Windows 7 is coming...

[nerp]

This early look is making me think that the UI improvements are pretty significant. I'm definatley going to get one license for my main box, at least. We'll wait around to replacing my MCE and work machines' licenses.

 

[Griffinhart]

Originally posted by: nerp
This early look is making me think that the UI improvements are pretty significant. I'm definatley going to get one license for my main box, at least. We'll wait around to replacing my MCE and work machines' licenses.

The new taskbar will definately require me to relearn things a bit. I'm not sure how easily I'll adapt but I'll find out when there is an open beta and I can play around with it on a test machine.

I'm the same way about my MCE machine. I'll probably do as I did with Vista. Use it on my primary PC for a while then double check to make sure my Tuner Cards and Extenders will still work before migrating over.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Griffinhart

Originally posted by: nerp
This early look is making me think that the UI improvements are pretty significant. I'm definatley going to get one license for my main box, at least. We'll wait around to replacing my MCE and work machines' licenses.

The new taskbar will definately require me to relearn things a bit. I'm not sure how easily I'll adapt but I'll find out when there is an open beta and I can play around with it on a test machine.

I'm the same way about my MCE machine. I'll probably do as I did with Vista. Use it on my primary PC for a while then double check to make sure my Tuner Cards and Extenders will still work before migrating over.

Well, they are saying that anything that works in Vista will work in Windows 7.

The new taskbar is interesting, like a blend of OS X Dock, Vista taskbar, and the quick launch. All in all it looks like they are putting a lot of time and money into making things run better, not just shinier.

Now if they would just make the borders on the windows smaller, i will be a happy man (but then again, I use OS primarily, where a lot of windows have NO borders)

 

[eternalone]

Hopefully its a moderate improvement over vista and less of a memory hog. One can only hope. But at this point I will take anything over vista period.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Oh yuck, taskbar looks horrible now, I hope you'll be able to switch back to text version. Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

I never understood the icon thing. Mankind spent thousands of years getting rid of icons drawn on cave walls and creating a written language. Words work REALLY well. Icons are like going back to grunts for communication.

I can never figure out half of the icons on the back of a computer.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

I never understood the icon thing. Mankind spent thousands of years getting rid of icons drawn on cave walls and creating a written language. Words work REALLY well. Icons are like going back to grunts for communication.

I can never figure out half of the icons on the back of a computer.

Hmm, I'm surprised to see people are so attached to the text. I personally cant wait to get rid of it. I can understand if it worked like the old taskbar, but these are much bigger icons that will stay in the same place (if you pin them). I can't imagine anyone will have difficulty remembering what the icon for their programs looks like.

I did see in a video that it can be resized and placed anywhere like the old bar, with smaller or larger icons, so I'd assume text is still an option for those that want it.

 

[LS8]

Originally posted by: shafeen
windows 7 would be a tweaked vista for extra money.......

The next time you have a thought, let it go.

 

[BD2003]

They have videos of some of the PDC sessions up on the MS site, and I checked out the one that went into detail on the taskbar. Theres a few more unmentioned features that really seal the deal in making it a complete replacement for quicklaunch and the tray.

The icon can change depending on the state of the program - so a media player can have a different icon for play/pause, an IM app can look different for online/away/offline, mail app can display a new mail icon - etc.

The jump lists are also far neater than I thought they were. They can not only display recent or frequent docs, but also other options - for instance, they showed off messenger, and the jump list gave options for signing on, away/invisible, etc - but also very importantly, it worked without the program actually running, so you can just right click and sign on invisibly before launching, or jump straight to a playlist in media player without going through all the motions of opening and selecting.

Any running program (if minimized or open window) is highlighted, so theres no need for programs to minimize to the systray so they could stay running without cluttering the taskbar. So you can just minimize the program - itll stay running without taking up extra space, great for stuff like email and IM apps.

So those features really that do away with the rationale behind most of the systray icons.

Another feature is progress bars in the icons - so say something is downloading in IE, the icon square background will fill up until its complete.

I'm not sure if it was shown in the keynote, but when you hover over a window thumbnail after clicking the icon, all of the other windows will go transparent - so if you want to check something in another window without switching back and forth, you can just hover (I think they call it Aero peek) to get a quick look. And you can even close them from the thumbnails.

But the dock to the side windows is probably my favorite - so simple, so obvious, I cant believe it took that long to do something so simple.

Its an incredibly clean interface, I really like it. (can you tell?) I'd still like them to blatantly copy the OSX expose switcher and get rid of the antiquated alt-tab and flip3d stuff though.

They didnt mention text, but they said the old taskbar, quicklaunch and systray are gone, period. Theres no way to disable the new taskbar in Win7 and go back to the old.

 

[corkyg]

All this bloviating about features etc. is nice - but is there any change in the projected release date?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: corkyg
All this bloviating about features etc. is nice - but is there any change in the projected release date?

Paul Thurrot is suspecting a mid 2009 release

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_preview.asp

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: corkyg
All this bloviating about features etc. is nice - but is there any change in the projected release date?

Theyre sticking with the whole "about 3 years from vista", and based on the shape its in now and how betas are coming late this year or early next year, summer 09 seems like the most likely time.

 

[C1]

Article in todays newspaper:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/...029/news_1b29msft.html


Working in development and test of Command and Control Systems, I could have just told MS that too many operator alerts is a no no. (One would think that a company with all the resources MS has that it would have been able to afford some advice from Human Factors - Industrial Engineering Department of any decent university). I think that MS is getting too big and ossified plus getting too much in the DRM bed with the media producers.

The trend is toward the capability to easily customize and taylor a system to suit personal taste as well as provide intelligent information display control. It is also important that an OS be operationally fast and not expensive.

 

[rebecca1286]

then those who are used to with the office latest version then it would to be easy to handle
fluid ribbon....... looking for that

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

I never understood the icon thing. Mankind spent thousands of years getting rid of icons drawn on cave walls and creating a written language. Words work REALLY well. Icons are like going back to grunts for communication.

I can never figure out half of the icons on the back of a computer.

Hmm, I'm surprised to see people are so attached to the text. I personally cant wait to get rid of it. I can understand if it worked like the old taskbar, but these are much bigger icons that will stay in the same place (if you pin them). I can't imagine anyone will have difficulty remembering what the icon for their programs looks like.

I did see in a video that it can be resized and placed anywhere like the old bar, with smaller or larger icons, so I'd assume text is still an option for those that want it.

It's not only what icon goes with what program, but what icon goes which running copy of the program. Good luck with multiple file explorers open.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

I never understood the icon thing. Mankind spent thousands of years getting rid of icons drawn on cave walls and creating a written language. Words work REALLY well. Icons are like going back to grunts for communication.

I can never figure out half of the icons on the back of a computer.

Hmm, I'm surprised to see people are so attached to the text. I personally cant wait to get rid of it. I can understand if it worked like the old taskbar, but these are much bigger icons that will stay in the same place (if you pin them). I can't imagine anyone will have difficulty remembering what the icon for their programs looks like.

I did see in a video that it can be resized and placed anywhere like the old bar, with smaller or larger icons, so I'd assume text is still an option for those that want it.

It's not only what icon goes with what program, but what icon goes which running copy of the program. Good luck with multiple file explorers open.

They all go under the same icon.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Icon only, who's dumb idea was that? :thumbsdown:

I never understood the icon thing. Mankind spent thousands of years getting rid of icons drawn on cave walls and creating a written language. Words work REALLY well. Icons are like going back to grunts for communication.

I can never figure out half of the icons on the back of a computer.

Hmm, I'm surprised to see people are so attached to the text. I personally cant wait to get rid of it. I can understand if it worked like the old taskbar, but these are much bigger icons that will stay in the same place (if you pin them). I can't imagine anyone will have difficulty remembering what the icon for their programs looks like.

I did see in a video that it can be resized and placed anywhere like the old bar, with smaller or larger icons, so I'd assume text is still an option for those that want it.

It's not only what icon goes with what program, but what icon goes which running copy of the program. Good luck with multiple file explorers open.

They all go under the same icon.

Oh geez, double yuck

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Oh geez, double yuck

Go watch the videos of the new ui features all over youtube before saying yuck. The demos were actually very nice and the new taskbar is well thought out.

 

[BD2003]

Yeah, it seems a little odd at first, but hovering over the icon immediately shows you thumbnails of each window with gasp...text above them! Its still the same amount of clicks to change to any window from the taskbar (one). The route to that click might be *slightly* more circuitous, but the actual window youre looking for (especially if you have a lot open) should be much easier to find amongst many.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Oh geez, double yuck

Go watch the videos of the new ui features all over youtube before saying yuck. The demos were actually very nice and the new taskbar is well thought out.

Seen it... ehhh. I'll have to use it in person to get a better idea, but as is... no thanks.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Seen it... ehhh. I'll have to use it in person to get a better idea, but as is... no thanks.

It is still a work in progress so I am waiting to make my final judgments when they make the release candidate public.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Seen it... ehhh. I'll have to use it in person to get a better idea, but as is... no thanks.

It is still a work in progress so I am waiting to make my final judgments when they make the release candidate public.

Point taken.... However, the more controlable UAC does sound VERY promising!
Not sure about the library thing, I like to keep my files organized the way I want to.

Device Stage sounds interesting.

You know what I really wish they had was a side menu tray. I had it several years ago (star dock i think) that let you create a pull out tray that stayed on the side of the screen. Each tray could have sub-trays. Made program launching very easy.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Seen it... ehhh. I'll have to use it in person to get a better idea, but as is... no thanks.

It is still a work in progress so I am waiting to make my final judgments when they make the release candidate public.

Point taken.... However, the more controlable UAC does sound VERY promising!
Not sure about the library thing, I like to keep my files organized the way I want to.

Device Stage sounds interesting.

You know what I really wish they had was a side menu tray. I had it several years ago (star dock i think) that let you create a pull out tray that stayed on the side of the screen. Each tray could have sub-trays. Made program launching very easy.

You could always dock the taskbar to the side.

I'm not sure if I really care for the UAC changes theyre making though. Theyre basically giving you a slider to tone it down. They had to make the first incarnation of UAC really annoying (they said so themselves) in order to force devs to write apps that dont require admin rights. Now that thats mostly sorted out, they can let you loosen the grip a little bit, but I'm not sure thats really the answer. I suppose its not a bad thing per se, but what I'd really like is the ability to certify a specific app not to prompt me rather than making system wide changes.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Scooby Doo
Seen it... ehhh. I'll have to use it in person to get a better idea, but as is... no thanks.

It is still a work in progress so I am waiting to make my final judgments when they make the release candidate public.

Point taken.... However, the more controlable UAC does sound VERY promising!
Not sure about the library thing, I like to keep my files organized the way I want to.

Device Stage sounds interesting.

You know what I really wish they had was a side menu tray. I had it several years ago (star dock i think) that let you create a pull out tray that stayed on the side of the screen. Each tray could have sub-trays. Made program launching very easy.

You could always dock the taskbar to the side.

I'm not sure if I really care for the UAC changes theyre making though. Theyre basically giving you a slider to tone it down. They had to make the first incarnation of UAC really annoying (they said so themselves) in order to force devs to write apps that dont require admin rights. Now that thats mostly sorted out, they can let you loosen the grip a little bit, but I'm not sure thats really the answer. I suppose its not a bad thing per se, but what I'd really like is the ability to certify a specific app not to prompt me rather than making system wide changes.

Except the taskbar doesn't let you subgroup... click Games...then game or possibly subgroup (like launcher or editor...)

heres what I used to have years ago (sorry about the small size) http://img.photobucket.com/alb...odan_AI/screenshot.jpg

I thought thats what they were going to do with UAC? Ehhh, I'll agree with you, "don't ask me again" would be a better way to go (add checksums to prevent virus take overs)

 

[Mem]

Windows 7 is going to be interesting,are they aiming at the XP users more then Vista users? I feel many Vista users might not upgrade their OS to Windows 7(especially after SP2 is released),the features I have seen are ok but nothing there that wants to make me go out and buy it ASAP,touchscreen I hate I won't let anybody touch my screen with their fingers or any device(even myself) ,I know some people will find a use for it but not me,however I can see myself getting an OEM copy of W7 when I do a motherboard upgrade.


I believe Microsoft are going back to 3 year OS turnaround and personally I'm looking forward to Windows 8 more then 7 which should be here in 2012/13 if they keep to their 3 year schedule.