If you believe the rumor mill, a Windows 7 release candidate (a.k.a. the more-or-less-final version of the OS) will hit the e-streets by the end of April. What changes should you expect? The Engineering Windows blog lists 27 changes to Windows 7 since the last batch of 36 changes was announced just a couple weeks ago. Here are a few of the hot ones:
Control Panel Jump List Right-clicking on the Control Panel icon on the taskbar in Beta revealed a noticeably sparse Jump List. A few people asked us, “Should most recently used items be displayed in the Jump List of the CPL when pinned to the taskbar? Something should be shown and nothing is there right now.” In RC, the Control Panel Jump List offers quick access to recently used items.- ‘New folder’ is always available We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback during Beta about adding a top-level “New folder” button in Explorer, freeing customers from digging into submenus. A common complaint we received, however, was that the button only appeared when nothing is selected. For RC, we’ve changed this so the “New folder” button will always appear, regardless of selection.
- USB device reliability on resume We got feedback from a number of customers that their USB devices (e.g. keyboards, mice and drives) stopped working after a suspend/resume cycle. We worked with a number of customers to get traces and isolated the causes to address them post-beta builds. The workaround in Beta was to unplug and replug the device to get it functional again — easy for external devices but not possible for internal devices. This workaround will not be needed on RC builds.
What I find most interesting is that many of these changes came from user suggestions, meaning Microsoft is actively listening to customers. Small wonder pundits are already calling Windows 7 Microsoft’s best OS ever. Time will tell, but I like what I’m seeing so far. What about you? Hit the Comments and spill your guts.
And while we’re on the subject, don’t forget to vote in our recent poll: When will Windows 7 ship? I’m still putting my money on July.
