Specifications

Introduction
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T. S. Eliot
Well, that was easy. After the “two steps forward, one
step back” development process of Windows Vista, after the
interminable Vista beta releases, and after the hype and
hoopla that accompanied the Vista release, Windows 7
seemed to arrive on our digital doorsteps fully formed, like
a kind of electronic Athena from the skull of some program-
ming Zeus (or something like that).
The development and release of Microsoft’s latest bouncing-
baby operating system was nothing like its older sibling,
but does that mean that Windows 7 itself is nothing like
Windows Vista? Actually, in many ways, that’s true. Sure, if
you’re familiar with Windows Vista, you’ll have a relatively
benign learning curve with Windows 7. But Microsoft
didn’t spend the past 3 years working on new desktop back-
grounds! Windows 7 is loaded with new and changed
features; some of them are almost too subtle to notice,
whereas others represent veritable system sea changes.
Coincidentally (or not, depending on where you fall in the
conspiracy theory spectrum), my approach to Windows has
also changed in this edition of the book. Unlike in previous
editions, Windows 7 Unleashed is not my attempt to cover all
the features of Windows from Aero Glass to AutoPlay.
Windows has simply become too big for that kind of book,
and most Windows users know (or can figure out) the basics
of most features. So in this edition of the book, I’ve changed