R. Craig Collins >Common > How To: Adapt to Vista or Windows 7

How To: Adapt to Vista or Windows 7 © R. Craig Collins, 2007

While Microsoft Windows 7 ® is more robust and secure than Windows XP ®, the way the user interacts with the Operating system is not very different... but there are 6 items worth pointing out.

1. Gadgets
You can add gadgets like the clock, a sticky note, performance monitor

2. Start button and Taskbar
The Start button look has changed, from XP to Vista to Windows 7

Windows 7


3. Start menu
The start menu does not 'spill out' as before... if you click an item, the new menu replaces the old item. Note also, My Computer is just called Computer now, My Documents is now just called Documents

Windows Vista

4. Menus
Application menus may be hidden; to reveal the menus, press the [Alt] key

5. Taskbar, [Alt]+[Tab] and [Start]+[Tab]
In Windows XP, pointing your mouse cursor at an item on the task bar generated a small text box describing the program; in Vista and Windows 7, you now get a fairly large thumbnail of the program window.

In Windows XP, you could press and hold the [Alt] key, then press [Tab] to scroll through available programs...in Vista and Windows 7, this action give you large thumbnails of the program windows to view... let go to select the Window you wish to switch to.

Add to that the [Start]+[Tab] sequence to get a large Rolodex style view of program windows to view... let go to select the Window you wish to switch to.

6. Run
For power users who liked being able to start a program using the Run tool, it no longer is on the main Start Menu... it has been moved to Start\All Programs\Accessories...
BUT, when you open the Start Menu, the Search box at the bottom can work just like Run used to