Here it is 2010 & we have another new version of Windows (7)

For a discussion of various previous versions of Windows, click here.

I just installed Windows 7 & have a few comments. I won't cover it in detail. There are thousands of sites doing that already.

First of all, many are afraid to upgrade & my comments have always been to wait & buy a new computer with the new version. It saves many headaches.

If your current machine is more than a couple of years old, it probably won't have the needed hardware to run 7 properly. If you are running Vista, you are probably OK and are anxious to change due to the problems in Vista. I had Vista home Premium on a fairly powerful HP & installed the Home premium version of 7 without a hitch. Everything worked just as before. No new drivers needed. Everything works which I have NEVER experienced in an upgrade before. Video, sound, network, printers (including an OLD laser printer) all work. All my programs worked. I only had to change a couple of things which i will share with you here.

The first thing I noticed was that the task bar operates very differently. It now does something called "pinning" icons to the taskbar. Thjis apparently was done with the intent of replacing the "Quick Launch" feature from previous editions of Windows. I tried the new feature & still wanted my old "Quick Launch" back. I looked for it to no avail so I searched the web for it & found that you have to follow a simple procedure to return it. You can find the details at various places on the web by searching for Windows 7 quick launch. Here are a couple I found:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/make-the-windows-7-taskbar-work-more-like-windows-xp-or-vista/ and
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/add-the-quick-launch-bar-to-the-taskbar-in-windows-7/

In the event you can't find them check out my page.

The second change I made was to the location of the task bar itself. I searched for Windows 7 tips & found an old idea that makes sense now. We have been able to move the task bar around to the left, right, or top of the screen since Windows 95 and at some point (XP, I think) you could lock the task bar to prevent dragging it around accidentally. I have some friends that liked it on top but I have always liked it on the bottom.

What I failed to think about is that many of us are using wide screen monitors now. On a wide screen, having the task bar on the left or right gives more vertical space to the pages we view. Here are examples of each: Bottom, Top, Left, Right

As you can see the location affects the amount of space allowed for viewing. For folks who don't maximize their windows, it probably does not matter. But to me it does. I maximize all my windows as I hate scrolling around all the time and I now have my task bar on the left and am doing it on my XP machines as well that have wide screen monitors.

Changing the location can be done by dragging as always provided you unlock the taskbar. In Windows 7, you can now make the change in the taskbar properties dialog box as well. Opening this dialog box displays some other changes in Win 7. Notice the link at the bottom that provides help on customizing the taskbar. Take a look. Also something new has been added called Aero Peek. You might want to look it up.

This is a new feature of the taskbar. There is a small bar at the end of the taskbar that performs the AeroPeek function. It is called the Show Desktop Button. Here is where it is located:

When the taskbar is on the top or bottom, the Show Desktop Button is the vertical bar to the right of the time/date.
When the taskbar is on the right or left, the Show Desktop Button is on the bottom below the time/date.

Lots of new things to explore with Win 7. Search for "Windows 7 tips" and have fun.