Windows 7 Tweaks – Tweak Home windows 7 Back on Track Easily and Swiftly!

There’s been a flurry of reports in the last week suggesting that Windows 7 is erroneously suggesting that batteries need replacing (and a smaller set of users claiming Windows 7 itself has ruined battery capacity). Microsoft’s official stance on the issue? Every case it has investigated has been a result of a faulty battery, rather than faulty software.

The ability to interrogate a battery and report on its health is a new feature in Windows 7 (though whether it will work depends on the type of machine you have). It’s not surprising that some people react poorly to being told their battery is problematic, especially on a relatively new machine, but Microsoft says on its Windows 7 blog that every case it has investigated has turned up hardware problems rather than a software issue:

Microsoft has received 12 customer service incidents in addition to pulling 8 additional incidents from various forums. To date (for a total of 20 incidents), none of these have shown anything other than degraded batteries.

How have you found battery life in a Windows 7 world? Tell all in the comments.

Windows 7 Battery Notification Messages [Engineering Windows 7]

A little over two months ago, Microsoft released their seventh version of the Windows operating system. After their lackluster operating system release back in early 2007, Microsoft knew that Windows 7 needed to mask the sour taste left behind by Windows Vista. After months and months of testing, millions of beta downloads and ample pre-launch feedback, Microsoft essentially tweaked the existing Vista OS to perfection and enjoyed a product launch nearly two-and-a-half times more successful than 7’s predecessor.

Features

But what made 7’s launch so prosperous? The lengthy beta testing phase had a lot to do with it – Microsoft was well aware that if they were to see a successful launch after Vista, they would need to listen more closely to the consumer’s wants and needs. As you have probably heard over and over in the latest Windows ads, 7 packs an impressive list of features inspired by regular PC users like you and me. Let’s go over a few of these features and why they’re so useful (or just fun in some cases).

Taskbar – With every release, Microsoft feels the need to tweak the Windows Taskbar just a bit (the taskbar is the bar at the bottom of the screen that houses the Start button and program tabs). You are paying for a new operating system, so I guess it makes sense that they keep things looking fresh. It’s my opinion that the taskbar present in Windows 7 is the best Windows Taskbar to date – in terms of both appearance and function. The start button and notification icons receive no major modifications, but the quick launch icons and program tabs have been fused into one to create a dock-style taskbar that rivals that of the Mac OS. Users can pin their favorite applications to the taskbar for quick access at any time.

Snap – How many times have you been working on your PC and needed a way to quickly and effectively compare two documents or web pages at a glance? Windows 7 provides a simple way to do just that. Let’s say you’re doing some computer shopping online and found a couple great deals from two different websites competing for your sale. With Snap, you can open up the products in two separate browser windows, drag the opposing windows to either side of your desktop and Windows 7 will “snap” these products to the left or right side of your computer screen. You can now comfortably compare the specifications of both machines at a glance without worrying about switching back and forth between overlapping browser windows.

Peek – The Peek feature provides users with a quick preview of what an open program or window is doing without actually switching to that particular program. For instance, say you’re working in Microsoft Word, preparing an article for a local news publication. You’ve also got your internet browser minimized in the background running Gmail which is constantly refreshing your inbox awaiting new messages. At any time, without switching from Word, you can take your cursor and hover over the internet browser’s icon in the taskbar. This will temporarily bring your internet browser to the forefront of your desktop, allowing you to quickly scan your inbox for new messages. Once you’re satisfied, you can simply move the cursor back away from the taskbar and Word will reclaim its position at the front of your desktop – all without as much as a click of the mouse.

Performance

While all of these features are fun to tinker with and useful in their own way, what Windows 7 really contributes to the franchise is all hidden away under the hood. Windows Vista was regarded as being one of the bulkiest operating systems to date in regards to system resource consumption. This becomes apparent when shopping for a netbook – the miniature-sized laptops that dominated PC sales in 2009. These tiny mobile computers have weak processors, small hard drives and just enough RAM to accommodate moderate internet browsing, word processing and email use. Up until the release of Windows 7, netbooks were still being sold with Windows XP – the predecessor to Windows Vista – simply because these little laptops couldn’t comfortably run the resource-intensive Vista. Once 7 was released for commercial distribution, netbook manufacturers immediately jumped on the new operating system in favor of XP. It’s worth noting that these netbooks often come with a “Starter” version of the operating system that has had a number of features stripped from its arsenal to accommodate these slower machines. Among these stripped features is the ability to change your computer’s wallpaper. That’s right – plan on staring at the same boring default Windows wallpaper throughout the entire existence of your netbook.

Software

It seems that Microsoft also had the minimalists in mind when updating the additional Microsoft software that often comes bundled with every new installment of Windows. Up until the release of Windows 7, each copy of Windows you bought would include some additional productive applications including Mail, Movie Maker and Messenger. By default, you won’t find these anywhere on your new Windows 7 machine. For whatever reason, Microsoft has decided to offer these add-on applications as a separate free download. These programs have been thrown into a bundle entitled “Live Essentials” and can be downloaded for Windows Vista or Windows 7 at live.essentials.com . The bundle includes a couple brand-new applications including Writer, a publishing tool for bloggers.

Security

Before you download any of the software listed above (or any other software for that matter), it is recommended that you first download Microsoft’s new anti-virus/malware suite, Microsoft Security Essentials. Viruses and hi-jacks have always been an inherent problem with Windows-based machines and up until the release of Security Essentials, fixing that vulnerability was a problem you just had to deal with yourself. Sure, there were already a few free Anti-Virus solutions out there (AVG was my favorite), but these programs were often bulky and were constantly trying to persuade you to upgrade to their paid product. You could say that creating a security suite was merely the right thing for Microsoft to do at this point. After all, they basically created the problem, isn’t it only right that they’re the ones that fix it? But to offer such a simple and lightweight solution at no cost shows that Microsoft is truly sympathetic of the security risks that all of its customers are forced to deal with. The Security Essentials installer can be found at microsoft.com/Security_Essentials .

Although Windows 7 is really just a revamped version of Vista, it is without a doubt one of the most important operating system releases to date. It seems that Microsoft wanted to do more than just provide a new product with the release of 7 – they also wanted to change the way we think about the company and its commitment to the safety and satisfaction of the consumer.

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