Windows 7

Windows 7 was not my idea.  But if I could have developed my own operating system, it would be like this one.  As a result of a hard drive crash on Monday morning (I don’t recommend starting your week like that), our PC guys were able to reformat and install Windows 7 on my Latitude E6400.  I was a little skeptical about the required components needed to run the OS, but so far it’s run like a charm.  Actually, my cooling fan has come on less than when I had XP.  I was really impressed by the graphics enhancements.  A cool feature for those of us that like to change the wallpaper often is an option that lets you set a group of pictures, then set a time for them to cycle.  Mine is set to change every 30 minutes.  The ‘Gadgets’ feature is nice and I personally think it is a very good competitor to Google Desktop.  There are hundreds of gadgets (both Microsoft-made and 3rd party) to choose from.  The iMap weather gadget is very neat.  I’d post a photo, but I’m having trouble with the uploader.

The live taskbar preview of programs and documents has been handy.  You can hover over the program icon and all the documents open under Internet Explorer, for example, will display and you may choose which one to open.  The ‘Shake’ feature is helpful when there are multiple windows open.  Just click the title bar of the program you want, give it a shake with the mouse, and all the other programs will minimize to the taskbar.  I don’t use the ‘Snap’ feature because I use two monitors a lot, but it would be helpful comparing spreadsheets or web pages on just the laptop.

The Windows Explorer window got a much needed upgrade, but I’ll admit it took some getting used to.  No more My Documents or My Computer.  The documents are now divided into Libraries and My Computer is now just ‘Computer’.  Most of the icons got a facelift also and look pretty snazzy.  I’ve yet to discover everything Microsoft has upgraded, but all-in-all, I’m one happy customer.  For more info on the OS, see Microsoft’s website here.