Review: Windows 7 Release Candidate 1

The Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 is a very polished piece of software, ready for unveiling. This very hotly wanted version arrives with a many new, intriguing changes to the GUI and some tweaking under the hood.

Many of the changes made in Release Candidate 1 are not ground breaking, but generally the operating system has been modified in many minute ways to upgrade productivity levels as well as overall performance. In my review, I will be looking at the changes between the beta from last January and Release Candidate 1 (RC1 from now on).

The biggest surprise and the biggest boost from Microsoft Corporation is the feature that was announced earlier but not available is Windows XP Mode. Windows XP Mode will run applications in an XP box built for compatibility, but they will appear to be running directly from Windows 7. This way Microsoft wants to give the home users the best from both worlds, allowing them to use the shiny new Windows 7 and at the same time keep their favorite XP applications.

At first glance this feature seems not-so-great. That is until you dig into the finer details. Microsoft says that you will not need to run Virtual PC manually in order to run your XP applications; rather, they will look like they are running within Windows 7. You will only have to boot Virtual PC once and run the application once. After the initial setup the application will, from then on, appear to be running as a Windows 7 application. Also, once you buy Windows 7, you also will receive a license for XP, essentially getting two OS for one.

This gives Microsoft a great advantage for those switching over from XP. Since XP is such a great, stable operating system many people will not want to make the switch. With Window's 7's XP Mode, users no longer have to worry about losing compatibility when trying out the new system.

RC1 also includes a group of many subtle GUI changes that, altogether, represent a great improvement from the previous beta. One example is the new task bar is a noticeable upgrade from Window's Vista. The beta's taskbar had already been very impressive, but these new tweaks have made the taskbar even more useful.

For an operating system that has yet to be released RC1 is extremely stable and fast. I encourage any eager computer users to give it a spin, and I eagerly wait for the final release.