After having fiddled with Microsoft’s new OS for a while this week I have finally reached an overal conclusion. It is one kickass operating system and the much needed improvement over its predecessor, Windows Vista. Not only does it address Vista’s performance glitches and hiccups but also brings to the table a new visual experience with its new taskbar and the ribbon interface integration that we have seen with Office 07 for Paint and WordPad. Some of its aspects are still quite similar to Vista which leaves me in doubt as to why Microsoft decided to go with a new name for this OS as opposed to just calling it Vista SE as it has done in the past with some previous operating systems. My guess is that Microsoft just wanted to start a clean sheet and leave behind the disaster that Vista brought during its period of existence. After all, most of us get a stomach ache just when we think of Vista therefore trying out a "Vista SE" would undeniably be out of the question. Nonetheless I think that Microsoft has gone a long way since Vista and even though this new installment in their OS line may have a few glitches here and there, we should keep in mind that it is only a beta version and that Microsoft will most likely address them before the final version is put on the market.
One of the things that struck me the most when I first tried this product was its great
performance which, contrary to previous OS experiences was not short lived. Even when I started loading the system up with lots of software and games, performance hogs were quite minimal if existent at all. The time to boot the OS up was quite consistent and windows as well as applications would still open up as fast as they did when Windows was freshly installed. As for CPU and memory usage, a minimal amount of around 500mB was drawn and much to my surprise it stayed around that same mark all throughout the time I used it.
A rather big turndown however was the lack of implementing anything different in the user interface (UI) other
than the ribbon interface for WordPad and Paint which was probably done with the intention of bringing them up-to-date with the new OS and the taskbar which isindeed quite different than any other operating system put out by Microsoft. Almost double the size, the new taskbar includes a ton of new features such as jump lists which with only a right click show for each window grouping stuff like browser's history and recent documents for Office. The new taskbar is also less cluttered as now the text is gone (don't worry you can stsill turn it on) and similar windows will be grouped together under the main software icon and can be previewed and switched by simply hovering over the icon with your mouse. This is great for people who have lots of windows open at one time and makes navigation much easier. One other aspect that is really worth noticing with this new Windows is that the sidebar is gone. Yes! That’s right! That awful, resource eating nuisance is finally gone. However, for the ones out there that liked it in Vista, you can still turn it on through Control Panel under the Appearance and Personalization link.
As for new features that come with Windows 7, there are quite a few that are worth mentioning . First of all, we have the “new and redesigned” Internet Explorer 8 or IE8. After working my butt off to find anything good about it, I decided to just leave it alone and focus my attention towards other things. Relatively faster than its predecessor, it was quite incompatible with some websites and forums that I could not get to work no matter what I tried and also, overall it just lacked any noticeable improvements and things that would just wow me. I guess the major cause of that is because this beta of IE8 is mostly for developers and designers and not end users like myself. Nevertheless, for the time being it’s a good idea to just stay away from IE8 and stick with Firefox or whatever other browser you might prefer. The second thing that Microsoft needs to be congratulated for is the implementing of Aero Shake. We all have tons of windows open at one time on our screen and sometimes it can be tiring for the eyes or just plain annoying. With
AeroShake, just give your window a gentle shake and voila! All other opened windows magically get minimized in the taskbar faster than you can say Aero. If you happen to want them back, just give your window another gentle shake and they will all come back to life from the taskbar. How’s that for intuitive! Also for those people out there that shop a lot online and want to compare two products, browse two pages simultaneously or look at two Explorer windows at the same time, Microsoft makes it even easier for them to do that. By snapping one window to the left side of the screen and the other to the right side, Windows automatically stitches them side by side and halves their sizes so that they both fit on the screen equally. A feature that will most 
likely get lots of people very psyched. PC maintenance is also amongst the issues addressed in Windows 7 and as a result, Microsoft came up with Action Center, a feature that houses many useful options and actions that users utilize frequently. Security options, the UAC (User Acount Control) , performance info, updates, backups and many others are stored under this great new Windows 7 feature. Also one last thing that I think is great in this new OS is the ability to somewhatt customize your UAC settings. In Vista, you could either turn it off or have it always notify you whenever a change was made and for people that have used Vista at some point know how frustrating that can become. Now, with Windows 7 you still have the option to turn it off or have it notify you at all times, but there are two more options in between. These options allow 
you to choose whether to not be notified when you make Windows changes which is the default option with the OS install or have the rather irritating screen blackout removed. Even though Microsoft does give users a bit more flexibility with the UAC in Windows 7 personally, I hope that in the near future the User Acount Control will become fully customizable to allow the user to dictate it exactly whenever they want to be notified and when they do not.
One of the things that struck me the most when I first tried this product was its great
performance which, contrary to previous OS experiences was not short lived. Even when I started loading the system up with lots of software and games, performance hogs were quite minimal if existent at all. The time to boot the OS up was quite consistent and windows as well as applications would still open up as fast as they did when Windows was freshly installed. As for CPU and memory usage, a minimal amount of around 500mB was drawn and much to my surprise it stayed around that same mark all throughout the time I used it.A rather big turndown however was the lack of implementing anything different in the user interface (UI) other
than the ribbon interface for WordPad and Paint which was probably done with the intention of bringing them up-to-date with the new OS and the taskbar which isindeed quite different than any other operating system put out by Microsoft. Almost double the size, the new taskbar includes a ton of new features such as jump lists which with only a right click show for each window grouping stuff like browser's history and recent documents for Office. The new taskbar is also less cluttered as now the text is gone (don't worry you can stsill turn it on) and similar windows will be grouped together under the main software icon and can be previewed and switched by simply hovering over the icon with your mouse. This is great for people who have lots of windows open at one time and makes navigation much easier. One other aspect that is really worth noticing with this new Windows is that the sidebar is gone. Yes! That’s right! That awful, resource eating nuisance is finally gone. However, for the ones out there that liked it in Vista, you can still turn it on through Control Panel under the Appearance and Personalization link.As for new features that come with Windows 7, there are quite a few that are worth mentioning . First of all, we have the “new and redesigned” Internet Explorer 8 or IE8. After working my butt off to find anything good about it, I decided to just leave it alone and focus my attention towards other things. Relatively faster than its predecessor, it was quite incompatible with some websites and forums that I could not get to work no matter what I tried and also, overall it just lacked any noticeable improvements and things that would just wow me. I guess the major cause of that is because this beta of IE8 is mostly for developers and designers and not end users like myself. Nevertheless, for the time being it’s a good idea to just stay away from IE8 and stick with Firefox or whatever other browser you might prefer. The second thing that Microsoft needs to be congratulated for is the implementing of Aero Shake. We all have tons of windows open at one time on our screen and sometimes it can be tiring for the eyes or just plain annoying. With
AeroShake, just give your window a gentle shake and voila! All other opened windows magically get minimized in the taskbar faster than you can say Aero. If you happen to want them back, just give your window another gentle shake and they will all come back to life from the taskbar. How’s that for intuitive! Also for those people out there that shop a lot online and want to compare two products, browse two pages simultaneously or look at two Explorer windows at the same time, Microsoft makes it even easier for them to do that. By snapping one window to the left side of the screen and the other to the right side, Windows automatically stitches them side by side and halves their sizes so that they both fit on the screen equally. A feature that will most 
likely get lots of people very psyched. PC maintenance is also amongst the issues addressed in Windows 7 and as a result, Microsoft came up with Action Center, a feature that houses many useful options and actions that users utilize frequently. Security options, the UAC (User Acount Control) , performance info, updates, backups and many others are stored under this great new Windows 7 feature. Also one last thing that I think is great in this new OS is the ability to somewhatt customize your UAC settings. In Vista, you could either turn it off or have it always notify you whenever a change was made and for people that have used Vista at some point know how frustrating that can become. Now, with Windows 7 you still have the option to turn it off or have it notify you at all times, but there are two more options in between. These options allow 
you to choose whether to not be notified when you make Windows changes which is the default option with the OS install or have the rather irritating screen blackout removed. Even though Microsoft does give users a bit more flexibility with the UAC in Windows 7 personally, I hope that in the near future the User Acount Control will become fully customizable to allow the user to dictate it exactly whenever they want to be notified and when they do not.Conclusion:
While this is still a beta and we do not know what to expect in the near future, it is quite apparent that Windows 7 will far outweigh its predecessor, Windows Vista. Microsoft left a bitter taste in our mouths after the rather unpleasant release of Vista but they seem to be getting back on track. Now it is just a matter of time until the final release of the OS will be put on the market but needless to say it’s got everyone quite intrigued to see what Microsoft will come up with in the end. Tempers are cooling and resentment towards Microsoft seems to be gradually going away as more and more people are filled with content towards this new OS. Hopefully Microsoft will not let us all down and keep up the excellent work in the months to come and if they do this right, it could truly increase their rank and stature.
