While Windows 7 contains many new features, a number of capabilities and certain programs that were a part of previous Windows versions up to Windows Vista were removed or changed.
The following is a list of features that were present in Windows Vista and earlier versions but were removed in Windows 7.
Windows shell Windows Explorer
Column headers for item properties only appear in the Details icon view mode. Additionally, even in Details view, column headers in Windows 7 only allow filtering items; there no longer are options in drop-down menus to group, sort, or stack items (Sort, Group, and Stack by Property options are removed). Filtering can only be done in Details view; grouping must be done from the context menu in every icon view mode; and sorting must be done by either clicking the column header itself in Details view, or by selecting the Sort By context menu in all other icon view modes. In Windows Vista, column headers could be used to filter, group, sort, and stack items regardless of the active icon view mode. Control Panel views are limited to Category, Small icons, and Large icons (which is actually Tiles view). List, Details, Extra large icons, Large icons, and Medium icons view modes are no longer available. The abilities to group or sort Control Panel items are also removed. Control Panel settings including Add Hardware, Bluetooth, Game Controllers, Offline Files, Pen and Touch, People Near Me, Scanners and Cameras, and Tablet PC Settings are not listed even under All Control Panel Items. The 32-bit Speech applet is no longer accessible through the Control Panel. Some of these settings are accessible only from within Category view, or by searching, but they can be made accessible via modifications to the Windows Registry. Disabling Auto Arrange and Align to Grid is not available in Windows Explorer windows. As a result, users can no longer manually arrange items via drag and drop within a folder; this feature is only available on the desktop. Each toolbar or desk band is forced to be on its own row in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer forces the RBBS_BREAK style for every band. Full row selection for icons in the Details icon view mode cannot be disabled, which was possible in Windows Vista.Disable Full Row Select: Keith's Windows Stuff Icons no longer appear on the Command Bar in Windows Explorer. IDeskBand interface and Explorer Bars are no longer supported in Windows Explorer; they are still supported in Internet Explorer. In Folder Options, the Remember each folder's view settings option that allowed Windows Explorer to retain folder icon view modes and icon sizes on a per-folder basis has been removed. If the sort criteria is changed when more than one item is selected — for example, if the user first sorts by name then by date — all selected items will be de-selected. It is not possible to open Windows Explorer (or even temporarily open a Windows Explorer window) as an administrator without modifying permissions of system values in the Windows Registry, due to a DCOM restriction. It is not possible to run the 32-bit version of Windows Explorer as a file manager or as the shell in 64-bit editions of Windows 7. 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows XP allowed executing the 32-bit shell/Windows Explorer and making it the default for compatibility with shell extensions. As a result, all 32-bit shell extensions are incompatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Items view control, an undocumented control that is incompatible with the List view control replaces the List view control used in Windows Explorer and Start Menu breaking applications that customized the Explorer list view control. The Item view also does not support custom positioning, custom ordering, or hyperlinks, which the Windows Vista list view did support. Because the control is undocumented, it is not possible for developers to disable auto arrange or customize views. Because ItemsView is not considered part of the Win32 common controls reusable by developers, the sound for the Select system event no longer plays in Explorer in Windows 7. The new items view control also ignores certain desktop.ini parameters like IconArea_Image and IconArea_Text preventing users from setting a background picture for folders. In Windows Vista, this feature was not built-in, however the list view control supported this if shell extensions or folder customization utilities which set the correct desktop.ini parameters and attributes were installed. Registry settings pertaining modified colors for compressed files, EFS-encrypted files, and item hot-tracking effects are ignored by the ItemsView control in Windows Explorer. The Navigation Pane no longer allows the tree view to be collapsed; in Windows Vista, it was possible to either show only the folder tree view or collapse this view to show only the new Favorite Links. The Navigation Pane no longer includes a horizontal scrollbar, or the ability to automatically scroll horizontally that was introduced in Windows Vista. The Navigation Pane no longer includes an option to display dotted lines to visually represent to the user how folders and subfolders are connected; in Folder Options, the Display simple folder view in Navigation Pane option is removed.Description of Simple Folder View in Windows XP Similarly, when clicking on a folder in the Navigation Pane, it isn't automatically expanded to show its subfolders, as the Display simple folder view in Navigation Pane option is removed. The Slide Show button on the Command Bar in Windows Explorer starts the new Windows Photo Viewer which, unlike Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Live Photo Gallery does not support themes or rich transitions. The Public folder introduced in Windows Vista is no longer listed among the items in the hierarchy of the breadcrumb bar; users who wish to open this folder from the address bar must enter its full path. The Share overlay icon for shared items in Windows Explorer has been removed; this change means that users must now select a folder each time, every time to determine if it is being shared. The Share overlay icon was a feature of Windows since Windows NT 3.1. The Sharing Wizard introduced in Windows Vista no longer includes an option to create a new user when sharing an item (Create a new user...). The Software Explorer feature of Windows Defender has been removed; as a result, there are no longer notifications if User Account Control blocks a startup application that required elevation. The status bar in Windows Explorer no longer shows the size of a selected item(s). When items are grouped, selection of multiple groups by clicking the group header while holding down the key is not possible as could be done in Windows Vista. When multiple items are selected in a Windows Explorer window, this selection is not retained if the user navigates back or forward. When navigating to a folder from a library, it is not possible to view the folder's contents in the view the user has set or customized; the folder uses the library's view. Windows 7 removes the Customize tab for a folder if its properties are opened via Libraries. If the same folder is opened in Windows Explorer without accessing it via Libraries, the Customize tab is available. Windows Explorer cannot be configured to retain individual folder window positions and sizes; each window shares the same size, and the position of each window is cascaded as new windows are opened.
Taskbar
16-bit applications can no longer display their icon on the taskbar when running. The taskbar instead shows the icon for NTVDM.exe, which is the 32-bit host process for running 16-bit applications. Always on Top for the taskbar is mandatory in Windows 7; in previous versions of Windows this was possible to disable. Clicking a grouped application's taskbar button or thumbnail when it is active (in the foreground) does not minimize it unlike in previous Windows versions; only ungrouped application buttons minimize upon being clicked again. Floating deskbands (toolbars) are no longer available. The feature was previously deprecated in Windows Vista; all toolbars can only be located on the taskbar. It is no longer possible to place toolbars on the other (non-taskbar) edges of the desktop. Grouping (placing next to each other) taskbar buttons belonging to the same application cannot be disabled; users can still disable combining multiple taskbar buttons of the same type under a single button. Icons have been removed from the tooltips for the notification area Date and Time, Network, Power, and Volume system icons. Network activity animation on the Network system icon in the notification area is no longer available; the icon now only shows the type of network being used and whether Internet connectivity is established. Quick Launch was deprecated and removed from the taskbar in favor of pinned applications. It is possible to revert to Quick Launch by manually adding it as a custom toolbar referencing %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch if users prefer the taskbar layout from earlier versions of Windows, although Windows 7 and later have issues with Quick Launch getting automatically disabled and all its settings getting reset after a log off or restart. Power plans listed under the Power system icon are limited to Balanced and Power saver (with the High Performance power plan being available in the Control Panel); in Windows Vista, the all three power plans were available for use from the system icon, and user-created custom plans would also be available. The configurable registry option TaskbarGroupSize, which allowed fine-grained control over taskbar grouping in previous versions of Windows is not supported. In Windows 7, users can only configure to combine buttons, not combine buttons, or combine when the taskbar is full. The context menu of the Power system icon no longer features a link to open the Windows Mobility Center. The number of combined taskbar windows is not calculated and shown next to the combined buttons regardless of how many windows are open (i.e., three windows in one combined set do not list '3' next to the combination's name); users must determine this for themselves. The Show window preview (thumbnails) option of Windows Vista in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties that allowed users to disable taskbar thumbnails while Windows Aero was active is no longer available. Tooltips for application icons only show the name of the application; they no longer show the comment field. When grouping is disabled, the ability to manage multiple taskbar items using the key and clicking with the secondary mouse button to cascade, close, minimize, or tile the selected group windows is no longer available. When the taskbar is vertical, there cannot be multiple columns of icons.
Start menu
Applications can no longer be excluded from appearing in the Most Frequently Used list of the Start menu by using the NoStartPage registry value as was possible in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Applications started from locations outside of the Start menu (such as from the Desktop, the Run dialog, or from folders) no longer appear in the Most Frequently Used unless launched at least once from the Start menu. Dynamically pinning default web browser and e-mail client programs on the Start menu is no longer possible. Programs can still be, however, manually pinned to the Start menu in Windows 7. Internet Explorer Favorites and History are no longer grouped under a separate header in the Windows 7 Start Menu as they were in the Windows Vista Start Menu. They are shown under the Files group. Search communications and Search favorites and history options from Windows Vista for the Start menu in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties are no longer available.