Windows 7

On October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista, MS is going to set a retail availability of Windows 7™. This OS is going to have 3 versions, viz. 7 Ultimate, Professional and Home Premium. They all will undoubtedly vary in their features, efficiency and not less, the price! Lets review some of the features and functions I experianced in my journey of Windows 7(July 22, 2009 - October 15, 2009).

 

First Impression - The BOOT Screen and the Logon: As soon as I started my OS for the first time, I saw a simple black screen for a while and then, a smart glowing MS logo. It is the best logo I ever saw in MS Windows' history. Coming over, I found a very bright and colorful LogON Screen with a dynamic elegant logon sound which for the first time I wanted to keep "as it is"! The boot-time is surprisingly increased upto 40%(7 booted in just ~32 seconds while Vista on the same system booted in ~85 seconds).

 

The Explorer shell and other features: Unlike its predecessor, 7 introduced dozens of new features such as Taskbar, Start Menu customizable buttons, Aero Snap including better compatibility, enhanced security, ease of use, and I term it as a "light-weighted user-oriented OS". It advances its Speech Recognition and Handwriting tools, Aero Looks, Calculator, Power Shell, Sidebar, Windows Media Center/Player, Start menu, Embaded Search, Personalize, Power Schemes, Connectivity, Desktop Peak, Icons, Taskbar, Paint, WordPad, Control Panel and the most important, the omissions it have made with Windows Movie maker, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Mail. The Gadgets are now of individual value-you drag them wherever you want on desktop. A very good option of "Jump-Lists" on Start menu has also been added; but I hate this. I don't know the reason being, but after some time of use, these menus are no more. On the opposite side, Notification area has been given a perfect work and look! To the right hand side of the clock is a button to Show the Desktop, clicking again restore all windows. A perfect use of Keyboard shortcuts I have never seen before in any OS. A smart feature which turns OFF the Ethernet when not plugged-in; less background activities which makes system more smoother; being Dim of the screen when idle, these all features make 7 a better OS.

 

The bits that really annoyed me about this OS are:

 

• Malfunctioning of new features like Fly-out menu
• Undone changes to "My Computer" window
• Fiddly use of animations
•  Not an Open Source

The feature which were exciting throughout are:

• Aero Snap
• New style of maximizing the Window(drag a window to the top and see)
• Perfect use of Keyboard shortcuts
• Enhanced features for power options
• Less background processes
• User defined operating options

 

 

 

Overall, OS deserves 4 out of 5 stars.