PC Maintenance Class 13

Tonight we had a look at some of the features in Windows 7 that many may not have come across, or have not known how to use properly. The agenda tonight was to look at the following:

• Jump Lists
• Libraries
• Aero Peek and Aero Snap
• Windows Ready Boost

Jump Lists—new in Windows 7—take you right to the documents, pictures, songs, or websites you turn to each day. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program button on the Windows 7 taskbar. (You can also get to Jump Lists by clicking the arrow next to the program name on the Start menu.)

What you see in a Jump List depends entirely on the program. The Jump List for Internet Explorer shows frequently viewed websites. Windows Media Player 12 lists commonly played tunes. Is your Jump List missing a favorite? You can "pin" whatever files you like there.

Jump Lists don't just show shortcuts to files. Sometimes they also provide quick access to commands for things like composing new email messages or playing music.

Libraries -  in previous versions of Windows, managing your files meant organizing them in different folders and subfolders. In this version of Windows, you can also use libraries to organize and access files regardless of where they're stored.

The navigation pane, showing the Pictures library with three included folders

A library gathers files from different locations and displays them as a single collection, without moving them from where they're stored.

Here are some things you can do with libraries:

·       Create a new library. There are four default libraries (Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos), but you can create new libraries for other collections. 

·       Arrange items by folder, date, and other properties. Items in a library can be arranged in different ways using the Arrange by menu, located in the library pane (above the file list) in any open library. For example, you can arrange your Music library by Artist to quickly find a song by a particular artist.

·       Include or remove a folder. Libraries gather content from included folders, or library locations. 

·       Change the default save location. The default save location determines where an item is stored when it's copied, moved, or saved to the library. Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7desktop. Simply point to the end of the taskbar and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets.

Aero Peek, Snap and Shake.

Aero Snap

To quickly reveal a buried window, point to its taskbar thumbnail. Now only that window shows on the desktop.

Peek, part of the Aero desktop experience, is included in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7. If you like it, check out two new related features: Shake and Snap.

Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen.


Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand vertically, take up the entire screen, or appear side-by-side with another window. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows a...well, you get the picture.

Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Just click the top of a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back. (Who says the old mouse can’t learn a new trick?)

Shake, part of the Aero desktop experience, is included in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7.

Windows Ready Boost

Want a simple way to speed up your PC? Just plug in a USB flash drive or card and let ReadyBoost borrow it. ReadyBoost is designed to help when your PC's memory is running low. Low memory can make your computer sluggish because Windows, which needs a place to stash data, turns to the hard drive. Flash memory offers a speedier alternative.

ReadyBoost works with most flash storage devices. In Windows 7, it can handle more flash memory and even multiple devices—up to eight, for a maximum 256 gigabytes (GB) of additional memory.

Using memory in your storage device to speed up your computer

ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB flash drives and flash memory cards. When you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible storage device into your computer, the AutoPlay dialog box offers you the option to speed up your computer using ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can choose how much memory on the device to use for this purpose.

When you set up a device to work with ReadyBoost, Windows shows you how much space it recommends you allow it to use for optimal performance. For ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer, the flash drive or memory card should have at least 1 gigabyte (GB) of available space. If your device doesn't have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you'll see a message telling you to free some space on the device if you want to use it to speed up your system.

You can enable or disable ReadyBoost for a specific flash drive or other removable storage device. For more information, see Turn ReadyBoost on or off for a storage device.

The ReadyBoost tab lets you decide how much storage space on a removable device to use for boosting your system speed.