Michael Kimb Jones

A few weeks ago I posted some wallpapers from the old Windows 7 beta. They were ripped from the previous 6801 beta that I had installed as a VM using Microsoft Virtual PC.

Well, this afternoon, I took the plunge and installed the new beta (7000) on my laptop. NOT as a VM either, as the machines primary OS.

Initial impressions are positive. In fact, after about 20 minutes I fell in love with it! It really does feel like a true progression away from Windows XP.

Sure, it feels a lot like ‘Vista with a facelift’. But its a functional facelift, with new features and tweaks that Windows has been crying out for since they announced the replacement for XP over 5 years ago.

Installation was a breeze. The whole thing took less than 30 minutes and my graphics, wifi and sound all worked without any manual installation.

Boot up time is snappy and the whole thing has an “almost finished” feel about it. Quite amazing considering the short amount of time it has been since they announced they would be canning Vista so soon after its birth.

I have been critical of Windows 7 in the past. Mainly because I really do like Vista and I hoped that Microsoft would try to steady the ship before re-working and re-releasing it under a new name. If anything, I felt bad for Vista. It’s release was a fanfare which soon turned into a flogging.

Using the new 7 beta you start to get the impression that the
developers really are working on something they are proud of.

And fingers crossed Microsoft may finally be listening and moving towards an OS which will be welcomed by the nerds and also the housewives.