Microsoft released their brand-new OS at August, 6th for TechNet/MSDN Subscribers. So I was one of the happy guy´s who is already running Windows 7 RTM now (basically, I´m writing this article now on my Windows 7 Lifebook).

The installation was straight-forward, all the special hardware, which forced me to create a special Windows XP CD (with integrated SATA drivers,…) were recognized out of the box. When I connected to the internet (more about my wireless issue later), all the missing drivers, except two, were downloaded and installed. Very handy! The two missing ones, however, were the Fingerprint Sensor and one of the well-known “Unknown Devices” often found on manually installed Fujitsu-Siemens devices. Those drivers, which are usually <50kb in size, have to be installed by yourself. However, until now I couldn´t figure out what they´re really for. Maybe I will bother Fujistu(-Siemens) Support with this later.

Windows 7 Device Manager - almost every piece of Hardware was found

Compared to Vista the first thing you may realize is the boost in speed. Everything works much faster than with it´s predecessor. It looks like Microsoft is taking care of customer opinions. Many discussions in the Internet were about how to speed up Vista.

The next thing is the improved User Interface – handling with multiple Tasks now got, well, not easier, but more beautiful. The Taskbar is missing the Tasks description, but switching through them is now a real eye catcher:

Windows 7 Task Bar

Windows 7 Task Bar

I wouldn´t call it a killer-feature, but I liked it from the moment I realized it.

The next thing is the Start Menu itself. Many users´s (especially the ones who are familiar with Windows 2000) first task on XP/vista was to switch back to the “Classic Start Menu”. Windows 7 doesn´t offer this feature, at least I couldn´t find it yet.

One more thing I´d like to mention here is the so called Action Center. It provides you with solutions to your all-day problems. In my case, I wasn´t able to connect to my wireless network at home, not realizing that I switched of wireless via the button on the rear of my notebook. Windows 7 realized it and pointed me immediatelly to that solution – good start!

Another thing is the missing “Show Desktop” shortcut in the Quickstart Toolbar. It was replaced by an unconsiderable, transparent bar at the very right of the Taskbar:

Show the Desktop

As many of the new useablility features there´s no need to click it – just hover your mouse and you´re done (well, that´s not the whole truth – hovering hides the active windows until you un-hover, if you´d like to minimize everything permanently, you still have to click. Rather good solution in my eyes).

Last week I attendet to the big System Administrator Appreciation Day Party at the Microsoft Headquarter near Munic. One very interesting point on the agenda was a speech about Windows 7. The responsible product manager told us, that Windows 7 is definitly NOT a fine-tuned Windows Vista, furthermore it´s his real successor, with many improvements “under-the-hood”. I´m curious about the other, not yet discovered new features of Windows 7.

My first impressions are, however, very good. If I would have the choice, I would wipe Windows Vista completly in my network at work, and switch directly to Windows 7. However, application compatibility and lack of experience  force me to wait another e.g. 6 month. But for me personally, Windows 7 seems to have the potential to be the next-generaton OS. Especially teamed with the upcoming Windows Server 2008 R2.

//Appendix: When I find some free time I will post some short vid´s to demonstrate the User Interface.