So I’ve covered a few of the new little features of Windows 7. Here’s one more. I always end up having a smorgasbord of applications open throughout the day. So I have always relied on the Desktop button in my bottom menu to quickly get me back to zero if I needed to get into a file or folder on my desktop. Oddly enough, it’s not in Windows 7. No default desktop button, or is there.

If you’ve been following any of the “Windows 7 was my idea” commercials, you’ve probably seen the one where you can snap an individual window (say a browser) into the left side of your screen and another window (say your line-of-business application) in the right side. Windows 7 will automatically snap them into place and resize them to exactly 100% of the height and 50% width each, giving you a perfect split screen. This is great especially on widescreen format monitors.

Well the same thinking that went into that went into the Desktop button. The desktop button is gone, only because its functionality is built directly into the menu itself. There is a sliver of a block on the far right past the clock and date (yes, date now also without clicking) at the bottom right. Just mouse all the way over to the bottom right of you screen and click. Walla, there’s your desktop. That sliver of menu is actually the button.

This is Microsoft taking a page out of Apple’s book of design. Don’t clutter the look with features that will become second nature to users after a few uses. As an example, the first time I used an IPod, I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. Luckily, a friend came to my rescue (user manual, what’s that?). Hold the power button for a few seconds and it’s lights out, Nice. Simple. There’s no label for it, but once you’ve used it you don’t need the label anyway. Very intuitive to use once you know they exist.

All for now. Have a great day!