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Just a little under a month after it detailed 36 improvements to the Windows 7 beta, and in preparation for the big jump to Release Candidate 1 (RC1), Microsoft has announced 28 more changes. These new improvements are a mix of function and cosmetics, but important all the same.
Microsoft releases a new set of Windows 7 changes. Image: TechMixer.
Windows 7 lead engineer Steven Sinofsky wrote in a blog post on Friday that the list of improvements is far from exhaustive. “Of course we continue to gather telemetry from the large number of people running the Beta full time,” he said.
When it comes to the desktop, the enhancement list for RC1 includes various tweaks and alterations. One of them, the ability to use a close button on the thumbnail previews, was extended to list view. Now when viewing open windows as a list, a small close button is available. Previously, users had to open the window to close it. Other desktop enhancements include recently used items in the control panel jump list, as well as the ability to pin Remote Desktop connections to the jump list. Taskbar settings are properly saved too.
“We’ve heard feedback, especially from those on this blog, that in Windows 7 moving up in the folder hierarchy often requires multiple clicks since longer folder names in the address bar often bump the parent folder into the overflow dropdown,” Sinofsky wrote.
To address this, Microsoft has improved the code so that the parent folder’s button always appears.
Indexing is improved as well. In the Windows 7 beta users needed to rebuild the index whenever a new file handler was installed. This was annoying to many, and confusing to most, so Microsoft fixed the issue. In the RC, this is corrected by “automatically re-indexing the specific files affected by new file handlers. Rest assured that when one installs support for a certain kind of file, she can search for those files without doing any additional work.”
Device removal was improved for the RC, now when you remove a printer, it’s gone – not just the print queue. This goes for Bluetooth devices as well, where only the paring was removed. Legacy Hardware functionality has been restored, in the betas this option was removed but, after some feedback, Microsoft has given it back for the RC.
When it comes to USB drivers, the annoying suspend/resume glitch has been fixed. Previously, some USB keyboards, mice or drives stopped working when Windows 7 came back from suspend mode. This is not the case in the RC.
Finally, networking drivers have been given some boosting as well.
“Based on telemetry data received from the beta, we identified networking drivers that were not available inbox. We worked with ecosystem partners to achieve increased inbox driver coverage across wireless and wired with significant coverage for some of the new ATOM-based laptops,” Sinofsky said.
The complete list, including changes to WMP, can be found here.
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