Microsoft's New Operating System Windows 7

February 5, 2009

Microsoft has learned from it’s previous experience with Vista and is rolling out a new operating system called Windows 7. Windows Vista has such a bad reputation that Microsoft felt compelled to come out with a new operating system.

The hardware requirements of the new operating system will not be different from those of Windows Vista. Microsoft made sure that Windows 7 will run on the same hardware more efficiently.

The first pre-beta releases of Windows 7 have been handed out to testers in October 2008. That version was missing some of the new features of Windows 7 which Microsoft added in later builds. New features include the rebuild Windows Taskbar which features application previews, popup information and faster application access.

The sidebar which was prevalent in Vista has been taken out and the gadgets show up on the desktop. A new feature called libraries, groups folders together so they can be searched in one location.

Windows 7 can be controlled with your fingers. You can scroll and zoom with flicks and pinches. The drawback here is that many of the icons are too small to use with your fingers. To use this feature use applications that are designed for touch.

Adding a new method of input to an operating system does come with the problem of adopting the operating system for all different input methods.

Also new in Windows 7 is something called Device Stage. This feature helps device vendors control what happens on connection, a control center specifically tailored for each device.

It is possible to update the device stage at anytime using an update service in Windows which makes hardware updates more easier. Some classic Windows applications have been updated in Windows 7 including Wordpad and Microsoft Paint who make use of a ribbon user interface.

Windows Media Player was updated as well. It now comes in a light version and supports many several codecs like divx, xvid, aac or h264 which means that most videos can now be played without codec installation. Another addition is DirectX 11.

Bitlocker To Go is the next new feature. It can be used to encrypt data on removable devices such as USB drives. It also offers a way to use network shares without virtual private networks.

Windows 7 builds up on the security concept that was introduced in Windows Vista. Microsoft optimized the security however and reduced the user interaction level.

The hopes are high to avoid a new debacle. It’s very likely that this can be done as Microsoft has optimized the code. There should not be any problems with missing drivers or application incompatibilities that plagued Vista users in the beginning.

Users have high hopes that Windows 7 will be another Windows XP operating system. Especially those that have skipped Windows Vista are looking forward to the release.

Martin runs a daily updated Windows 7 website that contains the latest reports about Windows 7. There is also a Windows 7 Forum on his website.

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