More about Windows 7 beta

I decided to boot-up the virtual machine and start Windows 7 while writing on my blog in the same time. So here I go:
The first thing you notice is the new logo. It's a pretty nice animation that I like. You can find it anywhere on youtube.
Then, the user logon where you have to type your password. Nothing changed here, same as Vista.
After that you see your desktop on the very first bug. On the first boot, I left 3 gadgets opened. A clock, a calendar and sticky notes. The clock and the calendar were on the top right side, where they would normally be on the Vista Sidebar which we don't have now. The notes were placed somewhere in the top center-right. Now, after a reboot, this little gadget is on top of the calendar and partially over the clock. Not good. Moving on.

The start menu. It is still divided into two. The left part with various programs and the right part with quick links to different locations. The "Network" link disappeared in favor of "Devices and Printers". Also, the way they are arranged differs slightly. Then, a big improvement from my point of view is the "ShutDown" button. Instead of the 2 buttons + arrow there is only one + arrow and the one that remained actually is for shutting down your computer.

The next thing you will notice is that some of the programs from the left menu have an arrow. One example would be the "Paint" application. If you hover your mouse on it, the panel will be expanded with your recent pictures(in this case) that were used by the application. Practically, they have removed the "Recently Used Documents" and associated each recently used document with it's default program. Good one. Next.

Speaking of Paint...major changes! It now has an office-like menu and taskbar.


And since we are at the entertainment area....Internet Games are back! Opening the Games link show you a window with: Chess Titan, FreeCell, Hearts, Internet Backgammon, Internet Checkers, Internet Spades, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purble Place, Solitaire and Spider Solitaire. Good one. Next

Windows Explorer is somehow changed. Also, there are no more "My Documents". Now we have "Libraries" with the defaults: Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos.

Another issue that will be corrected in the future: Every time I log-in a message keeps pop-ing up saying that I do not have an antivirus. It has a link to show me which are recommended and of course, there aren't any.
Oh, it seems that Security Center is replaced by Action Center which has (currently at least) two subdivisions:
-Security: which signals one problem regarding virus protection
-Maintenance: where you can check for solutions to reported problems, set up a back-up, check for updates and some troubleshooting settings. So, no major changes here, just some reorganising. Next.

Windows Experience Index now gives scores from 1.0 to 7.9.
I can change UAC settings and put it the way I like it.


Well, that's about it.
Oh almost forgot: funny thing:


More about UI changes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8AqXaNr8ag

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