First Impressions on Windows 7 Beta

Public Beta Release

Last January 9, 2009, Microsoft released the Windows 7 Beta to the public. I don’t think Microsoft expected much demand since the servers were facing technical difficulties. The put down the site to ensure a better download experience. The link to the ISO was shared by some helpful users and still worked. However, potential testers (including me) couldn’t get a product key that would get past the 30-day limit.

Fortunately, Microsoft more than made up for their overloaded servers by extending the key distribution until January 24. If you’re interested, you can download the ISO, get a key and test Windows 7 yourself until it stops working on August 1, 2009. (By this time, maybe there will be another beta version / new key distribution…)

To Test or Not

I tried to resist beta testing Windows 7 but in the end, Windows 7 beta won. I finished downloading the Windows 7 x64 ISO (about 3.3 GB) & just got my product key yesterday morning (Sunday) and started testing shortly after.

After a day of use, here’s what I noticed, plus my comments/suggestions. I’ve tried to link to as much screenshots that I’ve taken to show what I mean.

Windows 7 Itself

  • Installation & setup was easier & faster than XP. Installation + setup (including reformatting one of my partitions) took a little less than 30 minutes. This is about the same time Vista would take, if not less. Compared to XP though, this is way faster!
  • Just like in Vista, it recognized that XP was also installed so dual booting XP & Windows 7 was a breeze.
  • My NVidia 8800 GTs on SLI were detected and the drivers were automatically installed via Windows Update. The drivers were pre-release ones, too. Nice! (Oh yeah, Windows 7 uses DX11!)
  • Networking seems much easier for non-power users. “HomeGroup” seems much friendlier and faster to setup. (At least in theory, I couldn’t test it myself…)
  • There are Control Panel Items for Biometric Devices, Tablet PC Settings, Pen and Touch, Location and Other Sensors, among others. This seems like a promising OS for alternative input devices & sensors.
  • User Account Control is less intrusive than Vista by default, but users can make it even more or even less intrusive by choosing when to be notified. Oh thank you!

New Taskbar

  • The new taskbar is nice but I kind of prefer the old one, with the Quick Launch toolbar. Well, the new taskbar is more functional though so maybe after some time I’d love it more.
  • Not only can programs be pinned to the taskbar, folders can be pinned there as well!
  • The taskbar takes some time getting used to. It’s difficult to check at a glance what are running or open and what have just been pinned. – Well, you can opt to not pin anything at all to the taskbar but I find it too convenient to not use it! Hahahaha!
  • By default, the taskbar items are not labeled. If you want text labels on the items on the taskbar, you’d have to select an option that doesn’t combine program groups. (looks very much like that in previous versions of Windows)
  • It’s great that you can opt to use small icons if you find them too big.
  • Can go directly to a certain tab from different IE windows using the taskbar. As expected, this shaves off time spent switching between tabs & windows! …doesn’t work with Firefox (yet?) though…

Aero Shake

  • What it is: Drag a window and wiggle it around, literally shaking it, to minimize all windows except the one you’re shaking
  • Aero Shake is nice but is more of a hassle for mouse-users.
  • On the other hand, this seems fun for pen/touch input.

Gadgets

  • No more side bar for Gadgets: Hover the mouse to the lower right part of the screen to hide all open Windows, revealing the Gadgets on your desktop.
  • At first, I didn’t see the use of hovering the mouse to the lower right to reveal the desktop.  With no sidebar, I find the idea a logical one. Not only does it free up some screen/desktop estate, but it keeps you focused on your current window.
  • There’s a Sticky Notes app (no longer a Gadget) but since it’s an app, it occupies space in the taskbar. It would be nice to have the app run in the background (and show up only in the notifications area) but then maybe the normal behavior is to pin it to the taskbar for easy access…)

Accessories

IE8 (default browser; but you can download the beta now, too)

  • Searching for terms in a page is a cross between searching on Firefox and on Google Chrome. The bar appears to be integrated into the top part of the browser (not a separate window), containing “Previous”, “Next”, “Highlight All Matches” and case sensitivity options. Good move, as I hated the in-page search of IE7.
  • There’s an InPrivate mode, hiding your browsing history. This seems to be like the Incognito mode in Google Chrome, where the security/protection level is raised.
  • I love the automatically colored tabs! Colors are automatically set when you opt to open a link in a new tab, for a more organized browsing experience!
  • IE8 download progress within the taskbar! (I first thought it was a visual bug though :P )
  • IE accelerators: “Using Accelerators to find addresses, define words, and do other tasks with selected text”. This reminds me of Ubiquity on Firefox and is very much welcome!
  • Styles are a bit messed up. Ex. Thumbnails on Plurk look weird, some rounded corners don’t render correctly.
  • BUT, there’s a compatibility view option. Sometimes, this fixes it. Other times, it doesn’t since the way IE8 Compatibility view renders pages is NOT the same as the how IE7 does it. I don’t know why not but maybe Compatibility View should render pages like they do in IE7.

Windows Media Center

  • Interface is much like the Zune.
  • It does not recognize the Zune as a device that can be synced to/with. :(
  • Buttons and text is huge, making it easier for alternate input methods like touch.

Concerns

  • My HP Deskjet 1180c is not supported under Vista, and so it’s not supported by Windows 7 (hopefully, only for now).
  • I wonder if third-party developers would be given the option to take advantage of the new taskbar features such as the “Jump Lists“. (Application-sensitive right click that allows you to “jump” to certain tasks. For example, the IE8 Jump List allows you to go to a recently visited page.)
  • Why isn’t Windows Live isn’t included in the ISO? It took me a long time to download the whole Windows Live Package (includes WL Call, WL Family Safety, WL Mail, WL Messenger, WL Movie Maker Beta, WL Photo Gallery, WL Writer).
  • IE8 is potentially another web designer headache waiting to happen. (IE8 seems to be two browsers in one: normal view & compatibility view…even three if you count the IE7 browser mode in the Developer Tools of IE8) …at least, the Developer Tools are there to hopefully make this less of a headache…

Overall

Windows 7 feels much like an overhauled Vista, but the changes are for the better. The release of W7 is still a long way from now (I’m guessing still a little over a year after) and even if this is still beta-ware, the experience is much better than that of Vista. I can definitely see the potential of this replacing Vista, and hopefully replace XP as well.

I do not recommend using this Beta OS as your main OS. There may be bugs, glitches that may corrupt valuable data. By default, the OS sends usage info (for bugs, glitches) back to Microsoft and it’s wise to keep it away from sensitive data. Aside from that, this will stop working on August 1, 2009 so there must be an OS you can fall back to.

If you’re fine with that and can burn an ISO, install an OS and troubleshoot yourself, then go ahead!

Past the time limit, the possible bugs, glitches and driver problems, I can definitely see myself getting Windows 7 as my next OS. Hopefully, Microsoft doesn’t rush this into the market and commit the same mistake they did with Vista.

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Filed under: Technology by Loki

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