Following Microsoft’s CES keynote, I downloaded the new beta of Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista. Vista, which is facing possibly the worst public relations disaster in the history of software, has been out for two years, and is sold on a majority of new PCs today; however, most businesses still prefer XP, as several key software developers still recommend it over the newer Vista. People have cried of Vista’s similarity to Windows Me, the third encarnation of Windows 98, released in 2000 as a bridge between Windows 98 and Windows XP, which was released in 2001.
Windows 7, due out later this year, promises to provide the benifits of Vista without the hassles. My first impression of Windows 7 was it’s resemblance of Vista. The Aero interface — the slightly opaque borders of windows — stays the same in Windows 7. The overall look and feel is almost identical to Vista.
However, just as you’re ready to say there aren’t any changes from Vista, you’ll notice the taskbar, which as adopted a very OS X-like quality which merges the old QuickLaunch bar — which provided one-click access to applications from the taskbar — with the currently running applications which we’re all familiar with in the Windows taskbar. This approach fits me quite well, as I’m very familiar with OS X’s dock — which functions exactly the same way; however, I cannot imagine a life-long Windows user finding this an easy switch. Windows taskbar has been exactly the same in function since Windows 95, and I would estimate 50% of Windows users still don’t understand it fully. To remove this basic functionality and replace it with a completely new concept is yet another move that doesn’t make sense to me.
New users will take to the new taskbar easily, but for the 90% of users that will buy Windows 7 and Windows 7-equipped computers, they will have to learn a basic skill over. Now, I should mention that I have not looked for a way to change the taskbar back to a “Classic” mode — it may exist.
One curious item I just noticed is the return of “My Documents” and “My Music” — in Vista, Microsoft dropped the “My” in favor of “Documents” and “Music.” Developers no doubt hated this change, as it fundamentally changed what used to be sure-fire file locations. However, like Vista, Windows 7 keeps the new file layout, user’s files are located in C:\Users\%UserName% like Vista, as opposed to the 2000/XP path of C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%. This change was no doubt inspired by developers tired of handling spaces in a common path.
Although this is a minor change, I think it represents a concession by Microsoft. People have gotten used to “My Documents” — it’s a common term when referencing where you’ve stored something. Users are used to this, and Microsoft needs to understand that changing a common term with regards to the OS is a bad idea.
More thoughts as I continue my evaluation…
Update 2 (1/12/09)
I stumbled upon this Ars Technica article today discussing the “deep” features of Windows 7. The author, obviously in love with Microsoft from the tone of the article, makes some good points, and pointed out several features of Windows 7 that I would have never found on my own. This, of course, begs the question, how would anyone find out about these features? But that aside, there are some cool ones:
<Windows> + <Up Arrow> Maximizes the active window, combined with down, left, and right, the user can keyboard-shortcut his/her way with restore/minimize, tile left and tile right respectively. This is a great feature.
Hovering over a program in the taskbar (assuming Aero is enabled) will bring that window to the front, and make all other open windows transluscent. Not as good as Apple’s Expose in OS X, but it’s a great improvement over the flippy windows in Vista.
My favorite, and maybe even useful feature of Win7 is the “shake.” Take the title bar of any window, grab and shake it with the mouse and all other windows will minimize. I’ve found myself wanting this feature on OS X now that I’ve seen it work in Windows.
Check out the Ars article for more in-depth detail to Win7.
Again, more thoughts as I continue to play with the OS…