Windows 7: Screenshots

I decided I would post some screenshots for you guys to take a look at, and show some of the features of Windows 7. Some of the features were present in Windows Vista, except they work much better and are alot more comfortable than in the previous OS. Have a look. Oh, and a warning, they're all links to bigger versions. 1280x800



First off, here's a picture of the Desktop setup you've all probably seen sometime or another on Google. Thankfully, the desktop environment is much more comfortable than Vista's, and even more so than XP. It has a lot of eye-candy compared to XP, but the difference is that the functionality of it is far superior to Windows Vista.





Seeing that there's a new taskbar, it obviously comes with some new features. Including the ability to browse in real time what each open window of each minimized (or pinned) program is doing. The Start Menu, though, looks almost identical to the one in Windows Vista. Thankfully, though, they changed the "Hibernate" button to "Shut Down". Of course, it gives you the option to change it to do whatever you like.







Next, as you probably wouldn't guess considering the terrible of out-of-the-box desktop customization Windows has always offered, Windows 7 actually has some nice, and interesting customization options. Including the feature to have your wallpaper change itself on a timed basis, having the window color, transparency, and color intensity changed, and the ability to save each customization you may make as a custom theme that you can back up. Fortunately, with the desktops, you can also simply choose a full folder of pictures, and either have the whole folder play through like a slideshow as your desktop, or just pick a couple of pictures from it. A nice upgrade from Vista, I must say.





One thing I am actually glad it kept from Windows Vista is the nice bit of eye candy they gave us with the 3D tab scrolling feature when you press WindowsKey-Tab. It's actually smoother (at least for me) in Windows 7, though. Being a less than necessary feature, I've seen a lot of people complain that it's there; but in my opinion a little eye candy is nice.





Being the older sibling to Windows Vista (Although I heavily disagree it's just a new Vista, like some claim.), it carries on with it the glassy Aero GUI. I honestly really do like them, but with Vista they made the whole OS slow. Windows 7, on the other hand, runs much, much more smoothly, so they're actually nice to use over the old XP GUI.





Even though I still use Firefox, Windows 7 is being shipped with Internet Explorer 8. The Beta, fortunately for those who use IE, came with the release of it too. Along with it, it came with the new Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player 12.









One of the things that I thought was a really cool, nice update were additions of the new calculator and Paint. Paint actually reminds me of the old Paint program from older versions of Windows. Unbeknownst to a lot of people is the new calculator. It's really smooth, and yet another nice bit of eye candy.







Aero Snap, and Aero Peek are two new features that were presented with Windows 7 that, for me, have made my Windows experience actually easier and quicker during simple day-to-day use. Aero Snap allows you to drag one open window to either the top, left, or right sides, and it snaps to that particular area with an invisible grid. You can, of course use windowskey-left, right, or up to do the same thing. Aero peek is kind of like the new taskbar feature that lets you look at what's going on. It allows you to either click the little clear button at the far right of the taskbar, or hold windowskey-spacebar to see your desktop and what's happening with it in real time. I use it a lot when I'm using messengers, or on mIRC and I'm just trying to keep up with big chats, but not saying a whole lot.







As you can see, it's a far different system than Windows XP or even Windows Vista. Many people have called it merely a graphical upgrade from Vista, but I must beg to differ. It's much more stable, complete, and useful to use than Vista, therefore making my entire Windows experience different and much more interesting, fun, and comfortable than ever before. That, for me a large statement considering I've been using Windows all my life, since 1993, and used XP for the entirety of it's release. I only recently upgraded to Vista, not intentionally, and hugely disliked it compared to XP.



Although Windows 7 is still in Beta, and I probably won't be able to get it as soon as it comes out, I will most assuredly be upgrading as soon as I possibly can.



Thanks for reading!





PS: I also plan to do another review or two on some of the features, like Windows Media Player 12.


Final Note: I also know that this particular article seems somewhat...Muddled. Though, this is merely a compilation of screenshots of my own desktop with small descriptions of them as I go.