Ankit Kumar Agarwal

As you probably know by now, a beta version of Microsoft’s future operating system, Windows 7, has been leaked to the “masses.” Of course, i couldn’t let such an opportunity pass by, and decided to take a quick tour of this release, so i could come up with an answer to the most relevant question of all: is it worth it? Is Windows 7 worth installing? Therefore, i decided to have a look at the most common Windows locations, functions and utilities that the average user might access or use, see to what extent this operating system was any different from its predecessor and, thus, answer the above question.

Installation

As a starting note, i should state that Windows 7 was installed on a Vista-compatible laptop, and, therefore, performance was not an issue. As for the installation process, it lasted approximately 25 minutes and was almost identical to the one found in Windows Vista. You must have noticed that I said “almost.” The addition of homegroups is a difference between the two operating systems that you will surely notice even during the installation process – at the end of it, you will receive a password that will later allow you to access this facility.


Getting started

When the setup process was finished, I headed to the Getting started window to see the new functionalities in Windows that I should be concentrating on. Since i’m talking about a beta version, this didn’t turn out to be a very wise decision: the What’s New headlines were missing. Instead, Item 1, Item 2 and Item 3 were displayed. Still, included in this window is a See more new features button that leads to the section in Windows Help with all the new features I was looking for: Specialized for laptops, Optimized for entertainment, Designed for services, etc.

Highlights

Specialized for laptops, unfortunately, does not mean in any way that, by installing Windows 7 on a laptop, you’ll be able to use it a lot longer by running just on your battery. The power consumption is, at best, the same as in Windows Vista. However, Windows 7 does include more advanced power options and power plans that might help you squeeze just a little bit more juice out of your battery.
In this version of Microsoft Windows, Media Player finally has its own sets of codecs, which will allow you to view videos, movies and clips without having to search the Internet for codec packs. Furthermore, Windows Media Center has been “pimped” to ensure that Windows 7 really is optimized for entertainment. The downside in this case is that, during my testing of Windows Media Player, the application froze repeatedly and, to cap it all off, so did the entire system with it (thus forcing the user to reboot in order to get back control).

I think it’s safe to say that designing Windows 7 for services most probably brought the coolest new concepts in looks and maneuverability of windows. Therefore, in order to make this operating system from a touch screen extremely easy to use, several new, interesting and very useful features have been implemented. Aside from the Superbar you’ve probably heard of – that, in a way, uses the concept of mac docks – another addition, which, although potentially useful to the average user, I doubt was designed especially for them, is the “shake” functionality that allows them to minimize all windows behind a window that is shaken a bit using its title bar.

Last but not least, you’ll be able to maximize a window by just dragging it to the top of the screen, or to resize its width to the width of the screen by either dragging its title bar to the right/left edge of the screen, or the resize arrows to the top/bottom of the screen. As a side note, similar actions have been assigned through the usage of the Windows and directional keys: Windows Key + Up = Maximize, Windows Key + Down = Minimize, Windows Key + Left = The window will occupy the entire left side of the screen, Windows Key + Right = The window will occupy the entire right side of the screen.
Start Menu and Taskbar
Since i’m talking about useful changes brought to the operating system’s look, I must also mention the improved tray. First of all, to the right of the clock, you can now observe a new button that will show/hide the desktop (so, no, you won’t be needing the quicklaunch shortcut anymore). Secondly, the possibility to change icon order has finally been implemented. And thirdly, all third-party/ irrelevant/ unused icons will no longer occupy most of the space in your tray: all of them can be accessed with just one click on a small arrow to the left of the tray area.

As you might have heard already, the Superbar isn’t the only major change brought to the Windows 7 taskbar. You can now finally change the order of your windows in the taskbar. Furthermore, the thumbnails have been considerably tweaked, and they no longer function as a small, singular preview of an application.

Windows 7 will now display a thumbnail for each window of a group, and from each thumbnail, users can close the corresponding window or, in some cases, access its common controls, like Play, Previous, or Next in the case of Windows Media Player. Another example of how the thumbnails have been improved is the possibility to view the tabs of an application as if they were separate windows just by hovering over its taskbar icon with your mouse. Naturally, the thumbnail will also function as a preview to a specific window, so you won’t necessarily need to switch windows in order to just take a quick peek at another program – for instance, hovering over the thumbnail will do the trick instead.

contd…
WINDOWS 7:worth installing?? (ch-1)
WINDOWS 7:worth installing?? (ch-2)