Rampidbyter Rampid byter: A byte of my .Net developing life.

Like many I was very excited when Microsoft decided to open the Windows 7 beta to the public. Within the first few hours of availability I downloaded the Windows 7 x64 edition, but excitement doesn’t necessarily mean i had the time to install the OS on a machine.

That changed yesterday when I needed an extra PC with windows in order to play Left4Dead. I didn’t want to use my Windows Vista Ultimate license unless I absolutely had to because I only get one license per year from school. So that’s when I remembered that I had a free chance to both test Windows 7, and have essentially a free licensed install to boot. So i made the switch yesterday opting for a dual booting system loaded with Fedora 9, and Windows 7.

The first thing i noticed when installing Windows 7 was when i clicked on the windows installation help files. In big bold print it said ‘Installing Windows Vista'! HA. I’ve heard through another blogs people found the same installation title in the help documents, but still seeing it myself just furthers my suspicion that Windows 7 is just Vista with a UI update, and some neat add-on core features.

Anyway, after the installation, which went pretty quickly i might add, i got to the new fancy dancy desktop. Nice, new toolbar, dockable desktop edges, and new improved processes to control the desktop themes. All in all it has the same Vista feel when interacting with files and folders, but a new Windows 7 desktop interface. It seems as if the only big change to the UI is the new ribbonesk toolbar instead of the traditional menu style of old.

I like it, don’t love it, but then again I don’t have a multi-touch device that I can really use to blow me away with using Windows 7. It’s almost beyond temptation to wish for a HP TouchSmart PC to take this puppy for a real spin, and have a legit excuse to purchase one since the price really isn’t that unreasonable. I did test a TouchSmart while at Microcenter and I sadly didn’t care for it that much. The reason? Well the machine gets hot on the display, the friction of running my finger on the screen actually caused my fingertip to get red and sore. Not a great intro to the machine, but i digress the Windows 7 system with multi-touch will be a great addition to the tools i add to my skill set.

All in all a pleasant first experience, no major bugs to report, docking desktop isn’t exactly as useful as i first thought it would be, but all in all it looks nice and is essentially the Vista I've become accustomed to.