Welcome to the Launch Pad’s 7 part series on Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 7.  According to Microsoft, Windows 7  is the easiest, fastest and most engaging version of Windows. With new features like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, Windows 7 is supposed to speed you through your everyday tasks. So what are some of these new features?

Desktop – Too many opened windows? With the new features of Aero Shake, Aero Peek and Snap, desktop clutter is now a thing of the past. Aero shake allows you to click on a pane, and with a “shake” of the mouse, all other windows are minimized. Shake it again and they all return opened to their previous location. With Aero Peek, you have the power of X-ray vision to see through all those windows straight to your desktop. Simply point to the right edge of the taskbar and all your opened windows will turn transparent, revealing your desktop icons. Snap is the newest way to resize open windows. Drag the open window to the edge of the desktop and depending upon which edge you choose, the windows will expand vertically or horizontally, fill the screen or even position the windows side-by-side.

To see these new features in action, head over to here.

Jumplists – What’s a Jumplist you ask? Jumplists take you right to the documents, pictures, songs, or websites you use every day. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program icon on the Windows 7 taskbar. (You’ll also find them on the Start menu.) What you see in a Jump List depends entirely on the program. The Jump List for Internet Explorer 8 shows frequently-viewed websites. Windows Media Player 12 lists commonly-played tunes. Is your Jump List missing a favorite? You can “pin” whatever files you like there. Jump Lists don’t just show shortcuts to files. Sometimes they also provide quick access to commands for things like composing new e”‘mail messages or playing music.

To see Jumplists in action, head over to here.

Windows Search – This is an improved version of the previous Windows Search. It is designed to search external hard drives, network PCs and libraries. Results are now grouped by category and contain highlight text snippets/keywords. Did your search return too much information? Narrow your results by date, type or any other useful categories.

So those new features are nice, but what about what really matters – performance? Windows 7 has a plethora of performance improvements: Sleep, Search, USB Devices, Leaner and less busy. Windows 7 as been designed to resume, sleep and reconnect to your wireless network more quickly. This is a great improvement especially for laptop users. Search is simply faster and with grouping and sorting, finding what you were looking for is simpler and easier. Running late for a meeting? Need that large presentation copied to your USB key?  With improvements to USB devices, Windows 7 can now have your device ready for you in seconds, faster if you’ve used it before.

Now for the real “meat & potatoes” of Windows 7, just with leaner meat and less potatoes. One of Windows Vista’s biggest complaints was it ran “slow”, needing maximum horsepower. No more! With Windows 7, if a device isn’t being used, the corresponding speed sapping service isn’t running. This helps reduce the overall resource use and increase the speed of your workstation; allowing you to get your work done faster and more efficiently.  Want more windows open? With full 64-bit support, Windows 7 finally allows you to use more RAM – 4 GB and up.

So there we have IT, Windows 7 newest features and improvements. Want more information? Is Windows 7 the right OS for your business [in today’s economic times]? Stay tuned for parts 2-4 and as always, if you have a question, you can talk to your CSM directly or email support@launchpadonline.com.