First Look: Microsoft Windows 7

Windows 7 is still some way from final release, but Microsoft has now allowed an early peek at the next version of its platform, and it promises to fix many of the flaws of Vista while adding compelling new features that users will want.

We looked at the pre-beta release of Windows 7, and found it surprisingly stable and more responsive than Windows Vista. The fact that Microsoft is able to deliver such a polished release at this early stage bodes well for the final product, which is expected sometime towards the end of 2009.

On the downside, the version we saw – build 6801 – was missing many of the snazzier features Microsoft showed off at its Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles last week, which are likely to put in an appearance in the first beta.

First off, Windows 7 boots up a lot faster than Vista, or at least it did on the evaluation system Microsoft supplied us with, a Lenovo ThinkPad X300 with 2GB memory. We had the Windows desktop visible and could use the computer just a little over 30 seconds after hitting the power switch.

The next thing you notice is that Windows 7 has a much cleaner desktop. The Windows Sidebar has been removed, but users can instead place Sidebar Gadgets directly onto the desktop wherever they want them.

The taskbar has also been given a makeover, now featuring the translucent glass effect applied to windows. For laptop users, the taskbar now features an icon that at a click shows any wireless networks in range and lets you connect to them.

Users can also choose to hide some icons in a special notification area, such as those for Windows Update and Windows Defender, if they prefer to check manually for notifications.

At PDC, Microsoft demonstrated how applications on the taskbar are represented by a thumbnail of their Window, expanding to a larger preview if you move the mouse over it.

Another user interface addition is Jump Lists, associated with each application on the Start menu or taskbar. These provide shortcuts to the application features, such as the playlist in Windows Media Player or recent documents for Word.

Some new features sound trivial, but are designed to make life easier. For example, dragging a window to the top of the screen automatically maximises it. Likewise, working with two applications side-by-side is made simple by dragging each to the opposite side of the screen, whereby they automatically resize to fill half the space.

Some built-in applications have also been given a makeover, with WordPad and Paint getting a new ribbon interface reminiscent of that found in Office 2007.

Windows 7 also adds Libraries to Windows Explorer, allowing content such as images or music files to be grouped together even if they are stored in different folders, drives or on a different PC on the network.

Peripheral devices are given more importance in Windows 7, with a new Control Panel item bringing all devices and printers together in one place. Each is represented by an icon, from which users can check properties, or browse files if it is a device like a smartphone with internal storage.

The Bitlocker encryption tool introduced with Vista can now be used to protect removable media such as USB Flash disks. We were able to encrypt a 512MB memory stick and assign a password to control access, which took several minutes to complete, but was much less hassle than encrypting the hard drive under Vista.

However, it seems likely that only other Windows 7 systems will be able to read such protected devices; in Windows XP, our disk showed up as a blank volume with no free space available.

Some features of Windows 7 we have been unable to test so far.

These include HomeGroup, which is designed to make home networks easier to set up and operate, so that users can share content easily across every computer in their home. A federated search tool should also allow users to quickly find files across the entire HomeGroup, for example.

With a touch-sensitive display, Windows 7 can be operated using fingertip control, and this extends even to existing applications, according to Microsoft. At PDC, the firm showed how users could scroll through a document using fingertip control in Word and Internet Explorer.

Overall, we found this version of Windows 7 has much to recommend it, and seems to have ditched or fixed many of the more annoying aspects of Vista. We look forward to being able to try out more of the promised features in later releases of the platform between now and the shipping date.