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Turning Windows Features On and Off in Windows 7 RC

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windows7It looks like Microsoft has added to the list of features that one can choose to turn on or off in the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7. Jack Mayo goes into the why’s and wherefore’s on the Engineering Windows 7 Blog and lists the following new additons to the On/Off list. (You’ve been able to turn features on and off prior to this.)

Note that you can now turn Internet Explorer 8 off. Check out the list after the jump.

The new list includes:

  • Windows Media Player
  • Windows Media Center
  • Windows DVD Maker
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • Windows Search
  • Handwriting Recognition (through the Tablet PC Components option)
  • Windows Gadget Platform
  • Fax and Scan
  • XPS Viewer and Services (including the Virtual Print Driver)
3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. sfwrtr

    03/06/2009 at 10:54 am

    One of the features we often forget about, esp. since it morphed from the easy to access Add/Remove Programs to a control panel that you have to scroll to get to.

    I think that a major reason there are new additions is because of the EU litigation. The blog equivocates on this point. All MS has to do is deliver a version with the features of IE and Windows Media not installed (disabled), and they can skate by. Brilliant, actually.

    I think it would be best if none of the features were installed/enabled; just let Windows users pick and choose their annoyances… um, features. That way we start with an OS that begins life as an OS and nothing more.

    As for how these disablings work, well in Vista I’ve found one example of a nag. I’ve disabled Indexing, but each time I use a search box, it warns me that indexing is disabled with a yellow bar. If I close it and use the same search box a second time, the warning shows again. I wonder if every time I run Firefox if the GA Windows 7 will warn me that IE 8 is disabled….

  2. GoodThings2Life

    03/07/2009 at 7:11 am

    This is one of the things I’ve missed since the Windows 95/98 days, when damn-near every component was “removable”. It’s nice to see them bringing this back– even if it is only to avoid legal action, lol.

  3. Snowii

    03/07/2009 at 11:08 am

    yay! nice to hear this! as a WinAmp and FireFox user can’t wait to disable WMPlayer and IE :)

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