Misconceptions of the Windows 7 Touch UI

Computer Technology and Software

November 17th, 2010 by admin

A lot of people think the Windows user interface is horrible on a touch screen. They say the keyboard is too cramped or the scrollbars are too small to touch. This video shows how easy the Windows 7 Touch interface actually is.

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25 Responses

burgundyyears writes:
November 17th, 20103:53 pmat

@burgundyyears *on-screen keyboard
burgundyyears writes:
November 17th, 20104:46 pmat

Wow. Those gestures are laggy as all get out compared to a fast Android or iOS device. That on-screen borders on useless for productive work. Not impressive at all.
adamz1977 writes:
November 17th, 20105:41 pmat

@duganator100 It depends on what you need it to do. Windows Tablet PCs can still run real productivity applications like Office 2010. And if you’re an artist, it can also run the real Adobe Creative Suite 5 including the 64-bit AfterEffects, Premiere, and Photoshop.
adamz1977 writes:
November 17th, 20106:12 pmat

@zc456 Actually, you can dock the keyboard to the bottom/top of the screen and instead of overlapping your regular programs, it will push them above the keyboard, thus not getting in the way. This works best in Portrait view.
duganator100 writes:
November 17th, 20106:20 pmat

@6047254459 This looks good and all, but I would never trade it in for my iPad. In my opinion, if Microsoft wants to have a future in the world of touch, they need to build their own tablet. And they need to build a whole new OS from the ground up for touch and move in that direction. Apple has two OSes built on the same foundation. One is for the future (iOS), and one is for now (Mac OS X). In my opinion, that is where Apple is way ahead of Microsoft.
zc456 writes:
November 17th, 20106:23 pmat

Only throwing out my opinion on one of the issues. Know many will disagree. The problem with desktop operating system’s virtual keyboards on tablets is that it gets in the way of the program your using as shown. It doesn’t help that text shown in this example is EXTREMELY small that it makes me wonder how you’d get anything done.
nitoxys writes:
November 17th, 20107:08 pmat

@604725445 The iPad has a 1Ghz Mobile processor found in phones/iTouch, running a mobile operating system designed for a lower powered iTouch and iPhone. You’re caparing a laptop with a touch screen to a tablet that doesn’t have a keyboard, webcam, usb ports, vga out ports and a full fledged OS.
jaqez writes:
November 17th, 20107:54 pmat

I just used Ipad for a while, and I have to say it’s on a different level with it’s smoothness and ease of use.
ps I have Vista laptop/tablet which is 100% pain. I never use it.
stefanonstuff writes:
November 17th, 20108:43 pmat

What kind of hardware is this running on? Asking because it seems to lag a lot, for most actions it takes like half second until the GUI reacts (i.e. you pinch, but the zoom only happens graphically when your fingers almost stopped to move again). Also many of the “flicks” seem to need multiple tries to work?
6047254459 writes:
November 17th, 20109:07 pmat

My new TM2 battery life should be better. I wish I could trade in my TM2 for an iPad with a 9 hour battery life. This stupid TM2 has an appalling battery life of under 4 hours! That’s with 40% – 60% brightness, Intel Graphics, WiFi on, Bluetooth off. I have it plugged in most of the time. I guess Apple knows how to make a real useable tablet. Sad.
poopskinTheLiar writes:
November 17th, 20109:37 pmat

i have a HP TX2 that’s been tablet-ing fine since last december.
gguuss writes:
November 17th, 201010:30 pmat

@adamz1977 One more right click method, you hold with your left finger and then tap with your right.
26566341 writes:
November 17th, 201010:42 pmat

I hate when people compare this great piece of hardware to the ipad. They aren’t even in the same category!
JesseBAndersen writes:
November 17th, 201011:30 pmat

When you have a smaller touch screen resizing the virtual keyboard blocks a lot of what you can see. With the iPad I get a nice uncluttered keyboard. I did wish MS’s virtual keyboard was a bit more like the iPad because that would make my Lenovo S10-3T (1024 x 600) way better.

Overall really good video. Your system is very responsive! I’m super glad because that’s going to be my next system! Thanks!
njbruggenkamp writes:
November 18th, 201012:10 amat

A little word of Advice to the guys in Redmond…
Kill Windows7 Touch. Use Windows7 Phone on your tablets.
Because this looks ridiculous.
Aaronage1 writes:
November 18th, 20101:02 amat

@larspallesen Windows 7 was built with touch in mind. I remember Microsoft really pushing the touch features during Windows 7 development.

The task-bar being one of a the many areas built for touch, big icons, gestures like swiping up, aero peek etc. all to make touch screen tablets like this possible.
soulcalibur22 writes:
November 18th, 20101:24 amat

@larspallesen there is no diff dosnt ruin any experince its like your finger is the mouse and its faster i didnt know about not having to touch the scrollbars tho
soulcalibur22 writes:
November 18th, 20102:15 amat

ty for this
bassemb writes:
November 18th, 20102:55 amat

Thanks so much for this. I knew Windows 7 was better with touch but this really puts any doubts to rest.

Your video helped convince me to get the same laptop you’re using here, HP tm2. So far I couldn’t be happier with it.

There are ways to make it even friendlier to touch, I might post a video. Thanks again!
crusadah writes:
November 18th, 20103:02 amat

@Masterhomer lol i pad is a giant ipod how does it kill this, its doesnt have a fraction of the functionality, ipad is for apple fanboys willing to spend every last penny on useless fucking apps.
heatlesssun writes:
November 18th, 20104:00 amat

@JordenOnDemand It depends on the software. True Windows desktop software doesn’t have the conecpt of pinch zooming so much of that effect it a just a hook in the desktop zooming features. For software that is actually geared towards touch its another matter. Plus it doesn’t effect usability.
JordenOnDemand writes:
November 18th, 20104:52 amat

generally,don’t think windows 7 touch is as responsive as the ipad~
excalibur1814 writes:
November 18th, 20105:07 amat

@iamloganhearmeroar He needs to set the DPI to 125% and the minimize button size will increase.
excalibur1814 writes:
November 18th, 20105:20 amat

@iamloganhearmeroar He needs to set the DPI to 125% and the minimize button size will increase.
excalibur1814 writes:
November 18th, 20106:03 amat

If you own a tablet with WIndows, visit the control panel and change the Display DPI to 125%. That increases the size of certain things like buttons etc making it FAR easier to touch.