Windows 7: Interface

Posted on 15 Jul 2009 at 15:31

New Window tricks

We all know how to minimise and maximise windows, but Windows 7 sneaks in some new variants. If you hover your mouse over the top or bottom edge of a window (so the cursor changes into a double-headed arrow) and double-click, the window will expand to the full height of the screen while keeping its original width. Drag a window to the edge of the screen and it will automatically snap to fill precisely that half of the desktop area. It's good to have some new ways to quickly expand a window without it eating up your entire screen - especially if you're using a single monitor.

We're less certain about Aero Shake, though. If you grab a window by the title bar and shake it left and right, all other windows will be automatically minimised. It works perfectly, but it isn't clear what problem this is supposed to solve - are background windows really so intrusive?

Keyboard shortcuts

If you have multiple monitors you can even use multiple presses to "walk" your window across from one screen to another

In Windows 7, you can organise your workspace faster than ever with an array of useful new keyboard shortcuts. Pressing the Windows key and the Up arrow at the same time will maximise the active window; pressing Windows-Down will minimise it. Holding down the Windows key and pressing left or right will dock your window to the appropriate edge of the screen. If you have multiple monitors you can even use multiple presses to "walk" your window across from one screen to another.

You can flip a window more directly onto a neighbouring monitor with Shift-Windows and the left or right cursor key, and expand it vertically by pressing Shift-Windows and the Up key.

If that isn't enough, you can quickly switch between apps by holding down the Windows key and pressing a number from 1 to 0, representing the app's position on your taskbar. You can cycle through taskbar icons with Windows-T. You can access multi-display options with Windows-P, and all the shortcuts from previous versions of Windows still work, so you might never need to touch a mouse again.

Gadgets

The Vista sidebar introduced gadgets such as the CPU meter, news ticker and calendar. Windows 7 ditches the sidebar and puts gadgets directly on the desktop. You can place them anywhere you choose and access their settings by right-clicking on the desktop.

Of course, it's easy to lose gadgets when you have multiple windows open, but you can easily bring them back into view: press Windows-G to make them leap to the front, or move your mouse to the bottom right of the screen to turn all windows transparent, leaving your gadgets exposed.

Next: Work

Back to: Windows 7: The complete guide

Author: Darien Graham-Smith