail or surf the Web. You’d like to listen to some music, but you don’t want to hear it coming out of your laptop’s speakers—and you don’t want to get up and go find your portable media device, you don’t have to. With Windows Media Player, simply right-click on what you’d like to hear, select “Play To”, and you’ll see a list of other devices which you can play your music.
XP Mode
For Business users Windows 7 introduces Windows XP Mode that provides the flexibility to run many older Windows XP productivity applications in a virtual Windows XP environment
What do we think ?
At Altrigen, weve been using Windows 7 for a few weeks now, and these are our thoughts.
A key focus of Windows 7 is around the fundamental improvement in performance.
This has resulted in faster boot up and reduced shutdown time, and the time taken to complete processor intensive tasks is less, resulting in a much quicker user experience.
With a much smaller footprint both in terms of storage size required and memory used by the OS, higher reliability, better compatibility, combined with a user interface which works well on small screens making an ideal operating system across the organisation, from desktops to netbooks.
Windows 7, regardless of which version, will run efficiently on low cost hardware and the new features makes it a “no compromise” operating system for low-cost PCs, allowing users to take advantage of the latest features and experiences
In short - we like it !
Download this excellent Microsoft guide to 
