What Windows 7 Brings to the Table

Almost three years ago, when Windows Vista was released, it promised lots of new features, user interface improvements, and basically claimed that it would redefine the entire computing experience. Windows 7 does not make such claims; instead, it focuses on being an operating system that just works. One of the significant design goals was to offer full hardware compatibility. They could not afford failures.

Windows 7 is based on the Vista code, but it is an entirely different beast. Months ago we learned that Windows 7 is going to be faster, more responsive, and less cluttered (read as: less bloated) than Vista was. If all goes well and the pieces of the puzzle fit together for Microsoft, there's an excellent chance that  Windows 7 will deliver all that Vista promised and much more. There are improvements everywhere.

As with every new operating system, we must analyze the system requirements. Microsoft Windows 7 does not seem to be more power-hungry than Vista was. Due to performance improvements, Windows 7 will seem much faster to the average user run on the same machine as compared to Vista. This is because it feels more responsive.

Three of the software bundles were dropped due to recent lawsuits. This means Windows 7 does not come with Windows Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, and Mail. These are freely available with the Windows Essentials update package. The "custom" edition that is shipped within European Union countries is called Windows 7E (E marks Euro); it is an edition that lacks Internet Explorer.

The official SKU lineup for Windows® 7 is the following: Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. For an in-depth analysis of what each version offers, please head over to this website. Our article's scope is to point out the new features, enhancements, and additions to the entire OS.

Let's start reviewing Win 7. We're testing the RTM version while writing this article.

Windows 7 brought lots of new additions and changes; presenting all of them within one article is pretty much impossible. We will do our best to summarize each of the really important changes and features or enhancements that we consider significant. The article is, therefore, subjective and not complete.

The dominant word for Windows 7 is "simplify." The setup procedure requires barely five steps that require user interaction. The process is also fast. Right as the operating system is launched for the first time, users will surely notice some differences in the graphical user interface. Aero has been revamped, and it sports new features: Aero Peek, Snaps, Shake, and other enhancements.

You can peek through all of the open windows by making them transparent; some of the windows can be snapped to the screen borders; and you can either maximize or minimize windows by shaking them. The Windows taskbar was improved, and support for the Classic (Windows 98-style) taskbar was dropped forever. (This is a huge hit for many long-timers that simply loved the traditional style. It's time to move on.)

There are larger graphical thumbnails when opening windows; the new touch feature is also amazing if that's what you're looking for (touch-screen based systems such as Tablet PCs). Quick Launch was replaced with the ability to pin applications onto the taskbar. Jump Lists is again a new function that is similar to "most recently used programs," but it's more complex, and it works really well. We say hooray for that one.

Libraries are a new concept introduced in Windows 7. These act just like folders, but they don't actually store the content; rather, they just gather systematically the files based on specific needs (such as music by genre, pictures taken before a particular date). This is something that lots of home users will prefer-thus, hopefully it will reduce clutter.

The new Ribbon UI style is spreading like a disease and, apparently, both WordPad and Paint have become affected. Third-party developers can now incorporate support for Ribbon-based UI bars into their software. Moving on, the side bar has also been revamped, since it doesn't act as a side bar; instead, gadgets are placed right on the desktop. And they can be resized, too; finally!

Windows Explorer got a few tweaks as well, and Microsoft claims it has become stable. From a UI perspective, we notice a somewhat newer interface. Windows Search as well as Start Menu Search are functions that can be customized, offer specific advice based on your previous searches, and support highlighting that is nice. Sticky Notes is a new addition that may (or may not) reduce the count of post-it notes near our desk.

You can finally disable notifications from the system tray and even strip off some of its components, including the clock. Internet Explorer 8.0 has received its share of enhancements; now tabs can be previewed in thumbnails (something that's been possible in Opera for oh-so-long), but here's the real deal: your downloads' progress is shown on the taskbar's icon when IE is minimized. This is really cool; hooray for this!

When Microsoft engineers were trying to decide on the perfect keyboard shortcuts, the Windows key finally yelled out its request for dozens of shortcuts so it can be worthy of its name. Check out this short article for coverage of all of the combinations and what they do. For gamers this is not a big pro, since they can press them by mistake, but it can be disabled on gaming keyboards (e.g.; Razer).

Chances are, not even most Microsoft engineers can enumerate all of the UI changes; there are so many of them. So this is enough for now.

Windows 7 has been pushed one more step towards modularity. This means that users can actually disable/enable every major Windows feature, everything from those classic games up to components like Tablet PC, Media Features, Indexing Service, XPS Viewer, SNMP, Windows Gadget Platform, and many others. Basically you can tailor your operating system according to your needs and preferences.

The process of connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot has also been made more seamless. Now it takes just a click or two-select your hotspot and you're on. Internet Explorer 8 has been re-engineered again to provide a reliable platform and seems faster. Should anyone prefer to stick to IE, it's recommended to always pick the last version.

A Crash Recovery function was implemented that reloads your previously opened pages when (and if) your browser decides to crash. This is similar to the approach that was taken with Opera and Firefox. The Phishing Filter was also modified slightly. And your browsing histories can become private now, thanks to InPrivate.

The recession has forced some new feature into Calculator as well. Now you have a mortgage calculator, along with unit conversion, gas mileage, and many other fancy everyday usages. These formula templates are nice to have.

Home users are also spoiled by Microsoft since they got HomeGroup-which is the Workgroup's variation for home users. They can share resources (like drives, printers, libraries). It's a shame that only Windows 7 machines can join such a home group.

Windows Media Player, along with Media Center, received their share of additions. Streaming to other PCs is possible, all-around performance is improved, and they have become more compliant with the latest tech standards. Interfaces have also been renewed.

One of the biggest complaints with the new security enhancements introduced to Vista were that the UAC (User Account Control) is annoying or that many of the other notification boxes are nagging. Windows 7 uses a slightly different style. Now users can customize the way UAC notifies -- it can deliver just a balloon, a balloon with the confirmation message box, or nothing; you can disable it entirely.

Security Action Center is the new "control panel" for all security-related actions and settings. The icon for this Action Center will change its color on the taskbar when some of its applications require the user's attention. This makes it less annoying. BitLocker has been extended to USB flash drives as well (it's called BitLocker To Go).

Device Management was polished and many new functions were introduced. You can download drivers from Microsoft, calibrate your display's colors (natively on Win 7, not as you did already with the help of your video drivers), enjoy support for Bluetooth 2.1, and you can now toggle between your laptop screen and external screen with Win + P.

Windows 7 tries to repair itself whenever something goes wrong. Startup Repair is just an example of how this works. Should your operating system be unable to load up for some reason, the Startup Repair will try to troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix your problem. The Windows Recovery Environment (Win RE) is also installed by default.

There are a few interesting additions that Microsoft thinks only Enterprise Edition users will need. Here we're referring mostly to DirectAccess. This a new technology that relies on IPv6 and PKIs - in short, it's a VPN alternative that does not require manual configuration. Users won't even notice any difference. But this feature isn't included in any version other than Windows Enterprise.

BranchCache is yet another Enterprise-only new feature, but this one makes sense. Chances are slim that any home user or small company would have branches. This is similar to what caching proxies did (or are still doing) for most organizations. It's able to store remote data files or web data on any local Windows Server or Win 7 machine. Then it's "faster" to deploy to the local users within that branch. It raises questions as to how practical this solution is, since caching proxies are pretty much already obsolete.

It's time to wrap up this article with a subjective take on the fate of Win 7.

As you can see, it's time for us to end this article. But we won't do that before we draw some conclusions. On the previous pages we discussed some of the most significant features and enhancements Windows 7 brought to the table. We did the same ages ago in the case of Vista. Bear with us while we explain our views of Vista and Win 7.

Our honest opinion is that Windows 7 looks like what Windows Vista was supposed to be. If the Redmond giant plays their cards right, they may accomplish the goal of creating yet another standard defining operating system that follows in the footsteps of Windows XP. Almost ten years ago, when it first came out, XP redefined the way we think about desktop user interaction, entertainment, productivity...

After such a great success and so many years, everyone was expecting at least that much from Vista, if not more. Windows Vista was an all right operating system that sported newer technologies and felt as if it was "up" with the new trends-in a word: modern. But just that. In terms of both performance and compatibility, people were always comparing it to its forefather, XP. It was hard to live up to their outrageous expectations.

Right after that, the vast majority learned to accept the fact that Vista isn't what they want; it is not a miracle software that will alter their perception of desktop computing, and they refused to hear of anything even remotely related to Vista. Throughout the years Vista had been fueling that fire of desire, spreading  promises, giving the majority hope; then when users realized that Vista is yet-another-OS, they were psychologically let down.

Realistically speaking, regardless of how well-designed and greatly engineered any OS would have turned out to be, those outrageous expectations that promised everything, including the moon from the sky could not be met. And while all of the new stuff was desired, the good old performance king- XP-set some high standards to live up to.

Remember the kind of hardware specifications we had back in early 2000s versus today's standards. After so many technology breakthroughs (65nm/45nm, DDR2/3, SATA2, higher throughput and data transfer capabilities between the chipset and the rest of the motherboard, etc.), it's to be expected that an old operating system designed to those norms "flies" through today's machines and feels truly fast.

Vista's code was written (mostly) from scratch; it's an entire OS built from the ground up. Back then Vista was, perhaps, struggling on most people's desktop computers. And yes, Vista was slightly bloated and didn't play well with some hardware back then. Over the years it has received many patches and even service packs. Today, most people can afford a hi-tech PC at home.

Windows 7 patched all of the holes where Vista failed years ago. They also made it run faster by stripping out some services and tasks, optimizing execution, dropping Windows XP compatibility (which made the code cleaner) by introducing XP Mode, and many other tweaks. Windows 7 runs faster than Vista did, and our hardware is also much beefier by now!

Finally, Windows 7 has a better chance of satisfying the hungry crowd's expectations and desires-especially those people that preordered it months ago. We will do our best to monitor the progress on how "welcome" Windows 7 becomes.

In closing, I'd like to invite you to join our experienced community of technology professionals on all areas of IT&C starting from software and hardware up to consumer electronics at Dev Hardware Forums. As well, be sure to check out the community of our sister site at Dev Shed Forums. We are friendly and we'll do our best to help you.