Let's look at the interface more closely. Windows 7 is a multi-taskers delight and thanks to the pretty intelligent task bar options that enables running multiple programs in a uncluttered way. For instance features like Aero Peek, Aero Snap and Aero Shake allows the users to preview the opened files and what it means is that one can see it without really clicking on that file from the task bar. Yet another difference one sees when the programs are reduced it goes down in the task bar as a 'square' and not as big 'rectangle' as one sees in XP or Vista. With Active Peek enabled one can see thumbnails of applications that are running.

What all these features means is intelligent management of many applications that are open and one can seamlessly switch over to apps like from excel to word to a media player without any hang issues. Moreover if you have four browser tabs the user can preview all the windows without opening the tab that is to be seen. Clearly all these features will be appreciated by multi-tasking users. Another cool features like 'Sticky Notes' makes for creating digital Post-its on ones desktop.

Another high point in Windows 7 is that its touch screen enabled and for the first time with Notebooks with touch screens, one will be able to use the touch features in the OS.

Yet another area Windows 7 score ahead is in managing the device drivers. If you run Windows 7 on a Vista compatible machines, the chances are you might not be requiring any drivers at all Win 7 will configure most of the drivers automatically. In terms of Network Access, the process involved in acquiring the network address and configuring it to a LAN or Wireless access is really fast and Microsoft has done a considerable tweak in discovering Wireless and network access devices.

While right now Microsoft has released the Release Candidate version of Windows 7, and even before the final version, the RC has got rave reviews across the world. Apart from the ground up GUI changes, the biggest performance tweak in Windows 7 is the speed. Compared to XP and Vista, Windows seven is the fastest OS Microsoft has developed ever. But while in Vista user need to undergo huge hardware upgrades and in Windows 7, Microsoft has kept the hardware specs to the minimum- so if you have a PC running 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 16 GB of available disk space, a user can run Windows 7 without any issues. But right now the default PC configuration being 2 GHz processor with 3GB RAM, running Windows 7 would not be an issue at all.

Windows 7 would be available in seven flavours from Starter to the Ultimate editions. Unlike previous editions, Win 7 will come in one DVD disc and users just need to enter the version of the product key to activate it. On the flipside, many in the industry feel that the end user pricing for Windows 7 is very steep-with Ultimate retail price expected at USD $ 319 and Home Premium version at USD $199.

Arun Kushwaha