Windows seven might be one of Microsoft’s best operating systems, if it meets the promise shown by the unofficial pre-release version we have been testing for the past couple of days.

Let me preface these quick impressions of Redmond’s latest opus by claiming that I came to Windows 7 after having happily run the much-maligned Windows Vista on my Intel Core two Duo-based PC for the past 18 months .

I found Vista to be a deserving upgrade from Windows XP SP2.

Coming from this background, I’ve been pleased to discover over the past several days that Microsoft seems to have built on Vista’s strengths and addressed most of its deficiencies with the beta release of Windows 7.

I found the Windows 7 beta a painless install. The 33MB of updates quickly came down the pipe on loading the desktop.
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Definitely, Windows seven had no problem at the same time installing and launching applications, downloading files, perusing the Web, and carrying out other jobs on our modest 2.8GHz Pentium four, which has only an 80GB IDE hard disk and 512MB of RAM.

Vista’s most plain annoyance, User Account Control, has been pared right back on its default setting, and we encountered it only 2 times throughout an entire morning of installing applications. However, if you’re feeling mawkish for UAC’s old behavior, you can easily change it back through Windows 7’s new Action Center, which now centralizes all of the safety updates and warning alerts that Windows throws your way.

Windows 7 commended that we install a third party antivirus package ( it advised Kaspersky and AVG ), but its antispyware package Defender comes preinstalled. Microsoft seems to have an antivirus package installed under the hood ; when downloading new software with Firefox, we were told that our downloads were being scanned for viruses.

I particularly like the new photo-realistic device icons, and the overhaul of the way Windows handles and ejects USB storage devices.

I also liked the overhaul of the Windows taskbar, particularly the slick graphics, but a bug prevented us from being able to use the preview function ( it showed a black rectangle instead ), and you will need to play with the taskbar settings to get this piece of the Windows 7 puzzle just right. It’s not difficult to get minimized windows mixed up with launcher buttons, for example.

I desire to stress that we did not test the Windows seven beta exhaustively, and business users will have to closely inspect deployment software and the way in which the operating system integrates into their existing environments, as well as its capability to work well with 3rd party software. For example, we were unable to get Adobe Systems’ Creative Suite 3 to install on Windows seven beta ; the installer told us we wanted to give up Internet Explorer first.

But perhaps the most important thing to notice about the software is that initially peek, it has much more of that nebulous’Windows XP feel’ than Vista ever did.

In general, this signals that Microsoft has spent a lot of effort with Windows seven on delivering a solid operating system that won’t'wow’ anybody but will satisfy them on a much more deep level. To paraphrase, just what the doctor–and the customers–ordered.

To read more or see my video reviews of Windows 7 running on my pc please visit my Windows 7 Review Blog.

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Daniel Scott has been reviewing Operating Systmes since 1996 and owns numerous blogs on topics from Xbox 360s to Windows 7.