Windows 7 first look

We have installed the latest test version of Windows 7 and Tom Royal has taken a look to see what's new.

He starts with the Windows 7 Desktop. The Start menu looks very similar to that in Vista with a search box and some shortcuts. Just like Vista there is also an option to see all the software installed on the computer.

There is something new just to the right of the Start button. These are programs that have been pinned to the Taskbar. Click on the Internet Explorer icon to make it appear, and again to minimise it. Moving the mouse over the picture makes a little preview.

What is new and quite clever is that these previews can show several things at once. Open another tab in Internet Explorer and minimise it. The button now has a little tab of it's own and the preview now shows all of the tabs, so you can select which tab you want.

Windows can be manipulated in some new ways. Grab the title bar of a window and move it to the top of the screen to maximise it. Moving the window to the side automatically resizes it to take up half of the Desktop. This is really helpful if you have a widescreen monitor and want to view two documents side by side.

If you grab one window and shake it, all of the other windows disappear. Shake it again and they return. We are not sure how useful this is but it certainly looks good.

Gadgets and the Sidebar can be added from the right-click menu on the Desktop. There's a similar selection to Vista, just drag them onto the Desktop from the selection window.

The other big change is Libraries. The My Documents now shows four Libraries for Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos instead of the old folder view. For example, the Music folder shows all of the music on the computer. Even though it is stored in several different places, it is all shown in one place. It can be arranged in the usual ways such as by album or artist.

The message in the right of the window shows that the music is collected from two folders. Click on this to add other folders. Just to the right can see that it is getting music from two different folders. Click on this button to add more folders. The other Libraries work in just the same way.

We can also see the My Documents shortcut in the Start Menu goes to the Libraries menu and the Pictures, Music and Videos shortcuts go directly to the Libraries rather than folders.

Finally there have been some improvements to networking. Many people have found this difficult in Windows Vista.

The network options can be found in the Control Panel. Unlike Windows Vista there is no option for the old 'classic' view in Control Panel. Instead there is an option to view All Control Panel Options as well as searching.

The Network and Sharing Center looks similar to Vista but there is a new option called 'Choose homegroup and sharing options'. A homegroup is a simple home network. There is one page to choose what to share from Libraries and attached printers. Windows automatically generates a password for the homegroup that can be used to give other computers access.