drivecool

So last week my car decided to act up. I had to drive home at basically idle. The 15 minute drive took closer to 45 minutes and was frustratingly slow. Anyway. I got the car back! Seems it was an air valve and fuel filter. Runs like a champ and I am stoked!

I think it is about time I started removing some of my older and lest interesting work.. Maybe resubmit some of it as a package.. But I definitely need to get up some of my other concepts..

As a graphic artist I love Windows 7. It is very Mac-like. I haven't had any major problem out of the Beta that I couldn't solve through either a different method or by using a non-Windows program. However, there are a few things that seemed to be missing either intuitively or logically as this is the new version of Windows. This is just my take so far.

TASKBAR
The new taskbar is WONDERFUL!! The only thing I feel is missing is that I intuitively want to right click on the taskbar icons and see controls for that item. I frequently listen to music, radio, and podcasts while working and would like to be able to pause, stop, start or resume the audio feed without leaving the window I am currently working in. I love being able to pin items to either the taskbar or the Start Menu. It gives me a primary and secondary program list I can customize according to my workflow.

WINDOWS PICTURE VIEWER
This has been a beef of mine for a while. I would love to see Windows Picture Viewer given the ability to read/display a PDF. PDF is as mainstay now as a JPEG and it seems cumbersome to be forced to use Adobe Acrobat to view these documents. OSX implements it so well that "Preview" is often 3-4 times faster than Acrobat.

ICON PREVIEW
As a user of several Adobe products, it would be nice, when the parent program is installed, to be able to have an actual preview of the associated files when viewing "Medium, Large and Extra Large Icons" instead of the base file icon for that file type. Programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator come to mind. I realize I can install a registry file that allows me to view these file types but should I have to? The several different sizes of Icons are very useful!

FTP
FTP access is horrible. Basically non-existent! I cannot get FTP to work at all. I had to install an extra program to access FTP (more clutter). I also miss "My Network Places" from XP that essentially held all my shortcut links to the several FTP sites I have to access. It was very simple in XP and if it is even in Windows 7 then it is buried deep enough that I can't find it.

AERO SNAP
I LOVE the Aero “Snap” function. My only problem with it is that I run dual monitors and would like to have 2 windows “snapped” on one monitor while using the other as my primary workspace. It isn’t that bothersome to me but it is one of those things that makes you think, “Hey, it works on this side of the monitor. It should work the other side of the monitor as well.” But it doesn’t. Currently I can only snap to the right or left of the total desktop space or the top of each monitor. Still a very nice feature!

All in all I love Windows 7. Installation is easier than ever. It is lighter and faster than Vista. The visuals are stunning, even in comparison to Vista. The visual workflow of the new taskbar is smooth, clean and very functional. Simply beautiful. I can't wait to see the full OS!

What do you think?