Windows 7 Update: Taskbar and Window Management

Oh my. As if the speed, stability and compatibility wasn't enough, I stumbled upon an article about how to activate the new taskbar in the Windows 7 Pre-beta.

Taskbar:

Icons can be "Pinned" to the taskbar. These icons now control the programs when they are launched.

All I have to say is WOW. It looks like the Windows 7 dev team has been working on making the Windows Experience better. Vista was simple, this is better. The new interface is completely intuitive. Within minutes I figured out how to use it completely. Simply hover over the icons for a clickable preview/switcher thing and you can choose between windows.

Hover over a program icon to display the open windows launched from that icon and click one to switch to it. (Hover over the preview to see it wherever it may be on your desktop, hiding all the other windows)

Now, if you drag the icon up (or click on a button next to the icon) you can bring up a menu that allows you to launch another instance, select to pin the program to the taskbar, or view recent files, bookmarks, etc. (This seems to be something developers can write into their programs because not many of them have this option yet) One other thing, you can pin files within that programs Pin-menu (as I am calling it...)

Drag up on the program icon to reveal this pin-menu to launch recent files, bookmarks or pinned files set by the user.

Window Management:
Dragging a window to the top shows an animation that suggests maximization. And sure enough, dropping the window there maximizes the window.

Drag a window to the top and drop it = maximize.

Dragging the window to the side of the desktop displays an animation that suggests resizing the window to half the width of the desktop and the entirety of the height.

In summary
Frankly I can't wait. That is all.

UPDATE:

Window Management:
Thanks to Kaleb, I found another neat trick: Shaking a window hides all other windows, and shaking it again brings 'em back. Wow. Microsoft is getting cozy with the mouse.

Taskbar
There are more options! Smaller icons is one and you can choose whether or not to group windows into icons. Here are a few screenies of the different options:

DEFAULT: Large Icons, Always Grouped.

Large Icons, Grouped when the taskbar is full

Small Icons, Always Grouped (My least favorite...)

Small Icons, Grouped when the taskbar is full. (My favorite settings - alot like the old taskbar with all the new features...)

Windows 7

Tests with a Virtual Machine ON TOP OF Windows Vista
Holy cow, it runs on 64 mb of ram... WELL.
it had a 1m 23s boot time, but once it booted, holy crap, it was speedy. it might be the cpu, but still...
On 128mb ram it booted in about the same time. AND JESUS, it even runs well on 128mb of ram, I'm afraid to go any lower for fear that it will actually run on it... but I will anyway... :D
On 64mb ram it boots, again about the same time. Once again, the desktop runs well. things do tend to get sluggish though, so I won't go any lower.

Okay so I've popped the ram back up to 512 mb, time to explore the interface.
Uh oh, a hiccup... I must have broken something when the hardware changed from 512mb of RAM to 64mb of RAM - now I can't launch Explorer. (not unexpected, this is a PRE-beta after all, from Microsoft no less... *cough* vista *cough*)

Break to clear thoughts and get a fresh system:
Vista's only problem is that it was rushed out. Yeah, its a BIG problem. There were issues with compatibility and some bugs in the interface. Those were the only problems. Everything else was fine... if you could find anything that wasn't affected by this HUGE problem. So my only beef with Windows and Microsoft is the fact that Microsoft rushes to get stuff done. When a dead-line approaches, if the system isn't near completion, they postpone. If it is near completion, but there are bugs, they try really hard to get the bugs worked out (and mostly fail). They can always work on the next service pack, right?

Tests on cold metal
So all of those tests were inside a virtual machine. That is how I was able to easily change the RAM size. Now its time for a field test. Time to risk my desktop and install the beast.
Alright, its not a beast, its actually really stable. Its snappy too. The one thing that I like the most is that I DIDN’T INSTALL A SINGLE DRIVER – EVERYTHING WORKED BY DEFAULT! That means my video card, my wireless, my sound, EVERYTHING. I was shocked.
Okay so, new things in Seven:

1) Libraries.

Look, Libraries

As far as I can tell, Libraries are a way of having the contents of multiple folders show up in one place. Essentially, they replace the My Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders in the user's home folder. There are a few default Libraries to start you off. Libraries is a good idea because I never really used that music folder for anything (all my music is stored on an external drive with my videos and sometimes documents). However, it seems easy to add a folder from, for example, an external drive or another folder on your computer. So I would probably use the Libraries. Good job Microsoft.

2) Ribbon interface

The ribbon interface, MSPaint in front of MSWordPad

Look ma, I'm consistent! I would like to say that my favorite piece of software from Microsoft is Office 2007 Enterprise. Do you know why? The ribbon. You know, that thing that sits at the top of the window that replaced the "File, Edit, Save... etc" toolbar? (as much as I would have loved an option to keep that toolbar in addition to the ribbon). Essentially, in Windows 7, there are a few more programs that have the ribbon interface. Paint and WordPad are the only programs that I have found that have this new interface, but soon, SOON EVERYONE WILL KNOW HOW AWESOME THAT RIBBON IS! *ehem* Anyways... So Microsoft is smart. woot.

3) Toolbar and Start Menu

Not much has changed. Aero still rules the Windows world, and therefore, there is still that little Windows orb at the bottom left. But, there are a few changes about how Windows alerts you. Also there is a new network manager that allows you to choose the network to connect to right there, without opening a dialog to do so.

Also there’s a button just to the right of the time that, when clicked, shows the desktop. It’s kinda annoying to get to, but I’m sure there will actually be an icon once the thing comes out of pre-beta… maybe.

4) File version restore.

*cough* Time Machine *cough*

It seems that Windows' System restore has gotten MUCH better. So much better that it can restore individual files to a previous version. THIS is very promising. However, I couldn't get it to find an earlier version of a text file I created and edited several times... All I could get was a "Shadow Copy." I am also not exactly sure what that means...

5) Control Panel

A collapsible sidebar.

Looks like the main update to the Control Panel is a collapsible side-bar.

6) Theme Chooser

Works really well. There are some nice defaults to choose from. However, I do hope that there will be more before beta arrives.

7) Display Properties

They did a number on this one, they added support for rotating display without NVIDIA control panel. It actually looks like they scrapped the old display properties dialog and got a new one. I like it a lot.

8) Gadgets/ Sidebar

By the way, that isn't the default background (it comes with the same background from Vista... :/)

Hell, why is the sidebar in the title, I DON’T KNOW. What used to be the sidebar is now Gadgets. The sidebar concept is no more. You can place the gadgets everywhere now. Microsoft is catching on.

There is so much more that I probably haven't found yet, but I think I have gone through about as much change as I can tonight.

Thanks for reading, enjoy Win7.