RIBHU ON WINDOWS 7

A soft ware is said to be in its beta stage when it is released for testing purposes only and the developer provides no technical support with it. This is the somewhat formal definition of beta software as known to all of us. Betas as we all know are for testing only and the developers strongly recommend that they should not be used for mainstream applications. Still there is a kind of excitement in using these programs. It’s like exploring some uncharted territory. Where you don’t know what to expect next and you may be welcome with a delightful new feature and any moment. Now talking of software the piece of software used by most of us most commonly is the operating system. As depicted in Microsoft ads a few years back a computer without an operating system is just like a garbage can.  Also we know that the most commonly used desktop operating system on planet earth is Microsoft Windows. And those familiar to windows must be aware of the fact that another version of windows called Windows 7 is on the anvil and is expected to appear on the shelves sometime later this year. So as a part of the testing cycle for this software Microsoft corporation has ( had until you read this) released a beta version of this version of windows. Actually Microsoft released some 2.5 million copies for download and testing purposes. To clear some doubts here only Microsoft is NOT giving out free windows; it is just a pre release evaluation version of windows that will expire as soon as the clock strikes the beginning of August 1,2009. Now coming back to the download, as said earlier Microsoft released 2.5 million copies of windows 7 beta. A 2.44 GB download and needles to mention one of these was downloaded by none other than yours sincerely.

So here I will be reviewing the windows 7 Beta for you and will start from the installation.

The installation process is similar to windows vista the only difference being that a somewhat blue background replaces the blue-green aura of vista. The install took about 22 minutes on my AMD Athlon 4400+ desktop with 2 GB RAM.

The user interface: All I can say here is have a look for yourself. The UI is much more sleek than ever before. The taskbar and the start menu have been redesigned to give a better working environment. The desktop peek makes all the windows transparent to give a view of the desktop. You can pin applications to the taskbar like the quick-launch bar just that now a pinned application returns to its icon when minimized. Taskbar buttons provide full screen previews when moused over. Jump lists provide your recently used documents. The best thing about all this is that it is not at all hard to get used to and is intuitive as Microsoft describes it.

Compatibility: When Windows Vista was released some two years back; one major problem was device and software compatibility. Nothing seemed to work with Vista, so no doubt no one liked it. In the past 2 years a lot of vista compatible hardware and software has been released and the best thing about windows 7 is that almost everything that works with vista works with it(almost because my antivirus software refused to do so except that I had no problems with anything). Also my hard drive had some compatibility issues with windows vista; those have disappeared now. I now have what they call a squeaky clean device manager. Also AVG8 free is a good alternative for antivirus.

Libraries: Another thing I liked about this version of windows. Instead of using  a single folder as your my documents or my pictures you can use a collection of multiple folders known as libraries. This is actually helpful in finding documents and other similar things.

Touch: I don’t have any firsthand experience on this but still Microsoft describes it as the best feature of windows 7.It requires a touch screen display and am not buying one just for the sake of it.

Themes: Also an addition to the UI these are an instant way to change the look and feel of windows. Colour schemes and wallpapers all clubbed into one. A total of five themes have been provided with windows. However I do miss the windows classic theme which is somehow absent.

Applications: Almost all the standard applications of windows are bundled including the games. Also we have a new calculator and a new user interface for paint and word pad. However certain applications have been unbundled and have to be downloaded spartanly as windows live essentials. This additional 173 MB download and includes applications such as mail, messenger and photo gallery.

As I have just had only seven hours with this mind blowing operating system so these are the only features I have discovered. But there lies a lot more hidden inside and I seriously am looking forward to it. So in the end all I would like to say is three cheers for Microsoft and for Windows 7.