Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7. It's been hyped for months now, and since Microsoft has been very forthcoming as of late regarding previewing their products to their communities, it's been hyped rightfully so. Windows 7 is being echoed throughout the internet as "what vista should have been." Now that's quite curious (and quited loaded) of a statement.
Windows Vista launched to much chagrin of its potential customer base. Users were reporting widespread problems regarding displays, input devices, and the like. And as companies scurried to get device drivers developed for these users, Microsoft's public image diminished. This is an extremely brief synopsis of the Vista launch, but it's hard to argue that Vista's unpopularity was a direct result of a launch that supposedly caught 3rd party companies off guard. After months (nearly a year) of reports of problems with Vista slowly trickling to an end and terrible Vista PR, Microsoft jumped to its feet to try and revitalize its now hampered image. It certainly didn't help that during this entire hoopla, Apple gained momentum in the market share department due to decreased pricing on its various Mac products and a gateway product in the iPhone. How was Microsoft going to try and quell the internet and gain back the momentum it used to have?
Well, their solution was to hire Crispin Porter and Bogusky, a design firm that "makes advertising and branded creative content." Aside from diving into the plethora of campaigns that Microsoft and their design stronghand launched, I just want to touch briefly on the Mojave Experiment. The Mojave Experiment was Microsoft's attempt at proving to the world that Vista wasn't as bad as the internet made it out to be. The reports about driver issues and performance problems? "Balderdash!" proclaimed Microsoft. Well, most likely not in those words, but one can only hope? Only "cool" companies use the word "balderdash". Either way, in a nutshell, the Mojave Experiment took a bunch of people that had issues (however unfounded they may be) with Vista, and were placed in front of "Windows Mojava". At the end of the experiment, the users loved Windows Mojave. Then, Microsoft threw them a curveball. Windows Mojave was not a new operating system at all. It was Windows Vista.
That really is a summation of how things came full circle with Vista. But the Mojave Experiment didn't quell all the rantings and ramblings of the Vista dissenters. Vista still had a bad stigma. As I type this, I'm running the Beta version of Windows 7 (Build 7000), but that's not due to me hating Vista. On the contrary. I actually love Vista. I held off about a year from its launch, and then bought a new computer, and installed Vista Ultimate. And you know, I love it. This isn't a blog on Windows Vista, as it's been out forever, but the last few paragraphs were merely a segue into a review of Windows 7.
Enter Windows 7. Windows Vista was hyped, launched, and received numerous mixed reviews. "Love it, hate it, give it a chance!" However, Windows 7 has been hyped, torrented, and has received numerous positive reviews. "Love it!" "What Vista should have been!" And this is just the Beta. After hearing all of the reviews via multiple forums and blogs (including Microsoft's own), I decided to give it a go. Since I have an MSDN subscription, I was able to download Windows 7 before the Beta was made public. However, I didn't realize I could do this until the day the Beta was to be released to the public. Luckily I started downloading it earlier in the morning before work. Either way, Microsoft was to release the Beta public during the afternoon sometime, and as soon as it did, their servers were hit hard. The want and desire to try out Microsoft's new OS offering was staggering. Think about it this way: When XBOX Live goes down for a day and is brought back up. That's the type of reaction. Microsoft responded by taking the link down and telling everyone that they're working on beefing up the infrastructure of microsoft.com to support the masses wanting to download it. I think that was a particularly smart move. They basically said that they want the complete Windows 7 experience to echo how good Windows 7 is and not to be hampered due to external reasons. I guess they did learn their lesson from Vista.
My rig used for the installation of Windows 7 is a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Quad with 8GB of RAM and a 7200RPM hard drive. A 160GB partition was made off of a spare 500GB hard drive I already had in my machine. Installation started at 8:59PM. The following are the exact minutes something occurred. Yes, I logged it all. Hey, had to do something whilst I waited for my DD.
As you can see, the installation took about 30 minutes from start until finish. Pretty impressive.
My Windows 7 installation is Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. My current Vista installation is Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Three consecutive boot up tests were ran to the login screen in which the password box was present and able to be typed in. Startup for Windows Vista took approximately 40 seconds (40.1 to be exact). Startup for Windows 7 took approximately 31 seconds. Basically a time of about 10 seconds for a difference. Pretty impressive. It might have to do with applications being ran from the startup of the operating system before the login screen, but possibly not. Not bad. Not bad at all.
The much acclaimed retooled Windows taskbar. I'd be lying if I said the taskbar did not resemble that of OS/X's dock. It's as if Microsoft took the idea of OS/X's dock and sandwiched into a slightly larger taskbar. Let me explain. Before, the taskbar would house the following functionalities:
Now, it has the following:
The idea of pinning is exactly the same as docking in OS/X. Much like you could drag and drop an application in XP/Vista into the Quick Launch, you can do the same in Windows 7. If you do, it pins itself to the taskbar and will reside there until you unpin it. Microsoft has decided to do away with the text of the application as well (although you can re-enable this if you're feeling a bit nostalgic [awww, huge cute!]). This is what I think makes it look a lot like OS/X's dock. Pinning + no default text in the taskbar = OS/X clone. However, this is where the similarities stop. The taskbar, IMHO, is more powerful than OS/X's dock. First and foremost, you'll notice you have extra actions when right clicking on an icon in the taskbar (similar to OS/X). Functionalities that have been developed for the new taskbar will allow you to do actions for that particular program right from the context menu. For example, if you right click on Internet Explorer, you can go to your history webpages (hide your porn!). For Live Messenger, you can change your status. And for all applications, you still have the right click, close functionality. However, you now have an option to unpin it (or pin it if it's already running).
Now, where I think the functionality of Windows 7's taskbar really shines is on the hover over state. With Vista, the hover over state just gave you a preview of what the application looks like, albeit scaled down. Windows 7 does the same, however, you can now close out of the application, perform actions, and many more. For example, if I'm running Windows Media Player and playing a song, if I hover over the icon, I can change tracks, pause it, etc. Furthermore, if I hover over the icon, and then hover over the preview pane, all other windows will turn to "glass" save for the application being hovered. Very slick. And, oh yeah, if something happens in an application (like say a download is finished, you received an IM, etc.), the application will flash orange and then settle on orange until you click on it. BTW, if the application is programmed as such, if a progress bar is occuring in the application, it'll happen on the icon. So, if you're downloading something, you don't have to do anything like click on the icon, hover on it, or anything. It'll show it on the actual icon. Nice.
As for the notification area, Microsoft has went back to giving the power to the people. You click on a button to "show hidden icons" in which you can customize the notification area. For example, for each application in this area, you have the following behaviour options:
A real world situation might be running an instant messenging client. You may have your IM application only turned on to show you notifications. So, if you click on the notifications button, it'll show you notifications from the application (i.e. new messages, your current status, etc.). If you have the icon and notifications turned on, it'll show the icon in the bottom right hand corner, as well as show notifications. If you have both hidden, well, they'll both be hidden. The best thing about Windows 7 is not just this functionality, but the ability to turn on and off EVERYTHING in this area. So if you don't want the clock, network, applications, etc. You can turn them all off (or on). Thanks for giving us the power, Microsoft.
I think the taskbar has certainly evolved in Windows 7, and I look forward to seeing how it is released when Windows 7 goes into RC.
Theming, skinning, whatever you want to call it really took an upgrade with Windows Vista, and it continues to take an upgrade in Windows 7. I can't quite pinpoint it, but there seems to be more options, primarily in desktop backgrounds, themes, and what have you. Once again, I think the Microsoft boys took a hint from OS/X, and it really shows (and just works, nyuck, nyuck).
I'm not sure where this falls under, but you'll also notice that now if a Window is maximized, the title bar does not transform into a solid colour. Instead, it'll continue to have the opacity that is set in your personalization settings. I guess a lot of people wanted this. And I have to admit, it does look solid.
The only problems I occurred was during installation when the resolution expanded and some of the installation screen was cutoff. However after the restart, the resolution was fine. Other than that, I tried installing a monitor (or possibly video) update from Windows Update (which was not installed by Windows 7 by default or mandatory). This update was an optional download. After downloading I received the good ole' Blue Screen of Death. Restarting cured it. Otherwise Windows 7 has been very, very stable.
Microsoft learned a lot from Vista. I love Vista, but I think it was great (ultimately) for Microsoft to stumble a bit in regards to the Vista debacle. Windows 7 seems to be getting a ton of fanfare, and with good reason. Colour me impressed, and excited.
I think Microsoft needs to have their Windows Live application suite installed from the get-go. Windows Live Mail is an excellent mail client with a small footprint. Windows Live Messenger has come such a long way, that I actually prefer it now. I'd use it more if I didn't have to run multiple messenger accounts in one (AIM + MSN). I use Pidgin to accomplish that. Windows Live Photo Gallery is a viable photo gallery application, although I admit I have not used it much. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Microsoft needs to include the Zune software from the beginning as well. The thing that I understand, but don't totally love, is that if I have the Zune software, I end up having *2* applications for my media, instead of 1. This is mostly due to the Zune not being in the game when Windows Media Player was first created, but it's still a bit of a pain in the ass that the two of them are not more linked.
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