I have been using Windows 7 Beta for the past 2 days, and decided to start this thread with my observations and screenshots. If you guys want to know anything about the beta or want any screenshot of any of the apps, let me know. I will post it.
The observations and screenshots are all random, no sequence or order.
Observations-
* The Notes gadget is missing. But the Sticky Notes app is supposed to take over the Notes gadget. It is better than Notes gadget, but stays in the taskbar all the time!
* The install size is really really small. When i last checked, after using it for a day, installing Windows Live Essentials, Nokia apps, Anti Virus, Messengers, The space used by the system was just 10GB.
* The Internet games which were present in XP have made a comeback.
* Wordpad supports DocX documents, but does not support Doc Documents. I think this is a very smart movie, and will probably make the biggest push in the new format being used by the users.
Added January 3rd -
* iTunes works fine on Windows 7. Only issue i had was that while adding tracks to my library, the RAM usage went 100MB+! I uninstalled it soon after as i do not use iTunes.
* Norton AV 09 needs to be installed in Vista compatibility mode otherwise it does not start after the first restart.
* There 3 new regional themes hidden inside the "Globalization folder" which you can use just by opening them once! Now why not provide them for all the users! They are just a different colored Aero theme with a different set of Wallpapers slideshow.
* The uPnP works out of the box i.e you can control the Windows Media Player using your N-series phones without the need for a media server application. I could not get this to work on Vista! I played tracks on my N85 via Windows Media Player.
Added - Janurary 5
* DivX support has been added out of the box. Though some of the movies still need proper DivX codec, most probably cause of different encoders used.
* Bluetooth dongles now work out of the box by default, without the need for IVT Bluesoleil drivers or software! Though the IVT suite will offer enhaced functionality, but atleast now you will be able to use your bluetooth even if you do not want to install the whole suite!
* Task Manager now shows the amount of Free & Cached memory. This might not make a difference to of us who know what superfetching is, but i have many friends who grumbled about vista using up whatever memory is offered to it when it was just launched! This is a better approach even otherwise.
* Windows 7 has something nice and very helpfull called the troubleshooters. Details and screenshots for that have been posted in another thread, do check that out too.
http://www.techenclave.com/operatin...ubleshooters-allow-windows-search-125543.html
* The taskbar buttons light up in a shade matching to the color of the icon when the mouse hovers on the buttons, which looks nice and makes it easier to differentiate between them. So the uTorrent buttons lights up in a green shade, Firefox button lights up in orange, Opera in Red, IE in blue and similar. A very nice touch
* A whitish background illumination follows your mouse on the taskbar buttons.
Added January 8th
* WMP also plays MP4 and 3gp videos be default,Without the need for quicktime. This, combined with DivX support, shall go a long way in making the devices work easily and withouth much effort on Windows 7. Since most of the Digital Cams and Handy Cams record videos in these formats only, supporting these formats out of the box would mean immediate playback of these videos as soon as the devices are plugged in!
* Windows 7 has DirectX 11!!! Damn, i had not checked it till today. I think this issue was disputed as people were not sure whether it would be there.
Added Janurary 10
* Fastest speeds while copying to external drive. I am getting 33.5kbps while copying files from my computer to my external. This is 10% than Vista, and i dont remember XPs speed, but i dont think it was this fast.
* The progress bar indicator background in the taskbar buttons is another example of productivy tweaks incorporated in Windos 7. To those complaining that XP is lighter in RAM usage and in raw bechmarks, it is such tweaks which need to be taken into consideration. The RAM usage and the raw benchmarks would take a hit due to cosmetic changes like these, but in real world use, in XP, this would mean a 2 3 second each time you want to check the progress, but over here, you are not wasting your 3 seconds having to deviate from your current task at hand and checking the progress!
* "Safely Remove Hardware" functionality has also received the much needed easy of use upgrade. I am attaching screenshots to make it clear.
* "New Folder" button is back in the Explorer task pane, after it had been removed in Vista. I missed this small button a lot in Vista!
* Some new control panel applets like Location Sensor, Credentials hint at some interesting possibilities once they are made use of! Screenshots attached.
* Even after nearly 2 weeks of use, i have to add that the menus still open as quickly as they did the first day! Really really responsive!
* The Ribbon interface in the Paint application is really a huge improvement for the application, i just hope they would have added more functionality to Paint. Check the screenshots.
Screenshots
Support for burning disc images has been added.
Wordpad supports opening DocX documents
4 themes have been provided out of the box. The themes even include Slideshows using Wallpapers based on a particular theme.
The Disk Defragmenting tool shows how much the disk is fragmented.
An example of how the jumplists will provide enhanced functionality
Drivers installed for my Bluesoleil Bluetooth dongle.
Bluetooth dongle in the Devices.
Free, Available & Cached memory now properly displayed.
A better source viewer, though it is still flawed and does not dissect the html code properly as you will see. I am not sure if this is a IE8 addon, or a Windows 7 addon.
Windows 7 DirectX version - 11
The New Menu in Paint makes thing visually clear for the user.
Easy to understand visual representation of the different kinds of brushes!
The new safely remove hardware popup makes it clear which devices are attached. No more removals by mistake!
A proper safely remove hardware applet!
Explorer now tells you which program is using a file instead of just saying that the file cannot be denied because it is open in another program!
List of formats supported by Windows Media Player out of the box!
Sensors which can detect the Location and Orientation! A smarter AI is not a distant future now
A few of my credentials were already recorded in this manager like my Windows Live ID. Lets see how much of a difference does this make to out computing.
Probably will search for Windows 7 computers in the network and provide easy assitance setup.
I have never used Media Center, but updated guides is always welcome
The observations and screenshots are all random, no sequence or order.
Observations-
* The Notes gadget is missing. But the Sticky Notes app is supposed to take over the Notes gadget. It is better than Notes gadget, but stays in the taskbar all the time!
* The install size is really really small. When i last checked, after using it for a day, installing Windows Live Essentials, Nokia apps, Anti Virus, Messengers, The space used by the system was just 10GB.
* The Internet games which were present in XP have made a comeback.
* Wordpad supports DocX documents, but does not support Doc Documents. I think this is a very smart movie, and will probably make the biggest push in the new format being used by the users.
Added January 3rd -
* iTunes works fine on Windows 7. Only issue i had was that while adding tracks to my library, the RAM usage went 100MB+! I uninstalled it soon after as i do not use iTunes.
* Norton AV 09 needs to be installed in Vista compatibility mode otherwise it does not start after the first restart.
* There 3 new regional themes hidden inside the "Globalization folder" which you can use just by opening them once! Now why not provide them for all the users! They are just a different colored Aero theme with a different set of Wallpapers slideshow.
* The uPnP works out of the box i.e you can control the Windows Media Player using your N-series phones without the need for a media server application. I could not get this to work on Vista! I played tracks on my N85 via Windows Media Player.
Added - Janurary 5
* DivX support has been added out of the box. Though some of the movies still need proper DivX codec, most probably cause of different encoders used.
* Bluetooth dongles now work out of the box by default, without the need for IVT Bluesoleil drivers or software! Though the IVT suite will offer enhaced functionality, but atleast now you will be able to use your bluetooth even if you do not want to install the whole suite!
* Task Manager now shows the amount of Free & Cached memory. This might not make a difference to of us who know what superfetching is, but i have many friends who grumbled about vista using up whatever memory is offered to it when it was just launched! This is a better approach even otherwise.
* Windows 7 has something nice and very helpfull called the troubleshooters. Details and screenshots for that have been posted in another thread, do check that out too.
http://www.techenclave.com/operatin...ubleshooters-allow-windows-search-125543.html
* The taskbar buttons light up in a shade matching to the color of the icon when the mouse hovers on the buttons, which looks nice and makes it easier to differentiate between them. So the uTorrent buttons lights up in a green shade, Firefox button lights up in orange, Opera in Red, IE in blue and similar. A very nice touch
* A whitish background illumination follows your mouse on the taskbar buttons.
Added January 8th
* WMP also plays MP4 and 3gp videos be default,Without the need for quicktime. This, combined with DivX support, shall go a long way in making the devices work easily and withouth much effort on Windows 7. Since most of the Digital Cams and Handy Cams record videos in these formats only, supporting these formats out of the box would mean immediate playback of these videos as soon as the devices are plugged in!
* Windows 7 has DirectX 11!!! Damn, i had not checked it till today. I think this issue was disputed as people were not sure whether it would be there.
Added Janurary 10
* Fastest speeds while copying to external drive. I am getting 33.5kbps while copying files from my computer to my external. This is 10% than Vista, and i dont remember XPs speed, but i dont think it was this fast.
* The progress bar indicator background in the taskbar buttons is another example of productivy tweaks incorporated in Windos 7. To those complaining that XP is lighter in RAM usage and in raw bechmarks, it is such tweaks which need to be taken into consideration. The RAM usage and the raw benchmarks would take a hit due to cosmetic changes like these, but in real world use, in XP, this would mean a 2 3 second each time you want to check the progress, but over here, you are not wasting your 3 seconds having to deviate from your current task at hand and checking the progress!
* "Safely Remove Hardware" functionality has also received the much needed easy of use upgrade. I am attaching screenshots to make it clear.
* "New Folder" button is back in the Explorer task pane, after it had been removed in Vista. I missed this small button a lot in Vista!
* Some new control panel applets like Location Sensor, Credentials hint at some interesting possibilities once they are made use of! Screenshots attached.
* Even after nearly 2 weeks of use, i have to add that the menus still open as quickly as they did the first day! Really really responsive!
* The Ribbon interface in the Paint application is really a huge improvement for the application, i just hope they would have added more functionality to Paint. Check the screenshots.
Screenshots
Support for burning disc images has been added.
Wordpad supports opening DocX documents
4 themes have been provided out of the box. The themes even include Slideshows using Wallpapers based on a particular theme.
The Disk Defragmenting tool shows how much the disk is fragmented.
An example of how the jumplists will provide enhanced functionality
Drivers installed for my Bluesoleil Bluetooth dongle.
Bluetooth dongle in the Devices.
Free, Available & Cached memory now properly displayed.
A better source viewer, though it is still flawed and does not dissect the html code properly as you will see. I am not sure if this is a IE8 addon, or a Windows 7 addon.
Windows 7 DirectX version - 11
The New Menu in Paint makes thing visually clear for the user.
Easy to understand visual representation of the different kinds of brushes!
The new safely remove hardware popup makes it clear which devices are attached. No more removals by mistake!
A proper safely remove hardware applet!
Explorer now tells you which program is using a file instead of just saying that the file cannot be denied because it is open in another program!
List of formats supported by Windows Media Player out of the box!
Sensors which can detect the Location and Orientation! A smarter AI is not a distant future now
A few of my credentials were already recorded in this manager like my Windows Live ID. Lets see how much of a difference does this make to out computing.
Probably will search for Windows 7 computers in the network and provide easy assitance setup.
I have never used Media Center, but updated guides is always welcome
