Windows
7
Where the
Revolution begins
Where we’re
at
•
Windows Vista didn’t exactly
get a positive reception.
•
That said, it delivered on
Microsoft’s promise to update the foundation of Windows to something more
modern.
•
That foundation is used in
Windows 7.
Why so much faster release of windows 7
than the other windows?
Windows 7
Why 7? For lucky 7 or anything else?
Why it is named windows 7?
That's because not every Windows OS is a whole
"version," in the same way that there are several versions of Mac OS
X. Here's a more thorough explanation:
Windows 3.0, 3.1 and 3.11 used the version number as part of their name. Windows NT followed suit with NT 3.1 and 3.5.
Windows 95 was technically version 4.0 and the server version was Windows NT 4.0. Win 98 was 4.10.1998, Win 98 SE was 4.10.222A, and Windows Me was 4.90.3000.
Windows 2000 was the first release in the version 5 family, followed by Windows XP, which was version 5.1.
Windows Vista was version 6.0.
Windows 3.0, 3.1 and 3.11 used the version number as part of their name. Windows NT followed suit with NT 3.1 and 3.5.
Windows 95 was technically version 4.0 and the server version was Windows NT 4.0. Win 98 was 4.10.1998, Win 98 SE was 4.10.222A, and Windows Me was 4.90.3000.
Windows 2000 was the first release in the version 5 family, followed by Windows XP, which was version 5.1.
Windows Vista was version 6.0.
Windows 7 is all about delivering on the failures of Vista.
•
Performance
improvements
–
Boot-up time is faster than
with Windows Vista, and Windows 7 resumes from sleep and reconnects to wireless
networks more quickly.
–
Search has been optimized to
return results faster.
–
Services that aren't in use are
turned off, and memory is used more efficiently than in Vista, increasing
performance.
–
USB devices are ready for use
in less time after you plug them in.
•
Power
management
–
Automatically dims the screen
after a period of inactivity when on battery power
–
Powers off unused ports
Uses less power for DVD playback
Market Place for Windows 7
Windows 7 has overtaken Windows XP as the world's most popular desktop operating system, marking the end of the venerable OS' reign over the PC world.
(Credit: Net Applications)
Windows 7's market share stands at 42.76 percent compared with Windows XP's 42.5 percent, according to figures from Web-tracking company Net Applications for the month of August.
Microsoft has seen Windows 7's share rise by roughly 1 percentage point month-on-month for around the past year -- about the same level of decline seen in Windows XP -- while Vista's share has remained static at around 6 percent over the past quarter.
Not all web tracking companies agree on when Windows 7 became the dominant OS: StatCounter reported Windows 7 overtaking XP almost a year ago, and now puts Windows 7's overall market share at over the 50 percent mark.
Windows 8, which was made available as a pre-release preview earlier this year, has a 0.23 percent market share, according to Net Applications.
Overall, Windows' share of the desktop market stands dwarfs that of its rivals at 92 percent.
However, there's also good news for Apple in the August stats: the total Mac OS X user base now outstrips that of Windows Vista. Apple's combined share of the desktop market -- counting versions 10.4 and after of OS X -- Apple has a 7.11 percent share, while Windows Vista takes 6.1 percent.
So, windows
7 has taken only 3 years to overtake windows XP. Where windows XP has grown
their user since for 11 years.
Windows
7 for end users
Windows 7 System
Requirements
•
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
•
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or
2 GB RAM (64-bit)
•
16 GB available hard disk space
(32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
•
DirectX 9 graphics device with
WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Setup
•
Setup has been simplified.
•
Clean install in 15-20 minutes.
•
Upgrade: Averages a couple of
hours.
Windows XP users: No upgrade for you.
Windows XP users: No upgrade for you.
User experience
•
Biggest end user changes are in
the UI...
–
Personalization with Aero
Themes and slideshows.
–
Major changes to the Taskbar –
Pinning, Jump Lists, Live Previews, and more.
–
Notification area clean-up.
–
Libraries and Windows Explorer.
–
Windows Aero desktop effects:
Aero Peek, Aero Snaps, Aero Shake.
Aero interface features
With the new
Aero features of Windows 7, it's easier to get work done.
Desktop and Taskbar
–
You have more control over the
arrangement of your desktop with the removal of the sidebar, which was
introduced in Windows Vista.
–
Gadgets can still be placed on
the desktop, wherever you want them.
Get
what you need in an instant!
•
Accessing
frequently used programs and files
–
Many of us have a fairly small group of programs and files we use
often. So it makes sense to keep them handy all the time. The Start menu
is essentially a blank slate that you can organize and customize to suit your
preferences.
Many of us have a fairly small group of programs and files we use
often. So it makes sense to keep them handy all the time. The Start menu
is essentially a blank slate that you can organize and customize to suit your
preferences.
•
Click the Start
button . If you don’t see the program you want,
simply type it into the search box.
•
You can then pin your favorite programs to the Start menu for easy
access by right-clicking the program and clicking Pin to Start Menu.
•
You can also pin your
favorite programs to the taskbar by right-clicking the program and selecting Pin
to Taskbar, or by dragging the program from the Start menu or the desktop
to the taskbar. You can rearrange the buttons on the taskbar any way you like by
dragging them.
Jump Lists
•
Lists of recently opened items,
such as files, folders, or Web sites, organized by the program that you use to
open them.
•
To open an item from the Jump
List on the Start menu, click the Start button . Point to a program on the
Start menu to open the program’s Jump List, and then click the item.
•
To pin your favorite files to
the Jump List, point to the file in the Jump List, and click the push-pin. The
item then appears at the top of the Jump List. To unpin an item from a Jump
List, point to the item, and click the pushpin. (Notice that the push-pin has a
different tooltip, “Unpin from this list.”) The item is no longer pinned
to the top of the Jump List.
•
The horizontal bar at the
bottom of the screen , gives you a quick way to access the programs and files
you have open.
•
With this new feature in
Windows 7, called Peek, you can point to a taskbar button to preview
open files or programs. Point to the thumbnail to preview the window
full-screen. Click the thumbnail to open the window, or click the x in the
upper-right corner of the thumbnail to quickly close the window.
•
When you right-click a taskbar
icon, you see a jump list that displays files you've recently opened with that
application as well as common tasks that you can perform directly from the jump
list.
Live Thumbnails
— Just hover over an icon to see
a thumbnail of a running window.
— Click on a thumbnail to bring a window to the desktop.
—
Snap, Shake and Peek
•
New to Windows 7.
•
Help you organize and resize
windows and reduce desktop clutter:
•
Aero Snap makes it easy to display two windows side-by-side by dragging them
to opposite sides of the display.
–
To maximize a window, drag it
to the top. If you want to extend a window to the full length of the screen but
keep the current width, resize it to the top of the screen.
•
With Aero Shake, grab a
window with the pointer and drag it back and forth quickly to minimize all
other windows. Shake it again to bring the other windows back.
•
Aero Peek puts a transparent button at the extreme right end of the taskbar
(if it's horizontal) or the bottom (if it's vertical), after the notification
area.
–
Hover over it with the pointer
and all windows become transparent so you can see your desktop and gadgets.
Move the pointer away and the windows are restored.
Snipping Tool
•
Snipping Tool captures a screen
shot of any object on your screen, like a paragraph in a document, a picture
you’re editing, or a section of a Web page. When you want to share an idea or
ask a question, it’s a great way to show your students what you’re talking
about.
•
Click the Start
button and type snip in the
search box. Click Snipping Tool in the Programs section at the top of
the Start menu.
•
On the New menu, select the
type of snip you want:
•
Free-form Snip. Draw a free-form shape around an object.
•
Rectangular Snip. Drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.
•
Window
Snip. Select a window, such as a browser
window or dialog box, that you want to capture.
•
Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen.
•
Then select the area of your
screen that you want to capture. It's automatically copied to the Clipboard and
the Snipping Tool mark-up window. From the mark-up window, you can write on,
draw on, highlight, save, or e-mail the snip.
User
Account Control
— If a task requires Administrative rights, you’ll see a User Account
Control prompt.
— Check with the IT department if you need Administrator rights.
Task Switching
Sticky Notes
•
Sticky Notes are
colorful reminder notes you can stick on your desktop. They are even handier in
Windows 7. You can format the text, and speedily resize, collapse, and flip
through notes.
•
To create a sticky note, click
the Start button and type sticky in the
search box. Click Sticky Notes in the Programs section at the top of the Start
menu. To create additional notes, click the New Note button. You can
also open a new note by pressing CTRL+N.
Type of formatting
Type of formatting
Keyboard
shortcut
|
|
Bold text
|
CTRL+B
|
Italic text
|
CTRL+I
|
Underlined
text
|
CTRL+U
|
Strikethrough
|
CTRL+T
|
Bulleted
list
|
CTRL+SHIFT+L
(Press this
keyboard shortcut again to switch to a numbered list.)
|
Increased
text size
|
CTRL+SHIFT+>
|
Decreased
text size
|
CTRL+SHIFT+<
|
New Windows Explorer Features
Improvements to
Windows 7's Windows Explorer file manager make it easier to organize and find
your files, whether they're stored on your hard drive, an external drive or on
the network.
Libraries
The biggest
change to Windows Explorer is the addition of libraries. Libraries are
virtual folders that give you an aggregated view of the contents of multiple
actual folders. This lets you see all files of a particular type (such as
pictures) together, even though they may be stored in different physical
locations. There are four default libraries: Documents, Music, Pictures and
Videos. You can also add your own libraries. Figure 3 shows a library for
downloaded programs that has been added.
New and improved built-in applications
Some
applications included with Windows have been updated and improved, and handy
new ones added.
Problem Steps Recorder
Troubleshooting is easier for both the user and the help desk.
Control Panel
Category view and integrated Search make it easy to find what you need.
Internet Explorer 8:
–
Windows 7 ships with the latest
version of Internet Explorer, which includes many new features:
–
Accelerators: Provides a quick way to perform common tasks from a website by
highlighting text and then choosing the action. For example, highlight an
address and select to see a map of the location or highlight a sentence and
select to translate it with Bing. You can add accelerators from the Accelerators Gallery.
–
InPrivate Browsing: Allows you to browse the web without leaving tracks in the form of
Internet history, temporary Internet files (cache) or cookies.
–
Web Slices: Enables you to subscribe to a part of a web page, which will be
automatically updated when it changes.
–
SmartScreen Filter: Protects you from malicious websites such as phishing sites.
–
Suggested Sites: Suggests websites you might be interested in, based on the sites
you've visited most often.
–
Tab isolation and crash
recovery: Each tab runs in its own process so if
one crashes, others aren't affected. A crashed tab automatically reloads. You
can also reopen closed tabs or reopen your entire previous browsing session.
Internet Explorer 9:
–
Fast, simplified design,
one-click access to your favorite sites, integration with Windows 7, etc.
Desktop gadgets for teachers
•
Windows
contains mini-programs called gadgets, which offer information at a glance and
provide easy access to frequently used tools.
•
Right-click anywhere on your
desktop and then click Gadgets. Double-click a gadget to add it to your
desktop. You can also add additional gadgets by clicking Get more gadgets
online in the lower-right corner. To remove gadgets you already have,
right-click the gadget, and click Close gadget.
•
Many of the available gadgets
are really handy for teachers, including gadgets for a dictionary/thesaurus,
Wikipedia, multilingual vocabulary, periodic table, unit converter, currency
converter, moon phases, astronomy center, a to-do list, and more. You can even
watch NASA TV Live or listen to radio stations from around the world.
•
You can customize a gadget by
moving it, resizing it, and making other changes:
•
To move a gadget, drag it
wherever you want it.
•
To change a gadget’s options,
right-click the gadget, and then click Options. Change the options and
then click OK.
•
To resize a gadget, right-click
it, point to Size, and click the size you want the gadget to be.
•
To keep a gadget on top of your
other windows so it’s always visible, right-click the gadget, and click Always
on top.
Accelerators
New and improved built-in applications
Calculator
The built-in
calculator in Windows 7 adds two new modes:
•
Programmer: Calculates in and converts between hexadecimal, decimal, octal and
binary numbers, and displays byte, word, Dword and Qword data types.
•
Statistics: Adds keys for statistical calculations involving linear regression.
•
Another handy addition is a calculation
history, which appears at the top of the entry field.
•
New unit conversion pane,
which handles units of area, angles, length, volume, weight/mass, energy,
power, pressure, time, velocity, temperature and more.
WordPad and Paint
The built-in Paint program now uses the familiar ribbon interface from Office, as shown in Figure 6, making it easier to use. It now supports opening transparent .PNG and .ICO files, adds realistic digital brushes and supports multi-touch, so you can paint directly on the screen with your fingers with a touch screen monitor.
Improved search
•
Windows 7 includes the Explorer
search box as in Windows Vista but it adds a new feature: search suggestions.
•
When you click in the box, you
see a list of recent searches, as well as search filters (customized for the
type of files in the folder) that you can select to filter search results.
•
These improvements make it easy
for you to use the search bar to quickly search across file types and libraries
for all documents pertaining to a particular client.
•
To
use arrangement views, search filters and suggestions, you must have library
locations indexed. When you include a location in a library, Windows 7
automatically adds those locations to be indexed. Locations on another machine
are indexed if that machine is running Windows Search 4.
Connect to a wireless
network
•
To open Connect to a Network,
click the network icon ( or ) in the
notification area in the lower-right corner of your screen. In the list of
available wireless networks, click a network, and then click Connect. If
prompted, type the network security key, and then click OK. Now you’re
connected to the network.
Location-Aware
Printing
•
If you’ve got Windows 7
Professional or Ultimate on your laptop, you can automatically switch default
printers for each network you use—at home and at school. Then you won’t have to
manually switch printers when you move between locations. So when you print at
school, Windows 7 will automatically print to your school printer. When you
print at home, Windows 7 will automatically select and use your home printer.
•
First,
be sure that your computer is connected to the printer you need. You can add a
local printer or add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer.
To add a local printer
that is directly connected to your PC:
–
First, connect the printer to
your computer following the manufacturer's instructions. Windows attempts to
automatically install the printer. If Windows can't automatically install it or
if you've removed the printer and want to add it again, follow these steps:
–
Click the Start button ,
and then click Devices and Printers.
–
Click Add a printer.
–
In the Add Printer wizard,
select Add a local printer.
–
On the Choose a printer port
page, make sure that Use an existing port and the recommended printer
port are selected, and then click Next.
–
On the Install the printer
driver page, select the printer manufacturer and model, and then click Next.
Note, if your printer is not listed, click Windows Update, and then wait
while Windows checks for additional drivers. If none are available and you have
the manufacturer's installation CD, click Have disk, and then browse to
the folder where the printer driver is stored. For additional help, refer to
the manufacturer's instructions.
•
Complete the additional steps
in the wizard, and then click Finish.
To add a network,
wireless, or Bluetooth printer:
–
Make sure you know the name of
the printer that you want to add before you begin. Sometimes the name is
displayed on the printer itself. If the name is not on the printer, contact the
printer owner or your network administrator to find out the printer's name
before you follow the steps below.
–
Click the Start button ,
and then click Devices and Printers.
–
Click Add a printer.
–
In the Add Printer wizard,
select Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.
–
In the list of available
printers, select the one you want to use, and then click Next. If your
computer is connected to a network, only printers listed in Active Directory
for your domain are displayed in the list.
–
If prompted, install the
printer driver on your computer. If you
are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password
or provide confirmation.
–
Complete the additional steps
in the wizard, and then click Finish.
To change a default
printer:
–
Click the Start button ,
and then click Devices and Printers.
–
Right-click a printer, and then
click Set as default printer.
To manage
Location-Aware Printing settings:
–
Click the Start button ,
and then click Devices and Printers.
–
Click a printer, and then click
Manage default printers on the toolbar.
–
Click Change my default
printer when I change networks.
–
In the Select network
list, click a network.
–
In the Select printer
list, click a corresponding default printer.
–
Click Add.
–
Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 to
select printers for any other networks you connect to. When you're finished,
click OK.
Resources
•
Take a Windows 7 tour, and
watch videos about Windows 7 features here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/videos-tours.aspx.
•
For faculty, visit http://www.microsoft.com/win7
•
For faculty, visit http://www.microsoft.com/win7
•
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor http://tinyurl.com/w7advisor
•
10 Cool Tools in Windows 7: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=738
•
System Requirements: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx
Tune Up you PC
•
How
to get information about your PC?
How
to get information about your PC?
•
How to update Windows 7?
•
What is notification area?
How to get information
about your PC?
•
Start
•
Type: “system information” in
the search box
•
Select: System Information from
the resulting list
How to update Windows 7?
·
Windows Update is a utility that
downloads and installs updates to your system, and it's configured to run
automatically by default in Windows 7.
- Start > All Programs > Windows Update,
- select Tools> Windows Update in Internet Explorer
What is notification
area?
•
The notification area appears
on the right side of the taskbar. Sometimes it's called the system tray, or
just the tray. Standard icons displayed in the notification area are the flag
(to open Action Center), the power icon (on notebook PCs), the network or
wireless icon and the volume icon.
•
Windows 7 groups other
background program icons in a hidden area to keep the notification area
clutter-free. Just click the up-facing arrow to display the hidden icons. In
this example, you see the hidden tray icons for the Bluetooth device applet,
Windows Update, an antivirus program, a pointing device and a virtual machine
program.
Here are some ways to put these icons to
work:
•
Double-click an icon to perform
the default action for the related program. In most cases, this opens a window
for its configuration or use.
•
Select a command from the
right-click menu that closes or disables the application and removes its icon
from the tray—until the next time you start your PC (if it's set to load at
startup) or until you restart that application manually.
As software programs load, the number of
small icons on the system tray increases. Each of these small pictures
represents a program running in the background, and each one consumes valuable
system resources. Move the mouse pointer over each small picture to find out
which program it represents.
Cleaning up the
desktop
•
Over time, a Windows desktop
can get cluttered with shortcut icons for programs you don't use.
•
The simplest way to get rid of
these icons is to delete them. Select one and press Delete, or drag it to the
Recycle Bin. You aren't deleting the program itself—only the shortcut to that
program. You can still run the program from the Start menu.
Deleting unnecessary
files
•
Disk Cleanup helps you save
hard disk space by offering to delete files (either yours or everyone's files)
it thinks you don't need. These files could include the contents of the Recycle
Bin, temporary internet files and other folders.
•
Select Start, type disk cleanup
in the search text box and then select Disk Cleanup in the resulting list.
•
In
addition to deleting unnecessary files, uninstall any applications you don't
need. Windows uses hard disk space for different types of operations, such as
caching and virtual memory.
•
The computer might not run
reliably if free disk space drops below 10 percent of total space. To see how
much space remains on your hard disk, click Start > Computer, and then view
the bar graphs results for each drive that appears in the Hard Disk Drives
pane.
•
Use the Programs and Features
applet in Control Panel to uninstall programs you no longer use.
Windows 7 SecurityAction Center
Action Center, the home base for your PC's security, lists all information about security settings. The main role of Action Center is to consistently check on security items such as your network firewall and maintenance items including backup and restore, to make sure your machine is healthy.
Inside Action Center, you can make sure your Windows Firewall is on, your antivirus software is up to date and that your PC is set to install updates automatically.
When the status of a monitored security item changes, such as your antivirus becoming out of date, Action Center notifies you with a message in the taskbar. Then when you open Action Center, the status of the item in question changes color to indicate the severity of the problem, and an action is requested.
Action Center is a helpful resource that warns you when there may be trouble. Be sure not to neglect those Action Center messages when they turn up.
Windows
DefenderWindows Defender, antispyware software that's included with Windows 7, runs automatically when it is turned on.
Spyware is any unwanted or potentially harmful software that can be installed on your computer without your knowledge any time you connect to the Internet. It can also infect your computer when you install programs using a CD or DVD.
Windows Defender staves off spyware in two ways:
- Real-time protection. Windows Defender alerts you when spyware attempts to install itself or to run on your computer. It also alerts you when programs attempt to change important Windows settings.
- Scanning options. You can use Windows Defender to scan for spyware that might be installed on your computer, to schedule scans on a regular basis, and to automatically remove anything that's detected during a scan.
User Account Control
UAC, the security feature that prompts you for permission to install or open programs, was despised by Windows Vista users, but it is much more customizable in Windows 7. The options are no longer "on or off"; there are four notification levels that a user can set.
The four settings in Windows 7 UAC's
customizable slider range from Always notify to Never notify.
The improved
Windows 7 UAC is essential in that it informs you when a program makes a change
that could potentially harm your computer or make it susceptible to security
threats.If you are your computer's administrator (in most cases you are), you can click Yes to continue. If you are not an administrator, someone with an administrator account on the computer will have to enter their password for you to continue.
When your permission is needed to open a program or install software, UAC will notify you with one of four different types of dialog boxes:
- When a program or setting is part of Windows and needs your permission to start.
- When a program is not a part of Windows and needs your permission to start
- When a program with an unknown publisher needs your permission to start
- When you have been blocked by your system administrator from running a program because the program is known to be untrusted
Windows Update
Windows Update can be a pest, especially when updates pop up when you're in the middle of 10 things. But by installing the latest updates as they become available for your PC, you are continually improving the security, reliability and performance of your computer without too much of an inconvenience.
You can set Windows to automatically install "important" and "recommended" updates or to install important updates only. Important updates are for more critical security and reliability issues and recommended updates address noncritical problems.
To turn on automatic Windows Updates:
- Click on the Start button. In the search box type Update, and then in the list of results click Windows Update.
- In the left pane, click Change Settings.
- Under Important updates, you can choose if you want to install new updates automatically, and the day and time you want the latest updates to take place (i.e. Every Day at 6 am).
- Under Recommended Updates select the "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" check box, and then click OK.
Windows Firewall
Windows Firewall is an easy feature to
turn on or off and can help prevent hackers and worms from slithering into your
computer through a network or the Internet. A firewall can also help stop your
computer from sending malicious software to other computers.
Unless you have another firewall
enabled, such as a corporate network firewall, you should turn on Windows
Firewall to protect your computer and network (if you have one).
To turn on Windows Firewall:
- Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel. In the search box, type firewall, and then click Windows Firewall.
- In the left pane, click "Turn Windows Firewall on or off." If you're prom
Windows 7 features improved multi-threading
·
Intel has
revealed that Windows 7 features new and improved multi-threading, which will
help to improve power consumption and battery life.
·
Previous
versions of Windows often swapped threads around cores, which prevented them
from entering lower power states and caused cache thrashing as separate cores
raced to grab data processed by others.
·
The Windows
7 kernel changes this by improving thread affinity, locking threads to
particular cores in order to allow unused CPU cores to enter low power C-states
when they’re not in use – called thread parking - providing the CPU and motherboard
supports this of course.
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