New to Windows 7 (tips and hints?)

[Regulator75]

Well I've just purchased a new laptop and am now using Windows 7 home premium.

I've been an XP pro user for many years (never even used Vista, haha).

Is there any tips, hints or tricks that I should know?

Thanks!

[Frank MetaMusil]

Try this link out. It's got a bit of everything, some stuff is pretty basic.

http://www.techradar.com/news/softwa...secrets-643861

[Mazrim]

I haven't had a single crash or blue screen of death from Windows since I switched from XP to Windows 7. Is that considered a secret feature?

[Kipper is King]

I love the split screen feature (called windows 7 snap). If you have two windows you want to pay attention to, move one to the side swiftly. It takes up half the screen.

Easy way to split your screen without awkwardly resizing the window. It seemed corny to me at first, but it's amazing how much I use it.

[Draug]

I pin a few of my favorite applications to the task bar permanently. This simulates the Quick Launch part of the XP task bar which I used extensively. I also came straight from XP so I didn't want to change that part of my behavior.

You can open new instances of the pinned applications by Shift-Leftclick.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Draug

I pin a few of my favorite applications to the task bar permanently. This simulates the Quick Launch part of the XP task bar which I used extensively. I also came straight from XP so I didn't want to change that part of my behavior.

You can open new instances of the pinned applications by Shift-Leftclick.

You can also pin documents to the pinned application and view recents without the app running. This is very handy.

The Windows 7 taskbar is so much better than the Mac OS X Dock now. We shall see if that continues on Wednesday.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Draug

I pin a few of my favorite applications to the task bar permanently. This simulates the Quick Launch part of the XP task bar which I used extensively. I also came straight from XP so I didn't want to change that part of my behavior.

You can open new instances of the pinned applications by Shift-Leftclick.

Or middle click.

[FanIn80]

Yeah, that whole "JumpList" thing, while a ######ed name, has certainly got it goin' on.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

Well I've just purchased a new laptop and am now using Windows 7 home premium.

I've been an XP pro user for many years (never even used Vista, haha).

Is there any tips, hints or tricks that I should know?

Thanks!

With a fresh machine comes a fresh opportunity to develop an effective personal backup system. Look at online backups, or get a good external drive and use it weekly. The built in Windows backup is able to take complete images of systems and is reasonably fast after the first backup.

That’s my Windows 7 tip of the day!

[FlamesPuck12]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

I love the split screen feature (called windows 7 snap). If you have two windows you want to pay attention to, move one to the side swiftly. It takes up half the screen.

Easy way to split your screen without awkwardly resizing the window. It seemed corny to me at first, but it's amazing how much I use it.

Just building up on this comment, I find it more convenient to use the Windows Key + Left (Or Right, Up, Down) than the mouse.

Left and Right will auto snap your top most window to the direction of the arrow key, Up will maximize, Down will unsnap from maximized window or minimize from non-maximized window.

[Rathji]

Most of the best things about Windows 7 have already been touched upon here.

I love the backup, the toolbar is amazing, libraries are nice but unless you do a lot of sharing files I have found them to be of limited use. I use the snap function a lot, but it really bugs me that you cant use it on both sides of both monitors in a 2 monitor setup.