The other day I had a moment where I realized how much I enjoyed using Windows 7 . I remember how I was deeply skeptical of Windows Vista – but heard good things about Windows 7. With my aging computers it was time to make the plunge and go ahead with Windows 7. At that time it was a question of could I feel OK with using it: – is it reliable? – is it not too much trouble to support? – will my software work? From what I had learned I felt confident about being able to move forward.
What I’m realizing now is how much I enjoy using Windows 7. It’s reliable, fast and efficient. Given how many tabs I have typically open in Chrome at the same time (along with other program) I appreciate the memory stability of Windows 7 64 bit (on XP I’m often watching the memory usage). Of course this is on a new laptop – so it moves along quite well – courtesy of an i3 processor.
The parts I enjoy recently are:
I like how the folders are organized now – with the “users” concept instead of just the old “My Documents” concept (in fact the physical folder location of C:\users\myname makes sense now). I also love how it puts a breadcrumb trail along the top of a folder window. I find this highly useful when navigating around – as I can click on what level back I want to go to (I’m a geek so I have to have hierarchies of folders!). [See first screenshot above]- I like the visual effects for Windows 7 – not just because they are cool – but because they are useful. I have an example to the right: if you hover over an item in the taskbar (which is very different than the old XP one) it shows you a preview. In some cases this simply lets you know if the item is open – if not nothing shows up. But in the case of folders (see example to the right) it’s shows you both folders – with readable labels - so you can click on the one you want.
- Frankly I really like the taskbar overall – as I have dropped in the items I use constantly into that task bar (the downside is that I sometimes accidentally open something).
The other thing I find useful is how – for certain “pinned” items in the taskbar there are shortcuts to recently opened items. I’ve noticed recently how useful this is – as it saves me from having to open Excel, then navigate to where I saved it (miss this on XP machines now).
So I find it interesting – how much I’m enjoying Windows 7 – not just technically but as a user. My original focus was on if it would work – more on the negative than on the positive. Today I can recommend not just from a technical focus – but as an enjoyable operating system to use.
