My Experience of Windows 7

I've had the release candidate of Windows 7 for nearly a month now and think moving back to Vista again is going to prove to be a chore.

Unlike the change from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 or from Windows ME to Windows XP there are no revolutionary changes. Windows XP users will notice the most difference in terms of the look and feel of the software as visually it looks very similar to Vista, perhaps just a little more intuitive.

I get the impression from using the software that Windows has 'come of age' with this most recent release. When compared to Windows 7, Windows XP appears badly aged, cumbrous and a little flawed in comparison. Vista holds its own a little better performance wise nowadays and I no longer feel it is about to crumble as soon as I start doing anything slightly demanding.

I'm running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on a relatively new laptop and the comparisons against Vista are startling; faster start up times, less hard drive access, greater stability and even improved battery life. Although I'm unsure whether it would be faster than XP or not, it is worth bearing in mind that this eight year OS never really gained momentum for 64-bit support and as such it could possibly do with being retired even if just to wave in a new, faster era of 64-bit applications.

Ignoring the arguably most important developments in terms of speed, security and stability, it is the little changes and additions that I appreciate most. I like the ability to 'peek' back at the desktop by hovering down the bottom right hand side of the start menu, the auto preview when you flick between applications using & and the rotation setting that can be used to change your wallpaper automatically every couple of minutes.

Visually it looks gorgeous; the semi translucent taskbar and menu headers along with various other visual effects make the OS look a lot less flat than XP. Although it's not a million miles away from Vista, it is certainly more 'polished' and due to the noticeable speed increases it doesn't give you the nagging impression your machine is crawling to a halt as a result of a few visual effects.

The ability to 'pin' applications of your choice to the taskbar is great. If you were to pin Firefox to your taskbar area then the icon will always be there next to the start menu which has been the 'quick launch' area in previous versions of Windows. However it does not simply act as a shortcut to the application, but instead launches it without creating a new group within your taskbar; the quick launch icon essentially becomes the menu itself. Windows 7 stacks multiple instances of one application in the taskbar rather the inefficient grouped application menus used in XP and Vista.

Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copywriter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges who sell cheap ink cartridges [http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk], toner cartridges, computer hardware and other computer consumables online. An archive of his work can be found at www.computerarticles.co.uk.

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