Another 27 tweaks confirmed for Windows 7
Microsoft has announced a further 27 changes to Windows 7 based on user feedback. It comes as yet another new leaked edition looks suspiciously like a finished product.
Most of the changes are simple useability tweaks. For example, hovering over a taskbar item brings up a relevant list, such as the Internet Explorer icon bringing up a list of the sites you have open in different tabs. Such lists now have a cross symbol for closing the relevant page or document without having to use a right-click menu.
Windows Media Player now does a smarter job of dealing with albums that have multiple performers, for example making sure compilations are correctly listed as a single album. Meanwhile Windows Search is better able to cope with indexing files when a new filetype is added to the system.
The Safely Remove Hardware function has been merged with the Eject function to make a single system. It’s been tweaked to avoid problems such as attempts to eject a disc from a DVD-drive mistakenly disabling the drive itself.
Of course, the question now is whether there are so many changes (63 announced in total) that Microsoft should really be issuing a second beta edition for wider testing. Instead the firm seems set to go straight to the release candidate stage, at which point it’s simply a case of fixing serious bugs rather than refining the system.
There’s certainly an argument that Microsoft risks a repeat of Vista’s woes by rushing Windows 7, perhaps to get it on sale in time for this year’s holiday spending season. But most of these changes are pretty insignificant in the big picture, and Microsoft appears confident the system as a whole is fir for purpose.
Only a few days ago, the latest leaked copy of Windows 7 was known as build 7048, which incorporated several of the changes from Microsoft’s first set of announcements. But that’s been followed by build 7057, which was produced a month later and has a couple of major differences. It’s the first leak to have an expiry date past this August (specifically May 2010), and it specifically uses the term release candidate in the licensing agreement.
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