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I’ve been running Windows 7 for a while now, and just updated to RTM. At first glance, it’s a little disappointing to see how much like Vista it really is. But in fairness, it’s not terrible. Here are 5 pros and 5 cons to Windows 7.

PRO 1 - Nice maximize/restore functionality

Oddly as it sounds, this feature has really grown on me. It makes a lot of sense, and yes, Linux had it first. But in any case, in Windows 7 you can drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize, and drag a maximized window away to restore it’s size. It’s simple but you’ll find yourself picking it up quickly. Hopefully it doesn’t throw people off too much!

CON 1 - Control panel disaster
Apparently  Microsoft can’t figure out how to lay out the control panel. Here’s a hint - rip off Mac OS X. Anyhow the normal view doesn’t show all the settings, and the full view has way to many - yet somehow not enough. I constantly find myself playing “Where’s Waldo” to find stupid things like sharing printers and whatnot

PRO 2 - Nicer Interface

The looks are fresher. I hated vistas blue and green colors, and the weird “Max Headroom” laser design that was everywhere. I would describe the new theme as blue and organic. Lots of Web 2.0 birds and floral design throughout which oddly works without getting too cluttered. It’s nice, hopefully they stick with it.

CON 2 - It’s still Vista

Yeah this is a biggie. Nothing new is supposed to break in 7, and it offers improved XP compatibility - but deep down it’s still the same ugly reject it was a few years ago. Hopefully for Microsoft, people will just perceive it as something different, something they proved it possible in the Mojave experiment. (And oh yes, it still nags about everything like Vista)

PRO 3 - Lay out of some commonly used items

Things are located where they should be for the most part. Right clicking the desktop lets you change themes and resolution, the start menu has shut down. These types of things that Vista screwed up, 7 restores to their rightful places.

CON 3 - Lame Taskbar

Way to rip off Apple, and get it wrong completely. Novice users are going to have fun with this one. It’s easy to confuse what’s open and what’s not. It’s also ease to lose track of what you have open. People are going to stumble on this, I guarantee.

PRO 4 - Fast Startup

Although I’ve been experiencing more and more slowness, the startup is quicker than Vista’s. Also, it’s prettier. I really didn’t like Vista’s progress-bar-only thing. That was weird!

CON 4 - No classic start menu

People will probably hate this, although the new one is nice when you get used to it. Hopefully you forced yourself to adapt to it in Vista!

PRO 5 - ISO image burning

Handy dandy ability to burn ISO’s from right-click.

CON 5 - Performance

Yes, I realize 7 boasts improved performance. But it is still not the lean system it could be. It won’t run on NetBooks as well as XP or CURRENT versions of low-fat linux.

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So in summary, I give MS credit for listening to users. They’ve honestly fixed some issues from Vista. But, overall, it’s still the same OS deep down. At least this one is a step in the right direction.

Well I got my grubby little mac-loving hands on Windows 7 beta, I was very eager to check it out. Most people feel that 7 is going to be important for Microsoft as it will either save them with a splash, or reconfirm their incompetence. I will try as hard as possible to be fair, ok here we go! (Screenshots at the end)

• Installation process exactly the same as Vista - fresh install is about 9-10 gigs.. yikes
• Elegant startup, with firefly lights that form the Windows logo. Overall the design is less in your face. I hated the greens and aquas coupled with the laser effects that vista had. 7 is very “aqua”
• My first destination was into the Windows system folder, I had no warning about “display these files” which was refreshing.
• There is far less nagging, but still more than I like. It asked me to install anti-virus, nags if you REALLY want to install something, and asks for administrative privileges to move some files. There is a setting for naggy-ness. Also, no gadgets by default… keeps things out of your face a bit more
• The WORST aspect I’ve encountered though is the new Mac-ripoff taskbar. It tries to be like the dock, but it’s majorly confusing. For instance, I opened a My Computer window and minimized it… where’d it go? Aparently  they all get tucked together in a weird document library icon. It’s very odd. Same thing goes for any other program - if you minimize it, it goes into the program icon. So if I minimize a web page, it goes into IE. I understand what they’re going for - but it’s going to confuse the absolute hell out of some people. Also gone is the quick launch, you can now pin icons to the taskbar similar to the way Application icons can be kept in the Mac OS X dock. It’s one of those clear rip off things and now Windows users too will have that inability to determine what programs are actually running and which are just “there” … trust me it’s weird
• I’ll end my little review on a sort of good note, I think it’s a little nicer looking. My VM did not have 3d acceleration enabled so I got the basic non-glass looks. It’s just like Vista only a bit cleaned up. No more freakin’ lasers, just nice solids, blues, crisp angles. The dock is a bit ugly, but otherwise the “looks” is an improvement.

My overall reaction is simply that I was hoping for something a little more, it’s very VERY similar to Vista. As far as I’m concerned Microsoft just wanted to shed the Vista stigma so they threw 7 together. It’s just an update.

Performance wise, it’s hard to tell as it’s in a VM - It does not run anywhere near as fast as XP. The biggest PRO is the cleaned up interface, the biggest CON is the taskbar/dock.

I will play around with it some more, I’ve only had a little time to mess around. But my feeling is just that is very similar to vista with some things better, some things worse. Not a giant step forward by any means.