Technically Speaking

This Thursday Microsoft Windows 7 will be available for the world at large to purchase and run on all of their computers.  I think this is a good thing, like most in the tech community, based on the fiasco that was Windows Vista, there are some huge steps forward coming in Windows 7.

I was reading a post at TechRepublic by Jason Hiner who pointed out his hits and misses in Windows 7, and in many ways I agree with him.  The system and data partitions should be split up by default to allow the OS to be wiped out and corrected without losing user data.  The OS is leaner than previous releases and will keep itself out of the way even in terms of UAC.

The one area where my opinion of Windows 7 differs from Mr. Hiner is in the area of the taskbar.  At first I wasn’t sure if the new Dock-like taskbar would be useful, but in fact it is onw of the most used places in the OS for me.

The addition of jump lists from both the start menu and taskbar make information very easy to find.  Mousing over the item on the taskbar, when it is running will show you the list of instances available just like grouped task bar items did in Windows XP. 

For example, mousing over a taskbar icon for Internet Explorer, will show a preview window of the open tabs.  You can then select which tab you need by clicking the instance.  For me this is an improvement over the list of titles when you click the XP taskbar because you get to preview the windows that are open.

I do not disagree that the new taskbar will be confusing for users as they get started with Windows 7.  The missing quick launch toolbar, and its move to the entire taskbar, was a bit of a change even for me when I didn’t use the QL toolbar for much of anything.

The review of hits and misses is a great read, and will help point out some key areas where things are better and where they aren’t, but because the OS is new and there are a large number of XP users still out there, the confusion will be seen, I think as a learning curve in most cases.  Will there be some who want to go back to XP?  Sure.  There will be and thats alright for now… as more and more companies and consumers get their hands on Windows 7 this will change and might even repair the damage done by Windows Vista.

So far, I haven’t found, other than a few driver issues that I need to fix, much in Windows 7 that doesn’t feel like an improvement.  The ability to search for anything on my computer from the start menu or Windows Explorer is huge.  I realize that this is a Vista carry over, but it seems to work better for me in Windows 7.  I no longer get discouraged that something isnt where I thought it would be in places like Control Panel because I can simply search for it or the action I wish to perform and get taken right to the item I need.

I am excited to see where Windows 7 takes the PC and Microsoft, and even curious about how it might shape the next version of Windows.  So far the vista from Windows 7 is pretty promising, especially given the view from the last Windows release.

Affiliation Disclosure: Derek is a contract contributor to TechRepublic and a Microsoft MVP. 

Windows 7 is coming to a store shelf near you one month from today and surely it will be her sooner than we think.  I have had the opportunity to run the RTM build of Windows 7 for about a month now and have to praise the Windows team on this one.  Wow.

Sure there are new features, improved features, and some things that were carried over from previous versions of Windows, but it seems I am finding new things all the time (usually when I am not looking for them).

I was reading about jump lists in the help within Windows just to get an idea of what they were created for, which is essentially to provide task bar level shortcuts to things used frequently.  But do not let the simple description fool you… this feature is sweet.

I do a bit of blogging for a technology site (techrepublic.com) and am constantly trying to remember where I put a template or what another post’s layout might be like and jump lists are gong to save me time and desktop real estate for sure.

Windows Vista (and to some extent the desktop search updates for XP) introduced the concept of search to Windows users.  You click start (or the toolbar) and enter the terms and off you go.  This feature is still in Windows 7 and allows me to proudly state that visiting the All Programs portion of the start menu has happened maybe 5 times.

The search has been expanded further to allow me to be sitting in Windows Explorer and search for items right from the top end of the location bar (shown in figure A).  When I do this it also allows me to add filters for file type and other things.  In figure A I looked for a word template and filtered the list to only include word templates.

Figure A

Searching for items in Windows Explorer

This is where jump lists come in… I can save these search results to the Windows Explorer jump list for later, single click use by dragging the magnifying glass icon in the location bar onto the task bar.  This will pin the search to the appropriate jump list.    The Explorer Jump List is shown in figure B.

Figure B

Windows Explorer jump list

Now anytime i want to chase down a word template on my laptop, I can access the jump list by right clicking on the task bar item and click the search item for type = .dotx and it will open with the results showing in Explorer.  This way when I create a new template or receive a template from someone, I do not have to remember that I saved it as Myhugelongtemplate for new documents.dotx or something like that.

There are other features available in Jump Lists depending on what the application is.  They have their own set of items on jump lists that work with the applications they represent.  For example, Outlook adds the frequently used tasks, like new message, appointment, contact, etc.  You can also jump right to a specified folder from the list.

Other Office applications show a list of recent documents used within the program, allowing easy access to items you have worked on.

Remember, the jump list for an item on the task bar is available via right click.

Figure C shows the jump list for PowerPoint and Outlook.

Figure C

Office Application Jump Lists

Jump Lists have been a hugely positive surprise for me.  Using them has improved the experience of Windows 7 for me.  I hope Jump lists will improve your Windows 7 experience.