Whether you've had a chance to play with the Windows 7 beta or not, you'll know that it's pretty darn close to the final article.
However, Microsoft has posted news of a slew of updates on its Engineering Windows 7 blog that it'll fix in Windows 7.
These will appear in the next version, called the Release Candidate, or RC. This is essentially a final testing stage to make sure everything is OK before it's shipped.
"We've been quite busy for the past two months or so working through all the feedback we've received on Windows 7," explains Steven Sinofsky. He's Senior Vice President for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group.
"It should be no surprise but the Release Candidate for Windows 7 will have quite a few changes, many under the hood, so to speak, but also many visible."
But this list is by no means exhaustive. As Sinofsky explains, the team are still working on other features.
We'll take you through some of the new features that will appear in the RC with the help of Chaitanya Sareena, Senior Program Manager on the Core User Experience team who writes about them in detail.
1. Aero Peek now works when you're Alt + Tabbing
Aero Peek enables you to preview windows by dynamically bringing them to the top of the pile. But now it's been added to Alt + Tab so you can preview full content of each window when cycling through them. This is triggered by a time delay if you pause while cycling through the windows.
2. The Windows Logo key becomes properly useful
"Enthusiasts often ask us for more keyboard shortcuts to simplify their common tasks. Efficiency is key," explains Sareena. The shortcut could already start Quick Launch apps in Vista (pressing Windows Logo + # according to its position in the Quick Launch taskbar, now it can both launch and switch, so you can also move straight to apps. If it's an app that has several Windows open, you can also cycle through the windows using the same keypress combo.
3. Changes to needy windows
You know when windows flash at you from the taskbar? According to Microsoft, these are called 'needy windows'. No, we didn't know that either. In the final Windows 7, Sareena says that they'll be more prominent: "With the new taskbar, we received feedback that Outlook reminders or a Messenger chat sometimes went unnoticed because needy windows were too subtle." So the team has made changes. "First, we changed the flashing animation curve to make it more noticeable (from a sine to a sawtooth wave). Second, we used a bolder orange colour. Finally, we wanted to double the number of flashes which is currently set to three. As a nod to Windows 7, we decided to go with seven flashes instead."
4. Fitting in more taskbar icons
The Windows 7 taskbar is all about saving space. But the team wanted more. "Some have asked for even more room to pin the programs they use regularly," comments Sareena. "We've made a change to squeeze in 24-39 per cent more icons before the taskbar scrolls; depending upon your resolution, icon size and assuming the default notification area." So at 800x600, you can have 10 large icons and 15 small, an increase of up to 36 per cent. The increase is as much as 39 per cent at 1,600x1,200 with the ability to have 26 icons.
5. Newly installed programs more obvious
""Customer in control" is so strong a mantra for Windows 7 we don't even allow programs to pin themselves to the taskbar when they are installed," says Sareena. Now when a program is installed, it is "automatically and temporarily surfaced at the bottom of the Start Menu."
6. Pin anything to Jump Lists
Only 10 items can be automatically suggested for jump lists now (though you can still customise this) as some complained they could get too long. In the beta, files could only be pinned to the Jump List of programs registered to handle that file type. This is no longer the case, as Sareena explains. "For example, one can pin an HTML file to Notepad's Jump List and when clicked on from the menu, the file will always open in Notepad even though IE by default handles the file type."
7. Multi-touch on-screen keyboard
"A funny thing happens when one uses touch to interact with a software keyboard for the first time. The natural instinct is to press multiple buttons simultaneously like they do with a real keyboard," explains Sareena. "It's quite reasonable to try to use Shift +
8. Locking a machine without a screensaver
Corporate machines often automatically lock up after a certain period, but until now this has always needed a screensaver to be set up. Now, machines can be locked without having to set up a screensaver.
9. Faster access to High Performance power plan
If you're a gamer or regular laptop traveller, this will appeal. It's a bit of a pain at the moment to toggle between the Balanced and High Performance power plans as the latter hasn't been on the flyout menu from the system tray. It is now.
10. Filtering content that cannot be played
Because Windows Media Player has been designed to showcase whatever content you have on your PC, it displayed stuff that it couldn't play, like Apple's lossless .m4a or H.263 MPEG-4 content. This stuff will no longer appear.
11. Resume from sleep when watching downloads
You're used to resuming a CD or DVD, but now you can resume video files as well. "In beta, it was not possible to resume playback on such content after a laptop goes to sleep," explains Sareena. "Customers assume the experience should match that of physical media, so we fixed the experience to meet this expectation."
12. Better camcorder support
Windows Media Player will be able to natively support .mov files as used by many digital cameras to capture video. You can also seek for specific spots in video for imported AVCHD content. There's also support for more devices out-of-the-box.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might also like How to get the best from the Windows 7 beta
Sign up for the free weekly TechRadar newsletter
Get tech news delivered straight to your inbox. Register for the free TechRadar newsletter and stay on top of the week's biggest stories and product releases. Sign up at http://www.techradar.com/register
No comments:
Post a Comment