Wednesday, November 05, 2008 3:38 PM
Three days into playing with the Windows 7 PDC bits, I've already fallen in love with the new OS. Microsoft has come a long way to get things right this time. I know a lot of people hate Windows Vista badly. I do too. But I always think that Windows Vista isn't that bad. What it really lacks is the common sense of software design: convenience for users . I noticed a lot of thoughts have been put into Windows 7, although in this early pre-beta stage it still looks pretty much the same as Vista. But it's those "common sense" thoughts that make the difference. It doesn't matter what you want to call it, a better Windows Vista or Windows 7. I'm happy to see the progress. Here are some screen shots of Windows 7 to share with you.
A facelift to the Windows Update. But my concern is: Windows 7 is still pre-beta, and Microsoft released security patches for it already???
Display Settings is now a first-class citizen in the context menu. You don't have to go through Personalize to adjust the display settings.
A nice slider bar shows you what your video card can do.
Just a little more space between files/folders makes a whole lot difference. How many times did you open the "wrong" files? All we need is a better Windows Vista after all. Little things do add up together.
Gadgets no longer have to live inside the sidebar. You can place them anywhere you want on the desktop.
A less "informational" Control Panel. Folks at Redmond finally figured out that too much user friendliness is not user friendly at all.
Somewhere between classic view and categorical view. Simple is good. At least you know what you're looking at.
Photoshop? PaintShop Pro? Guess again. After 15 years, our old friend Paint has got a new face. I love those ribbons.
Calculator has been rebuilt from ground up. A new "Programmer Mode" has been introduced. Now you don't even have to write code to calculate a TimeSpan :-)
A new member to the Accessories family: Sticky notes!!!
A lightweight Word or a heavyweight WordPad. Whatever you call it, I am sure it is going to get more work done.
Keywords are highlighted in search results.
One-click file sharing.
A new "Content" view has been added to windows explorer. By the way, have you noticed the Burn button is missing from the explorer? It must have been the least used button ever.
IE 8 is the default web browser for Windows 7.
Notification area is now fully customizable. I never think it's a good idea to have 20 icons in the tray.
