Features new to Windows 7: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:00, 5 August 2023

Revision as of 23:35, 21 September 2023

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|date=11 January 2009

|access-date=13 January 2009

|work=Ars Technica

|publisher=arstechnica.com

|archive-date=19 January 2009

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090119070053/http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/windows-7-beta.ars/4

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===Font management===

The user interface for font management has been overhauled in Windows 7. As with Windows Vista, the collection of installed fonts is displayed in a Windows Explorer window, but fonts that originate from the same font family appear as icons that are represented as stacks that display font previews within the interface. Windows 7 also introduces the option to hide installed fonts; certain fonts are automatically removed from view based on a user's regional settings.<ref name="SeveralUpdates">{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371704%28VS.85%29.aspx |title=ChooseFont() Win32 Common Dialog |author=[[Microsoft]] |work=[[MSDN]] |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=November 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106071718/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371704(VS.85).aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> An option to manually hide installed fonts is also available. Hidden fonts remain installed but are not enumerated when an application asks for a list of available fonts, thus reducing the amount of fonts to scroll through within the interface and also reducing memory usage.<ref name="FontsUI">{{cite web |url=http://www.istartedsomething.com/20081030/improvements-to-fonts-in-windows-7/ |title=Improvements to fonts in Windows 7 |last=Zheng |first=Long |date=October 30, 2008 |work=istartedsomething |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006024137/http://www.istartedsomething.com/20081030/improvements-to-fonts-in-windows-7/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Windows 7 includes over 40 new fonts,<ref name="Typography">{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/windows7.htm |title=New Fonts in Windows 7 |author=[[Microsoft]] |work=Typography |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=June 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620131057/http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/windows7.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> including a new "Gabriola" font.<ref name="FontsUI"/><ref name="Gabriola">{{cite web |url=http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/10/29/users-say-hello-to-gabriola-gabriola-say-hello-to-your-users/ |title=Users, say hello to Gabriola. Gabriola, say hello to your users. |last=Rivera |first=Rafael |date=October 29, 2008 |work=Within Windows |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=November 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112073029/http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/10/29/users-say-hello-to-gabriola-gabriola-say-hello-to-your-users/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Users can

The dialog box for fonts in Windows 7 has also been updated to display font previews within the interface, which allows users to preview fonts before selecting them. Previous versions of windows only displayed the name of the font.<ref name="FontPreviews">{{cite web |url=http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090727/native-font-previews-in-windows-7/ |title=Native live font previews in Windows 7 |last=Zheng |first=Long |date=July 27, 2009 |work=istartedsomething |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=March 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301193114/http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090727/native-font-previews-in-windows-7/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="FontDialog">{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646958%28VS.85%29.aspx |title=Font Dialog Box |author=[[Microsoft]] |work=[[MSDN]] |access-date=June 15, 2015 |archive-date=November 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106071716/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646958(VS.85).aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

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|publisher=Microsoft

|access-date=12 April 2009

}} </ref>

==Mobility enhancements==

===Multi-touch support===

Hilton Lock, who worked on the [[Microsoft Tablet PC|Tablet PC]] team at Microsoft, reported on December 11, 2007, that Windows 7 will have new touch features on devices supporting [[multi-touch]]. An overview and demonstration of the multi-touch capabilities, including a virtual piano program, a mapping and directions program and a touch-aware version of [[Microsoft Paint]], was given at the ''All Things Digital Conference'' on May 27, 2008; a video of the multi-touch capabilities was made available on the web later the same day.<ref name="Multi-touch">{{cite web |url=http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/05/27/microsoft-demonstrates-multi-touch.aspx |title=Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch |last=Flores |first=Chris |date=May 27, 2008 |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |work=Windows Vista Team Blog |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529043039/http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/05/27/microsoft-demonstrates-multi-touch.aspx |archive-date=May 29, 2008 |access-date=June 26, 2015}}</ref>

===Sensors===

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}}</ref> On Microsoft Windows operating systems, scheduling of [[Thread (computing)|threads]] inside a [[Process (computing)|process]] is handled by the [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]], [[ntoskrnl.exe]]. While for most applications this is sufficient, applications with large [[Concurrent computing|concurrent]] threading requirements, such as a [[database server]], can benefit from having a thread scheduler in-process. This is because the kernel no longer needs to be involved in [[context switch]]es between threads, and it obviates the need for a [[thread pool]] mechanism, as threads can be created and destroyed much more quickly when no kernel context switches are required.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |author=Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne |title=Operating System Concepts, 10th Edition |date=2018 |publisher=Laurie Rosatone |publication-place=USA |page=308 |isbn= 978-1-119-32091-3}}</ref>

Prior to Windows 7, Windows used a one-to-one user thread to kernel-thread relationship.<ref>{{cite book |author=Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne |title=Operating System Concepts, 10th Edition |date=2018 |publisher=Laurie Rosatone |publication-place=USA |page=224 |isbn= 978-1-119-32091-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne |title=Operating System Concepts, 10th Edition |date=2018 |publisher=Laurie Rosatone |publication-place=USA |page=251 |isbn= 978-1-119-32091-3}}</ref> It was of course always possible to cobble together a rough many-to-one user-scheduler (with user-level ''timer'' [[Interrupt|interruptsinterrupt]]s) but if a [[system call]] was blocked on any one of the user threads, it would block the kernel thread and accordingly block all other user threads on the same scheduler.<ref name=":1" /> A many-to-one model could not take full advantage of [[symmetric multiprocessing]].

With Windows 7's user-mode scheduling, a program may configure one or more kernel threads as a scheduler supplied by a programming language [[Library (computing)|library]] (one per logical processor desired) and then create a user-mode thread pool from which these UMS can draw. The kernel maintains a list of outstanding system calls which allows the UMS to continue running without blocking the kernel thread. This configuration can be used as either many-to-one or many-to-many.