Windows 7 was officially released to the general public a few days ago on October 22nd. There’s no doubt that many of us have gotten our hands on a copy, or that many of us have seen many screenshots of this new operating system, but here is an article for those who haven’t.
Overall, Windows 7 is a pretty little operating system that appears to be a lot faster than Vista. One of Windows 7′s most distinguishing features is the clearer Aero interface, and the “superbar”, Windows 7′s new redesigned taskbar. A screenshot is below:
The Start Menu button glows, essentially eyecandy that Microsoft has added. On the taskbar are icons of running programs and a few “pinned” programs. Running programs have a distinctive glint to the upper left edge of their tab, and are automatically grouped together. Hover over one of the icons to see the running windows inside it. Windows 7′s GUI has also changed colors from black/blue to a pale blue.
Windows Media Player has also been redesigned beautifully, and now supports mp4 files, music files created by Apple’s ITunes software.
So, does Windows 7 look worth it for the money? Or do these visual changes deter you from upgrading? Leave your comments below.
I. Want. Windows. 7. Now.
It looks like it’ll take some getting used to though. I have a laptop with Vista and it’s kinda slow.
If your laptop with Vista was bought over the summer, you qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7. I certainly don’t qualify since mine was bought a few weeks after Vista was first released back in 2007. Compared to Windows 7, Vista is slow, but they’re quite similar in features. Windows 7 mainly builds off feedback and criticism over Windows Vista. The new and improved taskbar is the main thing that might take a while to get used to. Seems to be inspired by the Mac OS X Dock.
If you wanted to try Windows 7, it was possible to download the Beta in January and the Release Candidate in May. I’m still running the RC right now. It expires in the first half of 2010.
The graphics are not slightly brighter, they seem way brighter than colors I’ve encountered in Vista. This allows for more vivid colors, but can be a headache when trying to work.
The new menu bar system looks real cool but you can’t see the title of the running window. And the start button shines too much. Meh.
The graphics including Windows Aero are slightly brighter than they are in Vista.
What do you mean by “can’t see the title of the running window”?
Hello,
Is therea way to makemy windows looks likemac iconshave,thelittle bubbles that enlargeas whenuhover mouseova?
Really great post, enjoyed reading it. Thanks,
joe
Hi Joe. Thanks for visiting.
To make your Windows look like Mac, try this tutorial on WikiHow. It refers to XP but should work just as well for Windows 7. There are many programs for the Mac Dock such as Rocketdock and Object Dock.