Windows 7 Milestone 3 Build 6801 Review

[CalcProgrammer1]

Awesome taskbar! I like it better with small icons though, I don't like how it takes up more space than the old taskbar, but if you set it to use small icons, it's the same size as the old one but still has the new features.

 

[KSoD]

Calc i do have it set to small icons. But the thing is they are not just icons. They are also the taskbar for the app.

Link

As you see i opened every item. That is also their taskbar location now. It displays the information that the window is showing there instead of having the icon for the quick launch and then another window that pops up for the task itself. They are all in one icons/taskbars now.

While i think it is great. If i were to open Computer or something else while i had all those windows open i would be on my 2nd monitor. So there is a downfall to having the new taskbar.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I know the new task bar does away with Quick Launch in favor of pinning items to it (kinda like Mac's dock I guess), but what do you mean about showing information on the taskbar? Seems to work just like the other one besides the pinning thing (the drop down box at the side). The only "information" I can see is the name of the app (which the old taskbar showed) and a preview of the window (also shown by the Vista taskbar). The only difference I see is that Windows Media Player's icon allows you to perform tasks (play music, etc) from its drop-down menu thing.

By Information do you mean folders having drop down lists of files?

like this

EDIT:

Wow, there are a lot more improvements than I thought. Windows 7 is already looking incredibly awesome...I may consider upgrading and I'll definitely be following the betas. I just found out that the new taskbar groups similar windows, which is pretty cool. I have two folders open (Windows Explorer windows) and it groups them together. Similarly, Pidgin's Buddy List and a conversation (stupid AOL System Message telling me I'm logged in elsewhere, in this case) are grouped. Other programs stay separate. I also like how you can drag program buttons to a different order (try this in Vista, open two windows and then try dragging the taskbar entry for the second program up front, it doesn't work, in Win7's new taskbar it does). The shiny effect that follows the mouse when you hover over the buttons is also really cool. The Address bar and other toolbars still work (even Quick Launch, though it'll probably be out in the beta).

 

[KSoD]

I tried to tell ya the new taskbar is more interactive. Just take a look at my pic again.

The first item on there is a folder. That i can click to get the list like you show in your first pic. But if i just click on it that will bring up Explorer.exe as if i had jsut clicked on Computer.

The rest like Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Opera show you what page i currently have active in my open tab. WMP didnt show anything cause i didnt have it playing a song at that time. But if i did it would show you that information as well.

That is what i mean by the information that the icons show. They are not just the quick lauch icons but they are also the place on your taskbar where the information is shown. Instead of looking like this in Vista.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4419/taskbarvog7.png

Now here you see my quick launch but you also see the Opera taskbar item there. In Win7 they are one and the same as where with Vista they act like the older versions of Windows and have the quick launch be seperate.

It is basically like a dock. But i find it much more interactive.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Ah, I see what you're saying. I only had a Windows Media Player icon on mine (don't use IE, like a nice clean taskbar). The icons expand into a normal taskbar button when the program is open so the quick launch icon isn't there twice, which is pretty cool (I guess this is like a dock, haven't used docks much other than the OSX one a few times). I think the animations on the new taskbar are much smoother and nicer than on Vista, and the icons thing to replace QuickLaunch is nice too.

Oooh! This is pretty nice, when you copy a file, the taskbar entry for the copying window changes to time remaining and also has a progress bar.

 

[KSoD]

Yeah. It is very interactive now. Which is what i like. Much better than just sitting there with place holders for windows.

 

[KSoD]

Interesting find today while messing with Win7. Found Powershell V2 on my start menu. So i started it up and this is what i see.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm109/SpartanMak213/poweshell.png

So from messing with it a bit i start trying to figure out some commands. To get the real help list you have to type

get-help (Command) or get-help * (to see the full list)

Now i type in to see the full list. Boom this thing goes off. Scrolls for at least 5 pages and then stops. There are a lot of commands that can be used. I couldnt even being to name them all. But from looking at it. Seems that this Powershell is going to be a lot like the Linux Terminal. When i mess with it more i will post up the stuff.

Here i managed to get them all copied. Put them in a wordpad RTF file so that it would kinda keep some of the formatting so it wouldnt look so bad.

SkyDrive download link

There it is for anyone interested to see what they are up to. 18 pages of commands. So there is a lot that can be done with the new powershell.

 

[Ethan_Kaizer]

I still don't understand the point of Windows 7? Why are they working on a new OS so fast, when Vista SP1 is a good OS? It kind of makes me mad for getting a computer with Vista if it's just gonna be old after 2 years.

 

[KSoD]

This is the OS life cycle.

Win95 - Aug 24, 1995
Win98 - June 25, 1998
Win ME - Sept, 2000
Win2000 - Feb, 2000
WinXP - 2001
Vista - Jan, 2007

Notice anything about these release dates for Windows? They were a year or 2 apart. 3 Years between the first ones. 95 and 98. Then they were 2 years apart till XP. Then 6 years. That is to long of a life cycle.

Ubuntu relelases a new distro every 6 months or so. Windows 7 is coming out so soon cause it has to. They can not have a repeat of Win XP. Where people get so used to it they refuse to switch or are scared of switching.

 

[Trotter]

The big difference between Ubuntu and Windows is that Ubuntu is free while Windows is not. If people are going to have to buy the new version, it will have to have noticeable improvements over the old. This was Vista's initial shortcoming and it has never recouped from that loss.

Microsoft is hoping Windows 7 will give people a reason to want to upgrade. By basing it off of what Vista has done right, it will be solid from the get-go. Hopefully they will incorporate into 7 what they had wanted to do with Vista and then some. With what Mak was just showing, it looks like MS might actually be listening to what people have been saying for years.

I am looking forward to seeing how 7 shapes up and what the finished product will be, especially with what I am seeing thus far.