New Windows 7 Screenshots

[sharp65]

Wow looks fugly... I was expecting something totally different than Vista. The media player does look good though.

It looks very close to vista, I think calling it "fugly" is a bit of an exaggeration. Final UI is never in place in a milestone build anyways.

[Ambroos]

Try comparing Vista Beta 1 (not even talking about milestone) with the RTM...

[George P Global Moderator]

Is it so much to ask for some more wallpaper options? I have a huge list of wallpapers and have found a 3rd party app that changes the wallpaper every time Windows restarts etc. Can't MS just add something simple like this into Windows as well?

That aside, I like most of the changes, and this is a M3 build. Who knows if they'll do a M4 or go to Beta 1, either way we're talking about next year for a beta anyways.

[Lee G. Veteran]

So far so good, imho. I can see a few good improvements.

Anyone expecting big interface leaps really needs to be patient. UI is likely to be unchanged or finalised until pretty late in to the beta process. Functionality is key before aesthetics.

Indeed (Y)

I think we can confirm that there custom themes with this screenshot.

If by 'custom themes' you mean the default theme with different colors, and some different wallpapers, then yes, you're right :p

[Pharos]

It doesn't look bad, but Microsoft overuses blue and gradients everywhere :huh:

[Titoist]

Why do you guys keep insisting that there will be radical GUI changes? Microsoft has stated multiple times already that Windows 7 will be a minor upgrade to Vista. Therefore, the GUI is expected to change with the same 'radical changes' u saw between Windows 98 and 2000. Thats it. Vista's GUI is the same style Windows 7 is. They will radically change it on Windows 8 probably if there is even going to be another windows.

[ViperAFK]

OMG media player looks ****ing sexy. And Paint and wordpad are getting much needed overhauls finally.

[PyX]

Now if only Paint could get a couple more features ;)

That Ribbon implementation thing is by far the best feature I've seen in Windows 7 so far. I hope it'll be implemented in a good number of apps..

The rest doesn't impress me, especially that sort of QuickLook implementation, good way to copy Mac OS :)

[goji]

I like what they did with explorer and the folders etc on the left:

[Lee G. Veteran]

Why do you guys keep insisting that there will be radical GUI changes? Microsoft has stated multiple times already that Windows 7 will be a minor upgrade to Vista. Therefore, the GUI is expected to change with the same 'radical changes' u saw between Windows 98 and 2000. Thats it. Vista's GUI is the same style Windows 7 is.

I agree. And anyway, it's about time Microsoft stuck with a similar UI for a while, just like they did from Windows 95 - 2000, rather than changing it for each version of Windows. I'd like some uniformity with the UI.

I like what they did with explorer and the folders etc on the left:

Me too. I like the new bluish folderband too, rather than the less subtle turquoise one that Vista has (which I have disabled for me by editing the shellstyle).

[wankey]

the fact that they've already implemented part of the new UI shows they are aiming for a completely new UI for Windows 7.

There is lots of work to be done on paper and the artistry part before any programming is put into the UI so we won't see any of the 7 UI until Beta 1 at least. These milestones are purely from the programmers point of view.

Win7 probably has a completely new icon set, new branding new color set and redone interface. They've still got a whole year to do the UI and there usually isn't a software issue with UI as much as there is with say networking.

[SoyoS]

Why do you guys keep insisting that there will be radical GUI changes? Microsoft has stated multiple times already that Windows 7 will be a minor upgrade to Vista. Therefore, the GUI is expected to change with the same 'radical changes' u saw between Windows 98 and 2000. Thats it. Vista's GUI is the same style Windows 7 is. They will radically change it on Windows 8 probably if there is even going to be another windows.

Wrong. This link pretty much sums it up.

So far so good, imho. I can see a few good improvements.

Indeed (Y)

If by 'custom themes' you mean the default theme with different colors, and some different wallpapers, then yes, you're right :p

Seems good enough for me. I personally don't think Microsoft should fully support themes, the hacking works good enough. And that would leave Windows Blinds obsolete. :p

[Roger H. Veteran]

Is it so much to ask for some more wallpaper options? I have a huge list of wallpapers and have found a 3rd party app that changes the wallpaper every time Windows restarts etc. Can't MS just add something simple like this into Windows as well?

That aside, I like most of the changes, and this is a M3 build. Who knows if they'll do a M4 or go to Beta 1, either way we're talking about next year for a beta anyways.

You'd think that would be a big request but what i've noticed is that people don't even want their icon's location changing cuz they get all lost in all the madness. Surely a wallpaper wouldn't be that big of a deal but people are picky with their machines for sure. Then again i hardly ever see the wallpaper i'm using. Someone asked me once and i had to go back to the desktop to look as i even forgot which one i had. My girlfriend on the other hand would remember that cuz she has a picture of her cat (eine katze - "Leini Maus")

[Shadrack]

Anyone expecting big interface leaps really needs to be patient. UI is likely to be unchanged or finalised until pretty late in to the beta process. Functionality is key before aesthetics.

Exactly.

[redfish]

Yup. I don't know if I like that new silver color scheme they're using on applications, though (instead of the turquoise-ish color). The latest Live software stuff uses it, too, and I don't like it there.

I don't care if they change the color to be silverish, but right now it just looks sort of crappy and unpolished and doesn't tie together well. I'm wondering what made them decide to get rid of the icons also.

In any case I hope they also change the appearance of some of the popups, like for icon views, so it fits in with the appearance of the apps instead of being old-style battleship grey

[Quillz]

I think it looks great, so far. I've always liked the Aero UI, and it seems that it's not going away in Windows 7, and instead getting enhanced. Adding the Ribbon to other applications is a great idea, such as Paint and Wordpad. I would like to see tabs added to Explorer, though.

[Doli]

Nice, I want see whats new in Media Center.

[Ci7]

wow , keep up good work MS (Y) and you will have customer for 7 ;)

[NienorGT]

That look awesome...

I think they started to understands what a streamlined GUI is...

[splicer707]

Wow! Sweet! They fixed Calculator :punk: I so want Windows 7 now. :geek:

[MtnDewCodeRedFreak]

Niiiiice! Me want me want, lol.

I heard that Win 7 is going to be the last 32-bit client-side OS. Dunno if that's true, but if it is, then yippee!

I've moved on with Vista Ultimate 64-bit on my laptop. JMHO, but everybody else should go into the 64-bit boat.

[kaiwai]

ThinkNext has posted some new screenshots for Windows 7. So far everything is looking amazing. Media Player especially is looking really good.

Link

Still has ALOT of work to be done; the interface is a nightmare when it comes to consistency.

[PGHammer]

It actually looks quite good, huge UI changes aren't needed - just minor improvements. Anyway I look forwards to the day when I can square root, without having to remember to use powers.

Exactly. Did anybody remember how big a change there was UI-wise going from Windows NT to Windows 2000 (or even from Windows 95 to 98 SE)? Surprisingly, despite ActiveDesktop becoming standard, the rest of the UI changed very little (however, what you could do within the UI changed a ton). I remember working for the Big Cable TV Company which was migrating enmasse from NT 4 to 2000 Professional (and I was one of the early migratees precisely because I had been using Windows 2000 Professional as my home OS) and therefore was one of those showing folks some of the new features. The biggest *wow factor* was one that was not expected to be much of a wow factor: printer browsing. You could sort available printers by capability, by location, or even by the length of the document queue (not to mention that printer browsing was Just Plain Quicker in Windows 2000 than in NT 4). Here's the surprise: no hardware upgrades were needed. In fact, other than a DLL upgrade in one application (and the OS itself), not a single program change was necessary. Little things can have a surprisingly large impact. (Seriously; how big an impact was expected from improved network printing?)

[DreadBoat89]

some of the toolbars are similar to the one found in windows live mail beta...

[ObiWanToby]

Similar to Live Wave 3, but that first start menu screenshot just looks so clean and awesome, I dunno why.