Windows 7 Gets Major UI Overhaul

Microsoft this week handed out pre-beta versions of Windows 7, and luckily for us, screenshots are littered all over the web, giving us an inside preview of what’s to come. Ars Technica got hold of the pre-beta and gives a quick preview on what’s new, and I have to admit, I’m already excited. While Vista from XP didn’t change much except eye-candy, 7 will drastically alter the overall UI, while retaining some common elements as we’d expect to see Windows.

The biggest difference is the taskbar. No longer do the tasks have titles (eg: Windows Internet Explorer). Instead, it will just be a simple icon, and from my personal experience, that’s all that’s going to be needed. Even the most novice PC users quicker notice an icon than the application name, and what this helps to do in 7 is just keep the taskbar clean. Instead of having so many applications open that you actually need to use a “next” button, this will allow many, many more applications to fill up that real estate.

Past that, another huge feature addition, which I’ve been wanting forever, is the ability to move these application icons around. I have a very specific order for how I do things, and when one application crashes, or has to be restarted, I hate having to use an out-of-order list. Windows 7 looks to change that. I’m just touching on the basics here though. You have to read the article, because there are many finer details that I can’t surmise in a simple news post.

Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it automatically; dragging it off the top of the screen restores it. Dragging a window to the left or right edge of the screen resizes the window so that it takes 50% of the screen. With this, a pair of windows can be quickly docked to each screen edge to facilitate interaction between them.