Things to know about Windows Aero


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Sure. Hits don't bother me, it's the content I try for. This is just a straight copy and paste from the HTML source from Wordpress. I formatted the post for BBCode.

In this post I'm going to talk about some of the features that Windows Vista and Seven users probably don't know about. Some of them may be more useful to others, so have fun!

Some of the features may only work for Windows Seven (sorry).

Increase the desktop icons size easily

Since Windows Vista users have been able to increase the desktop icon size by simply holding control and scrolling the mouse wheel. Of course you need a mouse with a scroll wheel to do this in the first place.

scrollicons.png

Increase/decrease the Aero border size

I only found this one out a couple of minutes ago whilst I was creating a theme. To increase/decrease the border size follow these simple steps (may differ in Windows Seven).

    • Right-click the Desktop.
    • On the pop-up right click context menu, select Personalize.
    • Now click on "Windows Colour and Appearance".
    • Click on "Open Classic Appearance Properties" for more display and colour options.
    • Ensure that your theme is Windows Aero, then click on the Advanced button.
    • Select "Border Padding" in the first drop-down box.
    • Select a new border size using the arrows or by entering one yourself. The default border size is 4.
    • Click OK to save the changes and exit.
    • The new visual border size for Windows Aero will display immediately.

Aero Peek

One of the awesome features about Windows Seven is to "peek" at the desktop. To the right of the clock is a bordered empty button. Hover over this to show the desktop. If you have smaller applications open underneath the active window, you can see an outline of them!

aeropeek-300x168.png

Aero Shake

If, like me, your desktop gets cluttered with open windows, you'll probably finding yourself lose concentration. Simply grab the title bar of the active application and shake it around. All other windows will be minimized!

Quick Document Access

If you ever open a document in a program which has is shown on the start menu, Windows will automatically add an arrow next to the item which will allow you to see what you've opened in it!

expandmenu1.png

Pretty nifty for those documents you're always working on!

Hot Desktop Sides

In some ways this feature is similar to "Hot Corners" a Mac feature. By dragging a window to the edge of the desktop (top, right, left), holding for a couple of seconds and releasing, Windows will either stick the window or maximize it. Windows tells you it's ready by displaying a small circle around the mouse.

So that's it for now. I hope someone finds a use for these random features. Have fun!

Edited by warwagon
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I think that excluding the first two (which also work for Vista) the rest is quite obvious for 7 users :p

Apparently not, some of my friends told me that they didn't have a clue about half of the features.

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I like when people get interested on windows 7 and post their experience and findings on the web. The best way to see what people think about windows 7.

I made rvxtm.com for that too, I'm just waiting to test 7201 , didn't had the time yet...

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Hover the mouse along the top or bottom border of a window, when the mouse cursor changes to the vertical resizing cursor, double click. This will resize the window to the full height of the screen.

There are a couple tricks there I didn't know about. So thanks for posting this. :)

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I like when people get interested on windows 7 and post their experience and findings on the web. The best way to see what people think about windows 7.

I made rvxtm.com for that too, I'm just waiting to test 7201 , didn't had the time yet...

I'm waiting to get 7201 too, I haven't heard of anything new, but it's worth looking at. Nice blog too!

Hover the mouse along the top or bottom border of a window, when the mouse cursor changes to the vertical resizing cursor, double click. This will resize the window to the full height of the screen.

There are a couple tricks there I didn't know about. So thanks for posting this. :)

I didn't know about that one, thanks!

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