Windows 7 test drive

Since March I have been working on porting software to Windows 7. Verification tasks mostly though something broke with Internet Explorer 8. And I had refreshed my main desktop at work to a Windows 7 as well, (along side my 10.5.6 OS X), so I have a good 6+ months of experience to comment on it.

It's over hyped. Period.

There have been a few (major) blunders in Windows Vista but Service Pack 1 had pretty much fixed them all. Personally I just think it's human nature overdo everything. They've definitely over-bashed Windows Vista as a major OS update to the code base. For people who had used Windows Vista with SP2 on a regular basis, other than the occasional sluggishness in file copy, there has not been any noticeable difference in performance between it and Windows 7. All those praises about the new OS on the web, it's just pumping people's expectation to a grand disappointment I expect.

For those who have been using Microsoft's product for a while (that is, every one of us), you should know the window docking feature is not new. What is new is the shake gesture, nice, but I don't find myself using that that often. Preview from the task bar is OK, but it's certain nothing you can't live without.

What I can't live without? Docking Windows Media Player to the task bar. What were they thinking!! Windows Media Player 11, like iTunes, minimizes nicely to the task bar so you can view info of currently playing, rewind/forward, control volume, etc all without a window floating around.



In Windows Media Player 12 (the default in Windows 7), you just can't. And it doesn't even have the transparent frame anymore. WMP 12 sucks.

Windows Media Player 11 with its translucent frame

Windows Media Player 12 doesn't look nearly as good