First of all, what you need to know is that if you’re already using Windows Vista, the visual impact will not exactly be a shocker. Things might prove a bit difficult for those XP users wanting to give Windows 7 a chance, especially since an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 is not yet available, so they’ll need to start from scratch (which is recommended anyway).

 

One thing worth noting in Windows 7 is that it fulfills the promise to cut on the booting time of the computer, and if starting is easy, shutting down is even easier and less confusing than in Vista. What this means for users is that they’ll no longer be confused about putting the computer to hibernation instead of shutting it down.

 

Microsoft has put a lot into creating a more user-friendly interface, and as G4tv’s Brian Leahy said, the start menu now looks “increasingly dockish,” allowing users to pin apps to it, much like in the Mac OS X, but with the difference that apps can now have specific docs pinned within an expanding menu:  This is another area where Windows 7 is innovating beyond Apple, the author writes.

 

But, for users who’ve had little or nothing to do with the Vista system in general, and Microsoft’s Office 2007 suite, they need to be aware of the so-called ribbonization of Windows 7’s user interface: While granted that the infamous Office 2007 Ribbon itself only appear in a scant number of apps and dialogs in Windows 7 … the overall design ethic throughout the entire operating system of moving things around and re-inventing the wheel is consistent with what this UI team has produced before. I expect future iterations of the beta to have even more “Ribbonization, ZDNet's Jason Perlow notes.

 

One good thing about Windows 7 is that Microsoft has given up on the annoying sidebar – "a resource-hogging nuisance" found in Vista, which I don’t believe anyone found useful anyway. However, the Gadgets are still there, but it is worth mentioning that they can now rest on the user’s desktop rather than feed on the computer’s performance from the sidebar.

 

The new Taskbar should also remind users of the Mac OS X, but unfortunately no one got to test it yet, so there’s not much to say about that, except that it is “a drastically redesigned and more functional Taskbar” that will allow users to launch applications easier. Furthermore, the Taskbar replaces the Quick Launch bar in previous operating systems.

 

The visualization of open applications has also been enhanced in Windows 7, and while some consider it to be a really cool system, others still remain reserved about how much it actually does: Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t deemed Apple’s Expose worthy enough to steal and they still aren’t offering anything on that level … It’s no Expose, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction, as Brian Leahy notes in his G4tv article.

 

Windows 7 is surpassing Vista on many levels, but one aspect of it in particular made beta testers happy: the User Account Control (UAC) will no longer prompt users on every little thing they do. For starters, there are four options users can choose from: one of them turns off the User Account Control system, a second one (which is also the default one) prompts the user whenever a program makes a change, a third one that works just like in Vista, and a fourth one that notifies the users whenever a program tries to make a change and waits for the user’s response.

 

Having more options than in Vista is great, but that still doesn’t offer complete satisfaction for some users. PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer wrote:  I won’t win many allies by saying this, but the setting I was hoping to see added to this list is an option to require a password when programs try to make changes, which would add a level of actual security to UAC.

 

Referring to performance, it is important to say that Windows 7 beats Vista in terms of speed, and you don’t even have to upgrade your hardware to obtain that (as long as Vista works on your computer, Windows 7 will do just fine). It doesn’t only boot faster, but the applications also respond quicker.

 

Networking in Windows 7, and the new features Microsoft called Homegroup, completely change the sharing experience, and make sharing among computers a lot faster. Homegroup allows users to share files, folders and devices with other computers in a given network, in a safe way (password-protected).

 

Speaking of protection, although you might want to install an antivirus system on your computer, Windows 7 comes with a pre-installed antispyware system.

 

One feature most users would be curious about would probably have to be the touch-screen capabilities of Windows 7, but not only were they unavailable in the pre-beta version, but it is also going to be hard to actually enjoy them unless you have a touch-screen machine.

 

The bottom line is that Windows 7 is worth the try, since at the end of the day, users get to make the pertinent opinions, on aspects that are relevant to them. Microsoft is expected to make the beta version available later this afternoon.

 

However, if anything should go not according to plan, sending feedback on the issues will help Microsoft fix them, improve them, and hopefully launch the final version of its OS sooner, and with little complaints from users.