Windows 7 Review

Apologies if I am repeating anything, I just wanted to get my own personal opinions across.

So I've had Windows 7 for near-enough a week now, and I thought it was about time I reviewed the Operating-System that Windows claims to be "Vista but Faster".

There are very few problems for me to discuss, but I am a person who enjoys getting the negatives across first. When Windows 7 first installed, the 'icon tray' was using a different setting than what Vista used, it was in a drop-down box. Personally, I thought this was horrible and changed it right away - but the good news is, that's the only bad thing i've encountered!!

It takes a while to get used to the OS, but overall I think it's a fantastic improvement on Windows Vista (That said, I never had any massive problems with Vista in the first place). I think that Aero is a beautiful design, and now that it has been implemented correctly, it does not cause any lag and this, for me, gets a massive thumbs up!

Another thing, probably the most noticeable change, is the task-bar. The new task-bar is very different to what Windows users are used to. It uses images but with no text, and in my opinion this works very well. You can also pin programs/folders to the task-bar in order to access them quickly in the future - which is very useful. I can see similarities to a Mac Dock in the new task-bar, but that said it is still very, very different. If you right-click on the programs that are running, you will get a mini-menu (depending on the program) which gives you some options you can use quickly without even displaying the window. Take iTunes for example, if I right-click on it I am displayed with a 'Recently Played' section, with about 6 songs that I can quickly play right from that very menu. Pretty cool if you ask me! Programs running multiple times, or that have multiple windows are also grouped now - and if you hover over it you will be shown the windows that are running - which is useful. One simply, yet cool thing that I have discovered very recently is that, say you are installing a program and you minimize it to the task-bar. The task-bar icon has the progress bar on it - which is like a green bar going across it as a transparent overlay, and this is another very very useful feature.

Basic Windows programs have been upgraded also. I have recently used Microsoft Paint and I must say its revamp is superb! Basic features have been added which make it so much more user-friendly, and I enjoyed using it. Created a not-so-bad image too, but don't expect it to compare with the likes of Photoshop!

So overall I love Windows 7 and I'm very glad I upgraded - Congrats on a brilliant OS Microsoft!

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Comments

[Kevin Bell]

Harley I agree Windows 7 is awesome and a vast improvement. I actually like the "drop up" box. It keeps things from looking cluttered. If you add two more new toolbars but leave the name turned off and unlock the taskbar you can resize all your icons to center them just like the mac dock. This is very nice and is more aesthetically pleasing. I am so pleased with the peace offerings between PC and MAC users these days. Thats why my first post was all about! Glad to see everyone getting along and not arguing because both systems have great merits. I still may get a MAC myself. Take care.

-Kevin