Windows 7 RC Review

Today I installed Windows 7 RC in my desktop PC.

Installation

First thing I noticed is the graphics, a cool installer background image. From windows vista onwards, installation is not a big task, need to set few regional and account information and the partition (and GUI tool for managing partition).

Started installation at 1AM and got my desktop at 1.15. So installation took only 15mnts.

Booting and shutdown

I got my login screen in 32sec and then the desktop in 13sec. So the total booting time is 45sec. But this is without any additional applications. This will change when we install other applications. Shutdown time is around 13sec… Starting windows screen is a new animation screen showing windows and login screen got a new background image.
Other big change is in the taskbar, it can be compare with the dock in mac. It groups items and shows preview of all the items on mouse over. Windows media player can be controlled from the preview itself. We can control the system tray icons from the “Notification area icons” in control panel.

Design, Graphics & Other Improvements

Design and graphics have a significant change in windows 7. Up to windows vista, the 1st thing i do after installation is disabling all the animations and effects. Even though windows vista have aero theme, it is not much impressive especially in transparency and all. But in windows 7, animations and other screen effects are good. I am not feeling to disable those effects especially its transparency.
We can easily change the aero colour settings; new slide show enabled desktop background with some new background theme sets like Windows 7, Architecture, characters, scenes, nature etc..

Another change is in the MS paint, it got new ribbon style tool bar and some new additional tools.
I wonder why they are not updated the notepad, it is still the same
They have also added some new sound themes and in that my favorite theme is Raga.

Speed, Stability & Compatibility

I am feeling a lot of speed change in windows 7 compared to Vista. Booting, application loading time are faster in Windows 7.
I have installed only few basic applications in windows 7, so i can’t talk much about Speed, Stability & Compatibility. I installed MS office, winzip, Acrobat reader, multimedia codec and other basic home applications. All those applications are working fine. I tried to install AVG free and Norton internet security 2009, both have known compatibility issues but Norton is running. I want to install and try other development applications when I get time.

This is a basic review of Windows 7 RC or say first look. I didn’t get much time to review in deep so i didn’t get any bugs . I will try the new features and post it when i get time. Please share  you experience