Hardware & Software ChatYou should use this section to discuss software topics including Windows, Linux and various software applications, together with hardware related topics including buying a new machine, graphics cards, keyboards, etc.
Here's a feature of Windows 7 I quite like, the taskbar buttons have been merged with a visibly improved quicklaunch bar, these icons are always present, clicking an icon will initially launch their associated application, however no extra button will appear on the taskbar, even if multiple instances are launched, to reveal the running applications, simply mouse over the icon, and the Vista style miniature image will appear, if you have multiple instances running, there will be a seperate mini window, with the contents of each running instance displayed in realtime, hovering the cursor over the mini window will inflate that task to fullscreen, however to close it, you need not move your mouse all the way to the top right of the screen, as hovering over the mini will create red 'x' close button on the top right of the mini window, all this makes for a very tidy looking and far less cluttered taskbar, and many applications can be run and navigated between easily, with far less mouse movement, and also saves the user having to cope with an ever shrinking array of taskbar buttons, In addition, if you are using a messenger application, and you have incoming communication, then Windows will make that icon pulse, with a soft backlight, to get your attention.
Last edited by Detomah; 15-05-2009 at 14:28..
Reason: Not sure what editor the copy and paste was done from, but the formatting was a mess, so fixed it.
you get cats with Win7 ? cool
thats got to be a selling point !
Ive got a far better idea for launching apps:-
that is to have a typical window and have sub windows in that where each window contains icons for you apps, so you could have a window of development apps, and one for music or editing etc. its just like an ordinary app so you can bring it to the foreground minimize it etc,,
it better than the desktop because the desktop is either obscured or you have to minimize or move apps to see it, or minimize all apps with the show desktop button, its far better than a menu too as you can drag and drop more easily because the menu disappears each time you do anything to it.
oh btw i already have much of the above functionality you mentioned since about winnt3.51 theres a Microsoft set of tweak tools which does pretty much all of that although i didn't quite follow exactly how it works.
Last edited by meow; 15-05-2009 at 15:24..
Reason: to edit it
I'm now liking Win7 since they sorted out a compatable graphics driver that didn't require me to buy a new card for about £300.
Release candidate for volume licencing comes out at end of July ready for general release in October so im not going nuts installing loads onto my beta release as its a complete new install required.
I like the new features and the way it works overall. It seems to be a good alternative to XP kinda like what vista should have been originally.
They promised faster bootup/shutdown times and they weren't kidding,
I have yet to see a BSOD or forced reboot, but I haven't managed to do it yet,
and I've been really trying to do it too
Win 7 taskbar / quicklaunch preview
Linear Mode
