10 genuinely kick-ass features to get excited about in Windows 7

Filed under: OS Updates, Features, Windows, Microsoft, Beta, Lists

10 genuinely kick-ass features to get excited about in Windows 7

by Lee Mathews Nov 10th 2008

After reading yet another rundown of what's so great about Windows 7, I noticed an annoying trend. Things like "no sidebar!" and "wallpaper slideshows!" appear to be among the most noteworthy achievements to some reviewers. I decided our loyal DS readers deserved to read a list of features that really do kick ass.

Enough mucking about: here are ten Windows 7 features that are genuinely worth getting excited about.

10. Easier and better wireless networking. Windows 7 takes a little from XP and a little from Vista, and rolls it all into a neat little package. Connection switching only requires two clicks and it can be done right from the system tray icon. Windows 7 also detects three more access points near my home than XP and Vista, and the connections to my work and home routers resume instantly when my laptop wakes.

9. Device stage. Right now, Windows treats multifunction devices like separate entities.This really doesn't make much sense: is your all-in-one three separate pieces of hardware? No? WIth device stage, you'll see only a single device in the control panel which you can then explore to access its multiple capabilities. To see it in action, check out Engadget's video from WinHEC.

Device Stage will improve integration with cell phones, PDAs, personal media players, cameras, and more - and it's a sign that Microsoft is more concerned about simplicity and ease of use than they were with Vista.

8. Better battery life. Our chums at Engadget talked about it, and I've been seeing it in action. By managing wireless lan and bluetooth radios more intelligently and tweaking the OS kernel to allow both lower CPU frequencies and higher idle times, Windows 7 yields a gain of 11-15%. The stats from my MSI Wind jive: its 6-cell battery lasts almost 40 minutes longer.

7. Network file sharing is wicked fast. While I haven't pulled out the stopwatch just yet, I do know this: files accessed from the machine I use to serve my repair apps open in a flash since I installed Windows 7. With XP and Vista, there was always a momentary hiccup after issuing a run command (like \\service\spyware) to connect to a share.

Now, the hiccup is gone. With the same networking hardware, my SMB shares now open almost instantly.

6. Improved UAC. Vista's UAC is brutal, nagging like the email solictors that keep trying to push Viagra on me. On any Vista install I've used for more than a few days, I've ended up disabling it entirely. It should have been a good thing, helping to prevent accidental and unwanted changes to the system.

UAC in Windows 7 is much smarter. If I initiate something manually, I'm not prompted. If I tell Windows once that an application is trusted, that's it - no more nags. Faith and begorah, I don't have to authorize my mouse click on ridiculously simple things like change date and time any more.

5. The new taskbar. There have been a number of improvements, including re-ordering icons, better visual task tips, and a more customizable system tray. Windows Media Player's tip view even provides basic playback controls automatically - no need for a special taskbar mode. The icon only mode is also a welcome change: it helps reduce taskbar clutter and pinning simplifies access to my favorite apps.

4. WinMin. We haven't seen much of it yet, but we know it's there somewhere. The promise of instant-on features in Windows 7 is a big deal for mobile users. As a netbook owner, I know I'd love to be able to boot a minimal shell with access to essential apps like my web browser and IM client.

3. Libraries. Hey, they work for Media Player, so why not make them a part of the OS? Windows 7's libraries provide a powerful addition to Explorer. They simplify file sharing, speed browsing and searching, and improve organization. They're a fantastic way to group related content regardless of where it's stored - especially if you suck at maintaining a logical folder setup like me.

2. PC Safeguard. Vista is a bit better at staying virus-free than Windows XP (I say this because my customers with Vista don't come in with SmitFraud infections nearly as often).

Windows 7 has taken restricted user accounts to the next level: by enabling PC Safeguard, you can force all changes a user makes to be discarded at log off. That means shortcuts, downloads, documents, temp files - everything just disappears. It's easy enough for the average home user to configure, and provides an additional layer of defense against malware and reckless computer use.

1. The new image backup system. Mac users love to flog Time Machine, and Windows 7 will finally provide a built-in answer for PCs. Yes, that took long enough. Yes, Mac had it first. Who cares. It's here, and is an amazingly simple way to back up your system to a networked or external hard drive. Windows will even create a bootable restore/rescue disc and it remember the location of your last backup - making the restore process dead simple.

And the best thing to look forward to about Windows 7: once it's finally released, you'll only be reading about it for another eight years.

If you're running Windows 7 on your machine, what features give you that warm, fuzzy feeling?

Tags: windows-7

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Paul said 12:23AM on 11-10-2008

Nice features you've mentioned here and I agree, most sites are talking about the same things!

I found a good review where the person doesn't harp on teh same old features that we already know about: http://mintywhite.com/tech/windows-7/will-windows-7-be-a-worthwhile-upgrade

Eggbrook said 1:27AM on 11-10-2008

Is windows 7 going to have a decent hard drive partitioning ability? Windows XP and Vista are very lacking in that ability. sure you can do it but your really limited. I really hope Windows 7 is good. All these features look great, I'm a windows vista person the 64 bit OS has no real issues but man I want to get my hands on Windows 7 just so that the OS isn't such a ram hog... but 4 gigs helps there =)

Bolivar Baez said 1:42AM on 11-10-2008

How long did your MSI Wind last? @ Lee Mathews

Geir said 2:58AM on 11-10-2008

Here we go again....talking about all the great features of the next OS from Microsoft....only to see that only a fraction will actually be delivered when released....

It would be better to reduce the focus on what is coming (at least that far into the future) and instead focus more on what is here today and what is coming "real soon" (as in a week or month).

Just my personal opinion, don't tell me that I am right or wrong but feel free to say how you feel (especially if you're getting fed up with all this Windows 7 hype).

TheWax said 3:39AM on 11-10-2008

So far my favorite thing coming to Windows 7 is the new Game Explorer, it will have a auto-patch system. It will tell you if a new patch is out for your game. They said they are still getting the bugs worked out for the feature though.

francis said 2:17PM on 11-10-2008

sounds a bit like apt-get

James said 4:19PM on 11-10-2008

Yes, except for a) games that b) people actually want to play.

Generic said 4:27AM on 11-10-2008

Better battery life, faster, oh my MiniWin!

Me want me want!

Transcontinental said 6:12AM on 11-10-2008

What's all this fuss around Windows 7, this "sevenomania" as it seems, not because it is mentioned, but because the news is so widely expressed and entertained -- everywhere, like the last chat in town, hum... on Earth -- that this next OS, not planned to be released between mid-2009 and early 2010, appears as a planetary hysteria. Gosh, what's the point, reversing the defeat of Vista to the upcoming glory of its successor ? Too much is too much, we are in November 2008 and less than 86,400 seconds until tomorrow :)

Nate said 8:27AM on 11-10-2008

I hope they keep the windows sidebar. I love the thing. I also hope we have the option to not switch to the icon-only taskbar. I have a huge screen so I can fit many applications and titles into the taskbar and I need to be able to read what I am opening.

Ramas (tikra.info) said 4:41AM on 1-12-2009

There is a option to combine taskbar icons, to show them with titles and etc.

elphizmo said 8:55AM on 11-10-2008

These are all pretty good features now.

But can you imagine what OS X or... XX? will be doing in 8 years?! Or Linux for that matter.

inteller said 10:22AM on 11-10-2008

still playing catch up?

whiskey said 10:28AM on 11-10-2008

Ok let's see now...

10. Linux has it
9. This was in their promotional videos of the future of windows since 2000 i believe, so COOL, it's about time!
8. 1 part hardware 1 part software.
7. You said it... SMB
6. Smart UAC? COOL... Linux has it too.
5. KDEish don't you think?
4. Wasn't WinMin the new microkernel that allows Windows to have a minimal footprint by loading the services as modules... COOL. Linux does it.
3. Actually that one was already on Windows if you weren't saving all the stuff around... Ordered folders! But if it can do it easier so i can make groups out of any set of documents it's a nice and welcomed addition.
2. Pretty cool actually. Deepfreeze will surely not like this. Haven't tried the Guest account on Ubuntu 8.10 so i cannot say it's been done yet.
1. I just hope it doesn't eat my hard drive like Vista did back then.

Over all, i look forward to 7. I wish they would offer us WinFS already (which was cool).

burnblue said 11:31PM on 11-10-2008

I'm not sure what the point of all this is.

THJ said 10:13AM on 11-13-2008

There's only 1 drawback to Linux: it sucks. You shouldn't need a degree in CS to enable your wireless card.

Virtuous said 7:13PM on 1-10-2009

The massive returns of Linux netbooks prove Linux isn't ready for prime time.

Donovan said 10:56AM on 11-10-2008

Doesn't Vista already have image-based backups? Is there something new/better about Windows 7 image-based backups?

TurboFool said 2:23PM on 11-10-2008

That's what I was trying to figure out. Vista already had this. I've used it. Has it changed in some way that's notably improved?

Khuffie said 3:57PM on 11-10-2008

One thing I'd love to see more is that you CAN have a taskbar WITHOUT an 'icon only' mode. IE, if you have 3 MSN windows, you'd see the three separate MSN windows in the taskbar like you do in Vista/XP, plus all the additional new features that 7 has. I was scared of losing that (and it wasn't mentioned anywhere! I found out that you can enable it after installing the build myself!) since I really like being able to see all my open windows (and for example, who just messaged me on MSN).

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