Windows 7: Work

Posted on 15 Jul 2009 at 15:35

Streamlined security

Vista's over-zealous User Account Control (UAC) popped up a warning every time you so much as sneezed in the direction of your PC. The much less irritating Windows 7 version now has a sliding scale that ranges from Never Notify to Always Notify. At the bottom end of the scale, Windows won't even bother telling you if an unknown app decides to install itself on your system, which might be a step too far. On full alert, UAC will pipe up every time you tweak a Windows setting, which was what drove many users to distraction with Vista.

We've found a happy middle ground by setting UAC to its second-lowest setting, which asks for confirmation if there are any fundamental changes being made to apps or settings, but doesn't beg for permission every five minutes or dramatically darken your screen when doing so.

Hunting down files

One way Windows 7 will make working lives a damn sight easier is the speed at which it hunts down documents and other files. The search bar in the Start Menu is a huge advance on the tepid affair introduced in Vista. Type a search term and Windows will perform a keyword search on your documents, Outlook email and files stored on your PC, with results appearing near-instantaneously in the Start menu. The search even scours the text of email attachments.

It isn't only stuff stored locally that Windows 7 is adept at sniffing out - files located on the company network and even the internet at large can now be located in a jiffy thanks to the new federated search feature. This basically allows you to search for files stored on the intranet/internet as if they were stored on your own machine.

Company SharePoint libraries, for example, can be added to the Favorites menu in Windows Explorer, and searched straight from the Explorer window. Results appear with full descriptions and you can get a glimpse of the document in the Preview pane, just as you can with local files. The SharePoint files can also be dragged straight on to the desktop or printed without even opening them by simply right-clicking on the search results.

Federated search can also be used with public websites - be that your company's own site, photos from, or the news and reviews on this website if you're researching new hardware for your business. The sites are searched using the Windows Live (now called Bing) search engine, and the results are delivered in Windows Explorer as you type the search terms, just as they are with local files.

You can download the PC Pro search connector here, where you'll also find step-by-step instructions on how to create connectors for the websites of your choice.

Farewell VPNs?

Direct Access could be a game changer for remote workers - and the IT staff who support them

One final feature will be welcomed with open arms by anyone who's wrestled with a VPN client when working outside of the office. DirectAccess is being touted as a replacement for VPNs, using an IPv6-over-IPsec tunnel to provide access to the company network without the need for dedicated client software.

As long as you have a decent internet connection, accessing files on the company's servers should be no trickier than opening files stored locally. DirectAccess requires a Server 2008 R2 setup, and we haven't been able to test it pre-publication. If it works, this could be a game changer for remote workers - and the IT staff who support them.

VERDICT: WHICH VERSION IS BEST FOR BUSINESS?
If you can live without BitLocker to Go, Windows 7 Professional should offer all the features a small or medium-sized business needs. Ultimate is, alas, a necessary upgrade for those who want their USB drives protected. Volume licence customers will be offered the Enterprise version, which includes all the features of Ultimate.

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Author: Barry Collins