Desktop

Thumbnail previews can be a big help when you’re juggling lots of windows. Point to a program’s icon on the Windows 7 taskbar, and you’ll see miniature views of your documents, images, and even live videos.

Point to the thumbnail, and a new feature called Peek morphs it to a full-sized view. All the other open windows temporarily disappear. How’s that for laser-like focus?

In the past, the Quick Launch toolbar offered shortcuts to the programs you needed to get to quickly. Now you can simply “pin” programs (and files) to the Windows 7 taskbar, where you'll be able to open them with one click. It’s easy to rearrange your lineup of taskbar buttons—just click and drag them. And Jump Lists give you quick access to what you use the most—like frequently-viewed websites or favorite documents.

Ever need to compare two documents side-by-side? In the past, you’d have to manually resize the windows. With Snap, you just drag two windows to either side of your screen and they'll snap into place opposite each other. Snap a window to the top of the screen and it expands to fill the desktop.

With Shake, you can click the top of a window and give your mouse a shake to minimize all the other windows. Shake again, and the other windows return.