Here's so more tidbits on my continuous tale of my workstation setup. These are my first tasks and installs that take place before any of the major applications get installed.

 

For I don't know how long now I have been running Windows with the Task Bar at the top. My focus tends to be at the top of the screen a lot since that's where most applications provide the most information, and the proximity of the mouse cursor to heavily utilized buttons is much smaller.

 

Next is the removal of the language bar. Not sure exactly what this little thing does but I don't need it. I don't want my task bar to look like a Nasa control room. I try to hide as many task bar icons as possible. Right now the only icons I explicitly set to visible are: Battery, Sound, and Wifi signal. Oh, and the clock.

 

Because I format and re-install the operating system from any OEM, I need to search for vendor specific applications that still make sense to install. Besides drivers, the one that seemed to make sense to install for me is the Dell Quickset application. The rest seemed like noise to me since my machine seems to be running just fine without them.

 

One of the pleasant surprises about Windows 7 is the incredible Start Menu (I got no beef with the Mac OS X dock, this article just outlines the great parts about the new task bar features). I've gone though my fair share of application launchers in XP (Launchy, Slickrun, Find and Run Robot, Executer, Google Desktop, and Enso Launcher). The Windows 7 launcher has not left me want for any of those other ones. What really made me impressed is when I hit [Win] then typed [V][P][N] and the first result is "Set up a virtual private network (VPN) connection". Probably the easiest VPN setup I've ever done.