Windows 7 (Build 6965): opened up to the world
Some of the cooler features, some more overlooked than others, which could really sway the decision between buying a Mac with OS X and buying a laptop/PC with Windows 7.
The first screen you will see after installing Windows, albeit with the DPI slightly higher than usual.
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One of the first things I noticed was the ability to put sticky notes onto the desktop; they just stay there and can be edited, viewed, resized and moved around.
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This new build allows you to connect together your Windows Live ID accounts to your local computer and networking, bridging your online and offline world much better. Could this be the SkyDrive connector in plain sight?
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Not only that, you can configure all of your university network accounts into Windows, so when you're on campus or even at home, you can use your university resources without constantly logging in and out. You can backup and restore your vault file, so when your university or friends upgrade to Windows 7, you can take it with you on a flash drive.
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The Action Center centralises all of your alerts, security notifications and all things like that. It keeps it out of the way and incredibly customisable, so you can literally turn on and off any message or notification you get.
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The backup facility is simple and effective. If you have enough storage on your university network share, you can configure that folder/store to be the backup path to your files each night.
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With the offline file settings, it's again a piece of cake to ensure any network downtime you have can still be productive, by downloading, uploading and synchronising your files between client(s) and server(s).
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The new system restore feature, which allows you to restore your entire copy of Windows using an ISO image. Oh, and this build of Windows comes with an ISO image maker. Ingenius how it all fits in really.
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Desktop customisation is just as good in this build as some of the recent others; this build allows you to select multiple backgrounds and keep them showing for alloted amounts of time. If you get bored, you can just right-click and hit Next.
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A future feature set to be built upon in the coming weeks; allowing you easy access to remote workspaces, servers and resources.
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For those lacking in confidence when repairing or troubleshooting problems with Windows, this will be the first port of call.
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The "Users" and "Documents and Settings" have been completely revamped. We now have "Libraries" and everything in-between. Here, you can see the Documents area of your library...
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... and here is the Music library on your computer, integrating nicely into Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center.
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The Pictures library again integrates very well into photo editing applications, because it knows exactly where to look...
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... just as Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center know where to find all of the videos.
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There's no real reason to show this, except my friend Linzi looking like a plonker. Oh, this is what the new Windows Media Player 12 looks like, dark and macabre.
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Aero Peek has been shown off at the PDC 2008 conference, allowing you to show the desktop by fading all open windows to glass.
To see Aero Peek, just hover over the small vertical bar by the clock in the bottom right hand corner, and it'll show the desktop.
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Aero Shake seems to be another feature which has some quite interested. By gently shaking one window, it'll minimise the rest of the surrounding windows, giving you a bit of fresh thinking space to... well, think. Less clutter = better thinking.
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Aero Snap is the last desktop window alteration made; by clicking and dragging a window to one side of the screen, it'll fit to exactly that half, allowing you to re-organise your windows much more effectively.
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It's strange to say, but the taskbar right-click has gone. The right click menu is now the little window that pops up, allowing you to pin files, folders and applications you use regularly, and view others which are used from time to time.
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A collection of a few "desktop goodies", which I consider pretty cool. The tablet math function is brilliant, especially for math or economic students, and the calculator has been dramatically improved by adding real-life calculations and conversions on there.
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An example of the on-screen keyboard and to-scale finger showing you how they compare. The on-screen keyboard is resizeable so whether you have tiny hands or sausage fingers, you can still use the keyboard on-screen.
And I know, the finger looks a bit like a penis, but it is in fact, a finger.
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