I saw Windows 7 today as part of a presentation over lunch at my full time job. It has several features that look nice and a few that look familiar.
Of course, I didn’t get hands on, so how nice these features are and how well they actually work I really can’t comment on.
First of all as usual, Windows 7 come in a number of versions. The presentation I saw was aimed at Enterprise. So some of the features there aren’t available for the Home or small business user.
Windows Enterprise has Direct Access which is sounds like it replaces the need for a VPN. It also has BitLocker and BitLocker To Go. BitLocker is an encryption program for the laptop users hard drive while the “To Go” part if for thumb drives and other removable media.
It also has Branch Cache, which means that a Branch office’s server would cache data needed there, so individuals would have quicker access.
There is also a feature called App Locker. It apparently puts apps in a layer for protection of the application.
A couple of features that look familiar were a visual “flow” of windows that looks somewhat like Apple’s cover flow with little more flash. However the search feature, while also obviously indexing the hard drive didn’t at first glance appear to be as full featured as Spotlight. But then we were shown how it can also search all attached drives including servers and thus was better than it first appeared.
Requirements are 1 Gig of RAM, 16 Gigs of hard drive, 1.6 Ghz Atom processor
Recommended 2 Gigs of RAM, 2.0 Ghz, Duo Core
I am still a Mac Guy, but if I was stuck with a year or two old Windows PC, I would definitely give Windows 7 a chance.
More details here.
