Melyssa’s Blog

Themes. Windows 7 has approached personalization of desktops from a different angle. Users have more control over the look and feel of their desktop with the use of Themes. The control panel for the Themes screen displays available themes in a graphical list, organized by user-created themes, online themes, and built-in system themes. Unique themes can be created by a user and even shared with others. It is very easy to create your own theme – just select one of the existing themes, then change either the desktop background, Windows color, sounds, or screen saver and save the theme as your own.

Snipping Tool. How many times have you needed to take a screen shot of something, only to have to also open that screen shot in some sort of image editing software, clip it accordingly, mark it up with comments, then save the image so that you can email it or include it in a document? If you’re like me, then the answer is more times than you care to think about. Now with the new Snipping Tool in Windows 7, this process has been greatly simplified. With the Snipping Tool, you can select what sort of “snip” you would like to take (free-form, rectangular, window, or full-screen). Once an area is selected, the snip automatically opens in a Snipping Tool window with a few handy tools, including save, copy, email, write, highlight, and erase. When you finish marking up the image, you can click the copy button and paste a flattened version into a document. Or, you may choose to email the image as an attachment. One feature I would add is the ability to type comments, but overall the Snipping Tool is very efficient and much appreciated.

Device Management. No longer do you have to manage your devices from multiple locations. With Windows 7, from one convenient location (Start > Devices and Printers), you can view all of your connected devices, update drivers, connect to new devices, and perform other tasks specific to a particular device with a right-click. In addition, when you plug in a new device to your computer, a new icon will appear in your Task Bar with a screen that provides you with device information and convenient links to common device tasks. This “Device Stage” can be customized by manufacturers to display relevant information about the device, images, and just about anything else they deem helpful to the user.