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Just got finished installing the brand new Windows 7 public beta on my MacBook Pro using Boot Camp, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. Microsoft has completely changed their game with the new Windows 7, it feels so much snappier than Vista and it's features make it something to consider later this year when it's finally released. Microsoft servers are being slammed right now, so you might want to wait until the load settles down a bit, but I've been playing around with it for the past couple hours and here's my take on the public beta.

If you don't know what Windows 7 is, it's the next release of the Windows operating system with some big changes, and puts the problematic Vista behind.

The biggest change since Windows 95 is the taskbar, gone are the small icons and buttons of yesterday, replaced with larger icons and can now be rearranged to your liking. Think of it as Microsoft's version of the OS X Dock. Click on an icon to launch it, hover over it to see the application windows, click on a thumbnail to switch to it. Very simple and elegant.

The second new feature in 7 I'd like to highlight is a new UI control called Jump Lists. They're available in both the taskbar and the start menu and offer access to the Most Recently Used lists (MRUs) used in different applications. For example, click and drag up on the Windows Explorer icon with your cursor, and up pops the Jump List for Explorer. You can see a list of the most recently used folders.

The Windows Security Center has been replaced by the Action Center, which not only brings Security alerts in, but Maintenance and other alerts that need user attention. Here, you can see I have an alert telling me to install an anti-virus program, and one telling me to run Windows Defender for a quick scan.

The dreaded User Account Control (UAC) has now been tweaked to be less intrusive and smarter about asking you if you really want to do a certain action while running an installer, or something potentially harmful. You can drag a slider up or down in the settings to notify you more, or don't notify you at all. Great for the power users and systems administrators.

Part 2 comes on Monday with more on the new and innovative features. Have you tried Windows 7 public beta? Sound off in the comments on your experience so far.

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