hi,

if you can follow and accept a few facts it should be fairly simple, with a few rough spots to get used to.

the first and biggest thing to get used to is there is no "classic view" anymore, your moving forward, you can't use the old stuff any more (view and program layout wise"
second thing, when you hit the windows key, you land in a search box, this search box is your biggest friend on windows 7!

this is how to fast find most things on your computer, you can type in a partial or full word here and windows uses smart matching to find things that match, if you down arrow you find the list of things and if you enter on one, you start it/go there.

for the rest, I will refer you to the excellent podcasts on the blind geek zone site and several written texts and other pod casts by telling you to go to my grab bag site and at a minimum grabbing the windows tutorials package that is offered to folks in the upper set of links just under the navigation links of the site.
http://grabbag.alacorncomputer.com

it has several written tutorials, and a list of addresses to places like Blind-Geek-Zone and blind cool tech.

just under that are a few more downloads, one that is very useful is the windows 7 help notes collection, which is just that, a collection of notes and Emails from a number of lists.
its a collection of the "where did they put that's", "what there calling it now's", and "how do I do this in w7's".

most are listed by the prime function of it (I.E. if its about display's, its display, how to change...; and if its about networking, it should either be under homegroup, or networking, so you can first letter navigate to the desired item)
there are a lot of hints there and some duplications, its unsorted, and I am on 14 different lists so I get a lot of hints from all over the web.

HTH,
inthaneelf
. Moderator, Blind Access Help.
. Owner: Alacorn Computer Enterprises
"own the might and majesty of an alacorn"
www.alacorncomputer.com
. proprietor: Inthane's Grab Bag
for blind computer users and Programmers!
http://grabbag.alacorncomputer.com

Mitch, it's as different from XP as XP was from say, Windows 98. So, it's a lot like what you're used to.

I suggest you join the blindwindows7 group at Yahoo Groups and ask questions there. Just send a blank message to blindwindows7-subscribe@...

Chris

Greetings: The day may come when I need to make the switch from my current XP Home to a Windows 7 machine.
A Geezer and set in my ways, will this be a smooth transition or are there new formats, layouts and the like one must learn?
Thanks for any feedback from those of you who have made the jump.
Best Wishes, Mitch
"There comes a time in every Man's life and I've had plenty of 'em." Casey Stengel