Microsoft releases Windows 7 beta

• Tags:
• Professionals,
• Operating System,
• Widgets,
• Windows Vista

David Meyer ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 08 Jan 2009 02:30 GMT

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...mobile computing. "Windows 7 does some clever things in terms of power management," he said. "The screen automatically dims after 30 seconds [of disuse] but, if you flick the touchpad with your finger to keep [the PC] awake, it will wait longer until the next time it auto-dims. It will adjust its behaviour according to your needs."

It is not yet clear how many sleep modes will be included in Windows 7 — many saw the number in Vista as too great and too confusing — but one certain addition is that of "wake to wireless", adding to the current "wake to LAN" mode.

Another enhancement for business users, Curran said, would be found in Windows 7's search functionality. Whereas Vista's integrated search covers the client PC in question, the new "syndicated search" allows search across a corporate network or even across Sharepoint.

Curran also said that Windows 7 was smaller than Vista, in terms of the amount of space it takes up on the hard drive, and that performance had been "tweaked across the board".

In its appearance, Windows 7 closely resembles Vista. Two significant exceptions are the size of the buttons in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen — these are now larger so as to be more usable in the OS's built-in multitouch mode — and the lack of the sidebar. The sidebar in Vista contained the widgets, but in Windows 7 these mini-applications can be spread across the desktop in a similar way to widgets in the Android mobile operating system. As Android seems set to make its way into netbooks, it is likely that Google’s operating system will become a direct competitor to Windows 7 in that market segment.

The taskbar in Windows 7 also includes another visual enhancement over Vista, in that it will automatically display multiple tabs for a browser or multiple documents for applications such as Word.

Asked whether businesses should ignore Vista in favour of the upcoming Windows 7, Curran claimed that "the road to Windows 7 is through Vista".

"If you are running XP today, my best advice is to move to Vista today," Curran said. "Most businesses will wait for the first service pack for Windows 7 [before deploying it], but some will test Vista and [realise] they can get benefits [over XP] here today." Curran's words echoed those of Ballmer in October, when the Microsoft chief said he accepted that some companies would skip Vista, but recommended that they try Vista anyway due to the compatibility between Vista and Windows 7.

Curran refused to say whether Windows 7 would launch with the same level of marketing campaign that went into the release of Vista. He also said Microsoft had not yet decided on the minimum hardware specification for Windows 7, nor the number of versions in which it would be made available. He did, however, insist that Microsoft was "committed to an enterprise edition" of the operating system.

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