Microsoft know you love Windows XP—after all, you’ve been telling them that for years. With Windows 7, Microsoft used your feedback to make things even better. From switching between programs to recording TV, Windows 7 simplifies the way you use your PC—and the way your PC connects with the world. Simplifies everyday tasks Windows 7 makes the basics easier than ever. With HomeGroup, it’s simple to share music, documents, printers, and everything else with the other PCs running Windows 7 in your house. Windows Search frees you from the chore of hunting through folders and subfolders to locate your stuff. Better taskbar previews give you a great view of what’s open, and Jump Lists show you recent files with a single right-click.

Works the way you want
It doesn’t matter how much your PC can do if it’s not running as smoothly as you expect. So Microsoft designed Windows 7 to help your PC sleep and resume faster. Windows 7 supports the latest advances in PC hardware, like 64-bit computing and multi-core processors, and improved memory utilization helps your hardware reach its full performance potential.

Overview of some of the key features

Search
In Windows 7, you can find more things in more places—and do it faster. Start typing into the Start menu search box—and you’ll instantly see a list of relevant documents, pictures, music, and e-mail on your PC. Results are now grouped by category and contain highlighted keywords and text snippets to make them easier to scan. Few people store all their files in one place these days. So Windows 7 is also designed to search external hard drives, networked PCs, and libraries. Overwhelmed by your search results? You can instantly narrow them by date, file type, and other useful categories.

Taskbar

Sure, the new Windows 7 taskbar is still the same familiar place for switching between windows. But now it’s easier to see, more flexible, and more powerful. For instance, in Windows 7 you can pin favourite programs anywhere on the taskbar for easy access. Not crazy about the icon lineup? Now you can rearrange them any way you like by clicking and dragging. Finally, there are new ways to preview windows. Point to a taskbar icon to see a thumbnail preview of open files or programs. Then, move your mouse over a thumbnail to preview the window full-screen. You can even close windows from the thumbnail previews—a big time saver.

Sharing and networking
Microsoft know that Windows 7 is aimed at incresing networking between PC’s laptops and other devices. The new way to do it is with HomeGroup. HomeGroup takes the headache out of sharing files and printers on a home network. Connect two or more PCs running Windows 7, and HomeGroup makes it easy to automatically start sharing your music, picture, video, and document libraries with other people in your home. Concerned about privacy? So are Microsoft. That’s why HomeGroup is password-protected and puts you in total control. You decide what gets shared—and what stays private. You can also make your files "read only," so other people can look at—but not touch—your stuff. You can join a homegroup in any edition of Windows 7, but you can only create one in Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise.

Windows Live
Windows Vista built up the basis of Windows Live, Windows 7 builds and increses the functionality. What are Windows Live Essentals? Simply put, it’s free software that makes a PC running Windows 7 do more great things. Things like e-mail, instant messaging, photo editing, and blogging. Windows Live Essentials is available from the Windows Live website.
The free download includes:
Messenger – many of us will be familiar with Windows Messenger
Photo gallery – Find, fix, and share your photos.
Mail – Manage multiple e-mail accounts (like Hotmail) in one place.
Writer – Compose your blog, add photos and video, then post it on the web.
Movie Maker – Turn your photos and videos into great looking movies and slide shows.
Family Safety – Manage and monitor online activities so your kids stay safe.
Toolbar – Search instantly from any webpage.

There are far more aspects to Windows 7 than can be showcased or previewed in the limitations of this blog article. Only time will tell if Windows 7 will finally emerge from the grey mist that decended over Microsoft Windows Vista. There has been much airtime used to explain the seperation of Windows 7′s build, planning and presentation from the ‘lessons learned’ from the lauch of Windows Vista. With so many PC, netbook and laptop users worldwide destined to use Windows 7, lets hope it delivers on all the promises made and Microsoft’s expectations of it.

Tweetdeck – tweetdeck.com/beta/ Originally a PC desktop tool, Tweetdeck is now also available for the iPhone. It provides users with a wealth of features including its inbuilt URL shortener; the ability to group followers into different streams; operate saved searches and even integrate with Facebook. The tool also allows you to drill down into areas such as a person’s profile without visiting their Twitter page and retweet in two clicks. All from one simple interface.

CoTweet – cotweet.com/ This is a tool that allows a business to operate Twitter accounts e.g. the main brand account, in a delegated way across the organisation. Multiple users can administer single accounts with individuals being nominated as being "on duty" at different times and receiving notifications to their email address when people are trying to talk to you on Twitter. You can even assign individual tweets to colleagues within your business for follow up, which is particularly helpful in customer service situations.

Backtype Connect - www.backtype.com/connect We have discussed BackType before as it is a great way of monitoring comments on blogs. Backtype Connect goes further and monitors all the chatter around a particular web page. Take as an example our new video this link tweets shows you all the tweets that refer to the video as hosted on Vimeo. The great thing is that Backtype Connect is not thrown by all the different URL shortening services that exist but converts them into the full URL so it can track all relevant conversations. This makes it a really powerful way of tracking who is talking about particular articles or blog posts that you are interested in so that you can find relevant people to engage in conversation.

Twitterberry – orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/ If like me you need to be surgically separated from your Blackberry device then you will love Twitterberry. Recently updated it allows you to carry out all the key Twitter functions any time, any place, anywhere from your Blackberry. Check out my Twitterfeed and you will see that I make use of this myself on a regular basis. For business owners and others who often find themselves away from their office this application allows you to still engage in the conversation. Even The Terminator uses it!
If Even The Terminator Tweets, Shouldn’t You?

Taken from an original article by Adam Parker.
Adam Parker is Chief Executive of Realwire Ltd (formerly Webitpr Ltd).

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