After microsoft released the first Beta for Windows 7 last friday, I decided to try it out. First some introduction. I am primarily a Windows Vista user who tries to switch to Ubuntu every now and then but somehow never gets around doing it. I installed Windows 7 on a 3 year old laptop that Nilopa donated to me(just for some time). The specs of the laptop are:
- Intel Pentium M processor 1.73 GHz
- 512 MB Ram
- No graphics card.
Yes the hardware specifications are not exactly what Microsoft suggests and technically not supported by the release. But then I didn’t want to post the same stuff that has already been posted here, here and here. So, Here goes my take on it:
As you can guess from the hardware configuration, I ran Windows 7 without the Aero Interface. So what I reviewed would as “Windows 7 Basic”.
- None of the Fun Applications (as Apple refers to them) are shipped with the OS. Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, calendar, Mail etc are shipped separately. This allows Microsoft to focus more on the OS and lesser on the frills as I generally call them.
- There is a “New” taskbar. In case you are wondering what is new in it, It looks a lot like the Apple Dock. You will basically see a bunch of icons for different applications in the taskbar. Active applications have a very subtle square around the icon while the rest just sit there. You can add new icons to the task bar by running an application once and then “pinning” it to the taskbar.
- There are several UI changes: As is usual with Microsoft releases, there are quite a many UI changes. What I am glad to report is that many of them are in the right direction. The wireless networking related functions can be accessed faster. The action center and system tray customization are good features to be included. Another commendable move is the removal of the ugly black sidebar. The control panel has been restructured while the search box in the start menu gives better results.
- And there are those not-so-good changes: There are many changes that leave the application behavior inconsistent. For example, The post-it gadget has been removed and instead a new application has been added that does the same work. The problem with the move is that applications do not behave the way gadgets do when you click on the “show desktop” icon on the taskbar (and this is really annoying). Some fundamental changes in icon behavior on the taskbar are not so welcome. For example clicking on an icon starts a new instance of the application but subsequent clicks just minimize or maximize the already running instance. This behavior is again similar to the way OS X behaves but not what Windows users would expect.
Here are some screenshots from my installation:
Various Applications in the new Version:
Paint, Wordpad and Calculator sport a sleeker UI
New TaskBar
In short:
Windows 7 is a release worthy of being called the next version of Windows. It adds a few new features to the OS and at the same time improves on the stability, usability and performance of existing features. Some features might take getting used to but they will be apprecited with time.
