Introduction

In this article I am going to be taking a look at the new Windows Movie Maker, rechristened Windows Live Movie Maker and how to create your first movie with it. People accustomed to the old Movie Maker that came bundled with Windows Vista and XP might be in for a bit of a surprise. The Windows Live Movie Maker team continued working on improving the user experience and ended up delivering an exceptional final product I am sure many of you will be pleased with. In this tutorial, I want to take a look at the new features and introduce you to the new interface based on the popular Scenic Ribbon.

The first thing I would like to get out of the way for users of Windows Movie Maker that comes bundled with Windows XP or Vista is, they are distinctively different products. Do not expect to see everything in Movie Maker 2.6 in Windows Live Movie Maker 1.0.

System Requirements:

Operating system: Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit editions), Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit editions), or Windows Server 2008. Note: Windows Live Movie Maker is not supported on Windows XP

• Processor: 1 GHz or higher for Windows Vista; 800 MHz or higher for Windows XP
• 512 MB for Windows Vista
• Resolution: Minimum 1024 x 768
• Internet connection: Internet functionality requires dial-up or broadband Internet access (provided separately). Local or long-distance charges may apply.
• Graphics or video card: Windows Live Movie Maker requires ATI Radeon 9500 (or higher) or nVidia GeForce FX 5900 (or higher). I have Live Movie Maker working with a nVidia Geforce FX 5200 128 MB AGP.

Additional requirements

The following components are needed for specific Windows Live programs, and may be installed for you if they’re not already on your computer.

• For Writer: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher*.
• For Photo Gallery: SQL 2005 Compact Edition and Windows Imaging Codecs*.
• For Photo Gallery and Movie Maker: Some components of DirectX9.
• * Not required when installing on Windows Vista.

Windows Live Movie Maker (above), Windows Movie Maker 6.0 (below)

Compatibility

One of the key improvements Windows Live Movie Maker users will appreciate is the ability to import Windows Movie Maker projects. Although you might be warned that there are features in your existing project that might not work or are not available in this version of Movie Maker. Overall, users can appreciate that most features and functionality from the previous release works just fine.

Interface

In addition to a lighter color scheme, Windows Live Movie Maker works differently through and through. You won’t find previous functionality such as a Storyboard, drop down menus, and a time lines. Windows Movie Maker used a Task based approached to creating a movie, Windows Live Movie Maker introduces a clean design with most tools and functionality revealed through the innovative Scenic Ribbon which displays common functionality once buried under drop down menus and wizards in a gallery of easy to identify icons.

The Ribbon is very intelligent and only reveals additional functionality when needed through contextual tabs that can be easily identified by their activated colors.

Adding media

Just like the previous version, Live Movie Maker makes it quick and easy to import your media such as Videos or Photos. In Windows Movie Maker this can be done from the Import Task Pane toolbar button or Import Media toolbar button, in Live Movie Maker, you can import media through the Add videos and photos button located under the Home (tab) within the Add gallery. Once you have added your media, you will see it populated within the Bin area.

Editing content

Previously, in Windows Movie Maker, your videos would require that you drag and drop into the Story board and edit in the Time line. Windows Live Movie Maker does the opposite. Task like re-arranging or cropping a video clip are more visual and interactive. In fact, one of the lovely highlights is the actual display of multiple frames in a clip. You can use the video cursor bar to scan through a video clip and see additional sequences within the video itself. The cursor bar is a important element of the software and allows you to accomplish many of the common tasks you would do in the previous Movie Maker time line.

To organize your clips, all you need to do is use a drag and drop action in the order you find most desirable. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Cropping a clip

In Windows Movie Maker, this was done through the Time Line, it’s just as easy in Windows Live Movie Maker. Select your video clip, go to the Edit tab which you will notice is activated in the yellow ‘Video Tools’ Contextual tab. Within the ‘Editing‘ gallery, click the Trim tool button, now use the Trim Maker knobs on both sides of the clip duration in the video preview pane, drag either knob until you reach the desired point in the video you would like to see played. If you know the point in time you would like the video to  start and end, you can alternatively use the Start and EndPoint markers located in the Trim markers gallery. Once completed, click the ‘Save trim’ button to keep your edit.

Adding media – music

What is a movie without music? In Movie Maker, you add music to your video from the Tasks > Import (Audio or Music) link. This would extend across the time line, you then had the option of cropping and adding effects such as fade in or out. You can do that too in Windows Live Movie Maker, a bit differently of course. I even like this method, simply go to the Home tab, within the Add gallery, click Add music button. From the pop out list, you have two options, which will add a music track to the entire project or you can add music to just a specific point within a video.

If the song is distributed over the project, you can edit this by selecting the song represented by a green bar (you should see the title of the track specified), drag the video cursor, to the point in the video you would like the song to stop playing, right click the cursor and click ‘Set end point’ from the the contextual menu. Additional options include, you can have the song fade in and out from the ‘Audio’ gallery options.

Text Overlays, Transitions and Visual Effects!

The Text Tools contextual tab allows you to format your text with a range of options. To add a Caption, go to the Home Tab, from within the Add gallery, click Caption, enter your text. To format the text using a desired font and size, click Format Text Tools button and choose from the gallery of options available, one of the nice improvements users will notice, the Font list box allows you to see a preview of a font before applying. If you want to add some effects, you can do so from within the Effects gallery which provides the ability to hover over effects and preview them before applying – very cool! You will also notice any text added your clips are represented by a cream colored bar, to edit your text, simply double click this bar and edit the text within the preview window.

As for Visual Effects, I am happy to tell you that this functionality has improved tremendously in the final product, by benefiting immediately from the Scenic Ribbon. Hovering over available effects gives you a quick on the fly preview, you won’t see this in Windows Movie Maker. You can also control the brightness of your videos and photos from within Live Movie Maker too. I hope in a future update, the Windows Live Movie Maker Team adds some robust text effects similar to what you can find in Office 2007/2010.

In Windows Movie Maker, transitions are located under the Edit > Transitions link. In Windows Live Movie Maker, the Animation tab stores a collection of transitions that you can use to control how your movie changes from one clip to the next. Again, one of the great things I like about Windows Live Movie Maker, you can simply hover a transition to preview without even applying the effect. You will notice that Pan and Zoom Gallery is grayed out, these effects are activated when you add photos to your movie.

Previewing Transition before Applying

Publishing your work

Out of the box, Windows Live Movie Maker supports a number of distribution points, in today’s world of online video most users I am sure would like to get their content out to a wide audience quickly. Windows Live Movie Maker does that with built in support for YouTube. If you want to share your media through traditional mediums such as DVD, no problem, just click the DVD icon in the gallery to save your video in an appropriate format suitable for use in Windows DVD Maker. You can also prepare your movie for viewing on different aspect ratios and video formats such as high and standard definition or save to a portable device, prepare for email or instant messaging.  If you don’t find a suitable tool, you can download additional plug ins that will provide you with additional functionality.

A look at the final project

So, you want to see what I did? Take a look

This is a movie of some random videos of family at home visiting that I decided to put together. You can see a my mom Yvonne, my sis-in-law Marjorie, brothers Troy, Dion, and my little nephew Nathan (the star).

How to Make a Movie with Windows Live Movie Maker is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Windows Live  Essential 2011 uses the same approach as version 3, just go to Explore Windows Live Essentials page, and click the download button and it will prompt you to download the 1 MB web installer. I notice there is now option to access the offline installer like wave 3 allows you to. If you want the Offline installer, you can download it here Windows XP users, this version is not compatible with it, you need to upgrade to Windows Vista SP2 or 7, just like Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft has made some significant improvements to programs such as Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker that require access to low-level features such as Direct3D.

Windows Live Essentials 4 setup experience

Programs that come with Windows Live Essentials wave 4

Immediately you are taken to the Programs to Install page (no Service Level Agreement this time around), which displays all of the programs that are included in the suite. If you have a previous version of the suite installed, programs such as Messenger, Photo Gallery/Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, Family Safety are automatically updated. Optional components include the new Windows Live Mesh (formerly Live Sync), Outlook Connector Pack and Messenger Companion.

Installing Windows Live Essentials

Very minimal experience indeed, the installation itself was way quicker than version 3 and this was over the Internet too, so there are some definite performance improvements here. I didn’t have to restart my computer either.

Past Windows Live Essentials Install Experiences:

When Wave 3 of Windows Live Essentials was released last year, I took a look at the new install experience in that release. Users will note that there was a lot more going on in comparison to the new Windows Live Essentials wave 4. Specifically, the slide show has been replaced by a more conservative installer.

Windows Live Essentials version 1

Windows Live Essentials’ wave 3

How to Install Windows Live Essentials 2011 – the New Install Experience is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Windows Live Essentials is a collection of tools and utilities designed to increase the “out of the box” usability of Windows. This collection of software includes many programs that were previously included in Windows like a mail client and the photo and video editing tools.  The Windows Live Essentials installation tool allows you to choose which of the numerous tools you want to install so that you don’t end up with extra programs you don’t need or want.

While most of these tools will not kill their more complex and sometimes more costly competitors, they are useful tools that are also free. So there is no reason not to give them a look. In this new wave” (as MS calls them) of Essentials there are also some new tools, like sync.

Here is what is included:

• Photo Gallery: a photo organizer that lets you do minor editing and helps you share photos
• Mail: simple email client
• Movie Maker: very basic video editing
• Messenger: one of the most ubiquitous instant messenger clients with over 330 million active accounts (according to Paul Thurrott)
• Writer: create and edit Internet blog posts, like this one
• Family Saftey: helps parents keep their kids safe while online with filtering and monitoring of web activity
• Bing Bar: an Internet Explorer search toolbar using Bing as the search engine
• Messenger Companion: like messenger only integrated into Internet Explorer
• Sync: keeps files synchronized across multiple computers and Skydrive making them accessible not only on multiple computers but any Internet connected computer

One of the biggest differences in many of the applications is the new Office style ribbon. So if you hate the ribbon, don’t bother. But that’s the direction MS is going with most of their applications, so you may just want to get used to it or try third party software.

Another new feature is the inclusion of sharing to social media sites like Facebook and Youtube which is now built into the ribbon bars (see below).

Microsoft also included Sync, a tool to provide syncing not only with your other computers but also your Skydrive space which is the Microsoft’s free cloud storage service.

If you are more interested in what each of the programs offer, Microsoft guru Paul Thurrott has a very complete review of the Windows Live Essentials at his Windows SuperSite.

Windows Live Essentials Updated and in Beta is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

So how do you get it under control? For years, there have been many third party software solutions on the market for managing photos, some quite expensive with complex features while others too simple to manage the enormous libraries we possess.

History

With the release of Windows 98, Microsoft introduced its first effort at managing pictures in Windows called the ‘My Pictures’ directory. But, it was just a simple folder anybody could create and add their pictures to, no big deal. With the release of Windows 2000, Microsoft improved the My Pictures directory with thumbnail support which was a nice improvement to easily discover photos. Still not enough, Microsoft added further improvements through services in Windows XP for working with Pictures, called the Picture Tasks located under the Windows XP Task Pane. Options included viewing a slide show, ordering prints online, printing pictures and ability to create photo CDs. Also, photos in a directory displayed thumbnail previews to quickly find photos of interest. Some would consider this a major step up to digital photography in 2001.

Working with Photos on Windows over the years

However, this did not solve some of the key management issues like events, searching, and better ways of viewing and sharing your photos with family and friends. Of course, the Internet eventually played a critical role in this endeavor. Microsoft focused on supplementing Windows XP’s photography capabilities with its Digital Image Suite software. In fact, Digital Image Suite included an early predecessor to Windows Live Photo Gallery called Digital Image Suite Library. Digital Library included features such as Thumbnail preview, archiving, rating, keyword or tags as we call them today.

Windows Vista, introducing Windows Photo Gallery

Microsoft introduced a lot of technological improvements in Windows 7′s predecessor. They also saw the changing landscape of digital media and the limitations associated with managing it. Windows Vista focused on solving this through key features such as Instant Search, Improved Graphics and Networking. To compensate for consumers growing digital image collections, the Windows Team made the decision to integrate photo management capabilities out of the box through a new feature called Windows Photo Gallery.

Windows Photo Gallery UI changes, Vista release (top) and Live Photo Gallery 2008

Photo Gallery focused on managing photos efficiently through features unique to Vista such as tagging, simplified way to import your pictures, editing, sharing through e-mail, printing and integration with programs and tools such as Movie Maker and DVD Maker. The organization features in particular made Photo Gallery a great asset for the digital camera, in addition to tagging, features like rating, events, sorting and the ability to quickly search through collections was a great benefit.

Windows Live

With the growth of the Internet and social networking over the past 3 years, Windows Photo Gallery was not cut out to keep up with the times. This is where the story of Windows Live and Windows Live Photo Gallery begins. Windows Live extends the capabilities of what you do on the PC to the web. This new version of Photo Gallery added the ability to publish photos to services on Windows Live properties such as Windows Live Space. Third party developers could also expand its capabilities with plug ins for services such as Yahoo! Flickr and Facebook. Windows Live Photo Gallery 2008 also improved organization capabilities with new ways of viewing your photos with more details in library view.

Windows Photo Gallery 2009′s new iconless menus

The new conservative Library Controls, old version (below)

Windows Live Photo Gallery wave 3

In September 2008 Microsoft launched a beta of the most recent version of Windows Photo Gallery included as part of Windows Live Essentials with a final version released in early 2009. Photo Gallery wave 3 further focused on improving Internet and Sharing capabilities along with Windows 7 compatibility. In this introductory article, I want to talk about some of the ways you can use Photo Gallery to get started with your photos. Sharing is a critical part of photography these days, we want to share our memories with our family, friends or the entire world. Services such as Facebook, Windows Live Photos and Flickr facilitate that and we will take a look at how simple it is to do. Lets start with importing.

Importing

I have owned a digital camera since February 2006, so I am fairly new to digital photography. There are multiple ways available for importing your pictures off your digi cam in Windows 7 with Photo Gallery. You can use the Auto Play dialog when you connect your camera, or insert a SD Flash card. You can open the Computer environment from the Start menu, browse your digital camera or SD card, select the photos and copy them to a folder in the Pictures directory.

In Photo Gallery, you can browse recently taken images on your digital camera or  use the import wizard to import them. To do so, Click File > Import from Digital Camera or Scanner. If your digital camera is not displayed, make sure that that it is turned on and connected. There are multiple ways to get your pictures off your camera using the wizard. I am often taking pictures, so I don’t immediately import them until I’m ready. However, you might notice is that there multiple collections of photos grouped by date from time to time. Of course, you won’t see this if you decide to copy and paste through the My Computer | Explore method.

The Import Photos and Videos wizard allows you to review the images on your camera before importing, this avoids issues like importing duplicates, selecting only the pictures you want. The second approach is for people who want to quickly get their images off their digi cam with no particular interest in organizing. You can add a name, some tags for instant search related to your photos. As you can see, I am importing some photos which are a mixture of images taken at home and the beach with related tags.

I personally like reviewing my pictures before importing. So, I select the “Review, organize, and group items to import” option. As you can see in the screenshot above, Windows Live Photo Gallery wave 3 intelligently groups your photos according to date, simplifying organization. You can quickly enter a unique name for each group for the folder in which they will be copied. If you want even more details, you can do so by clicking the ‘View all items’ button which will expand to reveal all the photos within that collection. This allows you to preview all the photos and you can uncheck the photos you don’t want to import at the same time. Once you have selected what you need, you can proceed with the import. Your photos will now be populated in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

If you have images stored in another location you can easily add them by clicking File > ‘Include a folder in the gallery…’ and navigate to wherever it is located on your hard drive. The Windows Live Team has made some changes to the menu structure adopting an icon less menu bar similar to Windows 7 Explorer shells. The interface has seen some renovations in key areas too, the Photo Gallery controls located at the bottom of the window for quickly viewing a slide show and navigating through your photo library have been reduced to a set of conservative status buttons. This improvement gives users more real estate to view your photos with no loss in functionality. The interface is much cleaner with less frames and elegant separators with drop shadows.

Menus and Options

Going back to the menu bar area, Live Photo Gallery has added and rearranged some of its options over the past couple of releases. Open has now been replaced by Extras with familiar links to further edit and view your images in default programs such as Microsoft Word (you would be surprised how many image editing options there are in Word 2007), and now Windows Media Center directly from Photo Gallery.

Slideshow is now also a part of the menu structure. The library controls themselves have been consolidated into status bar buttons which are actually more pleasing, in fact, the ‘Zoom in or out’ slider is more accessible instead of having to click in previous versions to invoke the function.

The sorting area has been significantly cleaned up, columns such as ‘Name, Date, Rating etc..’ have been consolidated into ‘Arrange by auto’ menu with additional filters such as Tag and Person (the tagging gallery is now off by default). The Rating feature displays 5 star options with filtering tools for displaying a specific set based on your personal rating. The fundamentals of Photo Gallery remain the same, and users should feel right at home upgrading to this release.

People Tagging Features (click to enlarge)

MetaData Features

A core part of managing your digital library, Meta data gives the user detailed information about a particular photo or video. This area of the Photo Gallery interface, has not changed significantly in version 2009, but adds new options for users that are sure to impress. The expandable hierarchical view of folders, tags and calendar dates are more subtle with the expandable indicators only appearing when your mouse pointer is hovered within the area. The latest feature that has been added is People tags. The basic idea is to have human recognition in your photos. It’s a tradition to take group photos, whether it’s a couple, family or friends. It’s similar to features found on social networking sites such as Facebook or Flickr which allow you to tag people or objects in a photo which either links you to more information about the person or item.

People Tags is quite impressive. When you click on a photo with multiple persons in it, the image is immediately identified as having persons found. Also impressive is the software’s ability to identify a face in a photo. If you hover over the Person found buttons in the Tag Gallery, a square is automatically generated over a person’s face. The level of accuracy is quite amazing. Of course, you can create your own identities if Photo Gallery 2009 does not discover an individual in a photo automatically. If you are not signed in, when the ‘That’s Me’ tag is selected, a Windows Live ID dialog prompt appears asking you to sign in to access services such as Windows Live Spaces. You also get richer tagging capabilities, persons in your Photo’s you know can be linked to your Windows Live Contacts (this kind of remind of when Smart Tags were first introduced in Office XP). Powerful stuff, definitely love it.

Beyond photos, users can download a free plug in Uploader to YouTube by William Duff. An issue I discovered about videos in Photo Gallery 2009, when you are previewing them, there is no support for real time seeking. Videos also depend on GPU acceleration. I am currently running the software on Windows 7, but my nVidia Geforce 6200 was not supported yet, so when previewing video, there was constant stuttering. This is not the case on other systems of course where your hardware is properly setup.

Two new editing effects: Straighten and Black and White (click to enlarge)

Editing Photos

Photo Gallery includes some new features for basic photo editing. These include Black and white effects such as Orange, Sepia, Yellow, Red and Cyan. Photo Gallery does give you the ability to revert back to an original though, even after a photo has been edited and saved, this seems to be based on Vista’s Previous Versions feature. These are basic Photoshop functionality users who are familiar with the program will find in Photo Gallery 2009 and they are free! The ‘Straighten photo’ is also new and just as the name says aligns your image using a gridline while you simply use the slider to control the accuracy. Don’t look at the slider; the gridline is the key to ensuring that the photo appears straight based on your personal satisfaction.

A new Photo-stitching feature lets you easily build panoramic views from a collection of photos. The panorama must be based on an actual scene; you can’t just use a bunch of unrelated photos. In addition to its strong support for photo-sharing services, you can order prints directly from over 70,000 worldwide printer services partners.

Integration across Windows Live

Publishing your photos has been a feature of Photo Gallery since the 2008 release, with support for Flickr and Windows Live Spaces. Users can obtain additional plug-ins for services such as Facebook and YouTube, I would have hoped these come by default with the final version, and it just seems like the right out of the box experience thing to do. The two upload plug-ins for YouTube can be downloaded here and Facebook here were created by William Duff, for users of Google Picasa, you can find that here by Mark Steeves. So, Photo Gallery provides a very open platform that enables third party developers to further enhance the program beyond what the Windows Live Team delivers. Images published directly to your Live Space are now directly stored on your Windows Live Skydrive. The Windows Live Team has also promised to continue to updating the program regularly so no more tying to releases to Windows OS schedules which means, expect innovative updates.

Email Options for Photos (click to enlarge)

With the roll out of the new Windows Live Home ,which focuses on improved social networking, sharing your photos is even easier. A feature called ‘Home Page Photos’ displays a collection of photos you have uploaded from your hard drive. There could have been better integration across the online services, by simply linking to existing galleries of photos that have already been published from Photo Gallery to your Live Space and have them streaming on the users Windows Live Home Page.

Uploading Photos and setting permissions

The upload process is very easy though, simply browse for the photos you would like to add using the browse fields or install the ‘Upload Photos Add’ which provides drag drop ease for uploading multiple photos at the same time. Once your photos are uploaded, you can set permissions to share with your friends, since the default is just you, add more photos, create a folder or view a slide show and even order prints. Permissions themselves are propagated across your Contact list or your Social Network. For instance, I have my Windows Live Messenger list setup in different categories. They show up as groups within the category of permission with Public being everyone that visits your Windows Live Home page and Networks being those within your social group. You have the option of setting options for users such adding photos, editing details or even deleting. If you have friends that are not in your contact list, you can add them by simply entering their email address and click ‘Save’. Photos are displayed in a neat little animated slideshow.

Syncing Photos

Another example of the tight integration in the Windows Live Essentials suite and services is the ability to sync data across multiple media, including Photos. From the Live Photo Gallery ‘File’ menu is the ‘Setup Gallery Sync’ feature which allows you to have your photos available on multiple PC’s without the manual chore of copying between computers. The setup up process is very simple, just launch Windows Live Photo Gallery on both PC’s > sign in on each using your Windows Live ID. Next, on one of the two computers click Setup gallery sync… from the File Menu in Photo Gallery and follow the instructions. You’re on your way to synchronizing photos! Some of the great advantages of having your photos synced include retaining edit history across PC’s. You can undo edits you’ve made to your photos and even revert back to the original photo from any of computers synchronizing with the gallery.

Conclusion

Windows Live Photo Gallery is more than the photo manager we have come know since its inception as one of the multimedia features of Vista. It has evolved over the years into a mature product that integrates tightly with the web through innovative services such as the new Windows Live Home and Windows Live Essentials suite. Its support for add-ons will further enhance the products qualities and give users unique and cool ways of managing and sharing their digital memories.

Related:

Extending Windows 7 with Windows Live

Managing and Sharing with Windows Live Photo Gallery is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Welcome

As with every new install or first time use of Windows, the first interactive experience is logging in. Depending on how your PC is setup, you might or might not see the Account Screen when you start your Windows session, for those who do, here is a look at some of the changes:

When Windows XP was released back in 2001, it was seen as a major upgrade that focused on ease of use and friendliness, the Welcome sequence and log on screen featured warm, inviting thumbnails that easily identified your account and log in name. With Windows Vista, Microsoft made a few changes by changing the layout and removed a few things. Your accounts are displayed in horizontal layout, instead of the vertical view from XP. Some other functionality introduced in XP such as your amount of unread email notifications are not displayed in Windows 7. A nice welcome optional feature is CTRL-ALT-DEL command, which adds secure log on protection that can be managed through Group Policy (depending on the edition of Windows 7 you have installed) when unauthorized individuals or key loggers attempt to steal your account information. Also, you cannot take a screenshot of the Account Screen like you did in Windows XP. The Classic NT/2000 Log On dialog is not an option in Windows 7 for obvious reasons, if you log on to Domain to access a business network, there are some slight changes which I will take a look at in a future post.

Desktop

The first thing you see when you log on with your credentials is the Desktop, you will of course notice familiar experiences like your personal background. But you might see some other differences, like Gadgets. With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced Sidebar Gadgets which are small (some cases) web based applications that provide quick access to information such as the latest news from your subscribed website’s, a slide show, Clock, CPU/Memory monitor, Weather and others that are included by the manufacturer of your PC. Gadgets are fun to use and you can get many more from www.gallery.microsoft.com, you can position them anywhere on the Desktop, resize them or just snap them to any side of your screen. You can quickly access them when you are within an application by using the hot keys ‘Windows key + G’ or ‘Windows key + space bar’ to see them on your desktop.

Taskbar & Start menu

The Taskbar first introduced in Windows 95 has been significantly enhanced, instead of features like Quick Launch, and labeled buttons, the Taskbar uses detailed icons to represent shortcuts and running applications. I will take a look at in a future post.

Tip: Want a more familiar look to Windows XP? You can achieve this by right clicking the Taskbar, click ‘Properties’ > Taskbar (tab) > check under Taskbar appearance ‘Use small icons’. In the Taskbar buttons: list box, click ‘Never combine’ > click Apply and OK.

The Start button has been redesigned using a universal symbol that every PC user can understand. Instead of translating the word ‘Start’ in hundreds of languages, a simple effective pearl logo represents the keypad to accessing your programs and files. With Windows 7, Microsoft has removed some of the legacy that you have been seeing in previous releases. For instance, the Start menu does not include the option of Windows Classic anymore and with good reasoning considering the clean look in addition to its accessible design, along with its built in Instant Search capabilities the Windows 7 Start menu is much friendlier and easier to use.

All Programs

Along with the Start menu, is the All Programs Group, in Windows XP, you had cascading menus, that would often go off the screen if you had many applications installed. Windows Vista introduced a hierarchical view that makes it easy to browse through all the programs installed on your computer. With Windows 7, you don’t even have to go to the All Programs group, just search for the program name using the built in Instant Search box integrated into the Start menu.

Certain menu functions have been hidden such as the Run menu, which you can easily access by using the Windows Key + R command or you can find it under the Accessories menu. The ‘Connect To’ menu which stores all your available network connections in Windows XP has been replaced by the more convenient and more accessible (View Available Network) connections menu situated in the notification area. Simply click the display icon and you will see a list of all your available connections: Dial-up, Hi-speed Broadband, VPN etc.

Network Notifications

Back in Windows XP, Network notifications were identified by two blinking displays. Windows 7 displays only a single Monitor (display) or Wireless signal bar icons indicating when a connection is available. I personally don’t like it, I thought Vista’s Network icon was just perfect and quickly identified when you were connected to the Internet, Network or not connected at all.

The Recent Items menu is no longer displayed because the Start menu intelligently handles this through Jump List which displays a list of the recently accessed or created files in the programs you recently used on the Start menu or shortcuts on the Taskbar when you right click them. Another menu link that is not displayed is Favorites, you can Search the Start menu for your favorite website links or go to your User folder > Favorites to access all your website links.

Tip: If you would like the option of displaying these menus on the Start menu, simply right click the ‘Taskbar’, click ‘Properties’ > select the ‘Start Menu’ tab > click ‘Customize’ > in the dialog displayed, check off the appropriate menu links ‘Connect To’, ‘Favorites’, ‘Recent Items’ and the ‘Run’ command.

User folder

Windows Vista introduced some changes to the account folder structure. If you are familiar with the Documents and Settings folder which stores all the accounts on the computer along with your personal folder data such as My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Videos etc, it has now been replaced by  ‘User’. Just like in Windows XP, within each account folder you will find your personal folders such as Documents, Music, Pictures and local settings such as AppData which stores user settings such as cookies, dictionaries, and different types of data for applications you might have installed on your computer.

Another change you might see coming from Windows XP is the Public folder, this replaces your Shared Documents folder where you store information for other users on your computer or network can access. The relevance of Public folder itself has decreased in Windows 7 with the introduction of Libraries which makes it easy to share files and resources with other users on your home network simply by using a password. 

What happened to ‘My’

Instead of using the ‘My’ prefix as a part of personal folders, common content locations are simply represented by their names Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos etc. Former Microsoft employee and Vice President of Platforms, Jim Allchin gave the reason for removing ‘My’:

The company introduced the my” prefix in part to give users obvious places for storing their own files, Allchin said. (Although users can rename the standard folders, and create their own, many tend to stick with the default Windows naming structure.) He acknowledged that the company also was aiming to make the experience more personal.

But now, the my” prefix has become so ubiquitous in the technology industry that it’s no longer the distinguishing characteristic the company hoped it would be. In part, Allchin attributed the situation to the tendency of software developers to adopt the common Windows terminology when making programs that run on the Microsoft operating system.

People got carried away,” Allchin said in a recent interview. Anytime Microsoft does something, everybody wants to do it. … It became a worthless descriptor.”

 Explorer & Address Bar

Windows Explorer has changed significantly, adding more consistency and simplicity across folders. The Standard toolbar and Drop Down menu you are accustomed to seeing have been replaced by the Command Bar, which features contextual task and quick options for managing your folder views. If you want to do occasional task such as copy and move files, you can quickly invoke the Drop Down menu by pressing ‘Alt’ on your keyboard or use drag drop by expanding the folder tree in the Navigation pane.

The Address Bar works more intelligently in Windows 7/Vista, displaying quick shortcut paths within a folder hierarchy called bread crumbs. The enhanced Address Bar features drop-down menus along the current navigation path, enabling you to easily backtrack or navigate forward, anywhere along an address location. Search in Explorer is a major feature, the Instant Search capabilities makes it easy to find files within a folder, Windows 7 in particular introduces some major innovations I will take a look at in a future post.

The Task Pane in Windows XP has also been replaced by the Command Bar, previous functionality can be found there and in the preview pane situated at the bottom of the window which displays file size along with picture, video thumbnails and meta data information. The Navigation pane introduced in Vista features a clean design, divided into 5 common locations such as your Favorites for commonly accessed folders, Computer environment which stores your hard disk, optical media and removable storage. Libraries stores your data folders and aggregates all your personal files there for documents, pictures, music and videos. Network displays all the available computers you can access and shared locations.

Some other common functions and changes you might experience is how files are organized, some quick improvements you will notice include how files are grouped along with changes to things you often did in Windows XP.

• You cannot move around files using drag and drop.
• Alphabetical grouping is now ranged, meaning, instead of listing every file name from A-Z they are conveniently grouped by A-H, G-K etc.

Other file view changes include the removal of Film Strip view, instead you can view large quick previews of your files by clicking the view menu option to the left of the command bar or use your scroll wheel mouse and hold down the Control key to resize files and see large thumbnail previews of pictures and videos.

Customize and Personalize

Customizing your Windows experience is a huge part of Windows 7, Windows XP users are probably accustomed to changing their color scheme from Blue Luna, to Olive Green or Silver every now and then along with a wallpaper that came bundled with the OS or from personal pictures or off the Internet. You might even use third party themes. Windows 7 makes the out of box personalization experience richer, increasing the number of theming capabilities many times over from what was included in Windows XP. For example, you can change the color of your Taskbar/Start Menu/windows from the available collection of 16 different colors, expanded themes and wall papers have increased to 8 and along with that you can download many more from a dedicated website provided by Microsoft. The Windows Team have even personalized the themes based on your country and language. Still not satisfied, just create your own, its simple. Along with that you can have multiple wallpapers display at timed intervals. Windows 7 also includes 13 new sound schemes to add a personal touch to common notifications the OS might give out.

As far back as Windows 95 up to Windows XP, we had the Display Properties dialog which hosted the various options such as Themes/Background, Desktop, Screen Saver, Appearance and Settings for customizing your user experience. Windows 7 includes a more convenient vision, instead of a dialog, a natural explorer shell Personalization interface is presented to user with quick access to the various options for customizing the look and feel of Windows. So, if you have a hard time looking for Display Properties, you now know where to look.

How do I manage my programs?!?!

Looking for Add/Remove? Just look under the new item in Control Panel named ‘Programs and Features’. Introduced in Vista, it features a clean, informative Explorer based shell that gives you quick details and options for managing all your installed applications and program updates too. You can view your programs in a number of ways similar to working in the Documents Explorer, program icons can be viewed as tile, list or even very large if you want. Programs and Features provides links to all the updates that Windows installed called ‘Installed Updates’, you can even uninstall an update if you experience a problem. Along with that, you have access to ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ which makes it easy to disable features that come bundled with Windows that you are not using.

Windows Update

In Windows XP, you updated your computer using multiple mechanisms, whether through the individual applications such as Microsoft Word for instance or through the Microsoft Windows Update site. With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced a dedicated Explorer shell just for Windows Update which provides a broader set of options for downloading, managing updates for not only Windows, but other Microsoft products such as Office and Windows Live products and even hardware drivers for devices such as your printer, video card and networking card.

 User Experience – Aero

Windows XP was the first release in years to introduce a significant change to the interface through its Luna theme, which offered a lighter palette, large, communicative icons and a more friendly design. With Windows Vista, Microsoft took bold steps to make Windows look much sleeker and lighter while also bringing more information to the screen and making it easier for you to focus on the content. Aero Glass depending on if your video card supports it adds a clean design to windows, putting clear emphasis on content. Window frames feature semi-transparent realism, making the interface not only cool but productive to use.

Security

Windows 7 is exceptionally secure and includes a host of built in technologies you won’t find in Windows XP or cannot be provided through a update or Service Pack. When you create an account, you are not given complete privileges, meaning, you are not the sole Administrator of the system. Windows 7 creates what is called a Standard Administrator account with a fair amount of privileges to do common power user task such as installing programs, updates, create other accounts, set restrictions and so on. Microsoft encourages that your daily activities should be performed in a Limited User account for added security.

Where is Outlook Express, Movie Maker, Windows Messenger, MSN Explorer etc…?

Windows 7 did some house cleaning, prioritizing what’s most important, especially in today’s Internet based world. As far back as Windows 95, users have come to expect Windows to include a default email program. Microsoft has taken a different approach by moving programs such as Email and Video Editing to a suite of free services called Windows Live Essentials. Outlook Express has been succeeded by Windows Live Mail, which features a built in calendar, clean interface, easy setup and strong integration with Windows Live which is the successor to MSN Explorer providing an end to end experience from the Windows desktop to the web for managing email, storing personal files and sharing photos with family and friends and a whole lot more. Windows Messenger as you probably would know has been succeeded by both Windows Live Messenger for consumer instant messaging as well as Office Communicator in Enterprise settings. You can find both Windows Live Messenger and the new Windows Live Movie Maker included with Windows Live Essentials and many other services.

If you are interested in learning about Windows Live Essentials, check out my summary here

I hope this introduction to some of the fundamental improvements in Windows 7 will have you up and running. Windows 7 is faster, simpler and more efficient all around. The Windows Team went back to the fundamentals with this release. Users will appreciate both the small and big changes in this release.

A Guided Tour of Windows 7 for New Users is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.