|
Hardware & Devices
|
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
In
addition to the Device Manager, which looks the same as previous versions,
there is a new Hardware and Devices menu which shows you a more graphical view
of your installed hardware. This new menu displays the current status of
your hardware and will allow you to update the driver if needed, however, you
will not be able to uninstall the device from here. Only from the Device
Manager can you choose to uninstall a device.
While on the topic of hardware, I would like to
note that hardware detection once the operating system is installed was quite
good, even at this early stage. That is a very good sign!
Detection of USB devices, for example, worked very well. The same popup
style notifications are used but they are animated and look much nicer.
Photos & Videos
|
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
Windows Codename Longhorn handles photos quite
nicely and is a major improvement over Windows XP. Almost everyone I
know owns a digital camera. The ability to handle photos in a user
friendly fashion is important. Microsoft is focusing on just that with
their next Operating System. The new Photos & Video menu allows you to
easily manage your multimedia files. Hovering over image files will
display a larger view of the images. A feature that has not yet been
implemented on this release is the ability to create a photo video which can
probably be added to the sidebar as a tile as well. The picture viewer
has been improved and looks much better. It is unclear yet whether or
not it will handle faxes as well or whether they will opt for another method of
handling faxes.
Internet Explorer
|
**click to enlarge** |
Version 6.0 of Internet Explorer was still implement in this early build
(6.05.4051.0). Gone, however, are the ugly titles bars as shown above.
Overall, the layout looks much nicer.
Migration Wizard
|
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
|
**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
There
is a nice migration wizard that will allow you to easily transfer data from
another PC. These include documents and email, programs and settings,
desktop and display settings and internet connection settings. As you'll
tell from the screenshots, it is not quite complete yet. It
requires a copy of the wizard software to be installed on both PC's in order
to gather the data. Once you have indicated what is to be transfered from
the old PC to the new, simply network the two PC's or connect them via USB to
transfer your files. Overall, it is designed to allow someone who isn't
technically savvy to quickly and easily migrate data.
|
