Microsoft are releasing a new version of Windows later this year and instead of giving it a nice name or the year of release, they are reverting back to the good old tried and tested version number ’7′. Now, before I go any further I need to tell you something, I actually quite like Windows Vista. Despite all the bad press it received since release I have had fewer problems with Vista than I had with any other new release of Windows (especially Windows Me which I uninstalled after 2 weeks and went back to Windows 98). Initially I couldn’t use my scanner, a Canoscan Lide, and surprisingly my Microsoft web cam due to lack of driver availability but this was resolved after a couple of months. Hardly the end of the world, and I certainly never experienced the compatibility or performance problems the press have been moaning about for months.
So, why do I start with my love of Vista? Well, Windows 7 so far just seems like Vista with a bit of polish on. A carefully remarketed version to disassociate itself from the legacy of its predecessor yet I like it. I’m only running the beta release which expires in August but so far I’ll be sad to uninstall it. The initial installation was a breeze mostly, the only problem I had being my own fault for testing the ‘upgrade’ option… once Vista had been upgraded Windows 7 promptly threw up a ton of errors about various bits of incompatible software I had installed then blue screened. So, a fresh install it was then. After installation all devices on my Asus X53SR laptop were fully functioning, no drivers needed – one up on Fedora and Ubuntu already.
The logon screen looks remarkably like Vista. When I say remarkably, I mean I had to double check I had actually put the Windows 7 DVD in the drive and not my Vista one.. so I logged in and that’s where it all got pretty.
The first thing it did was alert me that I had no antivirus installed and asked me if I’d like some. I thought “ooh yes please!” so followed the prompts giving me the choice of AVG, Kaspersky, or Norton. I knew that AVG was free so clicked that link and a couple of minutes later I was virally protected. Piece of cake.
Now to the obvious differences, it’s the small things that really make a difference and one annoying collection of small things that really gets on my nerves is the massive dollop of system tray icons people collect. You know the ones I mean, they sit down at the bottom right of your screen next to the clock and tell you that outlook is running (I know… I opened it, I am using it… why are you there you silly icon!??) or your antivirus is busy or messenger is signed in or winzip is installed or you have a mouse or you have a screen and this and that and ARGH! Good news, they have gone! Well, mostly. Replaced with a little up arrow that lets you see them if you have to.
Another thing they’ve thought of in that area of tidiness… when you minimise a program, why does it need to take up a large rectangular piece of my precious ‘taskbar’.. on most computers the resolution only allows for 5 or 6 applications to be open before this bar starts to look very crowded. OK, so Windows XP introduced grouping, better but still not very tidy or very pretty. Windows 7, in a stroke of pure genius by Microsoft’s design guys (ripped from Apple?), have just bunged smaller icons there. Click on one of these icons, for example Internet Explorer’s blue ‘e’ and it will open up the browser, click again and it will show you all current open browser windows in a mini-preview style (like on Vista)… but hover over one of these previews and the whole screen fills with a preview, one more click and it stays there, or you can roll over another preview for a satisfying graphical whoosh between windows.
Internet Explorer is now at version 8 and this breaks web sites. That is not a problem though, the broken web sites are ironically broken due to past version of Internet Explorer not sticking to standards and web developers having to find workarounds or just being lazy with their coding. A click of the ‘compatibility’ button lets you view the web site all fixed. Oh yes, and it has something dubbed unofficially as Porn Mode. Officially it is known as InPrivate and opens a special browser session which guarantees not to “leave any trace of specific web browsing activity, such as when … shopping for a gift on a family PC”. Yeah, that or surfing porn.
Paint has also been revamped. I know… Paint, that application that has barely changed since Windows 3.0. But it looks a lot different now, almost like a very basic photo editing package instead of the ‘no practical purpose but very quick for drawing silly pictures in or pasting screenshots’ thing that it always has been.
Looking at Microsoft’s “What’s New” pages, they are keen to promote Jump Lists. As far as I can tell, this is a new name for Recent Documents, a feature that has been around for a while and I can’t remember ever using. OK they’ve revamped it filter by application but, er, I don’t care. What I was really impressed with was the new Media Player. Normally an installation of Windows means I have to also trawl through my download folder installing a ton of video and audio codecs for divx videos, and then install Quicktime player for mp4 / h264 files. No more.. I double clicked on an mp4 video file and it played straight away. Media Player itself is now nicely streamlined with none of the bulky buttons or menus, just a simple window with the video in, and controls that appear when you hover over it the way things should be.
Windows Live, part of the ‘cloud dream’ I’ve been on about for the last few weeks seems much improved however you can get this for Vista or XP so it isn’t a Windows 7 exclusive. Your Hotmail account can integrate nicely in to Outlook, or just the Windows Live Mail application will do giving you access to your contacts, mail and calendar on whichever Windows Live (or just web browser) enabled machine you find yourself on. Even better is the ability of Live Messenger (aka MSN messenger) to let you log in to two devices at once without logging you out of your previous device. Animated personal video logos which dynamically change depending on which smileys you use in your chats are pretty fun to play around with too but there are plenty of new things I haven’t / can’t test, one of the more interesting being the touch interface. Much like on the Apple iPhone, Windows 7 can be touch controlled if you have the relevant hardware – it might not be any use for most computer users at the moment but should the demand suddenly be there in the consumer market Windows 7 is ready. Overall I’m happy with it. Whether I’d want to part with money on an upgrade from Vista is another matter but when it is finally released I can’t see people up in arms crying that Windows 7 ate their hamster or buried their applications in concrete under the patio. We’ve already been through the brick wall of Vista compatibility with badly written legacy applications and poor developer security awareness and now Microsoft are sweeping away the brick dust, planting some nice borders and saying isn’t it better now you are on this side? From the new tidier Windows Explorer to the easier to use device manager I think they’ve done a good job.