Windows 7 Testing Continues

I’ve been playing around some more with Windows 7 today. I’ve gotten a lot more of the functionality that I wanted by default after a little tweaking. There’s a simple ToDo gadget for the desktop that allows me to keep a simple task list instead of using the post it function that came with the OS, and I’ve installed Gadwin Printscreen to make screenshot functionality closer to that of linux, with it now autosaving .png files into a specified directory. There’s even an option to set delays!

I’ve also discovered that running Windows Live Mail in Vista compatibility mode allows one to use the “Minimize to Tray” option. This lets me finally use some kind of simple Windows Mail client with the functionality that I would expect from a program like Evolution.

The upgrades to the taskbar are most noticeable, providing me with a plethora of ways to alter the manner in which I view and interact with the desktop. I only score a 3.1 on the “Windows Experience” scale, but everything is snappy and starts up quickly, I’ve got low boot times, and Aero looks gorgeous. This is clearly the best looking Windows ever produced.

I’ve been spending some time on Windows Live Writer, as should be obvious. It has a number of fascinating functions, like allowing me to specify FTP settings to upload thumbnail images to the server while I publish my posts. There are also a number of plugins available, giving one access to things like code snippets or file upload functionality.

One of the tools I was interested in working with was a firefox addon for Windows Live Writer which would automatically grab content from a website and launch WLW with a summary of that content, making blogging about interesting websites a nearly one click process. I’ll be looking more into it in the future, as there is probably a way to tweak it to work with Firefox 3.5.

More to come…