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In any event, Windows 7 is all about the surface stuff, and in that sense it's a lot more like an Apple product than I'm comfortable admitting. But honestly, that's OK, because Microsoft already did all the hard work of rearchitecting the back end with Windows Vista. (And note that Apple's next OS X release, Snow Leopard, is dedicated to shoring up that product's back-end performance and reliability.) With Windows 7, Microsoft is refining the <a itxtdid="7042074" target="_blank" href="#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">user experience</a> and it's doing so with laser-like precision.</p>

<p>Let's dive right in. First up, the desktop.</p>

<h2>Desktop enhancements</h2>
<p>If there is a theme to the various UI-related enhancements Microsoft is making in Windows 7, it's "putting the user in control." In fact, that theme could be easily applied to many parts of Windows 7, including even User Account Control (UAC), which is being made more configurable and, if you'd like, less annoying. For now, however, let's focus on the UI specifically. Much of what's changing in Windows 7 is happening in the UI. And it's almost universally good news.</p>

<h3>Enhanced Windows Taskbar</h3>
<p>I've described Apple's Mac OS X Dock as a user interface disaster that messily combines shortcuts to running applications and other open windows with shortcuts to frequently-access programs that aren't necessarily running at the time. The Windows Start Menu and Taskbar, I felt, have always been far more logical.</p>

<p>Apparently, Microsoft agrees with Apple because the new version of the Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 dispenses with the separation of shortcuts for running and saved applications, and instead allows you to access either, willy-nilly, from the same place. That apparent mistake aside, the new Taskbar still has a number of important new features that separate it dramatically from previous Windows versions. It's really cool, and really, really useful.</p>
<p>From a visual standpoint, the new Taskbar is a bit taller by default than the one from Vista, and it's more glass-like than its predecessor with a clear sheen that lets the background seep through. As before, its broken down into a few logical areas, with a new Start Orb on the left, the shortcuts area in the middle, and the tray notification area to the right. To the right of the tray area is a small glass slab representing a new way to go directly to the desktop.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_01.jpg"></p>
<p>While the basics may seem unchanged, the details are all new. The Start Orb really lights up when you mouse over and click it, compared to Vista, giving more visible feedback that it's special. The Taskbar itself works more like the OS X Dock, again, offering shortcuts for both frequently-used and currently running applications and windows. And the tray is much more configurable and, thank you Microsoft, locked down by default.</p>
<p>For now, let's focus on that Taskbar, since all the big desktop changes emanate from there. In Windows Vista and all previous Windows versions dating back to 1995, the Taskbar did one thing and one thing only: It provided a place that was always available where icons representing running applications and open windows could be located and controlled. Over the years, it's been improved, but the basics have not really changed.</p>
<p>In Windows 7, the Taskbar is a different animal, and you might think of it as a combination of the Quick Launch toolbar and the classic Taskbar, where you can mix and match shortcuts for favorite applications, folders, and other <a itxtdid="6700148" target="_blank" href="#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">file system</a> objects with buttons representing running applications and open windows. All of these buttons--for lack of a better word--look identical. They're square glass buttons. Running apps and open windows are represented by buttons that have a visible border. Shortcuts for favorite apps and other objects have no borders. Like so:</p>

<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_02.jpg"></p>
<p>Also new to Windows 7 is the ability to drag and drop Taskbar buttons in whatever order you prefer, a top customer request. You can also pin buttons so they're always exactly where you want them. As you mouse over buttons for running applications, nice glass previews of the underlying window appear, helping you more easily find what you want. Hover over that thumbnail and it goes full screen for an even better view.</p>
<p>If the button represents an application with multiple windows (or, in the case of IE 8, multiple tabs), the visible border is bigger, giving you a visual cue that something is different. And when you mouse over such a button, a series of thumbnails will appear, side by side, so you can access each of the application's windows or tabs. It's just nicely done</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_03.jpg"></p>
<p>Improvements to the Taskbar don't stop there, however. If you click a Taskbar button, you'll see a new Jump List appear. Jump Lists supply lists of commonly-needed actions that are associated with the object you're clicking. (They also appear in the Start Menu. See below.) So even legacy applications that aren't Jump List-enabled will get a default list of actions. But Windows 7-savvy applications, like Windows Media Player 12, can populate their Jump Lists with application-specific functionality. In the case of WMP 12, you'll see options for Play All Music and Play/Pause, for example.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_04.jpg"></p>

<h3>Notification Area lockdown</h3>

<p>In a bid towards a tidier and less noisy desktop, the Windows 7 Notification Area has been significantly streamlined and locked down to prevent unwanted applications from interrupting you by default. Only four notification icons appear there in a stock Windows 7 install--Action Center, power, network, and volume--and when you install applications that add their own icons, those icons are hidden by default and their notifications are suppressed. Ah, bliss.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_05.jpg"></p>
<p>You can view hidden icons by clicking the Show Hidden Icons caret, but to allow a needed application access to your Notification Area, you'll need to right-click and choose Customize Notification Icons. Then, you'll be directed to the new Notification Area Icons control panel, which is a wonderful improvement over the dialog-based customizations previously available in Windows Vista and earlier versions.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_06.jpg"></p>
<p>You have a number of options for each icon in this UI: Show icon and notifications, Hide icon and notifications, and Show only notifications. Bravo, Microsoft, bravo.</p>

<h3>Peek: A new Show Desktop</h3>

<p>At the far right end of the Taskbar, beyond the system tray, is a new small glass panel that enables Peek. When you mouse over this panel, all of the open windows on top of the desktop because transparent so you can "peek" below them and view any gadgets, files, or shortcuts that are on the desktop. It's a handy feature, but I have concerns that people will inadvertently mouse over that area and be surprised when the entire screen changes so dramatically. We'll see: In the build we received, that panel just launches Show Desktop.</p>

<h3>Improved Start Menu</h3>
<p>While the new Taskbar is awesome, Microsoft already made dramatic changes to the Start Menu in Windows Vista, so the changes there in Windows 7 are less jarring. There are some important improvements, however. First, you can add some commonly-needed locations to the Start Menu--like Videos and Recorded TV Shows--for the first time. The Windows 7 Start Menu supports Jump Lists too. In this case, the list pops out into the right side of the Start Menu, which makes plenty of sense. And when you use Start Menu Search, the entire Start Menu pane is used to display search results instead of just the left side, as in Vista. Microsoft notes that the Start Menu is touch-friendly as well.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_07.jpg"></p>

<h3>Aero Snaps</h3>
<p>Moving to the desktop itself, you'll see a number of changes there as well. There's a cool new feature called Aero Snaps that lets you affect windows in interesting and useful way. For example, if you drag a window to the top of the screen, it will maximize. Drag it back down and it restores to the way it was. If you drag a window to the right or left edge of the screen, it will tile on that side and take up 50 percent of the screen width; again, dragging "off" the edge of the screen returns the window to normal.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_08.jpg"></p>

<h3>Gadgets</h3>
<p>The Sidebar from Windows Vista has been eliminated in Windows 7 because Microsoft feels that it took up too much valuable real estate, especially on <a itxtdid="7044129" target="_blank" href="#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">laptops</a>, which are a growing portion of the PC-using population. Now, Windows Gadgets appears directly on the desktop, and the aforementioned Peek feature will help users get to them quickly and easily. You open the Add Gadgets window now by right-clicking the desktop and choosing Gadgets from the pop-up menu. Otherwise, these objects work similarly to the way they did in Vista.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_09.jpg"></p>

<h3>Styles</h3>
<p>Windows 7 supports a customization feature called Styles (it's still called Themes in M3, but will be renamed). Styles are basically a combination of a background color or image, glass color, sound scheme, and screensaver, all packaged into a single file that you can share with others. Windows 7 ships with numerous built-in styles, of course, and you can edit these or make your own. There are even region-specific Styles, something Microsoft first implemented in <a itxtdid="6701463" target="_blank" href="#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">Windows XP</a> Starter Edition.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_preview_2_10.jpg"></p>

<h3>Windows Touch</h3>
<p>Much has been made of Windows 7's multi-touch features and now that I've tried it on a demo machine, I have to say it's actually pretty impressive. (I'm still not sure I like the idea of touching a huge display regularly, however.) Windows 7 supports touch navigation, of course, with cool iPhone-like bouncing effects as window content limits are reached. It also supports touch gestures, so you can "flick" through folders, photo libraries, and the like. And it supports multi-touch, so you can pinch and expand to magnify and zoom out, twist your fingers to rotate, and right-click by holding down with one finger and tapping the screen with the other.</p>
<p>What's compelling about touch is that it works everywhere in Windows 7. It's not some hokey add-on that works only in certain applications and only partially in others. (I'm looking at you, Apple.) </p>

<p>These screenshots come courtesy of Microsoft. I'll be posting my own shots as well, but Microsoft's shots are interesting because they depict a slightly different build than the one distributed to PDC attendees. Thus, it features additional functionality such as the new Aero desktop effects and the new taskbar with jump lists and taskbar previews.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_05.jpg" border="0"><br>The Windows 7 M3 desktop with Aero Desktop Effects. Note that the version distributed at PDC lacks these effects, including the new taskbar.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_04.jpg" border="0"><br>Desktop Gadgets.</p>
<br><p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_02.jpg" border="0"><br>Desktop Gadgets and Calculator.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_19.jpg" border="0"><br>New Show Desktop effect.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_36.jpg" border="0"><br>Windows Taskbar Previews: A new "peek" view of grouped open windows.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_33.jpg" border="0"><br>The Windows Media Player taskbar preview is interactive, with playback controls.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_23.jpg" border="0"><br>The Windows 7 M3 Start menu.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_06.jpg" border="0"><br>The Windows 7 M3 Start menu support pop-outs for icons so you can get to more places without mousing around.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_01.jpg" border="0"><br>Power management jump list.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_17.jpg" border="0"><br><a itxtdid="7043987" target="_blank" href="#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">Wireless</a> networking jump list.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_ms_26.jpg" border="1"><br>Desktop themes combine backgrounds, glass colors, sounds, and screensavers. You can make your own of course.</p>

Opinion: 10 best features in Windows 7 for IT professionals

DirectAccess promises VPN connectivity without the cost or trouble

<script language="javascript"> function showHideShare() { var share_link; share_link = document.getElementById("share_link"); if (share_link.className == "share") { share_link.className = "share_expanded"; } else { share_link.className = "share"; } var element; element = document.getElementById("share_container") if (element.style.display == "none"){ element.style.display = ""; } else { element.style.display = "none"; } } </script> By Jonathan Hassell

October 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Today, Microsoft unveiled its work on Windows 7, the successor to Vista, to a crowd at its Professional Developers Conference that was salivating for information on what's new in the updated operating system. A lot of sites will take you through the whiz-bang consumer-friendly features, but you might be wondering as an IT professional what Windows 7 has to offer you.
I'll give you a tour through what I think are potentially the 10 most popular professional-oriented features in Windows 7. (One caveat: some of these features are present in builds later than the M3-based release given to attendees at Microsoft's PDC conference today, so if you have your hands on a build, you may not be able to try all of these just yet.)

Federated search and enterprise search scopes

One of the big themes in Windows 7 for the corporate user is allowing easier access to information no matter where it's located. The big push here is for a unified interface for any given search, with results brought in from a variety of locations into one convenient window. Out of the box, Windows 7 allows users to search beyond their own computers. Some of the nice features here include one-click auto preview, the ability to search within specific "libraries" of information (libraries being a defined set of resources or locations to narrow the scope of a search) and integrated results presentation from SharePoint sites and beyond.

DirectAccess

In my humble opinion, this is one of the coolest features of Windows 7 with Windows Server 2008 R2 (also known as "Windows 7 Server" in some circles). Imagine the virtues of being connected to a VPN: access to your corporate network, file shares, intranet, seamless authentication with company resources and so on. Now imagine not having to create that expensive, giant tunnel through which these resources are accessed. That's DirectAccess. It requires deploying IPv6 and IPsec -- no small tasks by any means, though they should be on your radar already. The advantages? With DirectAccess, you can have essentially an "always managed" infrastructure, so you as the administrator can ensure that updates are distributed, that Group Policy is applied and that your known machines are trusted, anywhere, all the time. That's powerful.

BranchCache

BranchCache extends some of the improvements made in Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows Server 2008 by caching downloaded information from the Web and intranet sites within a branch office the first time it is requested. Since branch offices often operate on lower-speed Internet links, user productivity is improved as the day goes on because more and more files are present within the cache. In a demo, a document was downloaded over a 512Kbit/sec. connection, taking about 30 to 45 seconds. After the cache, when another user in the same site requested that information, the transfer was nearly instantaneous. BranchCache works not only with a branch office server but also on a peer-to-peer basis among Windows 7 clients in the same location.




BitLocker to Go

Quick poll: how many USB thumb drives do you think exist within the four walls (or eight, or sixteen, or however many pertain to you) of your organization? I run a small company, and I am confident the number is over 100; frankly, I couldn't attempt to remember what kind of information is on each one, or even if I have lost one at some point in time. Consider the security risk that this tiny device represents. With BitLocker to Go, you as the administrator can set policies that require removable drives to be encrypted prior to allowing write access to them. You protect from the beginning, thereby reducing the risk of data loss or theft. The encryption process in most cases seems to take less than a minute and the process can alert the user automatically when he plugs in a not-yet-encrypted drive.
AppLocker

You might recall software restriction policies from Windows XP, a good-hearted but clumsy way for administrators to restrict certain binaries from running on the network. Enter AppLocker, which is exactly what it sounds like: a Group Policy-based way to identify applications that are permitted to run on your infrastructure. You can filter by publisher, which identifies a program's digital signature -- a much easier and more reliable method than a checksum or binary file name. You also get more granular control on the strength of the rule, allowing certain versions or groups of versions (i.e., Version 9 or above) to run, much more easily than having to create rules over and over again.
DNSSEC Support

Many security pundits have said that the next big plague facing the Internet is the inherent insecurity of the Domain Name System (DNS). Now DNSSEC comes to the rescue as a set of extensions to DNS that prevent spoofing address information. Windows 7 comes with DNSSEC support out of the box.
VHD Boot

VHD Boot works with a virtualized desktop infrastructure to ensure image consistency among client computers. If you have an environment employing strong Group Policy configuration, folder redirection, roaming profiles and the like, then you can feasibly boot from a virtual image. For example, the image used by a customer support team that works remotely could be the same one used on physical PCs for those users who require access to discrete hardware.
Windows Troubleshooting Platform

The Windows Troubleshooting Platform is a new, comprehensive approach to solving end user problems via troubleshooting packs that can be applied to PCs throughout the environment. And the Windows Troubleshooting Toolkit allows you as the administrator to create your own troubleshooting packs when you identify specific problems within your own infrastructure. Also, a separate new tool called Problem Steps Recorder allows an end user to record the steps he takes leading up to a problem and then capture those steps into automatically created screen grabs, and e-mail them to an administrator or help desk representative for easier problem resolution.
Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment

Because of PowerShell's popularity, Microsoft has introduced into Windows 7 a graphical interface for PowerShell that makes it very easy to learn the scripting language and use it in a color-coded, easy-to-read environment. Developing, debugging and running the scripts in this new environment is much easier than it was with the previous single-command-prompt method.
PowerShell Remoting

Also new to PowerShell is support for the WS-Management protocol that allows you to remotely run commands on client PCs. You can use this capability on a one-to-one basis, say for specific requests in response to help desk calls, or you can fan out with one-to-many remoting and run cmdlets on multiple PCs from within the Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment. Jonathan Hassell is an author, consultant and speaker on a variety of IT topics. His published works include RADIUS, Hardening Windows, Using Windows Small Business Server 2003 and Learning Windows Server 2003. His work appears regularly in such periodicals as Windows IT Pro magazine, PC Pro and TechNet Magazine. He also speaks worldwide on topics ranging from networking and security to Windows administration. He is currently an editor for Apress Inc., a publishing company specializing in books for programmers and IT professionals

WMP 12 include a demo-rific new feature called Play To that lets the player control network-connected media devices. All this requires is a device that supports the industry standard DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) 1.5 digital media renderer. (It also works with other Windows 7 PCs.) The possibilities here are quite exciting. You could "play to" other devices around your home, say during a party. And you can combine media streaming with Play To, controlling a connected media receiver while streaming content to it from another Windows 7 PC on the home network.

Rafael Rivera has figured out <a target="_blank" href="http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/11/02/flashy-windows-7-bits-protected-by-elaborate-scheme-workaround/">how to enable the “Awesome Bar”</a> (sorry, “new enhanced taskbar”) in Windows 7 M3:</p> <blockquote> <p>During PDC ‘08, I was passed a note indicating that I should dig deeper into the bits to discover the snazzy new Taskbar. Upon cursory analysis, I found no evidence of such and dismissed the idea as completely bogus.</p> <p>I got home and starting doing some research on a potentially new feature called Aero Shake when I stumbled upon an elaborate set of checks tied to various shell-related components, including the new Taskbar. </p> <p>Simply download a copy of a tool I whipped up for either <a href="http://www.withinwindows.com/files/upf/upf_x86_rev0.zip">x86</a> or <a href="http://www.withinwindows.com/files/upf/upf_x64_rev0.zip">x64</a> (untested thus far), drop it into your Windows\ directory and execute the following commands as an Administrator in a command prompt window:</p> <ul> <li>takeown /f %windir%\explorer.exe </li> <li>cacls %windir%\explorer.exe /E /G MyUserName:F <em>(replacing MyUserName with your username)</em></li> <li>taskkill /im explorer.exe /f </li> <li>cd %windir% </li> <li>start unlockProtectedFeatures.exe </li> </ul> <p>After changing the protected feature lock state, you can re-launch the shell by clicking the Launch button.</p> </blockquote> <p>Brilliant. Here’s a shot I took earlier today:</p> <p><img src="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/win7/win7_m3_install_054.jpg" alt=""> </p> <p>Yeah, it works. </p>