Windows 7 calculator is better than you think
Glance at the Windows 7 calculator and you may think that it’s much the same as the calculator in earlier versions of Windows. But you’d be wrong. Look under the hood and you’ll find that Microsoft have made the calculator much more useful.
To find the calculator in Windows 7, either go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Calculator, or simply click the Start button, type calc and hit Enter.
Once it’s open, click the View button and you’ll see a host of options including Scientific, Programmer, Unit Conversions and Worksheets. Students will find some of the options to be especially useful, while parents may find that some of those very same options bring back unpleasant memories of math class (sines and cosines and tangents, oh my!).
But it’s not all schooldays math: there are some options which everybody will find useful too. For example, the unit conversion option enables you to, surprise, surprise, convert between units of distance, weight, pressure, etc. The Worksheets are particularly useful and enable you to, for example, calculate mortgage repayments or even the residual value of a leased car.
Think the Windows 7 calculator is something you’ll find yourself or your kids using now that you know it offers more features than just your basic calculator? What hidden or not-so-obvious features of Windows 7 have you discovered?
A couple other blog posts you might be interested in reading are How to get the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7 and How to make the taskbar in Windows 7 work like the taskbar in Windows Vista.
Filed Under: How-To > Productivity Tools
Tags: new features of windows 7, scientific calculator for windows, windows 7 calculator
The Windows 7 calculator is not without its flaws. In Hex mode the calculator cannot display larger than X’FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF’ meaning 16-byte is its limited, resulting in a serious flaw to its usefulness. In other words the Hex mode will not accept calculations beyond 16 digits, meaning that 16^16 is its limit. One digit more and the Hex returns 0 a wrong response. Ironically, the scientific calculator in XP (Pro) calculates the queries correctly, unless challenged by a true scientific calculator.
Secondly, the mortgage calculation are American not Canadian, we use a different calculation. There are probably more flaws but finding one is bad enough, two forget it. For general calculations, perhaps it is good enough for some. For anyone interested in understanding the calculation click on the following York University URL:
http://www.yorku.ca/amarshal/mortgage.htm
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interesting informations to update general knowledges !
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Apple’s Mac calculator has had all these features for years, except mortgage calculator, which would only be useful for americans anyway. Plus, it has no bugs and it looks better than the windows calculator.
Good try Microsoft, it’s a step in the right direction, but you still will need a miracle to catch up to Apple.
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The Mac calculator can convert all kinds of units for area, currency, energy, length, power, pressure, speed, temperature, time, volume, weights and masses. It even does Calories to other measures of energy.
And that’s just the Mac OS X calculator
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Who cares? Don’t comment if you can only kiss Apple’s ass
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hey, Unit Converter Pro, running on my ancient Palm is better!
So,, thhhhhhhwwwwwwpt!
Cheers
Martin
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I’m just telling people that those abilities are not revolutionary.
And by the way, I’m not kissing Apple’s ass
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Funny how Apple users bow down to the apple gods when they come out with the Ipad. (a feature that pc had years ago) wow watching tv on your mac… (another feature pc had out almost a decade ago).
But mac is much prettier!
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How is a portable, 1.5 lb. 0.5″ thick touch screen device “a feature that PCs had years ago.” I fail to see your logic there. Also, you could watch TV on your mac years ago as well, so your point is pretty stupid.
And, yes, Macs are much prettier.
If you can’t afford a Mac, don’t go around bashing them, saying windows is better.
Just like if you can’t afford a Mercedes or Audi, don’t go around saying that your chevy is better.
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MOE…..
The difference in price between a Chevy a Mercedes reflects both quality and performance…
The difference in price between a Mac and a PC reflects the same as well. For the same price, the PC has much better performance and quality.
You can’t argue that if you put a Mac and PC side by side at the same retail price point, the PC will hands down win in performance, quality and features…
but hey, if the important part in buying a computer is how “PRETTY” it looks, I agree, Macs and their users win hands down!
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Jason, Moe, Chris, Funny, quit your verbal fighting or your going to bed without supper.
nuff said
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Tee Hee Hee, Windows zealots are so Hi-larious!
All I can stay is stick with your PC boys, you don’t know what you’re missin’
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If you need a serious calculator for your daily work, you should try DeskCalc for Windows.
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