Windows 7 has some pretty cool stuff that has been overlooked by all the caffuffle in the press. Too much has been paid to how different the UI is etc. that the really cool stuff has gone un-noticed.
Action Centre
Centralising your toolset is the name of the game here. Win 7 gives you a one stop shop for all security issues, troubleshooting and recovery. At last. It's all been arranged in a pretty cool Control Panel, you also get maintenance and alert messages centred to here too. Some other controls include performance handling and monitoring, UAC settings etc.
The action centre also shows up as an icon in the system tray, bringing direct front end access to one click away 
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But don't worry about getting bombarded with alerts and messages via the tray, the clever MS peeps have given you access to those to:
The Problem Steps Recorder
This is one of the coolest tools here, well for a tech geek/ IT worker anyway. I have a how to here on this tool.
No matter how hard they try, most users just cannot adequately describe a problem with enough detail for support personnel to quickly and accurately deal with a problem. And sometimes there one issues with a machine out of 300 duplicates that just doesn't make sense. And these issues can stop you being able to connect in real time to a users machine, or maybe the user is remote. That's where the problem steps recorder comes in handy.
It's a cool screen recorder that tracks the users screen interactions and allows them to make notes along the way. It is then all packaged up into a compiled html folder and automatically zipped for you. The user can then simply email you the zip and you can open it and read through all the steps like below.
ISO Burner
The ISO image is a file format that has slowly grown over the years. Unlike a zip file it allows exact duplicates of data to be stored, including complete CD/DVD copies and even bootable partitions.
Big MS has made a lot of peoples dreams come true with this one, no longer do you have to download and install 3rd party apps to do the job - it's built right in.
Just double click an ISO file and Windows 7 will open the Burn Disk Image dialgue box. This also works with .IMG versions too.
Biometrics - Device Management
This was a bit patchy in earlier versions of the OS and needed 3rd party software to get going. This meant the devices and software didn't always merge into the OS too well. Now Windows 7 includes a biometrics framework. It gives access to APIs for developers to hook their applications into seamlessly.
Credentials
Another new feature to Windows 7. You can manage all kinds of credentials with this tool, such passwords for other computers, certificates and other more generic ones like email accounts and web site accounts etc.
These all get stored into the vault (above), which is encrypted and has the handy ability to be backed up and restored from a removable drive for instance.
Display Projection and the Mobility Centre
For the salesman and manager alike this one. It has been a pain in the rear for years setting up projectors etc. but now theres a new kid in town. Just press the WinKey + P and this tool will poppup from nowhere to come to your rescue.
Pressing WinKey + X opens the Mobility Centre. This allows you to easily switch on presentation mode which will disable screensavers, sets a neutral wallpaper and puts your IM client on do not disturb should you have it open.
Text and Colour Tuning and Calibration
These are accessed via the Control Panel, giving access to Clear Type settings, gamma, brightness, contrast and colour rendition for each monitor.
System Repair
Accessible via Start > search > 'System Repair', you can now create a bootable repair disk with a single click. Simply click 'Create A System Repair Disk' pop in a disk and off you go.
Using the disk, simply boot from it and you will gain access to these features:
- Startup repair
- system restore
- System image recovery
- Windows memory diag
- Command prompt
Backup
The backup tool has had a much needed refurb. With much better granular control over what to backup, and much easier selection of where to backup too, such as CD/DVD, removable drive or network.
Powershell v2
Windows PowerShell (Figure P) is a command-line shell interface and scripting tool that makes it easier for Windows administrators to automate tasks.
Previous versions of Windows include a command-line interpreter (command.com or cmd.exe), but PowerShell is much more powerful, providing a UNIX-like command environment that can automate almost every GUI functionality.
PowerSheLl can be downloaded to run on Windows XP or Vista, but Windows 7 is the first client operating system that comes with it built in. (It is also installed by default in Windows Server 2008 R2.) PowerShell v2 adds about 240 new cmdlets, as well as new APIs and features, such as the ability to invoke PowerShell scripts and cmdlets on a remote computer.
The End :)
Thanks to all 3rd party sources such as MS TechNet, MS and TechRepublic.
