Reviewers state that the new OS is faster and easier to use and think that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been

 Yesterday, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft, announced that the public beta version of Windows 7 would be available for download through download.microsoft.com starting January 9.

Some reviewers have already installed a copy of Windows 7 and stated that the new operating system from Microsoft will certainly deliver a more rewarding user experience, as it is faster and more intuitive to work with.

First, the reviewers stated that the installing process took about one hour to complete but, once installed, they praised the new desktop interface and especially the new taskbar, called the Superbar. The Superbar brings along specific context menus for every type of window.

As an example, a right-click on a Word window on the taskbar displays a list with recent documents for instant access. Moreover, the new taskbar enables by default the grouping of similar taskbar buttons. Hovering the cursor over a group reveals thumbnails of all windows in that group. Thumbnails also contain a close button for each window.

These features mean that users can do more things from one place, but that doesn’t mean that the Superbar is cluttered. Another useful feature of the new taskbar is the improved management of the system tray alerts and icons. There are just a few icons left and users can snooze or completely disable alerts.

However, the most praised feature of Windows 7 was the integration of HomeGroups in the networking and sharing interface. HomeGroups makes it easy to pair computers and other devices into a network where users can seamlessly share documents and especially media content.

This feature is quite a revolution to the Windows environment, as all previous versions of the operating system failed to deliver an easy way to connect PCs into a network, particularly PCs with different versions of Windows.

You might say that performance is what Windows 7 is all about. Vista has been widely criticised for being too slow - and for slowing users down with annoying user account control (UAC) prompts. By making improvements in performance such a priority, Microsoft has tacitly admitted that it wants to appease disgruntled Vista users.

The company's efforts show. There are far fewer of the annoying UAC prompts that greeted Vista users at almost every turn. And Microsoft has made UAC easier to customise - and to turn off - than it used to be. A new UAC slider allows you to determine exactly which level of UAC protection you want.

Beyond the better-behaved UAC, though, Windows 7 impresses with its overall snappy feel. Windows and dialog boxes appear more responsive, and some features - such as the default view of directory listings, which now favour the "details" view - have been re- engineered with snappiness in mind. Windows 7 also boots quicker and shuts down more speedily than Vista. Several early benchmark reports show Windows 7 already ahead of both Vista and XP in performance on identical equipment.

Last, but not the least, Windows 7 seems to be less of a resource hog than Vista, as the letter proved to cause low performance on less powerful computers. By requiring a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, Windows 7 should be a reliable choice for both high-end desktops and netbooks users, as Microsoft itself demoed the new OS on a MSI Wind netbook in October.

So what's not to like in Windows 7? The answer to that will depend, in part, on how much you hated the changes that Microsoft introduced in Windows Vista. Vista asked Windows users to do a lot of things differently, and Windows 7 follows suit.

The Windows Explorer file manager in Windows 7, for instance, moves even further away from the familiar tree format used to manage files in XP and previous versions. Some Vista users hate the new Windows Explorer, so for them, a third-party Explorer replacement will probably be in order.
Windows 7 will also, once again, force you to upgrade more applications than you'd like. Your antivirus, anti-spyware, and disk management utilities may no longer work properly with Windows 7. So you'll have to proceed with caution as you install old, familiar programs on the new operating system.

In his keynote speech, Steve Ballmer also announced that developers would have access to the beta release starting January 7. Moreover, he stated that applications that had been formerly preinstalled along with the OS, such as Movie Maker and Windows Messenger, would be available in the newly released version of Windows Live! Essentials.

However, the Microsoft CEO states that all Dell consumer and small business computers will have these applications bundled with Windows 7. Ballmer also pointed out that Microsoft has collaborated with Facebook to create a service through which users will be able to synchronize their activity on Live! applications and their Facebook profile.