Underneath the GUI, what does Windows 7 bring to the table. The first thing you are likely to do it bring up the start menu, and it is interesting to note some new icons there. The two that stuck out like a sore thumb to me were “Sticky Notes” and the “Snipping Tool”. Their names pretty much say all that needs to be said; Sticky Notes are Post-It style text boxes that you can place on your monitor, while Snipping Tool is a glorified Print Screen button. While both programs may become a staple diet of new users to the Windows environ, older customers are likely to throw them both out the window in favour of tried and true techniques that still work just as well.

What I personally dislike about Stickey notes is that each note seems to be a seperate process, and is always shown on the Applications Bar, making it an ugly program to be running when compared to programs like PostIt or others like it which usually have a single process  that (turns out the multiple processes was a bug and is now fixed) sits in the SysTray. Furthermore, I am way too ingrained into the habit of opening a Notepad.exe file whenever I need to jot something down. In fact, hitting the Windows button and typing “note” to bring up a notepad document no longer works as the Sticky Notes programs holds some kind of Trump card when the order is defined; this brings me to a jarring halt as I close the unwanted program and then use the mouse to open notepad instead. I will most likely uninstall Sticky Notes ASAP.

Snipping Tool as a concept, as I said earlier, will probably become second nature for some. Maybe, like the Amish, I fear change; I simply cannot bring myself to use this feature. Print Screen and Photoshop will always be my port of call when I feel the need to take a screenshot.

Now onto the good news. The talking heads over at MS Public Relations have been vomiting rainbows everytime they talk about Windows 7’s battery conservation “skillz” and its 1337 Power Management. As a University student who frequently has 2 hour lectures and 5 hour lab sessions, being able to work without the constant fear of my battery being depleted halfway through a data run is a huge turn on (yes, a power-pun!). As such, I decided to start catalogueing my battery life a couple of weeks prior to installing W7 onto my laptop. My old Dell portable utilised a 9-Cell battery; when I had to replace it however, Dell was not offering anything larger than a 6-Cell battery for their new laptops. As such, the longest time I could use it from 100% charge was usually about 2 hours on a good day.

As you can see, while I have significantly fewer data points for W7, the battery life is undoubtably longer on average. The data was taken over a week with varied levels of use, from simple web surfing using a wireless access point, to rendering flame fractals using apophosys while listening to music. Each data point was taken in minutes from Power On until the Critical Battery Warning which is displayed at <1% battery power (about 5 seconds before the computer shuts down and refuses to turn back on). However, for ease of reading the data, it was converted into Hours (Base 10). To ensure that W7 was not pulling the wool over my eyes, I verified the complete discharge of the battery using the LED indicator that is now standard on the new Dell data batteries. My data is available as a .csv file for anyone interested in reproducing my statistical analysis.

Further good news, and something I am sure a lot of people are aching for, the User Account Controls have completely been redone. Not removed, and I don’t believe they should be excised from the OS entirely as it is a good feature for the elderly and the very young (or stupid); experienced users now have the chance to run their computer at a level that matches their capabilities. Want to be in control of everything your compter does while maintaining your own sense of security? Turn UAC off with a single click from the control panel. Don’t want Windows to tell you that UAC is off and that it should be on? That is simply smashing; since you turned it off we just assumed you knew it was gone. In fact there is a nice big ol’ button in the control panel that lets you chose what windows will announce at any given time.

All this is now in a catagory called the Action Centre which seems to be an amalgamation of UAC, Windows Update and Error Reporting all in a single panel. I personally feel like it has been thought out by a rational person this time, so that is a nice change from the Redmond team.

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The first impression is very much a “Oh, it is Vista?” reaction, but this only lasts a brief moment. Quickly you notice the lines seem sharper, more defined and cleaner than vista. There are the usual Quick Launch icons next to a familiar Windows button bottom left, and a System Tray looking thing bottom right; only on second inspection do we realise neither of these are what they seem.

Starting with the Application Bar and Start Menu in the bottom left, I must say I like that new glowing Windows button. Here comes our first big revelation and an indication that maybe things are different. The Quick Launch and the Task Bar are now the SAME THING! This is a difficult concept to explain as it goes against everything the typical windows user knows, however I will try my best. The Quick Launch icons will sit happily where you expect them to be, until you open their respective applications. As you click the icon, the application loads; it’s Task Bar icon now Replaces the Quick Launch icon, preserving it’s location in the grand order. The amount this reduces clutter is unfathomable. Suddenly I feel compelled to have a Quick Launch, which is something I would always remove in favour of more desktop real estate. In addition, new instances of the same program automatically stack on the Application Bar.

There is a graphical indication of how many deep the windows are stacked; in the screen shot I have one Windows Explorer instance, two Firefox 3 instances, two Pidgin instances and one Adobe Photoshop instance. Windows Media Player 12 (yes, a new WMP to review, but not today) is not running, yet it’s icon will remain there for rapid deployment to your desktop. As you can see, hovering over an application will show you a dynamic thumbnail of the instances open, allowing you to hot-switch without hesitating. Another feature not seen in the image is the glassframe map that appears on the desktop as you hover over each application/instance. Read on for a better explanation in the section on the Notification Area.

Let us click on that new pretty Windows button, shall we? The Start menu looks much like it’s Vista counterpart, and as far as I am concerned behaves almost identically. The only new feature brought to the table here is the inclusion of a hover-activated context menu on applications that have multiple files accessed regularly. Those little right-facing arrows will expand to a list of recently opened files on Photoshop and Notepad, where as Dreamweaver has not been opened yet (but will most likely use the same feature when I save/open some files with it). Now, an update requires Windows to restart, so I will meet you back here after the boot.

Always a good time to be productive! The Notification Area (often mistakenly called the Task Tray, System Tray, combinations thereof, etc. Microsoft maintains it’s correct name is the Notification Area) looks much the same as previous incarnations of the OS, and behaves accordingly. To expand the Notification Area we no longer slide sideways, but pop upwards. I guess that is new… not really a feature though, is it. Nothing new here except the empty nub of glass on the far right. Let us click it and see what happens.

OH! As soon as our cursor approached the button, all our windows turned into pieces of glass! A clean and intuitive representation of where all the windows are located is displayed; clicking the button minimises them all to the desktop. Much the same as Windows+D function(s/ed), the command gives you quick access to the desktop, only now it does it with style and aplomb! Personally, the feature is somewhat gimmicky, especially for those who already use hotkey combos like they are a second language. I have to say though, I reallly like it, and now that it is there I find myself using it all the fucking time. Sometimes I will just hover, look at my gorgeous Desktop Wallpaper, and then go back to work. Crazy!

Next: Applications! Batteries! User Account Control put to the pasture!

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