Install

The install was pretty basic.

1. Download and burn the ISO
2. Get the beta key
3. Re-partition hard drive so I can dual boot
4. Restart with Windows 7 disc in drive and boot from CD
5. Wait
6. Install to empty partition
7. Follow install steps
8. Wait
9. Set up Windows 7
10. Windows 7!

I had to install a few drivers for my motherboard but then everything else was ok. After that I followed my usual new computer installation routine. Download and Install Opera, Digsby, Notepad++, Mozilla Thunderbird.

I’ve been playing around with it a couple hours now and I’ve compiled a list of stuff that I like and don’t like about Windows 7.

New Features I Like

1. Improved Performance

This is probably one of the main things I like about Windows 7. Everything is faster: boot times, improved multi-core performance. It also feels smoother too.

2. Start menu search

The Start Menu is pretty much the same as the one in Vista with a few improvements. When you search for something in the search bar it expands to fill up the whole Start Menu allowing you to see the results better. I wish did this with the Programs too.

3. Taskbar tray

Windows 7 allows more control over tray icons, which I like. You can now set Behaviors for them.

4. Notifications

I hated notifications in XP and Vista. Windows 7 allows you to control which notifications to show.

5. UAC control

UAC! The thing a lot of people hated about Vista, including me. That stupid popup that made your screen go dim and asked for you permission to do the dumbest things can now be controlled using a slider in User Account Control settings.

6. Windows Explorer

It looks so much cleaner and more organized! I hated how the tree directory in Vista’s explorer worked. It was so cramped up and small. The new explorer is so much better. The directory is more spaced out and they also added a “Libraries” section to link to all your documents, music, pictures, and videos.

7. Microphone!

Sometimes I record videos of my friends and I playing L4D. Most of the time we use microphones. But in Vista, whenever I recorded a video, I couldn’t record my own voice. It sucked cause when I replayed the video, my friends sounded like they were talking to themselves. Windows 7 adds a feature to the microphone options that allows me to “Listen to the microphone”. Although I’ll be hearing myself speak through the headphones, I can now get my voice in the videos.

8. Windows Peek

When you hover over a taskbar icon, it shows previews of all the windows associated with that icon. When you hover over those previews it makes all other windows transparent, highlighting the selected window. Then you can click on the preview select the window.

Edit: 8. The New Taskbar.

I like that you can pin shortcuts to the taskbar. I hate having icons on my desktop. I usually just press the windows button then type the name to run a program. But now I can pin my most frequently used programs to the taskbar, which is nice.

Now that I’ve sort of gotten use to the taskbar, its not that bad. One thing I would like is to have is a little text label next to the icons. Not like Vista and XP, where it shows the window title, but a shorter one that just shows the program name.

I think a lot of the task bar is wasted. The middle part, for instance, is almost always empty. I tested it out, and I would need to open about 26 different programs to fill it. If I was using small icons, I would need 35 different programs to fill it. That’s A LOT of programs. Maybe if they split the taskbar tray and the start menu/program icons it would be better. The start menu/program icons section would expand as more programs are open.

Features I Don’t Like

1. The New Taskbar The Look of the New Taskbar

It looks so ugly. The boxes around the icons make it look really weird. If it was only the icons and not the boxes, it would look better. Changing it to small icons makes it look marginally better. I think the new Windows Peek, which allows you to preview windows before opening them, is cool but I don’t like these new icons things. Good thing they allow you to change it to the old one in the taskbar properties.

Edit: See #8 of Features I Do Like.

2. Window Gestures

When you drag windows to different sides on the screen in the Windows 7, each side performs a different function. To the left, makes the window dock and expand to half the screen. To the right does the same thing. To the top, maximizes the window. And when you shake the window, all other windows minimize. While it may be helpful for some, it messes me up when I want to move windows. Sometimes I find myself minimizing all other windows when I’m moving a window and its really annoying.

Edit: I just installed Windows 7 on my laptop, which has a significantly smaller screen than my desktop (13.3” vs 24”). I can see the use for this now. On my 24” monitor, there is usually a lot of space for me to have many windows open at once. I like to have all my windows not-maximized so I multi-task and such. Not so much on my laptop. It seems a lot more useful on smaller screens than larger screens. If they added more “sizes”, like half-height half-width, then it would be better. The maximize gesture is kind of useless for me because I double click to title bar to maximize. It seems much easier.

3. Preview desktop button.

There’s a button that makes all the windows transparent when you hover over it. But once you move away from it, they all reappear. I don’t see how this is useful.

3. Internet Explorer 8

…Internet Explorer, you suck. Opera is my browser of choice even though its been crashing a lot on me in Vista. Hopefully, it wont do that in Windows 7.

4. It still takes like 20 clicks to find out your local IP

Sometimes I need to find out my local IP cause I need to do stuff on the network. It was easy in XP, just right click and properties. In Vista was horrible. It took like 20 million clicks just to find it and now its the same with Windows 7. The Network and Sharing Center is useful sometimes but I don’t like clicking that much just to find the IP. So now I just use cmd ipconfig.

Other Features

1. Improved MSPaint

Man, I was so pro at paint back in Windows 98 days. They added a bunch of brushes and other tools. They also improved the User Interface, which is nice. But its still pretty useless. My image editor of choice is Photoshop.

2. Gadgets

Gadgets… they are so useless. The weather one is okay though cause I don’t have to check weather.com when I want to know how cold it is outside. Vista had a sidebar where all the Gadgets were docked. The sidebar is gone in Windows 7 and now gadgets can be placed anywhere.

3. New calculator

I use the calculator all the time to do random calculations cause I don’t like doing them in head. I like the new calculator. They improved the calculator by adding more modes. They have this new “Programmer Mode” which I guess is supposed to help programmers. It has all the binary, hex stuff and also Xor, And, Not stuff. There is also unit conversions, date conversions, and lots of other stuff. I probably wont use it that much but its still cool.

3. Improved Device and Printer management.

There is now a page to see all devices attached to your computer. From there you can right click the device and set options and stuff. Its pretty nice.

More Changes!

These are just a few of the changes in Windows 7. Nearly every part of the Windows user interface as been tweaked and updated. Check out this site I found for a list of more changes in windows 7: http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp. And a couple of more videos about Windows 7: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-videos.aspx

Features I Wish They Would Put In

1. Mouse gestures!

Opera spoiled me with their mouse gestures. I find myself using mouse gestures in other programs and asking myself why it doesn’t work. Then I realize its not Opera. I use Windows Explorer a lot and sometime I accidently try to use a mouse gesture and it doesn’t work. I wish they included them. Mouse Gestures are so awesome. Right-click, down right.

2. Better built-in unzip, unrar program.

I hate the built-in one cause you have to go through all these steps just to unzip a file. With 7zip, you can just right click and unzip it. The built in one also does not support a lot of other archive formats like .rar or .iso.

I can’t really think of any now. I’ll come up with more later.

Closing

Despite Microsoft’s complete fail trying to launch the beta, Windows 7 is looking to be a pretty awesome operating system. Even though its still in beta, it already seems better than Vista and XP. Hopefully, they wont mess up the final launch of Windows 7.

Edit: I’m going to add another Windows 7 post in a couple of days. This one will be about using it on my laptop. Things like the tablet functions, biometrics, power management, wireless and other things will be covered.