By David Lagesse
Taken from http://usnews.com

• Aero Peek
  
  Translucent borders on windows were first introduced in Windows Vista. The underlying technology was called “Aero,” and is more widely used to provide new capabilities with Windows 7. In Vista, Aero mostly made the desktop look more Mac-like, though it did enable a striking, 3-D method of flipping through open windows.
• Taskbar Peek
  
  In Windows, open programs place an icon-like button at the bottom of the desktop in its taskbar. Windows 7 gives multitasking power to those buttons by tapping Aero’s graphics capabilities. Passing the cursor over a button opens up large thumbnails of associated windows. Passing a cursor over a thumbnail immediately brings that window to the top of the desktop.
• Thumbnail Preview
  
  Moving the cursor over a program button on the Windows 7 taskbar opens a large thumbnail of each window that’s associated with the program. The thumbnails are more than static images—users can click on one to bring that window to the front of the desktop, and can click its corner to shut the window altogether.
• Libraries
  
  New “libraries” are virtual folders that can organize files scattered across other folders or hard drives. They can make it convenient to have similar files together, such as pictures, music or documents. Users can also create their own libraries and include files of different types, perhaps those associated with a project.
• Preview Pane
  
  Another element strengthened in Windows Explorer is the Preview Pane. The pane now supports a wider variety of formats, including previews of saved Web pages, images, videos, and music. If Microsoft Office is installed, the pane can peer into Office documents, and the same for PDF files if Adobe Acrobat is installed.
• Start Menu Jump List
  
  As in Vista, the Start button in Windows 7 brings up a menu of programs and locations. But Windows 7 adds “jump lists,” which are lists of files associated with the menu item—say, tunes frequently played with Media Player. The lists appear when a user rolls the cursor over the Start menu item.
• HomeGroup
  
  A big knock on Windows has been that it’s too difficult to link computers. Windows 7 finally recognizes that PCs on a home network don’t need FBI-grade security. Networking still isn’t as easy as we’d like, and all the PCs need to be running Win7, but the HomeGroup concept is a step forward.
• Media Streaming
  
  Windows 7 makes it easier to stream media, such as videos and music, across the network. That means a home can have a central PC or drive for storing songs and flicks. Files without copy protection can even be streamed across the Internet, after an awkward set-up process and with both computers running Windows 7, of course.
• Play To
  
  A Windows 7 computer can act sort of like a remote control, sending media files across a home network to play on a PC with Win7. It can also work with a limited list of other devices, such as media players and Xbox 360 game consoles. It’s a way to entertain friends at a party, or to startle an unsuspecting sibling with a blast of trumpets in the other room.
• Personalization
  
  Grouping them under “themes,” Windows 7 enables a quick switch of the way a PC looks and sounds. The themes are much more varied than what was available with Vista, and more can be downloaded from Microsoft, incuding commercial themes. A Pepsi or Coca-Cola theme, anyone?