Technically speaking, Windows 7 could be named “Windows Vista R2″, correlating with its version number of 6.1. (Likewise, Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor that many people refuse to let go of, could have been deemed Windows 2000 R2, being version 5.1.) Vista’s gotten a bad rap, and I think we can partly thank Apple’s ingenious manipulation of the uninformed public for that. Hell, half of the people who hate Vista don’t even know what it is.
I don’t believe that Vista is a bad operating system. Sure, it has its annoying traits, but it also hasn’t had as much time to mature as XP. It’s an awkward adolescent in the Operating Systems world. XP was always a good operating system, but I don’t think it became a great OS until SP2, almost three years after the initial release. (By the way, if Apple were running the show, each service pack would have been packaged as a new OS release at $140 a pop.)
But, understandably, Microsoft would like to wipe the slate clean. And they’ve taken great care to address the issues that have been relentlessly focused on by their critics for these past couple of years. But enough of that! I’m here to tell you why Windows 7 is going to turn things around, and why it kicks so much ass.
- Libraries. Instead of a Documents folder, you can have a Documents library. It will include any files in your Documents folder, the Public Documents folder, and any other folders you add to the library. This is awesome for me because my Documents folder is on a separate drive. I just add it to the library and it’s fully accessible.
- Superbar. The Windows taskbar has been overhauled, and it looks like they took the icon-only view from OS X’s dock and then improved on it. When XP introduced grouping, I never liked it. I didn’t like having to click twice to switch between windows, and the behavior changed depending on how many windows were open. It’s kind of weird for me to adapt to two clicks for things, but it adds functionality, too. Now, instead of a listing of the open windows for a given application, you get live thumbnails. Mousing over each thumbnail hides all other windows so you can see it full size (a feature called Aero Peek). This means if I just need to glance at what an app says, I don’t even need to switch to it. Just take a peek. One other thing I notice is that, so far, I have a lot of unused space in my task bar. Because of the grouping and lack of labels, the pinned applications don’t even begin to fill the available space. If I pinned everything I ever used, I might not even need the programs menu.
- UAC. One of my biggest annoyances of Vista was User Account Control. I had it disabled for a long time, but eventually relented due to the value of the added security. But Win7 makes a very important correction: It understands implied permission. If you right-click Computer and select Manage in Vista, it will ask you if you’re sure you want to do that. Windows 7 understands that you already said you wanted to do it and to not ask you again. (This is the default UAC level for Administrator-level accounts, anyway.) UAC will still prompt you when an application tries to do something requiring permission, like an installer. It’s much more streamlined and much less irritating. Instead of simply being on or off, there are now four levels of protection for UAC. Default behavior is the second-highest setting and completely acceptable, in my opinion.
- Application Bundle. It bothers me when an OS bundles a lot of extra, redundant software that I don’t need. XP did this with MSN Explorer, Outlook Express and Windows Messenger, for instance. These sort of programs are not included by default in Win7, and for that I want to hug Microsoft. These sort of apps are now part of the Windows Live suite and are easily available for download. I wish it worked that way for the built-in games, as well.
- Drivers. Simple–use the Vista drivers. The core is so similar to Vista SP1 that I’ve had very few issues using Vista drivers in Windows 7.
- Application Support. Almost identical to Vista. The only apps that run in Vista that fail in Win7 are the ones that do an explicit verification of the OS, and throw an error if it’s not Vista. Most prominently, many driver installation programs will do this, but if you use Device Manager to update the driver, it will work. I think there may also be issues so far with utilities such as Virtual CloneDrive, used for mounting CD images.
- Performance & Stability. While I haven’t done benchmarks myself, Windows 7 feels just as fast–or faster–than Vista. Which is a fantastic relief. Most benchmarks I’ve seen agree, and in some cases it’s actually faster than XP. There are some crashes and quirks, but it’s still in beta! For a beta product, I consider it to be amazingly solid, and I’ll be submitting feedback whenever possible to try to improve it before release.
- IE8. IE8 is a sore spot for me so far. It doesn’t affect me very much, since I use Firefox 99.9% of the time, but when I did need to start up IE8, it annoyed me with a series of questions to answer with no good explanation. Do I want to use Accelerators? I don’t even know what they are, but I’ve never needed them before. Oh, I should set my default search engine? How about, um, Google? I think I could install Opera with less fuss than it is to launch IE8 for the first time. This needs to be addressed.
- Backup. They fixed my gripe about the Vista version! The way I have my computer structured, I don’t care about backing up the OS Core. I can reinstall that easily. But I wanted the ability to back up specific folders, and they’ve introduced this functionality in Windows 7′s version of the Backup utility.
- Bugs. Hey, it’s a beta. I’d be worried if there weren’t some weird quirks to deal with. Currently, I’ve noticed that my NIC loses the gateway setting frequently when I reboot. Ipconfig actually reports that the gateway is set to both 0.0.0.0 and 192.168.1.1. Disabling and re-enabling the connection fixes it. I’ll be reporting it next time it happens. I’ve also found that the Add A Printer wizard doesn’t include that many drivers. But there’s a Windows Update button to search for more. Problem is, it takes forever to search–it doesn’t simply query Windows Update for the best driver available for the device you specified; it gets an exhaustive list and apparently that takes a while. And there’s no progress meter or indication that it’s working. 10-15 minutes later, I got the list I needed with the printer I needed and it worked perfectly.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been running Win7 as my primary OS, both with the PDC Pre-beta build (6956) and the Beta 1 build (7000). I’m extremely happy with it and am quickly adapting to the few things that require me to re-learn how to use it, like the Superbar.
Still unknown: Versions. I hope they don’t have a dozen different variations of Windows 7, with convoluted upgrade paths, as they’ve done in the past. Hell, I don’t even think they should release it in a 32-bit flavor. Anything that should be running it should be capable of 64-bit, and this would simplify the build process and driver support while offering better security and memory support. Vista was burdened by over-versioning, and to some degree, XP. I think they should either release just one version (Ultimate equivalent), or three versions (Ultimate, Home Premium, and Enterprise equivalents).
Overall, I believe Windows 7 is well-poised to redeem Windows in the public eye. Microsoft is also finally fighting back with the “I’m A PC” commercials, so the public will see that there are two sides to this battle. And the battle has only just begun.
