Windows 7 FAQ Updated

I’ve just updated the Windows 7 FAQ section with a ton of information. I’ve added an entire section on new Windows 7 Features alone, making the FAQ over 1300 words long now. Anything with an asterisk is something I’ve updated since the last update. Check out the newly updated FAQ section here. I’ll add pictures and other questions you may have as we receive more updates. If I’ve missed anything, please leave a comment and let me know, and I’ll try to get it into the FAQ. I’ve posted the Windows 7 Features section below:

Windows 7 Features:

Screen Docking in Windows 7:
Screen docking is the ability for Windows to change shape or form through the way you move them. If you move a window up to the top edge of your screen, it will maximize automatically. Dragging it away will unmaximize it. Dragging it off to the left and right edges will automatically resize them to take up 50% of the screen.

The new taskbar “superbar” in Windows 7:
The new and improved taskbar looks a bit like the dock in Mac OS X. Microsoft wants you to recognize applications only by their icons, although you can still have it show text. It’s size has increased by 1.5 times, and you can now shift application boxes around. The new graphics engine also allows the application background box to change colour according to the hues in the application’s icon. There’s an entire article on how to unlock this hidden taskbar in Windows 7, and a preview of its features here.

Native HD codec support for Windows 7:
Windows 7 is to natively support DivX, Xvid, MKV, and H.264, as well as transcoding. This means you can watch any videos in these codecs right out of the box. Windows Media Center can also convert on-the-fly to a format your extender uses, meaning you can now stream these videos to your Xbox 360, or any other external device.

Device Stage:
Device stage is a new feature that allows device vendors to have a customizable interface that allows you to utilize your device from a control panel. Basically, when you plug in your device, a window will pop up listing its specs (battery life, firmware version, hard disk space, etc) and then give you many options as to what you can do with the device. This may eliminate the need to download or install 3rd party applications to use specific devices in the future.

Windows 7 Libraries:
Libraries are folders that allow you to access data of a specific category regardless of where they are located on your computer. For example, you can create a library for rock music and have access to all your rock music in that folder, even if you have rock music on 3 different partitions.

Customizable UAC in Windows 7:
You can’t completely customize UAC but there are now four different UAC behaviors you can select. You can choose for UAC to go into paranoia mode, or to not alert you at all.

Windows Sensors in Windows 7:
Windows 7 will have support for software and hardware sensors. This is very neat and there’s an entire article about it here. If you just want to know the basics, let’s just say that the sensors will have some of the following abilities: GPS, the ability to change monitor brightness and contrast depending on the amount of sunlight around you, the ability to change the GUI of an application depending on the time of day.

Desktop Slideshows in Windows 7:
Desktop slideshows allow your desktop wallpaper to automatically change in specified time intervals. You can also draw images from an RSS feed such as NASA image of the day, so your wallpaper change when that image changes, without actually having to store the files on your hard-drive. I have written an article on it here.

Windows Peeking:
Windows peeking allows you to look at a window without actually going to it. The purpose of this is to be able to view your gadgets lying on your desktop, without actually having to access your desktop. You can probably imagine how easy it is to get away with surfing on the net while at work.

Driver protection in Windows 7:
Whenever drivers are started, they are checked against a “Protection List” so bad drivers can be prevented from starting to avoid stability problems. The list is regularly updated by Microsoft.

IME Learning:
IME Learning or (Input Method Editor) Learning is a feature that will memorize the combination of words or characters you use with East Asian languages. This is different from what was seen in Vista or XP because these memorizations are permanently stored on your computer, whereas in past operating systems, memory was lost after shut down.

Related posts:

1. A look at Windows 7 Screen Docking features
2. Windows 7E Preorder: The Definitive FAQ (Updated)