Ask2Roger

The new Windows 7 Beta is out there. It is available as a free download now. The version is just for testing purposes and will expire in August.
The new Windows 7 Beta 1 promises a lot of amazing features. First, it installs faster than Vista and even XP. Vista is a fantastic OS. But it is definitely a resource hogging OS. Windows 7 is noticeably fast and sleek without the frills in XP and Vista and still offers a bunch of features.

Installing Windows 7 is a breeze. First download it here. It is a beta, so make sure you have backed up all your useful data before installing Windows 7. It is better run it in a virtual machine. So read this article how to run Windows 7 on XP and Vista using Vmware. You can directly download the iso image from here. You can also download the torrent of the ISO image here. After you have downloaded the beta image burn it to a DVD and then boot from it. Then you need activation key to continue your installation process. You can read an article about activating Windows 7 here.

Windows 7 comes with a bunch of features. One of the greatest hyped feature in Windows 7 is the Superbar. It is being unlocked in Windows 7 Beta release. It will show you thumbnail views of applications that is being opened. You can hover your mouse over these thumbnails to expand them into view. The 3D style pop up windows is amazing.
The OS just looks like Vista. At first sight you cannot discriminate it from Vista. But there are lot of changes within. That is evident in the way it handles processes, runs applications, manage memory, processor support etc.
One great feature that I noticed is not quite useful you may say. But is a great improvement. We can install patches without rebooting the system.
Lot of changes are made to the Aero interface. To run Aero in Windows 7 you did not need a powerful processor or a lot of memory. The Aero runs faster and transition effects works much better than in Vista. The windows can be snapped to sides and the icons looks almost life like. The button bar is translucent which can be easily arranged by just clicking and dragging on it.

Windows 7 has a new feature called Action Center, which will co-ordinate all the security issues, updates, and alerts. Windows 7 also has Windows Defender by default. Another feature added to Windows 7 is the ability to burn ISO images.
Some of the features are locked in the Beta because they are incomplete. If you want to know how to unlock these features read it here. Overall it is a nice OS. The happy news for customers is that Microsoft is offering Windows 7 as free upgrade for customers who purchased Vista after July 1. I do not know it is a limited time offer. So it means XP is already nearing its end and the new Vista honeymoon will also end somewhere in the near future. But we have to wait because Windows 7 is going to release as a full OS only in 2010 or so. Again it is just a rumor. But one thing is certain Windows 7 is one of the perfect Beta release of an OS ever. It is a bit buggy at times. But almost perfect at every aspect.