windows 7 first impressions

I’ve been using windows 7 for a few days now and i’m really getting used to it at this stage. Since Friday, i’ve been using it exclusively for everything.

Today was the first day since getting 7 that i had to use my netbook (and windows xp) for college. It was a real downgrade. Everything is just so much clumsier and slower. It seems cluttered even if it’s not… i always say design is important and windows have got it right with 7. It’s very apple-esque with a heavy emphasis on simplicity but with that all important gloss and shine too.

Probably the biggest change that you notice is the new taskbar. You no longer have long rectangular boxes with text in them – you just have square images. You can pin applications to the new tasbar which means it acts as an application launcher – something i used in XP and Vista, but as an independant application.

One negative i find is that the taskbar doesn’t do a great job of displaying multiple firefox / browser windows open at the same time (it’s a little too slow and awkward navigating through multiple firefox windows for my liking).

It basically stacks or groups all windows in to one and you have to hover over an icon to view all open windows which wastes time…. still, i’m prepared to get used to it and so far, windows 7 is a joy to use overall.

photo credit: ThrasherDave

• The search function is a million times better than vista and that was one of the first things i noticed – it’s remarkably quick and accurate when compared with vista.
• The time at the bottom right of the screen is of course iconic, but how often have you hovered over the time to get the current date? Windows 7 places the time AND date by default which is one of those very small, but very nice touches.
• The system icons panel has been completely decluttered – the way it should be.
• You can set your background wallpaper to change every day / hour / minute… you decide when and what photos it should display…

Bottom line: windows 7 is well worth the investment. Either upgrading from XP or Vista. If you’re used to XP and have never used Vista, it will be quite a steep learning curve at first and i’d put money on it you’ll be wanting to switch back straight away, but that’s not because 7 is too complicated or rubbish – it’s because you’re scared of change 🙂