MICROSOFT HAS made laptops available to journalists so they can get some "hands-on" time with Windows 7 in its current state of development.
The PCs are preloaded with "milestone three" of Windows 7 - the last major version before a beta (early) version is released early next year. As such, it differs in some major respects from the version Microsoft executives were demonstrating during the conference.
Two days in a hotel is not an ideal environment to get to grips with a new operating system, but even after a short and restricted exposure to Windows 7, initial impressions are good.
Improvements to the taskbar significantly reduce the amount of mouse clicks required to achieve what you want. Applications can be dragged from the start menu and pinned to the taskbar, while all running applications can be previewed by hovering the mouse over them, with the "Peek" feature expanding those previews to full size. The previews have "jump lists" that show a list of recent documents as well as common tasks for the application.
A new feature called Home Group makes it easy to set up a home network of Windows 7 PCs. All files on PCs in the Home Group can be accessed through Explorer and searched from one of the PCs.
To make this even more usable, Microsoft has introduced the concept of Libraries, which allow content on different machines to be grouped together in a single folder.
Preconfigured libraries such as music, downloads, pictures and video are provided, but users can easily create their own.
Desktop gadgets are no longer confined to a sidebar but can be placed anywhere on the screen, while the desktop can be quickly viewed by hovering the cursor over the bottom of the screen.
Irritating messages from Windows have been reduced, with users able to choose the level of notification they want.
For business users, the headache of getting a projector set up in Windows has been addressed - hold down the Windows key and P, and relevant display options come up on screen.
Corporate users also like the fact that Bit Locker encryption has been extended to allow USB keys to be secured.
Although Microsoft claims this is a "major" new release, it is based on the same underlying code as corporate workhorse Windows Server 2008 and its unloved predecessor, Windows Vista.
Microsoft is not saying anything about the system requirements for Windows 7, but Steven Sinofsky, senior vice-president in charge of Windows and the man overseeing the development of the new system, showed it running on an ultraportable netbook with just one gigabyte of RAM and a lower-end Intel Atom processor.
Microsoft has plenty of work to do, but first impressions are that Windows 7 is a cleaner, more intuitive follow-up to Vista.
JOHN COLLINS
