New screenshots of the Windows 7 operating system have been released by
Microsoft, showing off a new Taskbar that groups application instances
together, no longer showing their name but only their icon; when
hovering over the icon, thumbnails of applications in that group will
pop-up. The order of the applications can now also be changed.
The Start Menu suffered a small redesign and has been reorganized to show frequent and recent applications on the right pane.
A gadget-enabled desktop that replaces the Vista sidebar; all of
Vista's sidebar gadgets will be compatible with the new gadget-enabled
desktop.
Alerts will not be seen as often in Windows 7 as when using Windows
Vista. The new Action Center allows you to control the pop-up balloons
that show up in the System Tray. All the messages will now queue up in
the Action Center and can be resolved by the user when ready, or the
user can shut them down alltogether.
Tablet PCs will benefit from Windows 7's multitouch capabilities.
Other new features in the showcased Windows 7 version include an easier
home networks setup process, and a new way to display a folder's
content (typically when it contains pictures and other media,) called
Library.
