Windows 7 RC1 - A First Look

Microsoft recently released Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) after their beta was available for a while. I am writing this as I listed to FOX 29 news saying Microsoft is ready to make Windows 7 available during the upcoming holiday season. (finally one of my predictions from an earlier blog post is coming true, well we should wait till the holiday season to confirm)

This much anticipated version arrives with a variety of new changes to the interface and some important refinements that are transparent to the user but improve on performance, stability and overall usefulness.

In one of their recent announcements, Microsoft stated that that Windows 7 will be available with XP mode. This was one of the smartest moves Microsoft made (on the lines of the IE 8 and compatilibity mode). It allows the XP lovers to make the move without having to give up XP completely. This version of Windows 7 allows you to run XP compatibility mode on a native Windows 7 platform.

Windows 7's task bar is a visible improvement over Windows Vista. Computer World put out a Windows 7 tips, tricks and tweaks that is worth a read!

Although I have used Windows 7 just for a few days, it seems like Microsoft has learnt some lessons from Vista. They seem to have gotten this one right. Time will tell...