Few days before I downloaded Windows 7 Beta. First impression faster than the Alpha version but still slower than Vista Ultimate. Anyways am not going to compare the two versions but I shall just point out 10 cool features which I really like about Windows 7. If you want to try the beta here is the link to download. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
At the first look the menu looks same as Office 2007. Really cool and pretty. Though the functionality of paint was not increased much except the dedicated Crop tool, Rotate tool and Resize tool but the look and feel has huge change. 2.The new Windows 7 Power shell and Sticky Note:
Still I am not sure what much you can do with this new Shell but yes if you are a XP or Vista user you can download power shell from here: Xp and Vista Power Shell: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx But remember the windows 7 power shell is V2 and the download link I provided is for V1. One more cool thing provided is the built in Windows 7 sticky note. Really helpful and at last no need to install any third party. Very useful for office works. 3. Windows Media Player 12:
Yap you read it right. That’s media player 12. A bit light on resource and nothing special. It’s still not available for XP and Vista but hope it will be release soon. 4.Internet Explorer 8:
Windows 7 comes bundled with much talked IE8 Beta which always crashes. Hope it works properly when out.Its available for XP and vista also and it never crashes there. Lot of improvements over IE 7 and again light on resource. Hope MS is learning now. Look is also good. For XP and vista user: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx 5.Windows 7 Drive Lock (Bit Locker):
At last its there and it’s so easy to use. Just right click on any of the drives and you are ready to lock it down. Give your password and lock it. It takes time to encrypt but no problem in between you can restart your PC and bit locker resumes again. For a 40GB drive with full data it took nearly 1hr to encrypt. Encrypt is only for first time. 6.Windows 7 Side bar:
Better then Vista. The rectangular transparent solid background is gone. These is additional maximize button (Img. 1 above). It behaves differently for different gadgets. On click it can show up new features. 7.Windows 7 Background wallpaper changer:
Windows 7 comes with built in wallpaper changer.Cool and useless atleast for me! 8.Windows 7 Media Center:
More or less same as the Vista media center but yes I did found a cool feature.Check the screen shot. It’s actually windows media center running on your desktop. Just run Media center and press Windows + D. You will get you media center as desktop background. It’s really cool and I like it so much :wink 9.The Cool Start Menu Search:
For XP user it may be new but Vista user already saw this. What I like here is the clean and categorized look of the start menu search. 10.Recent and Task on windows 7:e= "text-align:center;">
There is a special arrow which appears for application which supports recent item like paint and Utorrent and tasks for apps like “Getting started”. A nice to have feature and handy. 11. Surprise Surprise! A special one at the end. Its the windows 7 Aero Shake. Totally new and cool. This was hard to write and describe so better take a look at this video :wink Hope you liked my review. Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome!
Updated: 05 May,2009 Microsoft has released Windows 7 RC for public. Get your copy athttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx
Don’t forget to save the Windows 7 key as it’s required for your activation. NB: This is limited download link so don’t blame me if you are late. Also if you have Vista with SP1 you can upgrade it directly. On a broader view you will feel windows 7 as a remake of Vista. Most of the look and feel is same except some design change and some application change. Yap to be mentioned there has been certain architecture change but still the Windows 7 is resource hungry so never try with a week comp which already failed with Vista. Also most of the vista software works with windows 7 and some software even detect windows 7 as vista. :lol Conf. of machine on which I used: * Intel 965 mother board * 2GB DDR2 RAM * WD 500GB Sata II HD * XFX GeForce 8600 GTS 512MB DDR3 Here goes my review. 1.The Awesome Windows 7 Paint:
There is a special arrow which appears for application which supports recent item like paint and Utorrent and tasks for apps like “Getting started”. A nice to have feature and handy. 11. Surprise Surprise! A special one at the end. Its the windows 7 Aero Shake. Totally new and cool. This was hard to write and describe so better take a look at this video :wink Hope you liked my review. Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome!