First look at Windows 7

Robert Hallock 28 Oct, 2008 at 12:45pm ET Article published in Tech

Today marks the second day of the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference and the day when hundreds of attendees get their hands on the latest pre-beta build of Microsoft’s next operating system. In departing from the Vista UI found in previous builds, the latest build of Windows 7 shows small changes that indicate a daring new direction for Microsoft.

Amongst the biggest changes is the elimination of text on tasks running on the task bar. Instead, large icons on small buttons have come to represent minimized and active applications. Second comes a revamp of the task bar itself with new (and admittedly charming) transparency effects. The last major change to the face of Windows is the removal of system tray icons which remain only if enabled at the user’s discretion.

Other changes include banishment of the resource-happy sidebar, migration of widgets to the desktop, and a new Windows Explorer interface.

Windows 7 is not expected to radically alter the foundation set by Vista, and is instead designed to focus on enhancing usability.

Comments

28 Oct 2008 ~ 1:17pm BuddyJ The new taskbar looks like crap.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 1:20pm airbornflght It's a first draft but I like the direction
28 Oct 2008 ~ 1:32pm MiracleManS From a pure user standpoint, this looks like a win so far. I just hope they continue this path in the development cycle and eliminate some of the things that made Vista such a monster.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 1:37pm Thrax I like the taskbar. I do not like the buttons.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 1:44pm BuddyJ I'm mainly concerned about the size. It looks like it's 3x the height of a normal bar. Shrink it down to regular size, get rid of the silly white borders and gradients and then we might have something. They need to drop the blue gradient addiction.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:04pm Snarkasm I am currently not a fan unless they explain how they deal with multiple windows of the same type. I turn off grouping on any system I install; it's like the third thing I do. If I have multiple windows open, it's because I want that many, and I don't want to have to work through layers to find the one I want.

I see that screenshot with 3 IE windows in it, and I am NOT a fan. Please allow me to use my text taskbar buttons and no grouping, thx.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:09pm MiracleManS My assumption would be that the thumbnail view is how they're handling it.

edit: AKA they're forcing the grouping?
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:10pm Leonardo I like what I see so far. It appears to be an elegant, logical improvement. I'm not sure the Explorer "Library" views are much advantage to someone like me who is meticulous careful with files management and storage, but for the type who just drops files anywhere helter skelter, it could be very useful. I really like the taskbar-windows UI. I think that's very functional and aesthetically pleasing. There are so many times, especially with smaller screens, when I've wanted to look quickly at several pages/applications but retain focus on another. Looks like Win7 will handle that very well.

Looks like Windows 7 is off to a very good start. I hope Microsoft keeps the focus on functionality and minimizes gimmicks. If they do, they'll have die-hard XP fans like me willing to spend money on upgrades.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:18pm jared Win7 will look about 5% like this when it goes gold.

Remember all those "revolutionary" pictures we saw during 'Longhorn' development. ZOMG MS IS THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX. Yeah, of course none of that actually made it into the release.

I'm going to try to stay positive here, but I'm not going to be holding my breath.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:19pm Snarkasm How very positive of you.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:19pm Thrax I would not be surprised to learn that Win7 is further along now than Vista was when it was released.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 2:20pm MiracleManS Considering Windows 7 is based on most of Vista AND has, supposedly, been in development for several years now, I'd agree with Thrax.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 4:25pm Tim Why do we need change in the user interface? Was XP so hard to use? Not for me it wasn't.

I never seemed to have the problems that I read others were having, so just take XP, call it 7, and put it on the store shelf. Then they'll have a good operating system (again).
28 Oct 2008 ~ 4:57pm Leonardo It's not that XP has problems so much, it's that an OS can and should improve. I'm fairly happy with XP, but I'm game to upgrade if a successive OS is really an improvement. I actually had Win98 running very well - and secure - on several computers before XP. So, I could have said that I did not have 'problems' with Windows 98. I resisted XP for almost a year after introduction. When I did upgrade though, I never looked back. XP was far superior to 98, but 98 did not have problems, so to speak.
28 Oct 2008 ~ 10:58pm QCH

Leonardo wrote:

I resisted XP for almost a year after introduction. When I did upgrade though, I never looked back. XP was far superior to 98, but 98 did not have problems, so to speak.

I was the same way... funny thing is, after 18 months, I have no intentions of rolling out Vista.
29 Oct 2008 ~ 9:48am kryyst So far I like the eye candy they are showing about windows 7. At the very least it's got me considering upgrading from XP. I'm dubious about their easier speedier claims though. They said the same thing about Vista. Sure it's easier if you don't try and do anything beyond one initial menu level and sure it's faster when it's run on a faster machine - but that's not really fair now is it Microsoft?

But still what they are showing so far on 7 is at least a step in the right direction IMO.
29 Oct 2008 ~ 9:58am Kwitko Screw the UI, rewrite the damn kernel.
29 Oct 2008 ~ 9:59am Snarkasm Supposedly they have it running nicely on a netbook. Still, I do wonder where that microkernel project went. I remember hearing something about it, but I've forgotten.
29 Oct 2008 ~ 10:02am Thrax Minwin, that microkernel, was never supposed to be the core of Windows 7. It was simply an experiment to demonstrate Microsoft's ability to code an efficient product, and a demonstration that those engineers were now at work on Windows 7.

While rewriting the kernel seems like an awesome idea, it would break most Windows applications in existence. If people thought Vista was bad, a new kernel would be a disaster. Unfortunately Microsoft must now tow 12+ years of legacy apps, hardware, drivers and users along. That's the price for backwards compatibility.
29 Oct 2008 ~ 10:09am Artemis I like the look of the taskbar...it looks good thus far.

I'm still with XP and it suits me well...never upgraded to Vista (even though my computer came with Vista) and I don't plan to go to it. I wonder how much memory it will need to run it. It would do Microsoft good to make this able to run on all Vista computers and (perhaps) most high-end XP computers...upgrading to Vista for most was expensive and a pain, and in the end, it hurt Microsoft. I hope they don't make the same mistake.