TechCast Reviews

29th December 2008

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For more screenshots in high-resolution, visit my Windows 7 flickr set.

The last few days have been spent tinkering with the latest build of Windows 7. With a build number of 7000, this is meant to be the public release version that is due to be given out early January 2009 as Beta 1. This gives a good indication of the progress that Microsoft is making with the development of their next-gen operating system.

Installation
The full ISO comes in at under 3GB and fits nicely on one DVD. Like Vista and XP SP3, you can install Windows 7 without a license key under a 30-day trial.

One of the first things you’ll notice when you run the installation from a cold boot is the animation that forms from the four dots of colours during the start screen, eventually forming a pulsating Windows logo. A nice effect, and much missed when they decided not to include any logo on the start screen for Vista. The installation steps are similar to that of Vista and requires very few steps to get the installation to run. From start to finish, the installation on my desktop machine took less than 30 minutes with a similar time on the Asus netbook.

On finishing the installation, you’re prompted with the user account setup, security and update preferences, time zone and calendar control. Following these standard steps that we’ve all seen in Vista, you are then prompted to select your wireless network. A first for Windows and a nicety that will allow users to get online straight away. This only worked for my Asus netbook but not my PC since it didn’t have the relevant driver for my wireless network card. Once the wireless is setup, you are then given the option to setup a ‘homegroup’. Which is essentially the same as a workgroup however its designed to work with consumers in mind. From here you can select which types of libraries you want to share with your homegroup, and a password is generated so that other machines can be added to your homegroup. That’s the final step in the installation process, from there on it goes through a few scripts to get the rest of your desktop and settings ready for first use.

Aero Peek
One of the newest and perhaps most useful features that will be included in Windows 7 is Aero Peek. This feature will allow you to manage your open windows much more effectively and efficiently than say the trust Alt + Tab or the feature that was introduced in Vista that no one ever used, Flip 3D.

Aero Peek will allow you to view the windows that you want. When you place your cursor over your application in the taskbar, doing this will show thumbnails of all open windows for that application. When you mouse over one of the thumbnails all other windows will turn in to transparent glass, giving the focus on the application you want. Clicking on the window you’re after will bring it to the top level.

The show desktop button has been moved to a non-labelled button on the taskbar next to the clock. When you mouse over this button it will turn all windows transparent, clicking on it will minimise all windows. A useful feature for getting straight to your desktop or having a ‘peek’ at your desktop gadgets.

Taskbar
One of the most dramatic changes in Windows 7, is the new taskbar. Replacing the traditional taskbar buttons, you now get application icons that sit in a ‘dock-like’ format representing your open applications. Application shortcuts can also be docked to the taskbar for quick access.

When you drag an application from your start menu quick launch list, for some odd reason it will dock your icon in your taskbar as it should do, but then it will remove it from your start menu until you unpin it from your taskbar. A minor flaw in the thinking behind that feature but nothing that degrades the user experience significantly.

Right clicking on application icons in your taskbar will provide a context menu specific to the application. For instance, in the example below, you can change your Messenger status without having to open up the application. Right clicking on Internet Explorer provides you with a list of your web site history. The Windows Explorer icon provides you with quick access to specific folders or libraries.

Start Menu
Jump Lists makes its debut in Windows 7 as a fly-out menu for your most recently used items in your start menu. This gives you contextually sensitive items and options depending on the application.

For instance, when you mouse over the Internet Explorer jump list, your browsing history appears. Do the same for Windows Live Messenger and you get the options to set your online status.

Windows Explorer
Simplified and tidied up, the new Windows Explorer offers much better navigation and logical storage locations for your files. It provides direct access to your desktop, downloads and recent places folders as well as a collection of different libraries.

Libraries can be quite a confusing concept. The best way for me to understand how this feature works is to relate it to how Smart Folders work in OS X. In OS X you can create a smart folder that collates files across your system according to your criteria. So for example, you can create a smart folder that contains all of the image files available on your system and is constantly updated as soon as any new images are added. Libraries on Windows 7 will work in the same way, allowing you to collect files and folders from across your system in to one location. This feature was originally introduced in a beta of Vista but was later removed in the final release.

User Account Control
In the list of things that are wrong with Vista, the amount of times that the User Account Control prompt pops up is probably top of the list for most people.

Thankfully, Windows 7 will have a slider bar for specifying how frequently you want these pop ups to appear.

Evaluation
Windows 7 is a massive improvement over Vista. It is the operating system that will inevitably put Microsoft back in to many peoples good books yet again. There is some genuine excitement surrounding the release of this version and one would think that the damage that Vista has caused to the Microsoft brand and reputation could have been avoided had this been the release that came out of Redmond back in 2007.