Many years ago, Microsoft released an Operating System Called Windows XP, but it wasn't received very well in the beginning. As time went on, people realized the true power of XP, and it became increasingly popular, until it was used by practically everyone. Then Vista came out, and it was the turning point in software for Microsoft. After massive changes to the core of the Operating system, they came out with a highly advanced operating system, but with many problems that are typical of a new revolutionary technology that hasn't been perfected.
With Vista, many improvements were provided that were also filled with bugs, or rather, certain features that many people didn't like, even though it made Vista better than more secure. Due to the annoyance of these features, and the negative propaganda Vista received even though it was a great software that everybody bought and liked (that's right, most users liked it! If people really didn't like it, then they would've asked for a refund or something, instead of complaining on the Internet, which demonstrates that they liked it and are hoping Microsoft will further improve it.)
Now, Windows 7 Beta has just been publicly released, and it is one big step up from Vista. It is a revolutionary product and it certainly multiplys the effectiveness of Vista's basis, and adds more features that make the operating system easier to use, more efficient, betting looking, and just overall, better. It makes what was already a great operating system, into an amazing operating system!
Windows 7 reduces the memory and resource usage of Vista, and brings the best features while tuning up everything to what most computers want. Let's take a look at some of the highlights of Windows 7 and some of the not so good points.
Setup and Device/Driver Installation
If you didn't know it beforehand, you might've thought you were installing another version of Vista, when you install Windows 7. There's nothing special about the set-up process except the new boot screen, and the new HomeGroup setup, which we'll talk about later.
It seems that with the coming of Vista and Windows 7, drivers are found by the OS extremely fast. With XP, sometimes you had to go looking for specific drivers, but Vista and now Windows 7 gets them immediately, and you barely have to do anything. It finds drivers by itself.
What's interesting about manging devices and drivers, is that 7 now provides a feature called Devices and Printers. The old Device manager is still available, but this new features seems to be better looking, and possibly more user friendly than device managers. According to Paul Thurrot, it's also more advanced. It may be able to fix certain issues Device manager cannot, and makes fixing those issues easier with the GUI. However, the use of this feature may be limited, seeing as Windows 7 gets and installs most or all drivers without the need of user interference.
Preloaded Apps
I have to say, there's two words that can be said about this, and those are, COOL, and AWWW.
First off, it seems many applications work on Windows 7 that work on either Vista or XP, so that's a good sign, but basically all of them either don't take advantage of Windows 7's new features, or has minor bugs with one or two of them. What's cool is the new Windows Media Player, with lots of new codecs to support many types of files, and the slick design which is much simpler and no longer overcrowded. As well, Windows Media Player is integrated with Libraries so you can load all your media files in one place. You access these libraries in the same way whether you're using WMP, Explorer, or the new Media Center. More on Libraries later.
That's a picture from the windows 7 blog, showing a more simplistic design.
This is a picture of the new and improved Windows Media Center, which you can use HomeGroup to share media, and even stream recorded-TV(non DRM).
Moving on to the AWWW, well, a huge drawkback here is that some of the usually prepacked apps are no longer bundled with Windows 7, such as Windows Mail, photo managing, etc.
WHY??? Those apps were great, easy to use, and didn't require downloading! Has Microsoft been the victim of anti-trust lawsuits that actually WORKED so far? NO! That's because bundling these products is perfectly legitimate, and most people prefer having it this way! Want proof? Just look at IE's market share, even though it's kind of really horrible.
However, the apps that are still there have definitely improved a lot, has cool graphics, and continues the Vista style.
This ends Part A of the Windows 7 Review. In part B, we'll take a look at some other features, and Windows 7's overall improvements.
Update: Part B of the Review is now available. Sphere: Related Content
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