Windows 7 unveiled: appears to be a better-behaved Vista
Microsoft has released more details about exactly what will be in Windows 7. As expected, it largely looks and feels the same as Vista but has some usability improvements.
The features have emerged thanks to a release of a ‘pre-beta’ build at a developers conference. It’s the first time anyone other than official Microsoft testers has got their hands on the system.
Among the confirmed changes:
- The task bar will now allow full-screen previews of any open (but minimized) Windows. (Pictured above.)
- Home Networking should be easier to set up thanks to a simplified ‘HomeGroup’ process, which lists the most commonly required features first. (This doesn’t sound all that much different to previous Windows Networking wizards, though working first time, every time would certainly be a new development.) It also makes it simpler to stream audio or video content without having to configure the relevant device.
- The list of available wireless networks is now built directly into the taskbar.
- BitLocker will be updated to allow easy encryption of USB drives.
- A new ‘Device Stage’ feature will act as a single point for accessing a hardware device’s features and downloading any necessary drivers.
- As expected, User Account Control will be tweaked so that there are fewer alerts, the idea being to reduce irritation while giving more prominence to potentially serious problems.
Some of the bigger details about the system remain unknown. Microsoft isn’t confirming a release date (though one exec says it will be no later than three years after Vista, making February 2010 the cut-off point), and won’t say how many different editions of the system will be on sale.
Perhaps the most welcome news is that Microsoft staff report the system appears to work much better with low-end computers than Vista; one independent site which got a copy said it was able to open 100 windows without any performance problems.
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October 28th, 2008
the task bar looks ugly, i home they redo it
October 28th, 2008
the task bar looks ugly, i hope they redo it
October 29th, 2008
Looks like KDE 4.1
October 29th, 2008
It doesn’t look ugly. It is the same only it doesnt have the text. That could be the quick launch in the screen and not open apps.
Please keep your anti MS comments to yourself.
October 30th, 2008
@Norm,
I haven’t seen the task bar (and I’m not the slightest bit interested in seeing it, for that matter) but I can still tell you something that is very ugly: Microsoft’s business tactics. Go and do some research – I guarantee that you won’t have to look very hard. In fact, the deeper you delve into the history and culture of this unsavoury corporation, the nastier you realise it is. Given all the evidence that is a matter of public record, there is simply *no* excuse for ignorance in this regard.
So the reason that many people have a set against Microsoft is because Microsoft is anti-everyone else. So “anti MS” comments are not a problem, they are a symptom – the problem is actually Microsoft. Hopefully the problem will go away over the next few years – the Vista debacle certainly makes this appear to be a distinct possibility.
October 30th, 2008
“I haven’t seen the task bar (and I’m not the slightest bit interested in seeing it, for that matter)”
Is it difficult typing with both hands over your ears while screaming lalalalalalalalala? Do you own stock in aluminum foil companies to defray the cost of your helmets, or companies producing black paint for helicopters?
Reading your one note posts that rarely add anything even close to what the article is about. You are so fanatical and the posts so redundant whatever valid points you have are lost.
Microsoft isn’t going away. If you think Vista made some kind serious or close to mortal wound you’ve lost touch with reality. They had their largest annual revenue ever in ‘07.
The put out a bad product. They used the negative feedback to design the next version. The bastards.
The antitrust stuff was over 15 years ago. Microsoft raped your wife, killed and pissed on your dog, pulled out your children’s toe nails and are causing the end of life in the universe and will then explode and obliterate any Deity that is left.
Post after post equating Gates and Ballmer to Stalin and Hitler and endlessly postulating on their upbring and commenting how you pity them their evil and pus filled consciences is starting to get Unabomberish.
“there is simply *no* excuse for ignorance in this regard.”
Are you saying all Microsoft users are doomed to hell?
We’ve bantered back and forth for a few months now, it’s been entertaining.
But damn, Hugh your last paragraph made my head hurt and is like the notes they find in a spree killer’s house. You’re a grown man and free to post whatever you like, of course.
I’m no huge Microsoft fan, but I don’t think they are going to be the end of civilization, or everytime Windows is booted a kitten dies and Baby Jesus cries. People ask me why I use Linux instead of Windows I tell them why it works for me. When I recommend solutions to my customers that use Microsoft products it’s because they are the best solution for my clients
Go spend some time hanging out at the Mac Daily News forums. Find some kindred spirits, plan a convention in Seattle and go toss some Molotov cocktails in Redmond. Walk up and down with signs that say repent or you are doomed to hell-ask me why outside the employee parking lot. Your first sentence might as well ” be I have nothing to add to the subject but here is my rant because the word Microsoft is used”
November 4th, 2008
“[...] your last paragraph made my head hurt and is like the notes they find in a spree killer’s house.”
Fair enough. Can you tell me who came out with this gem: “I’m going to f****** kill Google”?
Now as for myself, I have never made a threat in any of my posts, much less threatened to kill anyone. Nor have I been so boorish, ill-mannered or intemperate as to use profane language (which, as they say, betrays a lack of both reasoning powers and facility with the English language).
No, the man with the truly “Unabomber” attitude is none other than Steve Ballmer. That’s right, it turns out that the CEO of Microsoft – who some seem to view as being somehow beyond reproach – is so lacking in class and self-control that he is reduced to using foul language and making death threats. This is the sort of immature behaviour that one might expect from an adolescent, but coming as it did from the CEO of Microsoft, it beggars belief. I must say that I personally find Mr Ballmer’s attitude a little worrying, and I think that he should consider seeking professional help.
In conclusion, I reiterate that there is no excuse for ignorance regarding the culture of Microsoft or the attitudes of its top executives, and Mr Ballmer’s quote is certainly a prime example in this regard. You are entitled to your opinions, as are we all, but I’ll give you a tip: it’s very, very hard to defend the indefensible.