Setting up Windows 7

If you read my blog entry from yesterday, Computing 101 for the indecisive, you would know that I was eagerly awaiting the release of Windows 7 RC. This is now officially available as a free download from Microsoft, after registration. All you need to do is download the 2.6 Gb ISO, burn it to a DVD, boot your PC using it and install it on a drive or to a particular partition. Since it isn't the final release I would recommend against using it as your primary OS, but Microsoft have made it very easy to place Windows 7 alongside other installations.

If you read the aforementioned blog you would also know that I was planning on installing Windows 7 RC alongside Vista, XP and Ubuntu, in some daring quadruple boot situation. I have been using Neosmart's EasyBCD to manage all my different installations, and it's become pretty complex. But installing Windows 7 was a breeze: all I had to do was use Vista's disk management program (Start > Right click Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management) to shrink a partition and I had enough free space for Windows 7 to create a new partition. It automatically placed the boot entry alongside all my others, keeping my Vista, XP and Ubuntu boots intact.

So, what's it like?

The question is, does it live up to the excitement? First impressions are of the graphical interface, which is very similar to Vista; most of the graphical themes are identical to its predecessor. Although this may seem like a cop-out, one of the best things about Vista was the aesthetics, so perhaps Microsoft have been pretty wise about the choice to keep it the same. However, it makes you feel like they've admitted, "whoops, sorry about Vista. Here's what we meant to give you."

The taskbar

After logging in, you see a screen that looks like a cross between Vista and a KDE desktop, with a thick taskbar at the bottom showing the familiar Windows logo. What isn't familiar is the way that programs appear along the bar. We no longer have the long rectangular boxes with the program title, which have been around since Windows 95. Now each program appears as an icon, which is highlighted in different ways to show whether it is currently running or not, and if it is maximised or not. Not only this, multiple instances within one program, e.g. new windows in Internet Explorer or multiple explorer windows, don't appear on the taskbar until you hover over the icon, and a small window pops up showing images of each instance. You can then click on these images, bringing the instance immediately to the front of the screen. You can also pin and unpin things to the taskbar, allowing you to keep your most used programs close at hand at all times.

I've heard mixed reviews about the taskbar, but mine is very positive. After a bit of time using it you learn that the tree style of program organisation is very logical and effectively declutters your taskbar. Another feature is transparency of windows; if you hover over an instance on the taskbar all the other windows become transparent, showing just what you want to look at. You can also make all windows transparent, seeing right through to the desktop, by moving your mouse to the bottom right of the screen, and clicking the button minimises all windows. Everything is very fluid and easy to use, with some very intelligent features added in.

Performance and compatability

Having only used it for a matter of hours I can't give a final declaration of 7's performance, but I have to say that the experience so far has been very impressive. Programs open, close, minimise and maximise instantly on request, and, although I have a very capable computer, it is an obvious improvement from Vista. Transparency fade effects and Aero window switching don't seem to produce any slowdown at all. I also haven't crashed it yet, nor any program running on it.

My one concern before installing was compatibility with programs for Vista and XP, but so far I've installed the following programs (the very latest builds in each case) without problem:

• Kaspersky Anti-Virus
• Firefox
• Thunderbird
• VLC media player
• Filezilla
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 9, Flash player
• Notepad++
• WinRAR
• Skype
• foobar2000 v0.9.6.2

I'm going to see whether OpenOffice works in the near future, but apart from that I can confirm more than enough compatible programs to keep most people going for a while.

It's a hit

I'm pretty interested in seeing how it handles program crashes, and whether it's still running at a good speed after several months of use. But since I haven't managed to crash anything yet, both of those things will come with the test of time. So far things are looking good for Microsoft, and their new found interest in the opinions of the general public could be paying off. I recommend every techy person to give 7 a go, and to try to leave their justifiable cynicism at the door.