Install the Aero Snap feature in almost any version of Windows

As you probably know, Snap is a new windows management feature in Microsoft Windows 7 that allows you to arrange open windows, including maximizing and resizing, just by dragging and dropping a window to different edges of the screen. When a window is dragged to the correct position, a ripple effect will emanate from the cursor and you’ll see an animated outline of the window instantly appear in its new position. As soon as you release the mouse button, the window will snap to that position.

Well, fortunately for all of us (XP, Vista and 7 users) the folks at Nurgo Software have developed a very cool piece of software called AquaSnap that brings the new Aero Snap and Shake features from Windows 7 to Windows XP and Windows Vista for free. You can even use it in Windows 2000. Read more.

Take the productivity benefits of Snap, Shake, and Peek seriously

While many will simply brush off the new Aero UI features, Snap, Shake and Peek, as being nothing more than eye candy in Microsoft Windows 7, these three items have actually been designed to address the lack of any real improvement in a very common task that has been around since Windows came into being — managing multiple open windows.

If you’ve been working with the Windows operating system for a while, then you know that the problem of managing multiple open windows is an old one and that over the years, Microsoft really hasn’t devised anything new for you to more efficiently work with multiple open windows. Sure, there have been many advances in task management, but when it comes down to actual window management, there hasn’t been much innovation. That’s what makes Snap, Shake, and Peek so exciting.

In this edition of the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report, I’ll examine the management of multiple open windows in the Windows operating system over the years. I’ll then focus on the windows management solutions offered by the new Aero UI features: Snap, Shake, and Peek.