Microsoft has all but admitted that Windows Vista was a flop. So why not start using its successor right now? You can, simply by downloading the free release candidate of Windows 7 (www.microsoft.com/Windows/Windows-7/download.aspx). Fully functioning, robust and stable, Windows 7 RC (release candidate) has been available for a week now, and its usage has already jumped 22 percent, according to Microsoft.
The headline features of Windows 7 — greater compatibility, speed, interface enhancements and less annoyance from user account control — are really designed to say to users: “We know Vista disappointed you; this version will not.” But Microsoft has done more than just make amends with the forthcoming Windows. It has also slipped in a lot of useful enhancements and features. Here are a few.
• Sticky notes
You work all day at the computer, and you need somewhere to place sticky notes to remind yourself to pick up some milk, make a doctor’s appointment, or call the plumber, right? In the past, you probably stuck such notes on your computer monitor — or put them on scraps of paper scattered around your desk. Thanks to the new Windows 7 applet called Sticky Notes, you can get rid of all of those annoying pieces of paper.
Sticky Notes are just what they sound like: little virtual notes that resemble real-world sticky notes. These, however, you can place anywhere on your Windows desktop. And they stay stuck to the desktop for as long you want — even after rebooting.
The default sticky note is yellow — but you can change the color simply by right-clicking your sticky note.
• Snipping Tool
Another nifty little Windows 7 tool that falls into the category of “why didn’t they think of this earlier” is called Snipping Tool. Available directly from the Start menu, Snipping Tool allows you to select and capture anything that’s displayed on your monitor and either save it as a graphics file or paste it into an e-mail message, document, or graphics program.
To do this previously, you would have had to capture an entire screen or window and then switch to a paint program to crop the image, copy it to the clipboard, and then move it to its destination. Snipping Tool boils all of that down to three clicks: one to open the tool, one to select the region, and another to press Ctrl-C. Capturing part of your screen doesn’t get any easier.
Snipping Tool even comes with a pen tool that allows you to annotate or mark up what you’ve captured, as well as a highlighter that makes it easy to highlight text in a capture. A one-click
e-mail toolbar button moves the captured image and any annotation to your default e-mail program, ready to send off to a friend or colleague.
• Libraries
In previous versions of Windows, Microsoft pretty much dictated to you where your files could be stored — under My Documents, My Music, My Videos, and so on. While it’s true that you could choose your own locations with individual applications, there were enough areas of the operating system that kept pointing back to those default locations that you probably eventually just gave up and accepted the locations Microsoft chose for you.
The new Libraries feature goes some way to putting you back in control. When you open the Windows Explorer file manager — or click Computer from the Start menu — you’ll see the Libraries category listed to the left, with initial libraries called Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos already created.
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