Windows 7 news and impressions?

[Eldmannen]

Internet Explorer 8 now got syntax highlighting in the view source thing. Also got "InPrivate" browsing mode, and integration with Microsoft's Live services.

It got a "Snipping Tool" to take screenshots of just part of the screen that you select with a rectangle.

It got "Sticky Notes" which is like virtual post-it notes. This is nice.

It comes with "Windows Media Center", a software that you can run on HTPC (home-theater PC).

I heard that they had removed the Windows Classic theme, and was disappointed by it, but I am glad to discover that it is still there.

As account picture, you can have a kitten, yay! You can also have some strange kind of robot.

Lots of screensavers were removed, and there are less than 10 now.

It comes with an virtual XPS printer. But unfortunately no virtual PDF or PostScript printer.

It also comes with an XPS viewer, but I would rather have a PDF viewer.

It comes with a new software called "Microsoft Fax and Scan".

Paint got some new features such as brushes. The default colors are also nicer. Though, I find the user interface a bit confusing.

WordPad also got a revamped user interface. It also got Paint integration.

There is also a new font called Calibri. Although, I think it looks a bit blurry, especially the i, l and k characters.

The Command Prompt not got auto-complete feature by tab enabled by default. In XP you had to manually enable it through a registry setting. No other changes though, still no pretty colors in the output.

Windows Media Player got some changes, and by default don't have that skin anymore. Now it looks more like any other software.

You can't change the Start Menu back to the good old Classic Start Menu which is a disappointment, since I don't like this new one.

Also, you cant change the taskbar back to Vista or XP style.

Windows got this smart sound feature that can automatically reduce the sound volume when using the PC for phone calls.

Another new application is the Sync Center.

In the control panel there is Parental Controls.

It also comes with Windows Speech Recognition. Although, Vista had this too. Hopefully it doesn't "Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all".

Disk Defragmenter includes scheduling functionality.

Though, it no longer provides a graph/diagram of the fragmentation.

Another new application is Windows PowerShell, so now you can run some nice scripts and make some nice scripts.

Another new application is Private Character Editor, I don't understand why it comes installed by default though. I don't think it anything that a lot of people would use.

There is a tool called Windows Easy Transfer, which allows you to transfer files between computers.

The 'msconfig' (System Configuration) tool is now available from the start menu.

There is also a Print Management tool, which seems quite sophisticated.

There is functionality to create a System Repair disc.

The Windows Sidebar is removed, though you can still have desktop widgets. There are clock, calendar, CPU meter, RSS feeds, stocks, weather, etc. The calendar widget is quite nice.

Windows Security Center has been renamed Action Center.

The analog clock is very pretty, a thousand times prettier than the one in Windows XP.

BitLocker unfortunately only works if you got a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip.

It does not work with the virtualized Ethernet and Audio hardware devices in VirtualBox.

The calculator got a new history option, and programmer mode. I like this, the history option seems like it be useful when doing bills.

It can also do unit conversion.

You can use biometric devices to login using fingerprints.

Windows can now provide applications with geographic data of your location such as ZIP code and latitude/longitude coordinates.

It got Tablet PC support with support for touch screen, and pens as input devices, and handwriting support.

UAC doesn't bother me anymore. I can use the system without it constantly annoying me all the time, which is quite a relief since UAC in Vista was very annoying.

It can use certificates from smart cards for file encryption. This is very nice.

The Windows Firewall is improved, and it is now easier to manage private networks. Also there is an advanced setting place, where you can change and edit rules. You can have rules that require IPsec, etc. It is quite nice.

You can now assign tags to files and rate them.

[Ultimate Predator]

Sounds very good. Looks like they've really worked on it.

[Eldmannen]

Yeah, there is some nice things about it.

I think that people who embraced Vista will probably like Windows 7.

Between XP and Vista there were 7 years, and it was huge changes. It takes some time for users to get accustomed to those changes. Some implementations of ideas in Vista were not so good, namely UAC which was quite an annoyance. Vista got some service packs, and Windows 7 is an incremental update which fixes improves Vista, and fixes some stuff.

Among people who stuck with XP, I think that some hardcore users will probably reject Windows 7 as they did with Vista and stay with XP.

But you cant stay with XP forever, is old, outdated and legacy. XP have done its time, then some more. XP is boring now.

XP got horrible font rendering, and the legacy architecture doesn't support new stuff such as WDDM and UAA.

Microsoft had to keep selling XP, despite having Vista, but now with the arrival of Windows 7, they will finally let XP die.

People cant and don't want to stay with XP, so I think most users will adopt Windows 7.

I think that Windows 7 will be better received than Vista.

I am still a bit confused about the user interface in Vista and Windows 7. The applications look more like websites than applications.

It is too bad, you cant get a classic Start Menu in Windows 7, because I don't like the one in XP, Vista and Windows 7, I just find it dumb and confusing.

The competition is bringing Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope".

[Ultimate Predator]

Yeah, there is some nice things about it.

I think that people who embraced Vista will probably like Windows 7.

Between XP and Vista there were 7 years, and it was huge changes. It takes some time for users to get accustomed to those changes. Some implementations of ideas in Vista were not so good, namely UAC which was quite an annoyance. Vista got some service packs, and Windows 7 is an incremental update which fixes improves Vista, and fixes some stuff.

Among people who stuck with XP, I think that some hardcore users will probably reject Windows 7 as they did with Vista and stay with XP.

But you cant stay with XP forever, is old, outdated and legacy. XP have done its time, then some more. XP is boring now.

XP got horrible font rendering, and the legacy architecture doesn't support new stuff such as WDDM and UAA.

Microsoft had to keep selling XP, despite having Vista, but now with the arrival of Windows 7, they will finally let XP die.

People cant and don't want to stay with XP, so I think most users will adopt Windows 7.

I think that Windows 7 will be better received than Vista.

I am still a bit confused about the user interface in Vista and Windows 7. The applications look more like websites than applications.

It is too bad, you cant get a classic Start Menu in Windows 7, because I don't like the one in XP, Vista and Windows 7, I just find it dumb and confusing.

The competition is bringing Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and Ubuntu 8.10.

Personally, bene using Vista and am very happy with it. If you carry out enough configuring, it runs incredibly well.

[Tarun]

Several things you mentioned as being new to Windows 7 are already present in Vista.

Snipping Tool, setting account pictures (XP had this too), Sync Center, XPS printer, Windows Easy Transfer, analog clock was improved in Vista, Tablet PC, and I believe Vista also let you tag and rate certain files.

Calibri is distributed with Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. It can also be separately downloaded from Microsoft.

[Eldmannen]

Personally, bene using Vista and am very happy with it. If you carry out enough configuring, it runs incredibly well.

I am sure it is better now with with the service packs and updates than it was when it was released.

I remember the data transfer rates used to be horrible. Copying files could take a long time. Deleting files took a long time.

Network performance could negatively affect the audio playback, etc.

UAC was a great idea, but the implementation was horrible.

Several things you mentioned as being new to Windows 7 are already present in Vista.

Snipping Tool, setting account pictures (XP had this too), Sync Center, XPS printer, Windows Easy Transfer, analog clock was improved in Vista, Tablet PC, and I believe Vista also let you tag and rate certain files.

Calibri is distributed with Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. It can also be separately downloaded from Microsoft.

Yeah, I kind of suspected that some might have been present in Vista, and some others I just forgot about. I haven't used Vista so much.

With the account picture, I was refereeing to the cat and the robot, not the feature. :P

[GTK48]

So far I have tried Windows 7 X32 & X64 and Windows 7 Home Premium X64. I really like Windows 7 Ultimate x64. It is a far superior product than anything MS has ever put out.