Since this is the week Windows 7 is getting released and I’m hosting a Windows 7 Party, I thought it would be great to share some of my favorite new features in Windows 7 with my readers.
The Windows 7 Sidebar in the past has been more or less static. In Windows XP, you were given the option to jump to predefined places within the operating system file space. This was useful in some situations but didn’t work well when you wanted to jump from My Computer view to a Desktop folder. Vista offered some help with the new always present address bar. You could use the triangle handles to navigate quickly to disparate folders or places. You still couldn’t absolutely set the sidebar.
Windows 7 Explorer Sidebar
In Windows 7, the Windows Explorer Sidebar is now customizable. You can easily drag items into the Favorites section. The sidebar also contains always present links to the My Computer and its sub-drives, the network and any visible computers and also the new libraries. This makes the sidebar incredibly useful now.
I love to, for instance, drop my blogging material folder in my sidebar so I have quick access to it at all times. So it saves me time. It would be nice to be able to rearrange the sections, but I’m not holding it against anyone; I can easily imagine people messing that up.
OSX Finder Sidebar
You can compare this to the Finder’s sidebar is OSX. It functions in a similar, collapsible sections and arrangeable items within those sections. Places takes the role of favorites though in the new sidebar. So at least you’ll feel at home when using Windows 7 if you’re an OSX user.
Have a good week!
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