I installed Windows 7 Beta 1(build 7000) on a spare drive a couple of days ago and since then have been using it side by side with Windows Vista. It feels faster than Vista for one. It also looks better in most areas. The new features such as jump lists and the improved thumbnail view are great. I really like the new show desktop feature. I’m always wanting to peek at the gadgets behind my open windows and this is a simple and effective way to do that. Windows 7 is much better at finding drivers like the one for my graphics card, my sound card and even my HP monitor that uses a driver to tilt to portrait mode.
Windows 7 has it’s problems though. I’m sure to most they are just trivial but I find them really annoying. My first gripe is the lack of options for showing desktop icons. I like a clean desktop free of icons but I also like gadgets to be visible. In Windows 7, there is no in between. You either have icons and gadgets both showing or you don’t. The only way to keep gadgets visible while “hiding” icons is to manually delete the icons! This is stupid.
Another big problem I have with Windows 7 is the lack of a mail client. I might be one of the few who actually use Windows Mail but it works great. It’s replacement, which is only available to download and doesn’t ship with Windows 7, is a pile of crap. It doesn’t combine accounts for one which drives me mad. I have to check for new messages for each of my three accounts which done several times a day can get tiresome. Windows Mail isn’t the end all of email clients but it’s better than Windows Live Mail. I realize it’s still in beta so I’m hoping they address the performance issues but I don’t see them changing the interface since that is likely a done deal and has been months ago. I guess I’ll use Thunderbird.
Windows Media Player 12 is also new. And it’s terrible. Gone is the transparent background near the playback controls. It’s replaced by a bland looking white section. I know its a cosmetic change it what really matters is how it works underneath the eye candy but it is a step backward. At least give the option to enable this for those who shelled out the moola for a graphics card to run Vista’s AERO interface. The newest version of Windows Media Player also has a new “Now Playing” screen. It’s detached from the player itself and is a separate window. The SRS sound enhancements and other settings are accessed via this new “Now Playing” screen and they too are in their own window which I hate. Everything was together in WMP11 and everything in WMP12 is separated from one another. Who thought this was a good idea? It sucks. Plain and simple Microsoft.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading.
