Features in Windows 7
Note: This is a work in progress. I keep adding features as I find them. Should be complete soon. Suggestions are always welcome. =)
Accessibility | Desktop | Networking | Security | Windows Explorer |
Action Center | Fonts | Paint | System | Windows Live |
Backup | Gadgets | Parental Controls | Taskbar | Windows Media Center |
Calculator | Games | Performance | Touch | Windows Media Player |
Contacts | International | Printing | Troubleshooters | Windows PowerShell |
Control Panel | Internet Explorer | Recovery | Windows Search | Windows Virtual PC |
Wordpad |
Accessibility
| Ease of Access Center The Ease of Access Center is a central location that you can use to set up the accessibility settings and programs available in Windows. In the Ease of Access Center, you’ll find quick access for setting up the accessibility settings and programs included in Windows. You’ll also find a link to a questionnaire that Windows can use to help suggest settings that you might find useful. Narrator | On-Screen Keyboard On-Screen Keyboard displays a visual keyboard with all the standard keys. You can select keys using the mouse or another pointing device, or you can use a single key or group of keys to cycle through the keys on the screen. It also supports audible clicks and text prediction. Magnifier The new improved Magnifier helps you enlarge different parts of the screen with ease. Just press Windows Key and ‘+’ to zoom in quickly. Also supports color inversion to make it easier to see. | Windows Automation API In Windows 7, UI Automation Clients can read Accessibility information from MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility) applications, and vice versa, to ensure maximum Accessibility regardless of which accessibility API an application used originally. UI Automation enables a user’s assistive technology (AT) to programmatically drive the UI of an application, and allows applications to expose their accessible functionality in a richer way than was possible in previous versions of Windows. More questions can be asked about a piece of UI, and that UI can be manipulated in richer ways. High Contrast Themes |
Action Center
| Keep your PC secure Action Center keeps an eye on your antivirus and anti-malware programs and lets you know when they need to be updated or when they are turned off in a very non intrusive-manner. Keep your PC updated |  Monitor your Backups Monitor your backups to make sure your important files are secure in case of any mishap. Action Center keeps you updated on the date and time of the last backup and lets you schedule them as well. | Troubleshooting Windows 7 is the most intelligent version of Windows yet. It’ll alert you in case it notices a decrease in performance. You can also troubleshoot various other common computer problems easily yourself without the need of technical support or a genius bar thanks to the new helpful troubleshooters. The Windows Online Troubleshooting Service makes sure your troubleshooters are up-to-date and helpful to you. |
Backup and Restore
| File backup Windows Backup lets you copy your files to a safe location for all user accounts. You can chose any files, folders and libraries that you want to back up and have them created at regular intervals. Backups can be made on the same hard disk Windows is installed in ( not recommended ), on a secondary hard disk, external hard disk, flash drives, network drives or optical media. | System image backup You can create a complete system backup which includes your Windows installation, settings and personal files. In case something goes wrong, the System Image can be restored to bring you computer back to the same working condition (with the same files, settings and programs) it was when the image was made. System Restore System Restore helps you restore your computer’s system files to an earlier point in time. It’s a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e‑mail, documents, or photos. | Previous versions In case you accidentally modify or delete a file, you can restore it using previous versions. Previous versions are automatically saved as part of restore points. |
Calculator
| New useful modes The new calculator in Windows 7 comes with Scientific, Programmer and Statistics modes. Everybody has different requirements, Calculator makes sure it fulfils them. | Calculate fuel efficiency, lease estimates, or mortgage payments You can use the Gas Mileage, Lease Estimation, and Mortgage Estimation templates in Calculator to calculate your fuel efficiency, lease estimates, and mortgage payments. | Calculate dates You can use Calculator to calculate the difference between two dates or to add or subtract days from a specified date. Convert values |
Contacts
| Store your contacts Using the Contacts folder, you can store your contacts which as much information you want about them. The contacts are displayed with their pictures so you can find the ones you want in an instant. You can also use Search in the Explorer or Start Menu to find them. | Contact Groups Want to keep your work contacts separate from your friends and family contacts? Contact groups help you do just that. Now you wont have to filter them when inviting your friends for that game of the season. | Print Business cards Want to print business cards? You can print out your contacts as Memos, Business Cards or in a Phone List. Import/Export |
Control Panel
| Central Control The new and improved control panel makes it easier to find the settings that you’re looking for. With the Category view, control panel applets are grouped together more smartly than ever which takes out the guess work. Windows Search can be used to find your desired control panel applet as well. |  | More Descriptive Control Panel now contains quick links to different settings even in a single applet. This makes it easier to find that setting you need to change. Improved Control Panel Options |
Desktop
| Improved taskbar and full-screen previews The taskbar has been redesigned to help you get your work done faster. Any program can now be pinned to the taskbar and the new taskbar icons can be rearranged by dragging to your liking. On taskbar button hover, thumbnail previews of each window or file open in that particular application will be shown. Peek at Desktop Border Transparency when maximized Reordered Right Click option on Desktop Desktop Background Slideshows
|  Full Screen Previews Also known as Aero Peek. When you hover your mouse over a thumbnail preview of any application, it’ll show a full screen preview of that window and make all others translucent. It’s awesome and very useful, we all know. Improved notification area Small Buttons or Large Button? Windows 7 Start Orb Aero Snap Themes | Jump Lists Jump lists shows common tasks and recent files of applications. Even if the application doesn’t have support for Jump Lists, the recent items will be shown. You can also pin the recent item to the Jump Lists to keep them in quick access. They can also be used to open up new instances of application. Just right click or click and drag up any icon in the taskbar to see the jump list.  Jump Lists in Start Menu Even the start menu has Jump Lists now. Just move your mouse over any recent application in the start menu that has an arrow on its right and it’ll resize the start menu to show its Jump List. Color Hot-Track
New Desktop Backgrounds New Sounds |
Fonts
| New Fonts Folder The new Fonts folder gives better previews of different fonts on their files making it easier to recognize them. You can hide the fonts you want and install them using shortcuts too. DirectWrite |  | ClearType Text Tuner The ClearType Text Tuner helps you to adjust your font rendering to your liking. It contains a wizard to help you chose the best settings based on your display. |
Gadgets
| Say goodbye to the sidebar RIP Sidebar. The new Gadgets platform is faster and doesn’t waste desktop space on any side of the screen like the sidebar did. It’s a part of the Windows 7 desktop now and accessible through the desktop right click menu. | New Gadget Platform, Same Gadgets All the gadgets you got used to Windows Vista work on Windows 7 as well. They are all compatible with the new Gadgets platform. | New Gadget in Windows 7 Windows 7 has a new Windows Media Center Gadget, that provides quick access to new Internet Shows and videos. |
Games
| Get game updates and news The improved Games folder now fetches games updates and installs them right in the folder. It also pulls news related to the game. Art and information about installed games | Games for Windows Get an immersing experience with Games for Windows. The Games for Windows brand provides quality, compatibility, safety features and are easy to play. They integrate well with the Games Explorer and provide updates and news as well. WARP | DirectX 11 Windows 7 ships with DirectX 11 which is backwards compatible with DirectX 9 and 10/10.1 hardware. It has new features that would mean more performance for your games. The new compute shader will let your GPU support parallel general purpose computing tasks. |
International
| Language Packs Language Packs are available for free download through Windows Update for Windows 7 Ultimate only. You can use Windows 7 in the language you want by changing it in Windows’ Regional Settings. |
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Internet Explorer 8
| Accelerators Need to search something, look up and address, or translate ? Accelerators make it easy to do all that and so much more without leaving the webpage you are browsing. Just select some text and an accelerator will pop up which you can use to perform various tasks. And accelerators aren’t just restricted to Windows Live only, you can create and use your own as well as third party ones. Compatibility View Microsoft SmartScreen Filter InPrivate Browsing InPrivate Filtering Browsing Session Restore | Search Suggestions Type in a query in the search box, and it’ll automatically show you suggestions based on what you type. Works with Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia and others. You can also add more search providers from the IE Add-ons website. Find on Page
Crash Recovery Suggested Sites Reopen closed tabs | Visual Suggestions What if one of the suggestions has more information than just text? Type in a city’s name to get weather as a suggestion. Or you can type in a company’s name to get stock quotes with a chart. Improved Performance Smart Address Bar Internet Explorer Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Filter
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thanks
I have Windows 7 Enterprise. And it's better then vista working alone. and Windows 7 is a lot more faster.
I have Windows 7 Enterprise. And it's better then vista working alone. and Windows 7 is a lot more faster.
Great info!
Is it possible, to get rid of the libraries? I would prefer, if Windows Explorer would start at “Computer” instead of libraries! Why is there no way to configure this? It’s annoying, how many clicks I have to do now each time Explorer opens – just because I want to change to another volume then C:\. Where has the “up”-button gone?!
!’m using Win7 for five days now and already had several crashes in Windows Explorer. One time it freezes the whole OS another time I got runtime error R6025. That’s definitly not what I was expecting.
Another thing is the lack of an extended search-function. For instance: Have you ever tried to find your user-profile of Firefox? Searchresult lists only the .exe but not one single “Mozilla”-directory. Try it – type “mozilla” and get frustrated by spending hours of time to find it manually.